as the country starts to survey the extent of the destruction. us democratic governors vow to stand with us president biden, as questions continue about his fitness for office. israel says it's evaluating hamas's comments on proposals to free hostages, as the prime minister remains under pressure to end the war in gaza. i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. hurricane beryl is passing by jamaica, with the eye wall brushing the southern coast, bringing with it dangerous high winds, sea surges and a trail of destruction in the eastern caribbean where at least seven people have been killed. currently, beryl is a category 4 storm — the most intense that jamaica has seen in more than a decade. the national hurricane centre says the storm is bringing winds of around

140mph or 220km/h. the cayman islands and mexico are next in the hurricane�*s path and are preparing to feel the brunt of beryl after it passes jamaica. in the meantime, jamaica's prime minister is urging residents to follow evacuation orders. during the passage of the hurricane there may be a loss of electricity and water. the emergency services will seek to restore power and water as quickly as possible. however, citizens should not seek to remove downed poles or powerlines or disturb water mains. please use emergency numbers given to report damage to public utilities and do not take unnecessary risks. within the last 30 minutes, i spoke with reporter nick davis by phone who's in montego bay, jamaica right now.

we go to our correspondent in jamaica davis. i'm really glad we can get through to you right now. there must be a real sense of anxiety there. what are you experiencing currently? i5 of anxiety there. what are you experiencing currently?- experiencing currently? is one of those situations _ experiencing currently? is one of those situations where - experiencing currently? is one of those situations where you | of those situations where you think you are prepared and you realise you are not prepared. i think that is the situation for many people here injamaica. in many people here injamaica. in many respects there has been a lot of damage, there has been loss of life, but we're aware that it could have been worse for everybody on the ground here. at the moment we are assessing how much damage has been done. even where a live, we have got no lamine diack. trees have come down in the yard, which means people couldn't get out, people who do need essential services cannot get out of the property, we have to figure out a way to do the vehicles are, move trees, that will be happening all over the country. the other thing that will be happening is

trying to get the infrastructure back up and running as well. we have had palaces throughout the country and we've still got this continuous rain. you can hear it coming down now. that has been a real problem, especially in low—lying parts of the country and tomorrow we are going to see how badly some of those areas have been affect did. ~ , , ., ., , those areas have been affect did. ~ , i. ., , ., did. as you are 'ust mentioning there, did. as you are 'ust mentioning there. that — did. as you are just mentioning there, that lashing _ did. as you are just mentioning there, that lashing rain, - there, that lashing rain, because one of the serious concerns has been the storm surge. concerns has been the storm surue. ~ , ,., y concerns has been the storm surue. ~ , ,, ., concerns has been the storm surue. , ,, ., , surge. absolutely. storm surge es - eciall surge. absolutely. storm surge especially in — surge. absolutely. storm surge especially in those _ surge. absolutely. storm surge especially in those low-lying i especially in those low—lying coastal areas. some of those are very well known. they get hit over and over and over again. but people are reluctant to move away. why? because housing and access to housing is very difficult to find in jamaica, so when people settle somewhere they stay was not when they settle somewhere they don't want to leave, even if their lives could be in danger because it is their homes. the other thing is flooding. so

many areas also suffer from dust as we are seeing a lot of development, a lot of informal development, a lot of informal development in the planning of a soft isn't there and what happens is we see areas which suddenly get engulfed very quickly. and tomorrow again we will see how much debris has come down from some of these communities as they flow towards us.— communities as they flow towards us. naturally some --eole towards us. naturally some peeple are _ towards us. naturally some people are anxious - towards us. naturally some people are anxious about . people are anxious about leaving their homes to places where they love to live, of course, and liver behind the destruction, but people were being told i understand by the prime minister to leave, to go to schulters if they can. we have any indication as to whether people were able to get out on time? the whether people were able to get out on time?— out on time? the situation is that because _ out on time? the situation is that because of _ out on time? the situation is that because of things - out on time? the situation is that because of things that i that because of things that have happened in the past in terms of people going to schulters and them not necessarily living up to expectations, in some cases being very cramped, led to a feeling that people wouldn't want to go back, once they have

been bitten they're not going to try again. so this is what happened and they think in some areas people refused to leave. in one area, very close to the airport, people since their children away but stayed in their home. that's is everything you need to know. our correspondence there in jamaica, nick davis. nick, take care and thanks a lot for your reporting. care and thanks a lot for your reporting-— thousands of people are now homeless after beryl ravaged grenada and st vincent and the grenadines monday. strong storm winds destroyed homes, businesses, and boats. the prime minister of st vincent and the grenadines says authorities are sending food and water to affected communities. and as beryl takes aim at mexico by the weekend, tourists in the beach resort of cancun are rushing to leave with lines stretching through the airport there. the head of mexico's civil protection agency encouraged tourists who've stayed behind in cancun and nearby tulum to hunker down in hotel basements once the storm approaches.

