Hurricane irma continues to devastate the caribbean. We have been getting pictures in from all over. What you see here is the caribbean islands being battered by a category 5 hurricane. Thats the highest possible level which makes irma the most powerful atlantic storm in a decade. This is the island of saint martin officials warn most of the area is all but destroyed. This is antigua, very severe, home to 80,000 luckily the islanders escaped major damage to their homes, and there have been no fatalities. In puerto rico, more than half of the islands 3. 5 million residents were without power amid heavy downpours and strong winds. Look at the scene is facing them as irma swept through, heavy downpours and strong winds. And anguilla and the British Virgin islands have also been hit by the extreme weather. The hurricane sustained wind speeds of 285km h, reducing buildings to rubble and left at least ten people dead. Barbuda has been the worst hit. The tiny island there, as you can see. You can see here the widespread devastation to peoples homes and communities. The residents on the island have been speaking to us. My my whole house caved in, and there we re my whole house caved in, and there were lee mack are seven of us, and all we had to do was pray and call for help and their are seven of us. For help and their are seven of us. I didnt know what would happen to me. Last night was the most devastating experience i have ever had in my life, and i am almost 60. Me and my family of seven including an infant of two months, we had a shelter in the closet. Here is the Prime Minister of barbuda speaking after visiting the island. This was absolutely devastating, heart wrenching. Some properties have lost roofs, part roofs, all roofs, some have been totally demolished. It is absolutely heart wrenching, the extent of the destruction in barbuda, it is unprecedented. In fact i am of the view that as it stands now barbuda is barely habitable. Irma is currently north of the dominican republic, and is on course for the low lying turks and caicos islands. It is due to move onto the bahamas and cuba on saturday and then onto florida. Here, they have declared a state of emergency and mobilised federal Disaster Relief efforts. The head of the us Emergency Agency says Hurricane Irma will be truly devastating when it hits the southern coastal areas of the country. But thats not all. Two more storms are on their way. Storm jose will revisit all these areas already hit by Hurricane Irma, and storm katia will thunder along the coast of the mexican state of veracruz. Meanwhile on turks and caicos islands, emergency officials preparing to ride out the out the storm. Drjohn freeman is the governor of the british territory. 0f of course everyone is nervous and anxious here, but we have made their preparations we should do. Weve evacuated to islands, all the evacuation of two islands, our shelters are operating and people are going into them. We are messaging out as best we can to make sure people do that. Our number one concern is safety. Yesterday we spent a lot of time encouraging visiting tourists to get on flights out of turks and caicos islands, and we have reduced the number of people who dont live here and dont need to be here. So, yes, we are anxious and we will have to ride it out. This is a country that has been hit by hurricanes before. These are very low lying islands. We are very vulnerable, and therefore, you know, a surge means more water coming here which means more flooding, which causes more problems in terms of utilities and the functioning of the islands. Those are the most low lying areas, the ones who also have vulnerable structures, and we have vulnerable structures, and we have been encouraging them to move into the structures which can take ca re of into the structures which can take care of them. As i say, they are moving into the shelters now. Along with the surge you mentioned, it is the wind speed, we are waiting to see what the impact of that is, and im afraid we will not really know this until of course it has hit us, but already we can see it is very windy here. The sea is very choppy. We are already within her frame, irma, she is already touching us. So we have the hurricanes developing more or less in the same place, and it is not uncommon at this time of year, but rare to see them so powerful. Our science editor David Shukman explains. How do hurricanes become so destructive . The strongest form off the coast of west africa, warm waters cause the air to rise, triggering thunderstorms and that is when the winds can circulate and as this weather system crosses the atlantic it grows and becomes stronger. If the winds are moving in the same direction at all levels, as with irma, they reach devastating speeds. But closer to the caribbean, the hurricane gets another boost as it passes over yet more warm water. And Ocean Temperatures are unusually high this year, making the winds even more aggressive. On top of this, the low pressure inside the hurricane creates a storm surge, a huge wave that strikes the coast. As Climate Change is raising the level of the sea, the impact is all the greater. David shukman, bbc news. Lets go back to a developing story weve been covering for some time now the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from myanmar. On wednesday, bangladesh summoned myanmars ambassador in dhaka to protest against the planting of landmines along this border between the two countries. This is the border that over 164,000 Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing across over the last few weeks. Bangladesh says myanmar is planting mines to prevent the rohingya returning to their villages myanmar denies