this is bbc news. the headlines at 1pm: hurricane irma strengthens as it closes in on florida — where it is expected to hit the mainland in a matter of hours. over six million people have been ordered to leave their homes. property is replaceable but lives are not, and safety has to come first. don't worry about it, just get out of its way. this is a massive song that will span the entire florida peninsula. in miami, we will see an increase in tornadoes, hurricane force winds, thatis tornadoes, hurricane force winds, that is a real threat. overnight cuba has been battered — there's been significant damage as winds of up to 150 miles per hour hit the country's north coast. at least 25 people have died across the caribbean, including five on the british virgin islands, where a major relief effort is getting under way. in mexico at least 90 people are now known to have been killed in thursday's earthquake.

also in the next hour: rohingya muslim rebels in myanmar declare a one—month unilateral ceasefire. they say their aim is to ease the humanitarian crisis — but there's desperate need for food and water for around 300,000 rohingya refugees. the stars of strictly pay an emotional tribute to the show‘s former host sir bruce forsyth who died in august at the age of 89. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. after battering its way

through the caribbean, hurricane irma — currently a category 4 storm — has slammed into the lower florida keys. the storm made landfall in cuba late on friday, causing widespread damage and leaving whole communities homeless. the ire of the storm has now reached the low—lying florida keys, where water levels are flooding roads are more than 200,000 people have lost power. over 6 million people — almost a third of the state's population — had been urged to evacuate, but the state governor told residents yesterday, it's now too late for anyone remaining to leave. the west coast was supposed to be the safer part of florida as the east prepared to bear the brunt of irma. but now cities like tampa and naples are in the path of a category four hurricane. tampa hasn't seen anything like this since 1921 and is ill—prepared for such a storm. at fort myers, thousands of people crowded into a sports stadium

in a last—minute dash to find somewhere safe. i think we're going to be staying here for two nights, maybe three. they really don't know where the storm is going to go exactly, so we have no way of knowing. we are all waiting for it to start and end. irma could shift course again. hurricanes are notorious for sudden wobbles. but the giant system is already too close to make much difference. this is a deadly, major storm and our state has never seen anything like it. millions of floridians will see major hurricane impacts with deadly, deadly, deadly storm surge. meanwhile, the low—lying keys were being menaced by a life—threatening storm surge of up to 15 feet as it moved relentlessly towards the mainland. tornado watchers were also in place. in miami there was a collective sigh of relief. the city looks likely

to escape the deadly cone. but hurricane force winds are still expected through sunday. an estimated 75,000 people are now thought to be taking refuge in shelters. 0ver six million have been asked to leave their homes in the biggest evacuation in the history of florida. the entire state is expected to suffer. the only question now is how much. jane 0'brien, bbc news, miami. president trump has echoed the calls for residents to seek shelter. this is a storm of enormous destructive power, and we ask everyone in the storm's path to heed all instructions, get out of its way. government officials, i know you're working so hard, you'll never work like this, and i appreciate also your bravery. property is replaceable but lives are not. safety has to come first. don't worry about it, just get out of its way.

0n the line now is a resident of florida keys west. it is currently being battered by hurricane. thank you for being with us. what is your situation at the moment? right now i'm in downtown key west. this is the highest point in key west. i'm not feeling as much as where i live and the next island up, i live in a trailer, so that's probably gone. right now, on my street, the house next door, the whole tree has fallen on the house. across the street,

another tree has fallen on the power lines. that's in the middle of the street. it's blowing like crazy and it seems to get worse and worse. fortu nately, it seems to get worse and worse. fortunately, this house was built in the 80 hundredths by shipbuilders and so it's well made. that's why i'm any. —— was built in 1800'. some places have been hit really bad. you ushered saying that you live in a trailer. you fear for what might happen to your trailer? that is my home. i've worked on it a lot. i've on as much preparation as possible but with the way the winds are right now and the landscape, i'm afraid trees will be falling on my trailer. the whole street where i live, it's not as brought up as old key west, so it's predominantly trailers. i can

