30/08/2017 World News Today

Dramatic rescues in Texas and Louisiana as Tropical

of chaos and devastation reaches neighbouring Louisiana.

Approximately 15 inches of rain have already fallen in the area, and

there is more to come. As North Korea outrages

the world by launching a missile over Japan,

Donald Trump warns the time Angela Merkel fights

for re-election in Germany - but will she be hit by a backlash

over the hundreds of thousands of And Britain's Princes William

and Harry remember their mother on the eve of the 20th

anniversary of Hello and welcome

to World News Today. Tropical Storm Harvey has hit

land again in the US state of Louisiana,

after causing devastation At least 20 people have died

in flooding over the last few days, and 30,000 people are

in emergency shelters. America's fourth-largest

city, Houston, has borne the brunt of the rainfall,

with large parts of After hovering over Houston

for days, the storm moved out into the Gulf of Mexico,

before hitting the town of Cameron, in south-western Louisiana,

on Wednesday morning. Harvey is now predicted

to weaken as it moves inland. from our correspondent

Laura Trevelyan, who's in Houston. Welcome to Houston, where you can

see behind me the absolute chaos that the catastrophic flooding have

caused in the aftermath of hurricane Hardy. As you can see, people have

had to abandon their homes, they have had to abandon their cars.

These are extraordinary scenes. And just this morning, I have witnessed

dramatic rescues. People have come from all over taxes and even out of

Texas with their boats, just to try and do whatever they can in the face

of this extraordinary situation. Now, the flooding behind me has been

worsened by the fact that we are in Houston, where two reservoirs on the

outskirts are full to capacity and they have been over spelling and so

the authorities have had to do time to releases of water from the dam to

stop something even worse from happening and that has increased the

flooding behind me, if you can believe it. My colleague James Cook

has this report on the overall situation.

Still dazed, but at least they're dry.

The people of Houston awoke after a night under

Rodman Young is now homeless in his own city after his house

was flooded when two reservoirs spilled over.

It is sad and you feel a little bit hopeless.

Because you're losing all your stuff.

And they only gave us from the point we woke up,

a couple of hours sleep, and we were fighting

The federal government says nearly 200,000 people here have

For days now, these helicopter crews have been putting their lives

on the line, performing daring and dangerous rescues.

These grainy images capture the narrowest of escapes.

Last night, a woman was swept away holding her young daughter.

The mother died, her child, still clinging on, survived.

Heartbreak for Houston which faces other troubles as well.

The fourth largest city in the United States

was under curfew last night amid reports of looting.

There are too many people from across our city,

too many residents that are out of their homes.

And I do not want them to have to worry about someone breaking

into their home or looting or doing anything of that nature

All of this has paralysed this American energy hub with oil

production in many places coming to a halt.

It will take weeks if not months to fully recover.

Refineries including this one have been shut down because staff cannot

That is not just bad news for the big oil firms, but also

for the many thousands of businesses here in Texas which

And also for the American economy as a whole.

Of course, nothing matters more than saving lives and that has now

This baby is just one of 30,000 people forced from their homes.

With the storm heading east, Louisiana is next.

Well, behind me, people have been rescuing their belongings all

morning, and the National Guard deployment in this state of Texas

has been increased to 14,000. Now, just a little bit earlier, Governor

Greg Abbott, the governor of the state of Texas give this update on

the situation here. The rain that was received in the

greater Harris County area has set Now that rain has moved

to the Beaumont region in Approximately 15 inches

of rain have already fallen in the area, and

there's more to come. The worst is not yet over for

South East Texas as far as the rain There will be ongoing challenges

both during the time that rain continues to fall

as well as for approximately Let me mention specifically flooding

conditions that will continue to be a challenge

for people in the area. Now, all Davis flooded road behind

me has resembled nothing more than a marina. There is yet another boat

trailer being brought in behind me because what is happening is people

are coming with their belt, some of them are National Guard boats, some

of them are Texas police boats, but so many of them are just volunteer

boats and people have been rescued here. I spoke to one month in the

last hour who had been rescued, Jill Strong, anti-doping story. The water

had gotten to the point where it was about two feet into the house and it

was four or five feet deep on the road. It looked like a river and

there was no way to cross it. Yesterday, it was still low enough

that you could walk across, but not today. You needed a boat. That was

the only safe way to go. Fortunately, some guys can buy this

morning and we flagged them down and give them a phone number and then

texted them and said we were ready to come and so they came and picked

us up. It is five days after the hurricane made landfall. Why is your

home flooding now? Is that the torrential rainfall or the

controlled flooding they are doing? It is a little bit of both. There is

a certain amount of run off that keeps adding to the flow, but they

opened the floodgates and started letting more water out, plus we were

informed that somewhat started running over the north side of the

dam and there might be a break in it today that is causing more water, so

it is just getting worse all the time. We kept hoping that it would

received out the rain left up, but it never did. It continued to rise.