us presidentjoe biden has held a high—stakes meeting with all 23 democratic governors amid panicked deliberations inside the democratic party over whether mr biden has the stamina and mental fitness to lead the country into a second term. several of those governors have just left the meeting and told reporters they stand behind biden. about half of the governors attended the meeting in—person at the white house. they included california governor gavin newsom, and michigan governor gretchen whitmer, two politicians whose names have been mentioned as potential alternatives to president biden should he ultimately step aside. a shaky performance at last week's debate with donald trump has threatened to derail mr biden�*s entire campaign. despite concern mr biden has vowed to stay in the race. in addition to the governors' meeting on wednesday, the president held phone calls with democratic congressional leaders, as well as his re—election campaign staff where he said:

well, for the second day in a row, the white house press secretary faced unrelenting questions about president biden�*s mentalfitness. karinejean—pierre denied an earlier report from the new york times that mr biden is considering whether to abandon his re—election bid. the president is moving forward. he is moving forward as being present, he is moving forward with his campaign. as his campaign has been very clear about that. is his campaign has been very clear about that.— clear about that. is the present _ clear about that. is the present telling - clear about that. is the present telling people | clear about that. is the i present telling people he clear about that. is the - present telling people he is evaluating?— present telling people he is evaluatin? . , ., , , evaluating? that is absolutely false. i evaluating? that is absolutely false- i saw — evaluating? that is absolutely false. i saw that _ evaluating? that is absolutely false. i saw that reporting. i evaluating? that is absolutely| false. i saw that reporting. we are not given enough time to get back to that reporting, just a couple of minutes, and we asked the president and the president responded directly when asked about this question, because we said that we would and the president said it is no, is absolutely false. that is coming directly from him. a new york times poll found trump leads biden 49% to 43% among likely voters nationally. that's three points higher

than their last poll a week earlier. a wall streetjournal poll reports similar numbers after the debate. biden behind 42% to 48% among registered voters. as president biden faces questions about his age, donald trump faces questions of his own, including about his recent conviction on 3a felony counts. the wall streetjournal poll we just mentioned asked respondents which concerned them more, biden�*s age or trump's behaviour. 46% of registered voters said biden�*s age was the bigger concern. 45% donald trump's behaviour worried them more. i spoke about all this with molly ball, senior political correspondent for the wall streetjournal. of course you will have seen the white house coming out today strongly denying reports president biden is considering stepping out of the race. what is the latest you can tell us? well, this has been deadline

for the past six days, since the debate. but really what we are paying attention to is the really growing sense of panic all around the white house. from democrats at all levels, from the mezzanine level of the party, elected officials, operatives, and strategies close to the party, even people inside the white house very concerned about the situation and they know that something has to be done. a loss of democrats feel that the president and his apparatus haven't done enough to reassure them if he is going to stay in them if he is going to stay in the race that he has what it takes. it took this many days for him to contact senior congressional leaders, for example, and you have this meeting with the governors and there has still been a semblance of a plan going forward to say what he is going to do differently to assuage the concerns that are now starting to show up in polls in the form of declining support. the white house press secretary karinejean—pierre said yesterday he has a number

of public events in the coming days, the public will be able to judge for themselves when he is out on that campaign trail. how high—stakes of these next few events? very, very high—stakes. the ones we are really watching our we know he is doing an extended network interview with abc news on friday and he has said he will have a press conference tied to the nato summit next week. it is those unscripted settings where he faces tough questions and has to be quick on his feet, and even then i think people going to want more. appearing in controlled settings, reading from a teleprompter, as he has done since the debate, only a few times really, and often behind closed doors, is not going to be enough for the many democrats who feel that, frankly, they have been lied to, that the white house has been engaged in a type of cover—up by denying these questions and reacting angrily to these concerns for so long up until it became so obvious they could no longer deny it. molly, if president biden ultimately isn't able to salvage this model

