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woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". christian: hello, i n fraser and this is "the contex " ." >> if you are inside, hunker until he gets past you. you do not want to mess run with these wins. >> it is an area that has not been hit by a storm in more than 20 years. many of those folks have had no experience with the strong storms.

the concern was about whether the homes in those areas, structures could withstand that high storm surge and wins in. >> 3:00, the water was two feet below the seawall. i went back to bed. he woke me up about 7:30 and said, we have water in the house. that is where we are at. ♪ christian: hurricane idaa came ashore on florida's gulf coast as an extremely dangerous category three storm. it is now down to a category one, moving across georgia and the carolinas as the first damage assessments begin. nearly a quarter of a million people in florida are tonight without power. we will bring you the latest. tonight, cleverly goes to china. what is in it for the u.k.? the foreign secretary says he is clear eyed about the disagreement between the two countries.

we will assess where the diplomacy might have worked. a 56-year-old dynasty comes to an end. another coup, the eighth coup in former french colonies in just the past three years. ♪ christian: good evening. idalia's power toward georgia. president biden says the storm is dangerous with winds of up to 75 miles an hour. it is worth remembering a storms category does not necessarily indicate how much damage there will be. this storm surge pushed into the big bend area of the gulf coast peaked at 15 feet. that area of northwest florida acts like a giant baseball mitt. it is flat, low-lying and there is every reason to fear these waters will have washed right over the top o it to the federal emergency management agency said it dalia is the strongest storm to make landfall in this part of florida in more than 100 years. there are more than a quarter of a million people in florida and

another 100,000 in georgia without power. the national guard and federal emergency teams are staged ready to respond. search-and-rescue is beginning tonight, but the main damage assessments will not start until the waters begin to receive. here is the governor of the state, ron desantis. >> right now, tampa airport is going to reopen for incoming flights at 4:00 p.m.. by 3:00 a.m. tomorrow, it will be fully reopened. gainesville airport will reopen tonight and tallahassee airport will reopen first thing in the morning. the courts in tampa and manati are currently undergoing assessments. when those assessments are concluded, they will be able to resume operations, assuming all is well, which we anticipate it will be. there are as of now, no confirmed fatalities. those fatalities are things that get confirmed by the florida department of law enforcement

through medical examiners. we do not have any confirmed fatalities yet. we are still assessing what is all going on on the ground and places that had the initial impact. we are probably going to be -- probably going to try and get down to those counties today. we have got a lot of people going in, helping these counties be able to stabilize the situation. christian: a short time ago, president biden wrapped up his press conference. this is what he had to say. >> this moved overland and has shifted to a category one. it is still very dangerous with winds up to 75 miles an hour. the impacts the storm are being felt throughout the southeast, even as it moves up the eastern coast of the united states, affecting georgia, south carolina and north carolina. we have to remain vigilant. there is much more to do. i just came from the oval office where i met with a fema administrator who is standing to my left.

our federal response folks -- early monday morning, long before the storm made landfall, i spoke with governor desantis and approved an early request for emergency declaration to enable him to have the full support ahead of time to protect the people's lives in the state of florida. christian: in a moment, we will hear from our -- on the ground in cedar key and tampa. first, our correspondent in houston sent its report. >> the storm surge was always the biggest threat and as expected, idalia has brought serious flooding to florida's west coast. these medicine -- residents are being brought out to the evacuation zone, an area where authorities have been telling people four days that it was not safe to stay in their homes. >> about 3:00, the water was still two feet below the seawall . so, i went back to bed.

he woke me up about 7:30 and said, we have water in the house. so, that is where we are at. reporter: did you guys not get the warnings to leave? >> yes, but we left the last one and did not have to. so. we thought we would be able to sit it out. guess not. >> do not trust the weatherman. >> where the swings were, just came apart and is -- >> the hurricane made landfall in what is known as florida's big bend, a relatively less populated area of the coast. once again, the warnings were clear. the floods pose a major threat to life. while many thousands have followed the advice, others, worried about damage or looting, have taken their chances with the storm. >> it is one of those things with florida, we live with these storms. we live in florida because we do not like snow. we have to deal with storms like this. these storms move about.

