Hurricane milton has re—strengthened to a category five storm as it barrels straight towards florida. People there are evacuating en masse, ahead of its projected landfall on wednesday night local time. The national hurricane center says the storm has doubled in size since tuesday. You can see this timelapse, here shared by american astronaut matthew dominick, showing how this storm looks from space. Local authorities and weather experts say milton will bring a destructive storm surge, in which some areas will not be survivable. Hundreds of flights have been canceled ahead of its landfall, which is expected to bring strong winds of up to 165 mph or 270 kph. Milton comes just days after hurricane helene tore through the south—eastern us; 225 people were killed by the natural disaster across six states. The back—to—back storms are expected to leave historic levels of damage that could take years to recover from. Unlike helene, milton will only pass through florida on its way to the atlantic ocean. President biden has postponed a trip to germany to oversee preparations and prepare a federal response. He urged those in milton's path to evacuate, calling it a matter of life and death, also warning this could be one of the worst storms to hit florida in a century. Our correspondent gordon corera sent this report from tampa in florida. An exodus from tampa. Long lines of traffic snaking out of the city tell you that the warnings are being taken seriously here. Florida is used to hurricanes, but the message has been that this time is different. The city is still recovering from the last hurricane, helene, which hitjust two weeks ago, and killed more than 200 in the wider region, with hundreds more still missing. The water was up to here. And that's from the last one two weeks ago, yeah? and inside tampa today, there are desperate, last—minute preparations. Steve crist�*s dental surgery was hit badly last time, and he knows milton promises to be much worse. I've lived here my whole life, i'm 73 years old, and we have never had anything like this, ever. And to have two in two weeks, as well? yeah. Oh, yeah, that building has neverflooded, and i've practised dentistry here for 44 years. The speed and intensity with which milton formed, with winds of 180mph, is what's caused real alarm. Even if it weakens, that will not stop the massive storm surge, which could be as much as 15 feet high hitting the coast, double what helene inflicted, and with tampa right in its expected path. This is literally catastrophic, and i can say without any dramatisation whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you'e going to die. Another sign of how seriously this is being taken was that president biden cancelled foreign travel and issued his own warning. You should evacuate now, now, now, you should have already have evacuated. It is a matter of life and death, and that is not hyperbole. It is a matter of life and death. At a sports stadium in nearby st petersburg, 10,000 camp beds are being prepared for emergency workers, who'll be trying to get the community back on its feet. The power and danger posed by milton is clear from these pictures of a crew aboard a research flight that went through the hurricane. They were forced to hold tight as they were buffeted by its winds, and beneath them, florida is now preparing for the hurricane's arrival. Melanie bevan is the chief melanie bevan is the chief of police in bradentown, of police in bradentown, a town that is right a town that is right in the path of hurricane milton in the path of hurricane milton and experienced a lot of damage and experienced a lot of damage during the recent hurricane during the recent hurricane helene. Helene. She spoke about what a forecast she spoke about what a forecast like this means for law enforcement in the area. Like this means for law we have 135 offices here, we have 135 offices here, another 16 civilian employees another 16 civilian employees and we made the decision today and we made the decision today it is no longer safe to house it is no longer safe to house our equipment, our people and our equipment, our people and our equipment, our people and our evidence. 0ver our equipment, our people and our evidence. Over 40,000 people of evidenced property were moved today to a secure location. We had to move guns, we had to move cameras, we had to move everything can imagine, you can imagine what a significant undertaking that was, this is all while trying to carry out evacuation orders and doing what we can to get people to safety. There have been dire warnings from officials for people we did see more than a dozen die in the coastal areas of tampa bay from the storm surge, that's how big the storm was, it killed from north carolina all the way down to florida, a couple of hundred miles. People saw that, they saw their homes and businesses get submerged, and they know another hurricane coming right for us is something to be taken seriously. What is the level of anxiety there like, how are people feeling? very anxious. No one alive has seen a hurricane like this in tampa bay. There has never been a direct hit on tampa bay in living memory. The last one was 1921, so although we are well practised for preparing for storms as floridians, we are not well practised at withstanding 120+ mph winds in tampa bay, and when that last storm hit in 1921, the region had 20 times fewer people. Now there is 2. 