That was a survivor comment was rescued from this neighbourhood

where I am talking to you from now, just in the past hour. That was one

of 30,000 people in Houston and the surrounding areas who have been

rescued in the past five days. So just extraordinary scenes here, and

even though the storm has passed by, it is now moving inland in

Louisiana. The National Weather Service warned today that

catastrophic and life-threatening flooding will continue in Houston

for the rest of this week. So that is the situation here now. Back to

you in London. And every national disaster at some point becomes

political. Has that point been reached? Not here in Texas, I

wouldn't say. People who are immediately affected have focused on

picking up their lives, going back into the properties when they can,

when the flood recede. Of course, Texas is a red state, the governor

is a supporter of President Donald Trump. Donald Trump was here

visiting yesterday and he will be back at the weekend and he may go to

Louisiana as well. People I spoke about the President's visit said

they want the Government to give them all of the assistance that it

possibly. There are hard questions that have been asked about whether

or not there should have been an evacuation of Houston, but the

greater Houston area, more than 6 million people live there, and where

would they have gone exactly? As it is, over 30,000 rescues have been

carried out. Undoubtedly and tragically the death toll will rise

as the flood water recedes and people who were trapped in their

homes and could not escape our sound. But I would say, speaking to

you from here in Texas, no, it does not feel at this point as though it

has become politicised, the rescue effort. Laura, thank you very much

for all of your updates. We appreciated.

Pastor Omar Garcia are coordinating water rescues

near Katy, Texas and he joins us now to tell us more.

Thank you very much for your time. Give us an idea of the kind of work

you have been doing. Well, we are doing a number of things. As you

mention, we have participated in some water rescues. We have over

5200 homes that are to some degree under water right now and the only

way for people to get out is by boat. We have also taken in the

homeless to feed them and shelter them. This has been pretty hard on

that population of people here in the community. In addition to that,

we are servicing through partnership with all of the area churches all of

the shelters, we are providing host homes. We have hundreds of people

who stepped up and opened up their homes to invite total strangers to

come in until they are able to get back on their feet. It has just been

an amazing display of kindness here. So tell us more about that. That is

individual families inviting a family they would not have known a

few days ago into their home indefinitely, or how are you

organising it? Well, we have a point of contact for our host homes. It

has been a beautiful thing. I was with a family yesterday. We rescued

them by boat. We got them back to one of the schools that is serving

as a point of contact for connecting evacuees with host homes, and they

connected with the family that they did not know yesterday I received a

text message with a picture of both families around the dinner table,

saying that they had become the best of friends. This is the beautiful

thing that we are seeing happen here in our community. We appreciate you

telling us about it. Thank you very much for your time. There are some

amazing rescue stories from Texas and you can see them on our website,

plus detailed mapping on how far the waters have risen.

It took just hours for North Korea to hit back

after the UN Security Council condemned it for firing

In a statement, the country's leader issued a new warning,

describing yesterday's launch as only a first step in a wider

military operation aimed at the Pacific island of Guam,

In an escalating war of words, President Trump said that the time

Here's Rupert Wingfield Hayes from Tokyo.

These are the first pictures of North Korea's latest and most

As expected, Kim Jong Un was on hand to give his personal guidance.

The North Korean dictator gazes skywards as the missile

And along with the pictures came this statement

The current ballistic rocket drill is the first step of the military

operation in the Pacific and a meaningful preview

North Korea's statement shows the ultimate target of yesterday's

test was not here in Japan, but the US Pacific island of Guam.

And that North Korea intends more such tests.

Last night in New York, the UN Security Council members including

China were unanimous in condemning North Korea.

Today the cracks have already begun to appear.

The US has been talking to North Korea and paying them

extortion money for 25 years, he exclaimed.

Here in Japan, Prime Minister Theresa May said China

We want to work with international partners to see what further

pressure can be brought on North Korea.

And of course, particularly look at what China can do.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman had this

TRANSLATION: Some countries dash forward when it comes

But hide away when it comes to asking for peace talks.

This is not the attitude of a responsible nation.

There is growing suspicion that North Korea could not have developed

There is also agreement that it must be stopped.

China wants talks, the US, Britain and Japan, more sanctions.

Meanwhile North Korea is almost certainly

Rupert Wingfield Hayes, BBC News, in Tokyo.

An update on this - and despite President Trump's

statement that talking is not the answer to North Korea,

his Defence Secretary has insisted there is still room for diplomacy.

No, we are never out of diplomatic solutions.

We continue to work together and the Minister and I share a

responsibility to provide for the protection of our nations

and our populations and our interests, which

is what we are here to discuss today.

And look for all the areas where we can collaborate.

We have already had very strong collaboration.

Let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged China

to do more to help end North Korea's weapons tests.

While on a three day visit to Japan, May says the UK is also looking

at ways on how it will play its part on putting further

But she's not just there to discuss North Korea,

she's also trying to ease concerns about Brexit and pave the way

The Kremlin has confirmed receiving an email asking

for help in building a Trump Tower in Moscow.