this. At the moment, though, people are still flowing from myanmar to bangladesh. Sanjoy majumder is there. More Rohingya Refugees have come today from bangladesh to myanmar and you can see how congested it has become, no space, all on the road. Over here they have brought in bamboo, to construct new tents for the fresh arrivals. The camps themselves are in dreadful shape. Extremely crowded, the conditions unhygienic. Aid agencies are very concerned. They say apart from food there is an urgent need for medical support. Medecins sans frontieres see many of the refugees have gunshot wound injuries, and therefore they need as much support as possible. They are all coming in from myanmar because they are fleeing violence. They say their villages are being attacked, set on fire. A bbc colleague has managed to get into Rakhine State and he has witnessed a muslim village being set on fire by rakhine youths. Our correspondentjonathan head was in Rakhine State and tweeted this earlier. Hes written a fuller account on our website but an important line to pick out is this and these pictures are what a cameraman travelling with him shot. You can see the burning. Now bear in mind the myanmar government says that its rohingya militants and the muslim villagers themselves causing destruction like this. But many in the International Community arent convinced. Earlier the bbc spoke to andrea gittleman, from the centre for the prevention of genocide at the Us Holocaust Memorial Museum in washington. This is her view. What we are seeing is so sustained, it appears to be systematic. What it appears to be an mass atrocities committed by the state of myanmar against the rohingya minority community. Genocide has a very specific definition, but we might not have enough evidence until investigators can access the areas where these crimes are taking place. That is something that the myanmar government has time and time again refused to allow. So with the information at hand we can see that it appears that crimes against humanity are happening against the rohingya population. All states have the responsibility to protect their people from crimes like this. So the myanmar government is failing to protect its own civilians. This called upon all countries, countries within asia, south east asia, europe, all over the world, to call upon leaders of the country to bring these atrocities to a halt. It should be known that the military seems to be the primary perpetrator of these atrocities and should be held to account for these crimes against humanity. That kind of effort and signalling from the International Community would be necessary for those crimes to cease. Stay with us on outside source still to come one of the sons of the philippine president denies involvement in a multi Million Dollar drug smuggling operation. More now on Hurricane Irma. Earlier we spoke to baroness amos, who is the director of Soas University of london and is a former un under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordination. She told us the uks response to the disaster created by Hurricane Irma wasnt sufficient. From my perspective having dealt with many of these disasters around the world when i was at the united nations, it is always the people on the ground to respond first. And they are looking to their national governments, but they are also looking outside for as much help to come as quickly as possible. And certainly we are now a couple of daysin certainly we are now a couple of days in and i think people are feeling that britain did not respond quickly enough, given that we know that this is hurricane season, given that this is hurricane season, given that we know that sometimes these hurricanes can shift and hit islands that were not expected to be in the way, and of course there are concerns that there is another hurricane coming that could have even more devastating consequences. This is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. Iam karin i am karin giannone. Our lead story is Hurricane Irma has left a trail of destruction across the caribbean and its still going strong as it heads towards turks and caicos, the bahamas and the us mainland. A vote on legalising same sex marriage in australia will proceed after a Court Dismissed two legal challenges. The non binding postal vote is due to begin next week. Pope francis is in colombia hes there to express support for the peace process. Thousands of people lined the route the popemobile took through the streets of the capital, bogota. Amongst our most read articles on the website roald dahls final Childrens Book has been illustrated by his longtime collaborator sir quentin blake, 26 years after it was first published. It had been the only roald dahl book not to have been illustrated by sir quentin. The book is called billy and the minpins it was originally published with illustrations by a different author. Lets head to germany now because the countrys general election is just under three weeks away. Ros atkins is there. Yes, the 24th of september is the date of the election, when Angela Merkel will sit to solidify her support, and i am speaking to you from cologne, germanys fourth largest city, and you can see this here, the gothic cathedral of cologne. It sits on the river rhine and contributes a huge amount to the german economy, the fourth biggest city, but is also significant in terms of immigration. It is in the state of North Rhine Westphalia which has 20 of all the migrants in germany. We have angular merkel leading the cdu, the christian democrats, and we think they will be the Biggest PartyAngela Merkel. She is up against Martin Schulze used to be president of the European Parliament and the now