a lot of times, people say, it is not going to hit us. sometimes, we t punched in the mouth. reporter: another rescue vehicle headed into the flooding area. they told us they brought around 40 trapped residents so far. more are still inside. a clear illustration of the dangers of not eating those warnings. the damage to property is expected to be severe. tens of thousands of engineers and members of the national guard are on standby to deal with the aftermath. christian: let speak to helena humphrey, who has found a way to cedar key, one of the hardest hit areas. good to see you are on dry land. i guess there is not much dryland around at the moment. reporter: absolutely. i think it is fair to say that this is just about dry land. if we pan over this way, you can see the storm surge that came in here at cedar key. this is much higher than is

meant to be. this morning, we saw rains coming in, driving that water from the gulf. we saw six foot, seven foot of storm surge. this is as far as we can go into cedar key. this is the 70 limit. -- city limit. just to give you an idea of what is happening behind me, we can't go any further but speaking to law enforcement in anyone who has been trying to get in, that downtown area is underwater. that is what people have been telling me. other people telling you that one hotel is essentially, a chunk of it broke off and was washed into the goal. in the past hour or so, law enforcement have confirmed to me the people in this community have been accounted for. we were concerned when we saw boats trying to get into this community. we did hear some reports that some families, some individuals were still inside. what i spoke to other locals trying to get in, we were asking did you get adequate warning? they saithe morning was very

clear. i said, why did others stay behind? they said you, have to understand where we were in big bend. we haven't seen a hurricane like this one in over a century. some people heard the warnings saying, it is like other tropical storms in the past and people stayed in offices, home with a bottle of wine, a pack of playing cards and were determined to write up the storm. it is certainly a different picture now. we are understanding all power knocked out, sewage not been contained here in this area. of course, that concern for the storm surge. just talking more about what has made this quite so destructive and dramatic when it comes to that water is the supermoon effect. you got high tide and that strengthened by the gravitational pull with the supermoon. not to mention the fact, this is something deion criswell, the head of female appointed to, you've got these warm to pitchers. it is humid here right now. a lot these waters in the gulf

are bathwater like. higher than normal for this time of year. as meteorologists here put it in the u.s., warm water is essentially rocket fuel for hurricanes. this was a slow moving storm until it was able to pick up our and came and made landfall in the early hours of the morning. christian: if you got a king tide, there is nowhere for receding waters to go. you said people were trying to ride it out. the difficulty in that situation is, if you are writing it out you are told to go to the lower floors in a hurricane,tay at the lower floors of the property you are in. you can't that if it is flooding. that is why there will be ill concern for those who stay behind reporter: yeah, that was the gut wrenching warning this morning. last night, we were listening to the governor ron desantis, saying to people get out while you still can't hear you cannot run from this storm. you cannot ride this storm out.

this morning, when we woke up and he had that early morning press conference before it struck and we saw that powell -- power outage while he was speaking, he essentially said, you are going to have to hunker down if you are in place. there is no way now to go. there was potential for this storm surge to reach 16 feet, that is the potential with these tidal currents. it was alarming. he said this is not a case of being on the second floor, we are talking about the third floor. we should point out there are places to go in terms of higher ground. he was saying you do not necessarily have to go out of state, but if you take a look around, the vista -- to put it bluntly, it is incredibly flat here. it reminds me of the netherlands or nor folk in the u.k., places where have been prone to flooding and had to do something significant about it. that is the issue here. not to much of the fact in tampa, you've got a shallow bay.