1 million people around the tampa bay area, and a lot of them live close to water. More than half a million in one county alone have been asked to leave, ordered to leave. Now, you mentioned the fact they are more prepared than otherwise they would be, what has been done to prepare for this storm? so much, but in particular, emergency shelters have opened, schools have closed, evacuation orders were sent out two days ago, emergency fuel rations have been set up, linemen, to get people's power back online when the storm does hit, have been deployed, and are camped out throughout the tampa region, just generally people are. . . But, really, what it takes to be prepared for a hurricane is for the public to be taking it seriously, and that is really what is happening, and that is what i would argue is different than even storms like helene, and we had evacuation orders for hurricane helene in the lowest—lying and coastal areas of the tampa bay region, and some people didn't take them seriously. They lost their lives, and people are heeding the lesson, unfortunately, from those experiences. Have you personally had to evacuate, are you based somewhere else than you would normally be? i am based somewhere else, yes, i live in downtown st petersburg, and i have moved to near tampa, further inland, to be with, i'm actually at my mother's house. She lives in a newer—built home, and she has storm shutters and a generator, so i can keep reporting and stay online and get the news out to people from where i am better than i could in st petersburg. You can find the latest on hurricane milton on our website. We have a live page going with up to the minute information. Including here for example, a post about one man who didn't live —— didn't leave during helene and says he won't be making the same mistake again this year is on his way out. Lots of information on the website. Check it out. Turning to the middle east now. Israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, says the israeli military has killed the man who was widely tipped to become the new leader of hezbollah — hashem safieddine — in an airstrike in beirut on friday. The israel defense forces says it can't yet confirm the results of the strike. Safieddine, a relative of former leader hassan nasrallah, has been running the movement alongside its deputy secretary general since nasrallah was killed by israel at the end of september. As air strikes continue in beirut, israel's military has been stepping up operations on the ground in lebanon, now moving in the south—west of the country, as well as the south east. The idf says at least 50 hezbollah members were killed in strikes in southern lebanon on monday. For more, our correspondent anna foster is in beirut. Once again tonight, the sound of loud explosions from israeli air strikes are echoing around the capital. We are seeing those great plumes of black smoke on the horizon. It is worth taking a moment to consider really how extraordinary that is, the position we find ourselves in, where that has become a normal thing, that right in the heart of the lebanese capital, through the day and into the evening like this, we are seeing the momentum really sort of increasing all the time, when it comes to these air strikes. In the south of lebanon, as well, powerful strikes throughout the day, more than 130 targets have been hit by the israeli air force, and we also know that israel have put more troops again into the south of the country. Benjamin netanyahu making this very strong statement earlier, speaking, he said, directly to the lebanese people. I'm not sure how many of them will see or understand that statement, it feels more like a message to the wider world, but he threatened that if hezbollah wasn't removed from lebanon, that this country could end up like gaza, and that is a strong message, and one that is concerning people notjust here, but i would imagine around the world, as well. The head of the united nations says draft laws in the israeli parliament that block the un aid agency for palestinians would cause humanitarian catastrophe in gaza and the west bank. Secretary general antonio guterres says he's written to the israeli government to express his concern. Mr guterres says the agency — unrwa — was irreplaceable. You without unwra, the delivery of food, shelter _ you without unwra, the delivery of food, shelter and _ you without unwra, the delivery of food, shelter and other you without unwra, the delivery of food, shelter and other care | of food, shelter and other care to go is �*s population would grind to a halt. Without unwra, gaza's 660,000 children would lose the only entity that is able to restart education, risking the fate of an entire generation, and without unwra, many health, education and social services would also end in the occupied west bank, including eastjerusalem. If approved, such legislation would be diametrically approached to the un charter and in violation of israel's obligations and their international law. The israeli military says it