because there are a lot of unknowns at this stage, while some of the content is potentially to top the ticket and you think the democrats would be able to coalesce around one candidate? you know, it would really be an unprecedented situation and i think there would be a lot of questions about how the process would work if he were to step off the ticket. the most obvious person to step in in his place of course would be the vice president, that's what she is therefore, literally herjob is to step in if the president is incapacitated and can't serve as president and so i think it would be obvious for her then to step into the campaign if he were to decide to bow out. there are many promising democrats on the so—called bench, many of the governors who were there at the white house today, as you mentioned, are considered promising potential candidates. however, the primaries are over and that is part of the anger and frustration that many democrats are feeling is that they feel that if the president had done something about this two years ago there could have been an open primary when they had

a chance to take stock of all the candidates, see them debate, see how they might perform in unscripted settings and on the national stage. instead, if indeed, don't want to get ahead of the story, if it were to happen that the president were to step off the ticket there would be a lot of questions about how to proceed, how to even make that sort of a switch and that would be the overwhelming priority would be to figure out what is going to happen, just logistically in terms of the delicate rules and so forth. as you say, so questions at the moment. i wonder when you are speaking to democrats what are they saying about this particular moment, howell, perhaps, panicked are they that this is just a few months out from the election and suddenly all of this focus on the party as it goes through these questions, this wrangling, these deliberations. panic is absolutely not too strong a word. democrats are right panicked. —— quite panicked. in large part because, you know, the argument

that the biden campaign has been making since the beginning is that donald trump returning to the white house represents an existential threat to american democracy. many democrats believe that very strongly and is, that being the case, they feel immense pressure to prevent that from happening. the supreme court has just issued a decision that gives the president, this one and future residents, including president trump, sweeping immunity from any kind of prosecution. —— criminal prosecution. that strikes fear into the hearts of many democrats who don't want to see donnarumma return to the white house and be even more unshackled, as it were. —— donald trump. so it's fear, sadness that the president is in the state, and there is anger that the president and his handlers let things get to this point before dealing frankly with whatever could see was an issue but did not know

was this bad. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. in northern ireland, a judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence for the former leader of the democratic unionist party, sirjeffrey donaldson, to face trial on historical sexual offence charges. sirjeffrey now faces 18 charges involving two alleged victims, including rape, gross indecency, and indecent assault. he appeared in court with his wife, who's also been charged — she faces five charges of aiding and abetting, in connection with the alleged offences. sirjeffrey has said he will strenuously contest the charges. the daughter and son—in—law of captain sir tom moore have been banned from being charity trustees. hannah ingram—moore and her husband colin were disqualified amid an ongoing inquiry by the charity commission into the captain tom foundation. the charity was set up in honour of sir tom who raised 38 million for the nhs by walking laps of his garden during the covid pandemic. a scottish couple are celebrating the arrival of naturally conceived quadruplets. the west lothian family welcomed four boys in may. naturally conceived quadruplets are rare.

you're live with bbc news. israel's government says it is "evaluating" hamas's response to proposals for a truce in gaza. a statement by hamas says its political leader ismail haniyeh spoke with egyptian and qatari mediators on wednesday night about proposals for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. the new york times reports that several israeli senior military officials are in favour of a truce in gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is under pressure from members of his own war cabinet to de—escalate the war. but as israel's military continues to hit targets in gaza, at least four senior generals are calling for mr netanyahu to commit to a post—war plan. meanwhile, thousands of palestinians are fleeing gaza's second—largest city khan younis after the israeli military issued evacuation orders on monday. the united nations says israel warned 250,000 people to move from the east of the city

and told them to seek shelter in a coastal area where there are few basic services. hundreds of patients fled gaza's european hospital in eastern khan younis, according to the world health 0rganization. tensions remain high at israel's northern border with lebanon after armed group hezbollah fired 100 rockets towards israel in response to a israeli air strike that killed one senior commander. 0ur middle east correspondent sebastian usher sent this update from jerusalem. israel has killed another senior hezbollah commander in southern lebanon. israel says that he was responsible for the unit has been firing rockets into northern israel. now, that has forced around 60,000 israelis to evacuate their homes. this has become an increasingly big problem for the israeli government. in september, schools go back and the people who live in that area are essentially putting pressure on the government to enable them to make it secure enough for them to return.

