destroyed by the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the country. the death toll currently stands at more than 2,000. us presidentjoe biden visits vietnam to sign really a new diplomatic partnership, amid china's growing influence whatever in the asia—pacific region. is finally we don't mean to hurt china, sincerely. we are all better off if china does well, if china does well by the international rules. and the 620 summit in delhi closes with world leaders formally adopting the joint declaration, as india passes on the presidency to brazil. hello i'm tanya beckett. in morocco, the race is on to clear debris from roads up into the atlas mountains —

the epicentre of the massive earthquake — with the red cross warning that the first 48 hours are vital in preventing what it calls a "disaster within a disaster" if water and food aid don't reach survivors. the death toll continues to rise and is now past 2,000, with a similar number injured in hospitals. this is the small town of asni in the atlas mountains. very few buildings have been left undamaged. friday's 6.8—magnitude earthquake struck 45 miles south—west of the tourist hub of marrakesh, more from anna hooligan who is in marrakesh. essential aid is on the way. the moroccan military has been deployed to distribute food and clear the landslides. international assistance is starting to arrive. spain and the czech republic have sent search and rescue teams. british aid charities are coming, too. inside the ancient city of marrakesh, miles away

from the epicentre of the quake, a quarter of the population has been affected. this man told me he would rather be at home with his family but he can't afford not to work. if you want to help the people of this country, come to this country because this country, especially this city, need the tourists more than in the past. this is a unesco world heritage site. the un's cultural agency says it will help morocco to assess the damage and come up with a repair strategy to reconstruct these cherished cultural assets that attract visitors from around the world. everything just started shaking, the whole room is going like this. this couple are here for their honeymoon. everyone was just panicking, women were in tears. there was just so much uncertainty on what was going to happen next, do we go back, do we wait here? there are building surrounding us so we are scared they are going to fall down.

all the buildings have cracks in them now. tourists have been queueing up to donate blood, hoping their presence here can help those who have nowhere else to go. as we mentioned, rescue teams have reached the town of asni after the moroccan army cleared a landslide on the access road. but other small rural communities remain cut off by rock falls and there are reports of entire villages flattened. 0ur correspondent nick beake has made it to another community in the atlas mountains. she sobs. the grief was unbearable. and found in every corner of this tiny community. their spirit crushed a little more every time news arrived of another body recovered. the bricks and stones of their traditional houses no match for the size of this quake.

the village of tafeghaghte levelled in seconds. abu rahman was being comforted by everyone who saw him. he tells us he's lost his wife and his three boys. he wants to take us to where his family lived so happily until friday night. a walk through the rubble of this remote atlas mountain wilderness. "our house was up there", abu rahman tells us. "you can see the white blankets and the furniture, too. "everything else has gone." he ran home after the earthquake and says he started screaming out for his kids but there was nothing. "we buried them yesterday", he says. "i felt so sorry for them. "when we found them, they were all huddled together,

"the three boys asleep. "they all went down with the earthquake." we've been told that about 200 people used to live here in this village. of those, 90 are already confirmed to have died. many more are missing, somewhere here beneath the rubble. others are in hospital. and when you look at this and try and take it all in, you realise people simply didn't stand a chance and the scene of devastation is replicated right across this vast mountainous region. sitting among the only possessions she now has left, we meet this woman, mourning her son—in—law. translation: we pray for god to help us - and the government too, and the king. the first professional emergency teams to arrive here are spanish firefighters. it's not a search for signs of life but for the dead.

there are no miracle rescues here in tafeghaghte — this epicentre of pain and suffering. nick beake, bbc news, in the atlas mountains. more now on the situation in morocco, i'm joined by diletta gigli, who, along with a team of volunteers, have travelled to near the epicentre of the quake to bring aid and essential supplies. it's good to hear from you. what can you tell us about the situation there? �* , ., ~' there? hi, well, we've been working for the past — there? hi, well, we've been working for the past few _ there? hi, well, we've been working for the past few days _ there? hi, well, we've been working for the past few days to _ there? hi, well, we've been working for the past few days to collect - for the past few days to collect essentials, mainly from people, there are a lot of people who have donated from abroad. i work with a group of friends who are directly connected, and today we travelled to

asni where we are now. we have set “p asni where we are now. we have set up camp. the situation here is a lot better than it was a couple hours ago. we continued our way up to the top of the mountain inaudible hard to get through, rescue teams are there, ambulances are going up and down the mountain, but they've just been able to reach them so there is a lot of first aid rescue, a lot of emergency rescues. find there is a lot of first aid rescue, a lot of emergency rescues. and the embassies of _ a lot of emergency rescues. and the embassies of your _ a lot of emergency rescues. and the embassies of your organisation - embassies of your organisation provide food and water, particularly? 0rto provide food and water, particularly? or to try to help the rescue and recovery effort. the? particularly? or to try to help the rescue and recovery effort. they are collectin: rescue and recovery effort. they are collecting donations, _ rescue and recovery effort. they are collecting donations, they _ rescue and recovery effort. they are collecting donations, they are - collecting donations, they are collecting donations, they are collecting food, water, medical

