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woman: a successful business owner sells his company and restores his father's historic jazz club with his son. a raymond james financial advisor get to know you, your passions, and the way you bring people together. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> this is bbc world news america. after tearing through other parts of the caribbean, hurricane beryl now threatens jamaica. the white house says joe biden is pressing ahead in the presidential race as some democrats question his fitness for office. clashes escalate across israel's

border with lebanon as an israeli airstrike kills a senior hezbollah commander. hello and welcome to world news america. hurricane beryl is bearing down on jamaica with the country's prime minister urging residents to follow evacuation orders. the store is a -- the storm is now a major category four with winds of nearly 240 kilometers per hour, tearing a path of destruction through the southeast caribbean. these are the latest pictures from kingston where you can see heavy wind and rain lashing the trees. jamaica's information minister told the bbc the government has put everything in place to deal with the hurricane. in the capital, electricity has been shut down in large parts of the city and main roads are

blocked off. let's go to jamaica now and speak to our correspondent. thanks for joining us. we can see pretty brutal conditions behind you. what is it like at the moment? >> to be fair, i've been stuck in this spot for a lot of the time. i took the dog for a walk a moment ago and literally there are trees all over the place. one of the things you should always do when you have dogs is move things out of the way and there is a path -- there is a tree downed in the path and cars are managing to miss it. we are seeing roofs being ripped off of buildings. trees heading electricity wires and poles. it hasn't actually been shut down on purpose. it has just been what happened off the back of all of the

infrastructure being impacted by the force of the wind. >> how well have jamaicans been there were a few warnings. >> we had seen what happened the eastern caribbean. all of these places, so we were watching what was happening, but you have to bear in mind that people have busy lives and to find a time when you artwork to be able to get shopping and make sure you have enough -- when you are at work to be able to get shopping and make sure you have enough. all of those things take time. what everyone is doing at the same time, you can imagine that is a recipe for gridlock and large lines at the supermarket and that is what happened. >> how much longer do you expect the hurricane to be over the island? >> it should be clear of us in

around four hours time. that is what has beesaid. four hours to traverse its way across the southern coastline of jamaica. i think it'll be clear by around 10:00. i'm not a trained meteorologist but that is what i'm getting from the government information sector. they are telling us that is what we should expect. we have a curfew still in place until later this evening. >> nick davis in jamaica, thank you for bringing us up-to-date. take care of yourself. the white house has strongly denied media reports that president biden is considering withdrawing from the 2024 election. it follows a new york times story claiming mr. biden told a key ally he is aware that he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he can't convince the public in the coming days that he is still up to the job. on wednesday, the white house press secretary once again fended off many questions about joe biden's fitness for office

following his poor debate performance. >> the president is clear eyed and he is staying in the race. i don't have anything beyond that. he is staying in the race. that is what the president has promised too. that is what he wants to continue to work on, the successes he has had, his unprecedented record. that is what the president is focused on. he looks forward to doing that. >> pressure within his own party continues to grow, as a seor house democrat told our news partner, a coalition of 25 house democrats plan to write a letter in the coming days formally calling on the president to withdraw his candidacy. president biden is meeting democrat governors on friday to reassure them about his staying power and his attendant -- his intentions to stay in the race. if he does withdraw, vice president harris is currently pulling as the favorite to replace him. with us now to discuss all of

this is our cbs political news reporter, who has been following the biden campaign. pressure really still building on joe biden. the white house says he is going nowhere but the concerns are going nowhere either. how does he get a handle on this? >> let's look at what he is doing today. this is part of the effort from the white house and the campaign. they had two important calls this afternoon. the first, an all staff white house call and an all stock -- and all staff campaign staff recall where you saw the president and vice president reiterate they are staying in the race, they are in it to win and beat former president trump. this comes before the governors call as you mentioned. part of the reason this call is getting so much attention is because these governors had their own call this week where they were concerned about the level of communication they were having with president biden. some of them have not talked to him it -- not talked to him since the debate. there are concerns of his mental

fitness, his cognitive health and some worries they are hearing in their own state. >> what kind of timeframe does joe biden and the campaign team have to try and put an end to this, for them to move on? >> we have four months until the election and they reiterate they are staying in to the end of the election but strategists and people i've been talking to say this next week is going to be critical. they point to his speech in madison, he has a rally there, another speech at a conference in philadelphia, as well as a press conference next week. he has an important interview sit down, unscripted with abc on friday. they are going to be watching at to see how he performs, and just generally, the reassurance he can give democrat lawmakers and voters that he is up to the job. >> the longer these concerns of