even if you've got a storm surge of around four foot, when you've got a shallow bay, there is not much room for that water to go. that is the issue that we have been seeing here. the authority saying it could wash in three miles in london, some flatter areas. that is going to be the concern. good to talk to you. you stay safe. let's pick up then with jaden william, from abc action news traveling around as you can see with the national guard. you can give us a good perspective of around 126 miles of water in tampa, what are you seeing? reporter: we have been going through a lot of communities. we are currently one county over from where tampa is. this truck can ride through anywhere from 30 to 40 inches of water. we have been going through a lot of water earlier this morning. there was a rescue operation that we went along for. there were some mobile phone -- mobile homes on fire. the fire department --

they had to get inside this truck so they could take their equipment and fight those fires. that is one of the more extreme things we have seen. we have been on this truck all day long. we have gone along with them as they are going into these communities where those roads are impassable. they are knocking on doors nicking sure everyone who may have stayed inside of their homes are fine and doing well. christian: florida, no stranger to hurricanes. irma, michael in successive years. we all remember the destruction that ian left me kind -- left behind. do you think the authorities have learned a lot from that and will have incorporated some of that into their preparations? reporter: yeah, it has been a methodical process. a lot of training process -- we saw that in their meetings,

talking about what they want to do before they go out. they gave word they are available. here is the good thing. the storm -- [indiscernible] a lot times, you hear a windstorm's winds that blow the trees out. you are more likely to have a power outage. this one is more of a water storm, the bigger issue here -- here is the flooding. a lot othese communities were not prepared. we are seeing that. that is why the big operation for this crew is making sure that people are able to get to those flooded neighborhoods so that they are not stuck waiting for someone to come and help them out. christian: i guess the people in that situation will be pleased to see you guys. jayda williams, it is good for you to join . out with the national guard from abc action news, thank you to

her. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a quick look at some u.k. stories making headlines today. the government has announced inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murders and attempted murders of babies by lisa let b, the nurseill be a statutory requiring -- inquiry. it will have greater legal powers to force the people who might have been able to stop her from attacking babies to give evidence. following the case of lucy let b, judges will begin the power to order an offender to attend a sentencing hearing including by force if necessary or face more time in jai richie sunak confirmed plans to introduce a new law when parliament resumes but labor says it should have been done earlier. a man and charged with conspiracy to commit burglary after breaking in the home of the chelsea football or raheem sterling during the qatar world cup. the player left the england squad to return home to his family after the incident last year. the 23-year-old from sx has been

remanded in custody to appear at guilford rand court next month. you are watching bbc news. the uk foreign secretary james cleverly has defended talks with chinese officials in beijing, saying it would not be credible to disengage. he is the first british foreign secretary to visit the country in five years. this morning, he met china's vice president and the foreign minister. there has been criticism at home. senior conservatives like former party leaders and duncan smith said he was weak and compared the current to appeasement to nazi germany in the 1930's. he said he is clear eyed about the disagreements with beijing but insists it would be a mistake to isolate the world's second-largest economy. >> we have got to recognize that china is an incredibly important

trading partner. countries all over the world have high volumes of trade with china. we have got to make it clear to the chine government that it is in their interests to have a reputation of acting on a level playing field about good business practices, about not trying to manipulate their economic relationships because their economy -- we have seen some headline figures which demonstrates that the chinese economy is not growing at the rate it has done previously and not growing at the rate the chinese government would wish -- if they want to do something about that, that is going to be done through international trade. to be really successful and didn't -- in international trade, you need to be regarded as a trustworthy and reliable partner. it is in china's interest to

maintain that reputation, to build that reputation. christian: the founder of china dialogue, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting common understanding of china's environmental challenges. nice to see you. i think we would all recognize the belligerent foreign policy from beijing in recent years. how intently are they listening now to european leaders that are traveling to china? >> well, i think they always listen, whether they act on what they here is another matter. there certainly has been a change from the very aggressive -- days, which they recognized had a catastrophic effect on china's standing particularly in europe where, if you look at opinion polling, china is very low down in public esteem. that narrows the options for