now, in carrying out an attack like this israel essentially is putting its sense of security ahead of anything else. it said that mohammad naameh nasser was the head of the hezbollah unit that was firing rockets into israel. those hostilities have been going on for months now, essentially hezbollah have been firing rockets into northern israel after the war erupted between israel and hamas, hezbollah says it was doing a show of support for hamas and to and the confrontation when the wadi gaza ended. at the moment there is no sign of that happening. we saw an escalation a few weeks ago where israel also killed a senior hezbollah commander and that led to hezbollah firing its largest barrage of drones and rockets into northern israel. hezbollah has already fired around 100 rockets into northern israel after this attack but it said that is just its first response. the number of people killed in a crush at a religious gathering in the northern indian state of uttar pradesh

has risen to 121, making it one of the deadliest such disasters in more than a decade. the incident happened as a crowd of thousands of people were trying to leave a hindu prayer meeting in the northern district of hathras. police say more than 250 thousand people attended the event, more than triple the number organizers had permitted. he the police chief said action would be taken against anyone found to be responsible for the crush. most of those killed were women. a bbc investigation has revealed that a network of russia—based websites — posing as american newspapers — is pumping out fake stories to influence the us election. one of the most notable stories, false claims that 0lena zelenska, the first lady of ukraine, allegedly used american military aid money to buy a bugatti sports car. the story went viral on x before being debunked by experts and the carmaker itself. the operation used artificial intelligence to generate thousands of articles.

the bbc found that a former us marine and police officer named john dougan was running the disinformation campaign. mr dougan denied all involvement — despite his known ties to russian state media. more from the bbc�*s mike wendling. we've been investigating a network of about 100 sites, they are meant to sound like local american news sites, names like houston post or chicago chronicle, but they're not from those places at all, is that the whole operation is managed from russia. what does network does is interesting, it has managed to pump out vague stories, a few of which go viral, they are repeated by online influences, but also by public officials and even members of congress. most of the time the stories have been about ukraine, that we have been tracking over the last few months, but more recently we have seen this network 10 is attention to american politics and the november election. i spoke about the growing challenges of identifying,

tracking, and fighting disinformation with nina jankowicz, the biden administration's former disinformation czar. she's now head of the american sunlight project, a non—profit organisation attempting to combat the spread of disinformation. now, russian at is nothing new. but how much of a risk to think this new frontier of artificial intelligence now presents? well, we have been hearing a lot about the dangers of deepfakes in particular as we had was this election, but what this story shows is actually that it this story shows is actually thatitis this story shows is actually that it is generative textbased artificial intelligence that is much more dangerous and, frankly, it is something that i have been worried about for a long time. a lot of the russian disinformation that we saw in 2016 and through 2020, the hallmarks of it that allowed us to detected as russian were actually linguistic slipups,

misused idioms, dropped articles, things like that. and what we see now is the ability to generate pitch perfect idiomatic english language text at scale and also target it to the people who will be most vulnerable to it stop and that's what we have seen our play in the story and i think now that these tools are open to anyone we should expect not just russia to use them, but to any adverse there is a western governments to influence voters. ., ., governments to influence voters. . ., , _ voters. nina, that is deeply concerning. _ voters. nina, that is deeply concerning, what _ voters. nina, that is deeply concerning, what impact i voters. nina, that is deeply l concerning, what impact and voters. nina, that is deeply i concerning, what impact and you think this could have on the 2024 presidential election here in the us? ~ ~' 2024 presidential election here in the us?— in the us? welcome i think the united states _ in the us? welcome i think the united states is _ in the us? welcome i think the united states is in _ in the us? welcome i think the united states is in a _ in the us? welcome i think the united states is in a deeply i united states is in a deeply polarised moment, whereas so in a deeply distrusting moment full when not only do we have a deep distrust in institutions we have a deep distrust in each other and so if there is a particular piece of media that appears to be from, you know, a local newspaper that is already appealing to our preconceived

bases and sensibilities, think people are going to be much more likely to trust that and in the bbc investigation one of the things that i've found most disturbing is that members of the republican party actually said one of the articles that was ai generated and potentially connected to the russian government, the least coming from russia, in order to influence voters ahead of the selection and, again, we have officials, elected officials, members of congress sharing that. so i think disinformation writ large is going to be playing a huge role as we headed toward november. anthony field is ripe for the taking for russia and any other adversarial government that want to try and manipulate us and a idols can only aid that. i'm curious, how do you think that the united states and other western democracies should go about finding what is essentially an information war without resorting to