read to the social democrats. He is having a difficult campaign, to be honest. The latest poll shows that christian catlike democrats and Angela Merkel have a significant lead, and it does look like Martin Schultz will have the second Biggest Party, but because all german elections end in a coalition, the other parties who could get representation, we also need to take note of them. We have the free democrats, the fdp. We have the free democrats, the fdp. We have the greens, and we also have the party that came out of the communist party that came out of the communist party in east germany, die linke, and on the right you have the alternative for germany, the afd, with their anti immigration and anti islam policies, which i came to look at here earlier. We will have to see what effect their policies have on a coalition, but we do know that immigration is a significant issue. You might think that is as maybe but what should i care when the polls suggest Angela Merkel will get a fourth term and we know that she will stay in power. There are a few reasons. She is a hugely significant player in terms of the worlds responds to a number of major issues. On Climate Change, outside source was at the g20 watching Angela Merkel shape the worlds response to that while donald trump went his own way. On the future of the European Union you could argue there is no more significant figure. And for those of you watch on the bbc news channel we also need to take note of brexit, because nothing the eu does in those negotiations happens, certainly not of significance, without Angela Merkel agreeing to it. She is very important in terms of the form that brexit will take. 18 months ago on outside source we met a man from the federation of islamic organisations in europe. Good to see you again, how are you doing . We were just chatting when you arrived, and you said to me the big tv debate on sunday between Martin Schultz and Angela Merkel was a disaster. Can you tell us via . It was a disaster from the point of view that people have seen that there is no real choice can you tell us why . Have seen that there is no real choice can you tell us why . No real choice between the first and second party so no real alternative with political content, because Angela Merkel as well as Martin Schultz have a lot of the same standpoint and views on a lot of issues, so whoever got the biggest benefit of that, most probably the afd, the right wing parties. Benefit of that, most probably the afd, the rightwing parties. Despite the fact that when we last met on outside source afd was doing much better in the polls. Now it is around 9 but when we met before it was 15 16 . Around 9 but when we met before it was 1516 . Anyhow it depends. When you look into the circumstances. When we met before, the refugee issue was much more releva nt the refugee issue was much more relevant to the people now when the Elections Come closer, it is obvious that people start to look at things ina different that people start to look at things in a different manner. But anyhow afd is gaining a lot of ground. When you look at about 3 4 months ago they even had about 6 7 . You look at about 3 4 months ago they even had about 67 . It already has representation in the majority of state parliaments but it looks like it could have representation in the bundestag for the first time and i guess symbolically that is a big moment for germany. Absolutely, the first time a right Wing Extremist Party will take the floor on the german bundestag, the german parliament, and this is something that will change the Political Landscape in germany in general. What would you like Martin Schultz and Angela Merkel, the two most high profile politicians in this campaign, what would you like them to be saying to take on the afd . |j think the situation is really complicated and it is also not too easy for them to have a clear position, but i think that they need to be completely clear about what they stand for and what they dont, and it is pitifully, that the afd has already achieved a lot of its goals by putting a lot of it is contact into the mainstream. Its sister party in bavaria has taken a lot of the content that afd was campaigning for, so it looks like the right wing agenda already found its place in mainstream politics. Good to speak to you, ibrahim, and as ibrahim was giving me his last a nswer as ibrahim was giving me his last answer there, i thought, as ibrahim was giving me his last answerthere, ithought, if as ibrahim was giving me his last answer there, i thought, if afd has influenced german politics despite the fact that the polls do not suggest that there are some comparisons with ukip in the uk, the uk independence party, in the way it has failed to translate its support in two places in parliament but it undoubtedly had a huge influence on the calling of the brexit referendum and the result of that referendum. And nigel farage, the former leader of ukip, has today been here in germany, speaking at a rally for the afd. Thank you very much. Ros will be back from germany a little later. Lets turn to business. The retail giant amazon has announced plans to build a Second Headquarters in north america, kicking off a Competition Among cities to attract investment. The 5,000,000,000dollar among cities to attract investment. The 5,000,000,000 dollar project could create up to 50,000 jobs. Chicago, dallas, and toronto have immediately expressed an interest. Samira hussainjoins immediately expressed an interest. Samira hussain joins us immediately expressed an interest. Samira hussainjoins us from new york. How significant is this second amazon hq . This is massive. As you pointed out we are talking about 50,00