is expanding its ground offensive against hezbollah. The incursion brings the total number of soldiers deployed to 15,000. On monday, israeli forces warned people to avoid the coast, saying it would soon begin an operation from the sea. Nick eardley from bbc verify has been looking at the damage done in lebanon so far. There has been a significant exchange of fire in recent days. As we've been hearing, dozens of rockets have been fired into northern israel today by hezbollah and there has been significant damage done by israeli strikes in lebanon. This footage here is from yarun the south—west of lebanon, and you can see buildings have been flattened over a pretty large area. We've been mapping the wider picture, and if you have a look at the screen here and focus in on the region, i can show you a map, which is based on data from the institute for the study of war. It is up—to—date as of yesterday morning so it doesn't include the most recent strikes. Today it includes reported strikes, we haven't verified them all, and there may be some we don't know about, but if i focus it in here, if we zoom in down on the border area, in purple here you can see recent hezbollah attacks on israel, and in red you can see israeli strikes in lebanon. Let's focus in on a few examples to show you the extent of some of the damage we have been seeing in lebanon. This is from southern lebanon. 16 kilometres from the border with israel. We verified this by looking at footage from the surrounding areas. It matches satellite images before this raid and the building still standing in the footage. We are confident this is from this morning when it was first posted online, and what it clearly shows, as you can see here, is a considerable level of damage to buildings and to the local infrastructure. Let's also show you a piece of footage we've got from beirut. Israel says it is targeting hezbollah strongholds, particularly areas where weapons are being stored, and this footage does appear to show secondary explosions. You can see here this big ball of fire. The building is clearly on fire, then about 40 seconds into the footage that's been posted online, it will come up in a second here, you can see another explosion, what looks like fireworks going on there. That has likely been caused by ammunition blowing up. There are other examples of verified footage we have seen and shown to experts who say the same, that it looks like secondary explosions, ammunition exploding. The damage is against the backdrop of israel sending more troops to lebanon. This morning israeli forces confirmed they were expanding forces into the south—west, and as has happened in gaza, we are seeing those sorts of warnings being circulated by the idf. This one, as you can see, is in arabic, it tells people in the south to be careful, it tells people not to move south, and it says to those in the south that they should not return to their homes for their own safety. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of people in lebanon have been displaced, and much of that has been happening in the south of the country. Around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. Let's look at some stories making news in the uk. Tom tugenhart has been knocked out of the race to become the new conservative leader. James cleverly took the lead in the contest, with robertjenrick second and kemi badenoch third. Mps will select the final two in another round of voting on wednesday. Those two will then go to a vote by party membership over the next three weeks. The main suspect in the disappearance of madeleine mccann has been acquitted by a court in germany, of five unrelated charges of rape and child sexual abuse. Christian brueckner, who's 47, was seen in the area of portugal where madeleine went missing in 2007. He'll remain injail in germany, serving a sentence for the rape of a 72—year—old woman. The transport secretary has signalled that the hs2 railway line is likely to be extended to london euston. Louise haigh said it would make absolutely no sense to have the route terminate at old 0ak common in west london. It comes after work to expand euston station to accommodate hs2 was halted by the conservative government last year. Because of rising costs. You're live with bbc news. The us department of justice has arrested a man who allegedly planned a terror attack on election day in the name of the islamic state group. I'm joined now by the bbc�*s carl nasman in washington. Carl, what do we know? yeah, well, on monday the fbi arrested a 27—year—old suspect, from afghanistan originally, this is over a suspected plot that would have targeted the united states on election day here. The suspect name, he is accused of planning and sympathy of the islamic state group. Court documents were unsealed and point to some links that prosecutors say the suspect is linked to that group, they say he was allegedly on these sorts of platforms online that are sympathetic to the group, that he on his phone had downloaded some images and text, propaganda essentially by the islamic state, that he also had donated money to the group as well. He eventually was arrested when he tried to buy some high—powered rifles and ammunition from two undercover