assure, though i don't want to, and positive it is pretty much gone. there was an evacuation order. did you think about leaving altogether? i evacuated from my trailer because it is windy. this house is on the highest point of key west. it was built in the 18 —— highest point of key west. it was built in the 18 -- 1800. highest point of key west. it was built in the 18 --1800. he didn't think about leaving key west altogether, getting out of key west? a couple of reasons, i didn't want to go all the way and then the hurricane follows me to miami. we we re hurricane follows me to miami. we were having gas shortages, 45 people

lined behind each gas station. i didn't know if i would make it all the way up there. to find a place and then have no gas and not be able to get back in again took secure the property. you are a sort of in a dilemma whether to leave everything and worry yourself to death or stay here and, like i said, this home is pretty solid. i have my corporate outside europe in the high ground —— my car parked outside here in the high—growth. you are in panic mode, you don't know the decisions to make. i've chosen to stay put. it's got metal shutters around the house and is pretty secure. somebody help me here who was putting all the shutters up. it's blowing but i feel secure in this house. how long for i'm not quite sure. have you been

through hurricanes before? actually, i've been in key west since 1980, 30 odd years. i've been through a view but nothing like this before. something we would always appear for —— prepare for and we wouldn't get so —— prepare for and we wouldn't get so much like this but this is, i must admit, the first one that has been quite frightening. quite frightening. making me doubt the place where i live now. which is my trailer. 0k, thank you so much for taking the time to doctors. we hope you stay safe and that your trailer is ok. thank you very much. take care. bbc weather presenter louise lear has the latest on the

storm's trajectory. remember the ravaged the laws cuban coast for over 2a, this has weakened the hurricane. with already seen that its strength and back to category four. it's a devastating hurricane, a huge hurricane. it having imposed on florida keys and starting to make impact it here. there is still a little bit of uncertainty just where the there is still a little bit of uncertaintyjust where the eye will ci’oss uncertaintyjust where the eye will cross that make landfall. it looks likely to run parallel to the west coast of florida. extensive, heavy rain. this huge storm surge, once the hurricane moves through, we see the hurricane moves through, we see the winds driving in the water across the low—lying coastal areas. it continues to push its way steadily northwards within a couple of days it will weaken considerably.

still a lot of heavy rain associated with it but just still a lot of heavy rain associated with it butjust taking a look at jose,in with it butjust taking a look at jose, in the rest of our frantic, at the moment we are expecting it to wea ken the moment we are expecting it to wea ke n over the moment we are expecting it to weaken over the next couple of days. it looks likely to for four or five days. it doesn't look likely it will decay sometime soon and is the potential that that faculty intensify and start to drag in a westerly direction. meanwhile cuba is counting the cost after the storm battered its north coast. the government says it caused significant damage and cut off power to large areas. more than a million cubans were evacuated and there are reports of villages being engulfed by storm surges, with whole communities left homeless. it's been an extraordinary experience being in cuba during hurricane irma. now it is reaching,

has reached havana. this is the bbc have an appeal row and i'm speaking from inside it because we simply can go outside and. we still miraculously have electricity but much of the rest of the building doesn't have any. the hide me, the window is flexing with the winds that are profiting the city. it's raining hard out there. that is nothing in comparison to what cubans further east on the island have already experienced. these are the last vestiges of hurricane irma as she moves out of cuban territory and into clear water between cuba and the united states. we are still feeling the effects of the sheer magnitude of this storm. i would east, along the northern coastal zone, whole fridges were hit very

ha rd by zone, whole fridges were hit very hard by the storm. —— whole villages. some were largely submerged under water and others have had this ripped off. a look of the roughly 1 million have had this ripped off. a look of the roughly1 million people who we re the roughly1 million people who were evacuated from the area may have no homes to go to. for now, from here on bbc havana bureau, it feels like the time to hunger down, batten down the hatches and wait out the remnants of this massive storm. a number of british journalists are being caught up in the hurricane in cuba. ina being caught up in the hurricane in cuba. in a moment, we will talk to thomas cook. they have many terrorists in cuba. —— they have many tourists in cuba. we heard earlierfrom sam lever, who's on his honeymoon cuba in a hotel in the middle of the storm. he says he feels the tour company