circulate and this pressure builds, that means there is no focus from the biden perspective on policies or campaign and it's going to distract from everything else he is trying to do. if the democrat party were to decide or he was to decide he needs to be replaced, what is the timeframe for doing that? >> the campaign is trying to refocus some of that. they put out an ad related to the supreme court ruling from earlier this week. the date to watch is august 7. that is the deadline that the dnc wants to get a roll call done to officially nominate, president biden as their democrat nominee. that is because of some things i won't get into the weeds of, but a bunch of activity in ohio that caused all of that. you have that august 7 date and the convention itself. that is when the need to have a

plan. >> and who could potentially those other candidates be? obviously the vice president has to be the forefront but perhaps some of those democrat governors might fancy their own chances. >> they are building name recognition. governor whitmer, governor news who is campaigning for president biden. tomorrow he is in michigan and later in pennsylvania. just from democrats i have talked to, it is really vice president harris they have to -- that if it gets there, she would be the one to take the ticket. >> plenty to watch for at the moment. thank you for joining us. the bbc investigation has revealed that a network of russian websites posing as u.s.

newspapers is pumping out fake stories to influence the election. one of the false claims is about the fit lady of ukraine, allegedly using military aid money to buy a sports car for $4.8 million. that fall story went viral on twitter, seen by millions of users before it was debunked by experts and the carmaker itself. the operation use artificial intelligence to generate thousands of articles. bbc found a former u.s. marine and police officer was running the disinformation campaign. he denied all involvement despite his known ties to russian state media. i spoke to the bbc reporter leading this investigation. >> there have been many fears that outside actors would try to use disinformation campaigns in this year's president election. what have you found out that has been happening currently? >> we have seen the opening

shots of that. we've been investigating a network of over 1000 sites. they have local sounding names like houston post or the chronicle. what this network does is it has managed to pump out fake stories, a few of which go viral. they are repeated by online officials and even members of congress. most of the time, the stories have been about ukraine, but more recently we have seen this network turned its attention to american politics and the november election. >> how does the operation actually work? are there humans behind it? is it ai? >> there are humans behind it, but they are directing a large body of ai generated content. what happens is, an artificial

intelligence engine is rewriting tens of thousands of stories from legitimate ne sites. it gives the sites a lot of content and a veneer of respectability. in that forest of ai content, there are outright fakes sprinkled in. that is the meat of the operation. that is the ones meant to go viral or trick people. for instance, we have looked into the story that just came out this week about the sports car with american aida money meant to go to the ukrainian war effort. it is completely fictional, but it managed to go viral. we estimate at least 12 million people saw it on social networks. >> you mentioned there are humans behind this. do we know who they are? >> one of the key players in this operation is actually an american, a former florida cop. he now lives in moscow after having fled the united states in

2016. he has become a sort of minor celebrity in russia. i've been in contact with them for quite a while, texting back and forth for six months. he takes an interesting tact because he denies being involved in the network even though we have ample evidence to suggest he is linked to it. he says he does not take money from the russian state. on the other hand, he has been almost tacitly admitting he has been spreading the stories. i asked him about the network and the fake stories and he told me this, for me it is a game and a little payback. >> what kind of reach ithis game as he puts it, what is it having? >> the fake stories, some of them flop and some of them no viral. it has reached the corridors of power. we have heard members of congress, j.d. vance from ohio, marjorie taylor greene, repeating some of the narratives spread by this network.

while the hit rate is relatively low, maybe only one in every few dozen stories sort of takes off, they are pumping out so much material that all they need is one or two to really sort of take off and they have outsized influence. >> what is the ultimate goal here? is it mischievous or something more sinister? >> it is definitely a political end. it is not necessarily the one people think of when they think of russian disinformation. this isn't meant to convince swing voters to vote for one side or the other, or to put them off. instead, experts have described it as pulling at the cracks that exist in american society, whipping up partisans. this operation is mostly focused toward the maga, donald trump

true believers. we have seen other operations focus on other partisan elements from different persuasions. the general point is to take this material and really emphasize the divisions in american society. that is the overall aim of these disinformation operations being run from moscow. >> in the occupied west bank, israel approved plans for what is being described as the biggest potential expansion of settlements in the territory and more than three decades. those settlements are illegal under international law. in lebanon, hezbollah says an israeli airstrike killed one of their senior commanders. they fire rockets from southern lebanon into northern israel. he was one of the most senior has the look in the conflict. has below by firing 100 rockets

at two israeli military targets across the border. our middle eastern correspondent is following develop its from jerusalem. >> israel has killed another senior hezbollah commander in southern lebanon. israel says he was responsible for the unit that has been firing rockets into northern israel. 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. in carrying out an attack like this, israel is putting its sense of security ahead of anything else. it said that the commander was the head of the hezbollah unit that was firing rockets in to israel.