supplies, mainly first aid. we are talking about anything that can help the community. alternatives to breastmilk, diapers, defend and hygiene products, mattresses. it's cold at night, it's very cold now. so what i'd be focusing on is trying to collect clothes, blankets and tents from people. as a lot of shops are closed, can't easily provide these things. so that was my primary concern today with my friends. find concern today with my friends. and distribute this assistance to a very traumatised set of communities. absolutely, the thing about moroccans is they have incredible solidarity, so everyone is helping out. everyone who is born and raised in morocco, also anyone who has moved to morocco, everybody is really doing their best to help out.

everyone is doing so, with a smile on theirface, even everyone is doing so, with a smile on their face, even though they might have lost their homes, their business, theirfamily, their business, their family, their friends. business, theirfamily, their friends. i know a lot of people who have not been able to reach their families and so everyone is trying their best, it's a very hard time. we are trying to get as much help as we can. honestly, donations are making a massive difference. ultimately of course these people will need permanent homes to live in, and that seems like a distant prospect right now doesn't it? we are not prospect right now doesn't it? - are not even thinking about that right now, we would just like to reach the communities. they are not able to reach, they don't have water, they don't have power, the donate food. so that's the first thing we are trying to do. we're talking about setting up tents. those are the best options but even

if small associations can get any camping tents up to the rural communities that always helps. and we are hoping the donations will help to rebuild, but it will not be in the near future for sure. thank ou ve in the near future for sure. thank you very much — in the near future for sure. thank you very much indeed. _ in the near future for sure. thank you very much indeed. thank- in the near future for sure. thank| you very much indeed. thank you. on a visit to vietnam, president biden has defended the united states' engagement in the pacific, against a background of rising chinese influence in the region. mr biden told reporters in hanoi that american actions were not about containing or isolating china, but about maintaining stability in accordance with international rules. i don't want to contain china, i just want to make sure we have a relationship with china that is on the up and up, squared away, and everybody knows what it's all about. and one of the ways you do that, is you make sure that we are talking about the same things. the centrepiece of president biden�*s

visit to vietnam is an upgraded strategic partnership between the two countries, almost 50 years after the end of the vietnam war. so what do ordinary people make of the american leader stopping by? the bbc has been allowed rare access to hanoi for the visit, accompanied by vietnamese government officials. 0ur asia pacific correspondent laura bicker has this report. star-spangled banner plays. from wartime foes to firm friends. the united states is drawing china's neighbour closer. chanting and cheering. this new relationship excites vietnam's next generation. even as they sing songs about appreciating what they have, it's clear they want more. this country's young and talented workforce has attracted foreign business here instead of china. a lot of, like, korean and then japanese technology is pumping money

into vietnam to develop, like, technology centres. and then they come to us. i can see in the future vietnam will become another like silicon valley for the us and for everyone to come here and work, and can't wait for it to happen. vietnam was once one of the world's poorest nations, but is now one of the fastest—growing economies in asia, and it wants to stay that way. this e—scooter start—up was built by a vietnamese entrepreneur who learned his craft in the us. because i want to realise my vietnamese dream. i was exposed to the american dream, but i think i have a stronger desire for my vietnamese dream. it's the right time, the right generation to make the vietnamese dream come true. that drive to succeed is attractive to america. the deal being done will bring washington and hanoi closer than they've ever been before. it's all part of a us strategy

to try to contain china. but while vietnam might be wary of its largest neighbour, it's certainly not going to walk away from beijing. vietnam will try to balance the two superpowers. this communist country with its own brand of capitalism will not want to pick a side. laura bicker, bbc news, hanoi. earlier i spoke to isabel hilton visting professor at the lau institute, kings college, london. she is also a founder of china dialogue trust. she gave me her analysis on why joe biden is visiting vietnam i think he's trying to build alliances in the region. he's trying to diversify potentially vulnerable supply chains. he's looking for allies who can be america's friends. vietnam is a good choice because, you know, they did fight a war quite recently in the 19705, what the chinese call

the self—defensive counterattack. and, you know, they have had a state of pretty much armed hostility for 2000 years. vietnam mistrusts its bigger neighbour, but it also has to live with it. so and they have a life dispute in the south china sea. so vietnam has been moving much closer to the united states. this is a significant step. vietnam will get out of this excuse me, american investment. it'll be able to upgrade its technology further. so as long as the united states doesn't ask vietnam explicitly to choose a side in this confrontation with china, i think that this will be an extremely useful relationship. what was president biden trying to say about china? he is saying really that they want to get along, it seems, but not supply china with things that may be contrary to the interests of the united states if they were used against it. absolutely.