fbi agents. Now in terms of the details of the plot itself, the suspects allegedly then in an interview told prosecutors that he and a younger accomplice were hoping to die as martyrs, that they were targeting a large group of people on election day. You can imagine of course all these people heading out to polling stations across the country to cast their ballot in person. That might have been the sort of crowd they were looking to target. In terms of the bigger picture here, national security officials have been warning for months in the united states that there is an elevated threat here, that there are people out there who are likely and hoping to target americans as part of that, of course there is no direct link they are but part of that is due to the ongoing conflict in the middle east, that the threat level has gone up. You can imagine of course what kind of effects a terror attack on election day might have on the country, notjust in terms of the number of nato casualties here, butjust talking about the way it would affect the election. This has been a fraught campaign, politically tense, the temperature is very high here in the country, of course election day, just under a month to go until november five, so officials and police will be on high alert for these types of threats in the coming days. Indian—administered kashmir delivered unexpected results on tuesday as votes were counted in the assembly elections. Most exit polls had predicted a hung assembly in kashmir, but the alliance between the main opposition congress and the national conference party is now heading for a landslide victory in the 90—member house, setting them up to form the next government. These elections in kashmir are particularly significant, as they are the first in a decade and the first since the region lost its autonomy and was restructured into a federally—governed territory in 2019. The head of the uk security service, m15, has given a rare public speech, warning that russia is on a mission to bring mayhem to the streets of the uk. Ken mccallum says there has been a marked rise in the threat from russia and iran, and he spoke of a staggering rise in children being investigated for terrorism, with very young people are being drawn into what he called �*poisonous online extremism'. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner reports. State—backed sabotage and other plots in britain laid today at the door of iran and russia, says m15. From russian�*s embassy in london, the last remaining military intelligence officer has been expelled this year. But russian state subversion, says m15, continues. The gru — the same russian organisation blamed for the 2018 salisbury nerve agent attack — is on a mission to generate mayhem on british and european streets, using criminal gangs. Iran has orchestrated 20 plots in britain since 2022, he said, involving lethal threats to uk residents. Here, too, they were also using the criminal underworld to carry out what he called their dirty work. If you take money from iran, russia, or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the uk, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It's a choice you will regret. And terrorism, he warned, has not gone away. Since the attacks of 2017, m15 and the police have disrupted 43 late—stage plots. Islamic state is looking to export terrorism, seeking to exploit anger over events in the middle east. Worryingly, one in eight counter—terrorism investigations now involve minors, radicalised online, including by social media. The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats. We now face those, alongside state—backed sabotage and assassination plots, against the backdrop of a major european land war. Taking all the threats together, he said, m15 had a hell of a job on its hands. Frank gardner, bbc news. Let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. Brazil's supreme court announced its lifting a ban on x, formerly known as twitter, in the country. The platform had been banned for more than a month after a supreme courtjustice accused x of undermining democracy by allowing accounts accused of spreading disinformation to continue posting. X's owner, elon musk, had accused the justice of censorship. Mr musk has not yet commented on tuesday's decision. A british and american climber have been rescued after surviving two days and what they called brutal conditions in the himalayas. They were stranded when the rope lifting the holding of a deer snap. They said they were terrified as they try to take part in the descent alone before being met by rescuers. The nobel prize in physics has been awarded to two scientists, geoffrey hinton and john hopfield, for their work on machine learning. British—canadian professor hinton is sometimes referred to as the godfather of ai. He resigned from google last year, and has warned about the dangers of machines that could outsmart humans. Here's our science correspondent, pallab ghosh. The biggest companies in the world are using ai to improve their services. Better searches, summarising the mass of information on the web. 30 years ago, it was all very new. A lot of money is being spent developing neural nets. . . Face recognition was one of