disinformation tactics, propaganda tactics? i disinformation tactics, propaganda tactics? i think the best antidote _ propaganda tactics? i think the best antidote to _ propaganda tactics? i think the best antidote to these - best antidote to these operations is sunlight. frankly, you know, exposing these sorts of deceptive information practices we have seen coming from foreign governments, that we have seen folks who are attempting to spread disinformation for a profit orfor power spread disinformation for a profit or for power in the past, that has been shown to be really effective. there was a recent study that came out just this week that showed that if you tell people to watch out for tactics like emotional manipulation ahead of giving them new star consume they are less likely to all four disinformation tactics, when you do that little bit of inoculation and pre— bonking —— pre— ranking. no love to see the us government do and frankly other countries have done, is to do that sort of information and civic literacy building, takes a while, it's not going to be instantaneous in its effect in terms of having a seachange on how the

electorate consumes information, but it is a really important investment for democracy and wonder i ate frankly think we should have started making 2016 or earlier. which then brings me to my final question, do you think the biden administration is doing enough to prepare and to combat this?— combat this? welcome i think the biden _ combat this? welcome i think the biden administration i combat this? welcome i think the biden administration has. the biden administration has been put between a rock and a hard place. have done a very good job of labelling any work to counter disinformation as censorship, it is not, particularly when these efforts are countering what are threats to our homeland security, to our national security, public health and public safety. and, unfortunately, this is the kind of discourse that we are in right now where all of the efforts are being labelled as something totalitarian when there isn't anything more democratic than ensuring that voters have truthful information on which to make their decisions at the ballot box. so, no, don't think the biden administration is bad,

it's not entirely their fault, i would how is they would have fought back a little bit more, you know, vociferously over the past couple of years, but we are where we are and i think we do have a strong civil society, we do have strong media institutions that are going to be hopefully shedding light on these deceptive information practices. i know it's something i'm going to be dedicating my time to over the next couple of days months and i think people need to remember that they also have power. you don't have to share everything that comes through your feed. if you feel yourself getting emotional, if you feel, you know, yourself being manipulated, those good size that may be time to step away from the share button, to step away from your phone, walk away from the computer, get some fresh air and from the computer, get some fresh airand do from the computer, get some fresh air and do some due diligence when you come back before you think about sharing. stay with us here on bbc news. thanks for your company, we will have more few the top of the hour. joan mir then if you can. goodbye for now.

-- join ——join me —— join me then. hello there. there'll be winners and losers when it comes to the weather forecast on thursday. for the far north and west, we will continue to see a rash of showers. it could be quite windy with it, as well. sunny spells elsewhere. the winds really quite a feature right across the country, but the strongest of the winds closest to this area of low pressure, driving in a rash of showers, maybe longer spells of rain at times. but elsewhere, particularly where we had quite a lot of cloud and it was drizzly from time to time on wednesday, will be a better story. more in the way of sunshine coming through. so, by the afternoon, expect this story. we will see these showers, and, as i say, some of them heavy, the brighter yellows and greens denoting that. and with the strength of the wind as well, well, those temperatures really struggling, 11—15 degrees. a few showers into northern ireland, not quite as many, and a few showers across northern england. but generally across england and wales, there'll be more in the way of sunshine, particularly across southeast england. temperatures peaking at 21 degrees, so that means forwimbledon, it will be a better day. we'll have some sunny spells coming through. by friday, though, once again a change of fortunes,

rain could have a part to play for the outer courts as we go through the day. and the reason being this frontal system that's going to slide in through the latter stages of thursday into friday, bringing more in the way of cloud and showery rain across south—west england during the early hours of friday morning, pushing towards sw19 for the early morning rush hour. but, generally speaking, those temperatures will hold up into double digits to start the day on friday. as we move into friday, then, there will be a good deal of dry, sunny weather really from the m4 corridor south. that's where we'll see the rain. a little more cloud, but generally across england and wales, a good slice of sunshine. a few isolated showers into northwest scotland, but generally those temperatures — not much change — ranging from 14—21 degrees if we're lucky. into the weekend, the unsettled theme is set to continue. very changeable, the weather story, at the moment. a ridge of high pressure to start saturday, but there'll be more wet weather moving in on sunday. so, for england and wales, perhaps saturday the best day, but elsewhere, we'll see showers of longer spells

of rain set to continue and those temperatures disappointing forjuly.

voice-over: this is bbc news.

we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. music: vvip by seungri ladies and gentlemen... ..introducing. .. in south korea, k—pop stars have fame, fortune and millions of female fans. singing in korean music echoes but some led a double life. a hidden world where videos of women being drugged, raped and humiliated were shared.