and that has been a fairly long standing policy, one started by by president trump, actually, former president trump, where he said he set a series of limits on what the united states would allow china to purchase, and that includes mainly advanced microprocessors. so the united states is worried about china's dual use technologies, about its military capacity, its capacity to develop an effective defence against the us, whether to be a live fight over taiwan. and that includes concerns about space. it also includes concerns about simple technological dominance. so the united states does not want to see china gain the lead. but beyond that, it doesn't want to cut off and can't cut off its trading relationship with china. it's far too big, too deeply embedded. so it's you know, the chinese are right.

this is a containment strategy. the americans are very clear about it, really. they don't want a full spectrum hostility, but they do want to limit china's capacities. russia has termed the g20 summit held in india a success. the wording of the joint declaration around the war in ukraine has been substantially watered down compared to what it was after last year's summit, with no direct reference to moscow's involvement. india, the host country, which has maintained a neutral stance on the war took the lead in getting consensus on the statement. the bbc�*s south asia correspondent yogita limaye reports from delhi. a poignant start to the final day of india's g20 presidency, a moment to remember the country's most revered leader, mahatma gandhi, and his message of peace.

but war and regional conflict has meant the summit wasn't a full house. the presidents of russia and china didn't attend. and whatever national views these countries might hold about the war in ukraine, when it came down to business, concessions were made. g20 leaders summit declaration. we've reached a consensus on the joint declaration. india's prime minister, narendra modi said. it was a statement that significantly watered down moscow's role in the war. the paragraph about ukraine made no mention of russia, and today, in response to a bbc question, its foreign minister said they were surprised that all countries agreed to it. translation: speakingj frankly, we didn't expect

that we were 100% ready to defend our honest wording of the text, she said. the indian presidency played a decisive role and other countries also played a part. the fact that western countries consented to the language is a step in the right direction. later in the day, the french president responded to questions about the summit being seen as a win for russia. translation: personally, i don't think it's a massive | diplomatic victory or anything other than the reality | of isolation and minority status. | | many questions were asked aboutj what could really be accomplished at a summit where both the russian and chinese presidents _ were not attending. but what india has effectively done is it's displayed its influence. the evidence in the paragraph about the war in ukraine, in the joint statement, consistent with india's own stance on the war and the inclusion of the african union into the g20, something which india has been advocating for. this summit is a big step forward in this country's effort to project itself as the voice of the developing world. yogita limaye, bbc news, delhi.

now it's time for a look at today's sport with lizzy. earlier the joint favourites, put in a typically ruthless display to defeat scotland in their opening game. after a physical first half, two quick springbok tries took the game away from gregor townsend's side. south africa get their title defence off to a perfect start and face romania next sunday. scotland have a two—week wait to right their wrongs when they take on tonga in nice. japan began their world cup campaign with a a2—i2 win over tournament debutants chile in toulouse. amato fakatava scored two first—half tries and was named player of the matc. player of the match. the bonus—point victory lifts japan to the top of the pool d standings above england, but an impressive performance

from chile on their debut. for me, it's exactly what we thought we were going to get from chile, based on the world cup, very proud country. they were always going to get, a performance, they succeeded and put us under a lot of pressure. germany have sacked hansi flick as manager of the men's national team. flick�*s position was under pressure after a poor showing at the 2022 world cup in qatar where they crashed out of the tournament at the group stage. and then a 4—1 defeat to japan on saturday proved to be the final straw. so germany on the hunt for a new boss just nine months out from hosting euro 202a.

injury—hit northern ireland's euro 2024 qualifier misery continued as a 1—0 defeat away to kazakhstan stretched their losing streak to five matches. a superb first—half goal by maxim samoro—dov was the difference in a tight encounter in astana. northern ireland havejust three points from their opening six group matches and will almost certainly fail to qualify. elsewhere denmark beat finland and there were wins for montenegro and moldova. all the latest scores on the bbc sport website. manchester united winger antony has been allowed time off by his club to answer allegations made against him of domestic abuse. the brazilian was due to return to training on monday having been dropped from his national squad after claims made by his former girlfriend which are being investigated by police, and which he denies. united say he'll have a leave of absence until further notice. given antony has not been charged or arrested, his club don't consider this a suspension and he remains on full pay. after coco gauff thrilled the new york crowd by winning her first ever grand slam title the men's singles final at the us open could deliver novak djokovic his 24th.