politicians in terms of engagement. that is a number of things. it is covid, it is hong kong, it is a sense that cheating being's very assertive -- jie zheng pings assertive china is not the china of 2010 or was encouraged by the international community to open up. enjoy the world. christian: we used to believe that bigger market would liberalize the politics in china. as you say, the reverse has happened. now, the investors are walking away. do you think this recent offensive is down to the down term in the chinese economy? >> i do. i think that is quite -- that is fairly evident. i think they are in a dilemma. this is a structural downturn. it is not something that is going to be easily fixed. although china has been trying to build its domestic consumption to become less dependent on exports, it is met

with limited success in those endeavors. the people in china are keeping their money in their pockets or all in the bank. they are too uncertain to go out and spend large. a lot of young people who might be up for war spending are unemployed. there is a bit of a fix there. foreign investment and foreign interests, are very much being encouraged by china. at the same time, there has been a lot of unfriendly legislation and unfriendly regulation that have -- for investors. the worries about whether china will try to weaponize its own supply chains, whether china is the reliable partner that people thought it was, have made people quite cautious. there is a lot of looking around the world to see where else things might be manufactured. perhaps more lively with more liable allies as the, as tensions mount. christian: the foreign policy

committee, the foreign affairs committee in the house published a report today which i'm sure you have read. they accuse the governor of being incoherent in their approach to china. are they right? we have a -- i do not know, a split view of china when it comes to security and trade. >> what i have learned in that and most democracies have tried to do this kind of triage, not so much these days talking about decoupling, because it is clearly not feasible, or at least it would be catastrophically expensive on all sides. talking about de-risking, trying to segment their relationships so that, for example, we do not create dependencies which make us vulnerable, that we keep china away from critical infrastructure. up the same time, we talk about things we need to talk about. climate change, trade and the broad spectrum of trade, which is not a security risk.

isaac the foreign affairs committee do have a point. if you look at the last decade of chinese and british government engagement with china, it lurched from golden era to scaring china under liz truss and has not found its equilibrium. it is not really clear what the british government hopes to get out of this relationship. though, i think china probably has a clearer vision of what it hopes to get out of the u.k. christian: they probably want china to come to their ai summit, which is not too far away. thank you very much, indeed, for coming on the program tonight. bonds president ally bongo has appealed for help after the army seized power and putting under house arrest. the military said they were annulling the results of saturday's election which had been announced an hour earlier and were dissolving all state institutions. the president had been declared the winner of the election with 64% of the vote.

as the coup holds in the presidency is -- it could bring to an end the families 56 your grip on power. it would also be the eighth coup in former french colonies in just the past three years. france joined the african union and the united states today in condemning the coup and said it is following events closely. the head of the presidential guard has been confirmed as the leader during this transition period. let's bring in david otto, director for the geneva center for africa security and strategic studies. what we know about this man who has taken over? >> i think what we know about the man is that he was the head of the presidential guide and of course, he was very close to the president. i think he was one of those people who had protected the president during the 2019 military coup. it was a shock that he is now

leading the military that has overthrown the global family. this is a family that almost as appreciated as the -- dynasty in 1967. that was 70 years before the -- became independent from france. we have yet to see what he is going to be as far as the situation. he is the new strong man in the central africa region. i think what we are experiencing here is a equivalent. christian: it is interesting you say that. he does further complicate things for ecowas, the west union, they are trying to intervene in niger. do they take the same approach to the bond as they are taking to niger? if they do, how did they avoid the criticism that they are trying to restore a dictator? >> one of the problems africa

has is -- unfortunately, ecowas is not, it does not have is this in the bond. it is a member of the economic community of african states. all eyes have turned to ecowas. does it have the military standby force that ecowas has submitted? in the case of niger, probably. the african union has dominated three countries to come up with ideas to counter approach the situation. as time drags on, the military will stick to its guns and dig its heels further. we can see it is already adding some traction. christian: we will have to leave

you there. we are about to head to a break. thank you for joining us, evolving situation they are in the bond. do stay with us. on the other side of the break, we more attacks on kyiv overnight and drone attacks in russia. we talk about the strategy. stay with us. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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