the first practical things. They were a radical new way of doing computing. Developed in the late 1970s and rewarded with a nobel prize today. I caught up with geoffrey hinton, ironically staying at a motel room without wi—fi. Geoff, you've won the biggest prize in science, how do you feel? i am flabbergasted still. I haven't managed to get my head around it yet. And what are your fears about al? there is one thing in particular i'm most worried about, which is what i call the existential threat, that it'll become more intelligent than us and decide to take over. And we are people and what we care about is people and we would like people to stay in charge. The big breakthrough was to create a simple computer system that copied the human brain. If we take a closer look, we can see that there are signals passing between individual brain cells. The more often the signals pass between them, the stronger the connections become. That's essentially how we learn and store information, which, at a very simple level, is what neural networks do. Astronomers now use the technology that emerged from neural networks to sift through the huge amount of information they collect from the skies, as do doctors who analyse medical images. It has also led to better climate—modelling systems. We are just a big neural net. It's because of pioneers like geoffrey hinton that we have all of the opportunities ai has to offer. The challenge will be to prevent it getting out of control. Pallab ghosh, bbc news. And before we go, some stunning pictures of the night sky across the uk, as sky—watchers on monday were treated to the rare phenomenon known as steve. Steve — or to give it its full name — strong thermal emission velocity enhancement — is unpredictable and only lasts for a short time. Little is known about its formation and why it can sometimes appear during an aurora display. While auroras happen in an oval shape, steve appears as a ribbon and lasts for 20 minutes to an hour before disappearing. Hello. Tuesday brought no shortage of heavy downpours to many parts of the uk, but over the next couple of days, things are going to be turning just a little bit drier — at the same time, though, as northerly winds develop, it will also turn colder. Low pressure is still in charge of the scene right now, this low still bringing some outbreaks of rain for parts of the uk. This deep low, ex—hurricane kirk, thankfully staying well away to the south of us, bringing some very wet and very windy weather to northern parts of spain. Back home, some outbreaks of rain, mostly quite patchy, quite showery in nature, but the odd heavy burst across northern england, up into eastern scotland, rather cloudy and damp for parts of wales, the north midlands. Northern ireland seeing a lot of clouds, some spots of rain and drizzle, as well. Further south, south wales, southern england, a mix of sunny spells and showers, 16 or 17 celsius, but northern scotland turning brighter but colder later in the day, as these brisk northerly winds kick in, could even see some wintry showers over high ground in northern scotland, because temperatures really will be dropping away through wednesday night, into the first part of thursday, with a frost across parts of scotland. A little bit milder, further south, first thing on thursday, but through the day, this cold air will be moving its way southwards, so a very different feel to the weather, but actually, things don't look too bad. Certainly a drier day in prospect, some good spells of sunshine, just a few showers around western and eastern coasts, where it will be quite windy for a time. Still the potential for some wintriness mixing in with the showers over the very highest ground in northern scotland. But these are the afternoon highs — 8 to 13 celsius at best. Could well see a frost in parts of england and wales to start friday morning. Here, though, we should see some good spells of sunshine. Northern ireland not looking too bad, but we will see cloud and patchy rain getting into the northwest of scotland. Still feeling a little bit on the chilly side — 8, 9 celsius in the far north of scotland, 12, 13 for south wales and the south of england. Now, into the weekend, high pressure never too far away from southern parts, so here, staying largely dry. Fairly weak frontal systems up to the north, bringing some rain at times, and if anything, those temperatures just creeping upwards a little bit. By sunday, highs of 11 to 15 celsius. China's stock markets fall despite assurances the world �*s second largest economy will hit growth targets. Plus: drinking wine from denmark or norway? why this is a growing industry. Welcome to business today. I'm katie silver. China is back on the radar after its golden week holiday, and authorities there announced plans to boost the economy, but provided few details. Investment expert 0livier d'assier told us the stimulus isn't enough to boost growth. And more stimulus is needed to boost growth. It is a drop in the bucket when you look at the size of the country. And the size of the problem. All engines of growth have stalled and are in reverse in some cases. There is a need for massive cpr here, notjust fanning the flames. What can the government do?