that would equal the sport's record, but he'll have to beat danil medvedev to do it, something he couldn't in the final two years ago. the fact is that, at 36, every grand slam final... yeah, i don't know, could be the last one. i think that i probably value this occasion and opportunity to win in slam as more than i have a couple of years ago. ten years i still have quite a lot of years ahead of me. i don't know how many i have ahead of me now. if i lose on sunday, the tournament, it's like it's a good tournament, but i'm going to be very disappointed. to know that i'm capable of doing it on the big stage, every time you do it one more time, it brings more confidence. you know you can do it again, you want to do it again, you want to feel this. at the same time, what is most

important is to use it but forget about it and go for the next one. that match starts in about 45 minutes' time. and that's all the sport for now. rishi sunak has expressed "significant concerns" to china's prime minister about what he called beijing's "interference" in british democracy. the comments come after it emerged that a parliamentary researcher had been arrested and accused of spying for china. 0ur political correspondent, nick eardley has more. two men have been arrested, one in his 30s was arrested in 0xfordshire, another in his 20s was arrested in edinburgh. this all happened actually in march this year, so it was a few months ago, it's onlyjust emerging now, but it is the latter man we are particularly interested in because speaking to various

people who work in parliament, it is a parliamentary researcher, someone who has had contact with some pretty senior conservative mps actually, people like the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, alicia kearns, people like the security minister, tom tugendhat, although my understanding is that this contact was before mr tugendhat had that cabinet role of security minister, but it has raised three key concerns i think. one is about the level of scrutiny and vetting that goes on for parliamentary pass—holders. the other is the level of contact that some mps have with researchers who they perhaps do not know a great deal about, and the third, the big debate that i think is starting to reignite today is about the uk government's position on china, because the uk has been having more contact with china in recent weeks than it has for years. the foreign secretary james cleverly was in beijing just a couple of weeks ago. there are a lot of conservative mps

who are furious about that frankly and are going to use this situation, this arrest and the allegation that this man has been arrested over spying claims linked to china, they are going to use that to reignite that debate and say we need a much stricter approach when it comes to the regime in beijing. if you would like to stay up to date on the aftermath of the earthquake in morocco and the rescue aid operations, have a look at our life page. we are continuing updating it and we will keep you abreast of the latest of elements there. that terrible earthquake. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there.

the storm clouds have been brewing today. we've had some intense downpours already. it'll be quite nasty on the road. so the met office do have warnings out for those thunderstorms which are likely to give some sudden flash flooding, frequent lightning. more details on the website. but as i say, there are some quite torrential downpours out there. no surprise really when you consider today has been the seventh consecutive day where temperatures have reached 30 degrees or above. that's a record for september here in the uk, and it's really quite unbearable for some. but behind this weather front in the north, there is relief on the way. behind it, much fresher air as we start to introduce winds down from the north and the west. but it's going to take probably until tuesday to clear the south, but it is going to eventually freshen up through the next few days. but for this evening, some fairly widespread thunderstorms, possibly even more further south to start with. and then our weather front, which has been more potent in the north as well today, will start to push southwards. so there will be some unsettled weather around, some tricky driving conditions through this evening and overnight. and for most, again,

it will be really quite uncomfortable and close for sleeping because the humidity remains high. so there's mist and fog around first thing in the morning, which will take a while to clear. then we'll see some brighter skies, butjust generally more cloud, i think, for england and wales tomorrow. 0ur weather front close by to northern ireland and southern scotland and northern england for much of the day, brighter skies with a few showers behind and fresher here across the north of scotland. but for most, again, the humidity is high and we'll still see temperatures into the mid to high twenties for the south and east. however, it's unlikely that we're going to see 30 degrees again. then through monday evening and overnight, that weatherfront may well pep up again. now, there'll be a few thunderstorms anyway developing during monday ahead of this weather system, combining with that further weather front slipping south. so, again, another humid night in southern areas, but in the north, much fresher in scotland, northern ireland, even a touch of ground frost potentially in the glens in the north this week. tuesday again sees that weather front pushing southwards. it will eventually reach more southern areas later in the day. ahead of that, some brightness lifting the temperatures

into the low twenties, but for most, it will be a more manageable day. the humidity gone, quite pleasant with the sunshine in the north, scotland, northern ireland much, much brighter. but you can see the outlook. the temperatures are a little lower. the humidity�*s gone, but it's a generally changeable, showery picture.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

rescue teams in morocco are trying to reach remote communities destroyed by the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the country. aid agencies warn of a "disaster within a disaster" if people aren't able to access clean safe water. the death toll currently stands at more than 2,000. us presidentjoe biden visits vietnam to sign a new diplomatic partnership amid china's growing influence in the asia—pacific region. mr biden has met the communist party leader, nguyen phu trong, and is due to have further talks on monday. and a top—ranking us military officer warns that ukraine's army has little more than 30 days left of fighting, before the weather hinders its counter—offensive. general mark milley told the bbc that the ukrainian attack was going more slowly than hoped — but was progressing at a steady pace.

now on bbc news, talking movies: venice film festival special.