A spokesman for Vladimir Putin says the email was sent

The US President's ties with Russia are already the subject

of investigations by multiple congressional committees

as well as the US Department of Justice.

And doctors in India have completed the first part

of a historic surgery to separate 27 month old conjoined twins.

The procedure to separate brothers Jaga and Baliya took 22 hours.

The operation was complicated as the boys share the vein that

returns blood to the heart from the brain, but doctors say

The International Organisation for Migration

in Bangladesh has told the BBC that more than 18,000

Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border

from Myanmar's Rakhine state in less than a week.

Aid workers giving emergency shelter and food say about a dozen

of the new arrivals have recent bullet wounds.

It's estimated that thousands of people

are still trapped in an unoccupied zone between the two countries.

Meer Sabbir of BBC Bengali reports from the district of Cox's Bazar

The flow of Rohingya started here since last

Friday, but despite the high alert of the border guards in Bangladesh,

thousands of Rohingyas are coming in every day

from the Rakhine estate in

I have seen in the refugee camps in different parts

of Cox's Bazar many Rohingyas are sitting just in front

of the campus, waiting for

their relatives, holding onto their small sacks with all of their

belongings, holding onto their small children.

The vast majority of them women and children, and I have heard

Some of them are very similar - the security forces came to their

villages, shooting at people, searching for young men, and burning

So they just grabbed anything they can and rushed to the

border, and many of them have relatives in the area who came here

Meer Sabbir on the plight of the Rohinyga.

In a month's time, German voters will deliver

their verdict on Angela Merkel and her refugee policy.

If, as polls suggest, Mrs Merkel's conservative party wins

the general election, it will mean a fourth term in office

Our Berlin correspondent Jenny Hill reports from Germany's north coast.

Don't be fooled by the political calm.

Germany has survived a turbulent year.

It's heading in a predictable direction.

The likely winner of next month's election is not as secure

TRANSLATION: I think she abandoned us fishermen,

She only cares about the big industry and what's

She should look after her own country.

This international stateswoman must please the home crowd now.

"She is the perfect Chancellor," he says.

In truth, Mrs Merkel knows she barely survived

perhaps only because there was no one to replace her.

No real challenge from Social Democrat Martin Schultz,

nor from the anti-immigrant party, AfD.

Even so, they're fielding a candidate in her own constituency.

TRANSLATION: We want to send Mrs Merkel back

It's a challenge, we admit that, but things are turning our way.

He hopes to reel in voters like Enis and Silka.

They will not be voting for Angela Merkel.

TRANSLATION: The refugee policy hasn't changed.

She doesn't really address all these terror attacks.

She should speak up for the German people.

TRANSLATION: This party, that party, they're all the same.

Angela Merkel has been in the job for 12 years.

She has survived crisis after crisis, and that's due

Take, for example, Brexit, and Donald Trump's election.

For many German voters, Mrs Merkel now represents security,

stability, in a shifting and uncertain world.

She will need to find coalition partners.

But in reality, one hand alone is likely to steer

I will be joining Jenny in September along with her colleagues as we

bring you full coverage of the German election.

What's yours, could also be ours, these days.

That's the thinking behind the sharing economy that's taking

off in various parts of the world, including China.

John Sudworth has been investigating in Beijing.

The company behind this venture plan to make 20 million

footballs and basketballs available for hire right across

Princes William and Harry have visited a memorial garden

for their mother at her old home at Kensington palace.

Tomorrow will mark the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's

They met representatives from charities supported by Diana -

as our royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell reports.

The flowers and the tributes are back at the gates

A very small echo of how it was 20 years ago but a reminder of feelings

And this afternoon William and Harry came to view the tributes.

They took their time, they looked, and they read.

And they laughed at some of the photographs showing them as

It was impossible not to be reminded of

how it was 20 years ago when, aged 15 and 12, on their return to

London, they'd come out still numb and bewildered to meet the people

who'd gathered there and to see for themselves the many thousands of

Diana's boys are both in their 30s now.

William's settled and about to begin full-time royal duty.

He was accompanied by Catherine this afternoon to view a memorial garden

And Harry, not quite so settled yet, but not far

And both at this anniversary, one must assume,

reassured by the enduring regard people feel for their mother.

She meant same much to so many people.

That shows by how many people are here today.

William and Harry took some of the flowers

people had brought and placed them at the Palace gates, replaying some

of the moments from two decades ago and acknowledging the desire that

many still have to hold onto Diana's memory.

Today, briefly, they put on their public, princely faces, to

Tomorrow, though, William and Harry will

remain in private, remembering the mother they lost in such tragic

Nicolas Witchell, BBC News, at Kensington Palace.

Don't forget you can get in touch with me and some

Hello. After the contrast of Wednesday, all pretty much in the

same boat going into Thursday. As the pressure