essentially hezbollah began to fire rockets into northern israel after the war erupted between israel and hamas. has blessed it was doing it to show its support for hamas and that it would end this confrontation when the war in gaza ended. at the moment theris no sign of that happening. we saw an escalation just a few weeks ago when israel also killed a senior hezbollah commander. that led to hezbollah firing its largest barrage of drones and rockets into northern israel. has bill has already fired around 100 rockets into northern israel after this attack but it is said that it is just its fit response. >> palestinians are fleeing gaza's second largest city in droves after israel issued evacuation orders on monday. the united nations says a quarter of a million peoplwere warned to move from the east of the city and told to seek shelter in a coastal area where there are few basic services. hundreds of patients fled the european hostal, according to

the world health organizatn. most of them were transferred to a hospital in the west of the city. we spoke to one doctor at the hospital who explained the pressure on services. >> the current situation in gaza is very complicated and very hard. -- they will stop the oxygen bombs. this means that our patients are going to suffocate inside our departments. [inaudible] it is expected that at least 19 kids will die suffocating. 10 or 12 patients in icu. >> july 4 is election day in the u.k. where voters will head to the polls in a snap general

election that could see the conservative party lose majority rule after 14 years in power. polls suggest the labour party will win in a landslide. here is how the election will work. it involves voters in 650 constituencies across all four u.k. nations, england, wales, scotland and ireland. the candidate with the most votes in each constituency is elected as a member of parliament. candidates are running as members of political parties. the party that secures a majority, more than 326 seats then forms the government. otherwise the parties will have to form a governing coalition. the outcome should be decided by friday morning with the new prime minister expected to take office almost immediately after meeting the king. our political editor reportsn the final day of campaigning. >> six weeks ago, it was a bit damp.

this is it, a general election is on. >> if you want change, you have to vote for it. >> following the prime minister on the campaign trail. >> are you changing many minds? >> you can see we are having a conversation here. >> would you describe yourself as a socialist? >> yes i would. >> fireworks, smiles, promises, questions and one more day of persuasion. rishi sunak was at a primary school today. how is he feeling after this? >> where the polls are at the moment means that tomorrow is likely to see the largest labor landslide majority, the largest majority this country has ever seen. what matters now is what kind of opposition do we have. >> how would his boss mark his homework? >> he was pointing out the dangers of a labour government

with an unchecked majority, a blank check to do what they want and that means people's taxes are going to go up. >> the labor leader has been in glascow this afternoon. he was dismissive of the conservative near concession of the feet -- of defeat. >> it is the same, voter suppression, trying to get people to stay home. if you want change, vote for it. we want people to be part of the change. i know there are multiple constituencies across the country. i don't take anything for granted. >> the scottish national party leader has been toasting a marshmallow next to a big plastic frog in glascow today and he had a fluorescent jacket moment. >> the election is truly well and over and done with. who has scotland's interest in the next parliament? >> my bus to work didn't get

this welcome this morning. -- did this afternoon. >> tomorrow we have the chance to win the change our country desperately needs. >> pink car out. nigel faraj from reform u.k. has been to a boxing club and was asked how he thought his party would do. >> it is very tough to call. we can't measure the youth vote. these people online, millions of them. are they actually going to vote? i don't know. >> the green party is hoping it is heading towards gains. >> the level of support has been phenomenal. i've been stopped in the street repeatedly by people asking for a selfie or a hug. >> it is my pleasure to be here. >> -- would like to see an

independent wales. >> if it wasn't for --, there would not have been a mention of whales during this campaign at all. people can see that. >> here is a mention of northern ireland too where a panoply of parties contests seats in races that feel very different from elsewhere in the u.k.. this is it. it is over to you to sketch how this place will look, feel, sound and decide for the next five years to come, and ultimately who will live here. >> tune in tomorrow evening once the polls close. we will have exit polls and we will bring you all of those results as they come in. stay with us on bbc news and our website and app.

let's turn to other important news from around the world. the number of people killed in a crash at a religious gathering in northern india rose 121, making it one of the deadliest such disasters in more than a decade. the incident happened as a crowd of thousands were trying to leave a hindu prayer meeting in the northern district. most of those killed were women and children. the russian president met his chinese counterpart at a summit in kazakhstan. it is the second meeting between the leaders in less than two months. the presidents are in kazakhstan for the annual gathering of the shanghai cooperation. fore we go, schoolchildren in the u.k. were treated to a rare sight on their way back from a field trip. teachers from the st. lawrence primary school spotted a

humpback whale on the way back. they captured the siting on video as they traveled on monday. students said seeing the whale was the absolute highlight of the trip. marine experts told the bbc they hope this sighting was a sign of healthy waters. what a day for them. remember, you can find out all about the day's news on our website. thanks for watching world news america. take care. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it,

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>> good evening i'm amna nawaz. gev bennett is away. hurricane beryl is continuing its path of destruction. the fallout of president biden's debate as calls for him to