are to blame. we have suffered an evacuation here, which in itself was a real hardship for all involved. this was an eight—hour journey to get here, arriving at midnight on a coach, so to be moved from one location to this location, which pretty much got hit full force last night by the storm, spent all night in an un—air—conditioned room, it was a real, real hardship. and who do you blame for that? was that the cuban authorities or who do you blame for moving you to what you think is wrong place? imean... i'll be honest with you, we all blame our tour company, thomas cook, and the reason is we shared a hotel with canadians, they spent the tuesday to thursday flying every single one of their citizens out. we were left pretty much not knowing what was happening until thursday, when we were ushered on those coaches and driven eight hours to be put smack in a place in the eye

of the storm anyway. with me is kathryn darbandi from thomas cook. thank you for being with us. you may have heard that criticism, it come from several of your customers in cuba. they say they were driven for something like eight hours to a place which wasn't particularly safer. it was still in the eye of the hurricane. what you say to that? it is difficult scenario, it's unpredictable, a dynamic scenario. we've got 15,000 customers across the dominican republic, cuba and florida. we took the decision very early on that our priority would be on making sure everybody is safe. the cu ban on making sure everybody is safe. the cuban government gave us dowrich

and evacuate —— gave us direction to evacuate. that was a huge operation, 2000 customers. we had to get accommodation for everybody in that place. they are all in hotels that are built to withstand hurricane. another of your customers has been on twitter saying that the canadians are being evacuated but british guests are being studied. in fact, we should they have been flown out. why is it that some countries evacuate their people out entirely? 0ur operation is much bigger. 5000 customers in cuba alone. we are going across the atlantic and it's not so easy for others to land planes and get back. there are legal requirements and is of rest breaks.

we took the decision to prioritise and focus on customers being safe and focus on customers being safe and we've had special assistance teams and we've had special assistance tea ms flown and we've had special assistance teams flown into cuba to give additional support on the ground. we've really just focused additional support on the ground. we've reallyjust focused on making sure everybody is safe. but as someone sure everybody is safe. but as someone saying, they were still in the hurricane. was water, and interest so —— an inch or so, in their room. we are concerned about our customers and staff. understandably, their friends and family are incredibly concerned. the procedures in resort are tried and tested, the government and hoteliers are used to dealing with hurricanes. we are urging our customers... you say that the cuban authorities tell you where to evacuate people, it's not your choice with a goal. we take direction from them, that's right. we focus attention on making sure

our customers are as safe as possible and that communication is as good as it can be. all your customers and florida, what is happening with them? similar situation, we've moved customers into the hotels that are built to withstand hurricanes. we are helping them to be prepared, stay safe and keeping our communication as good as it can be in the situation that facing. thank you for coming in and discussing that was us. thank you very much. 0ur our own weather presenter is new tampa and florida, expecting to feel the full force in the next few hours. give us an idea of what it's like. the storm's centre is heading

towards florida, crossing the florida keys at the moment. we are expecting to feel the full force of the storm around tampa in about 12 hours' time, maybe longer, so it's still quite far away to the south. we are travelling to our hotel, we are told by the officials that it is hurricane proof. the reason we are in this area is the having a look at how people are preparing for the storm, we spent a night in another hotel which was halfway between 0rlando hotel which was halfway between orlando and tampa. even england, people are taking this job very seriously. —— even inland, people. most of the petrol and gas stations are closed. very few people on the road between the hotel we spent the night in and tampa itself. we have been getting a lot of tweets about

how we have been managing to do this podcast whilst driving. we have the producer driving the car. the cameraman just year and another crew just behind others who are doing something for newsnight. just give us an something for newsnight. just give us an idea of the force of hurricane irma, it seems to be strengthening rather than weakening as it approaches florida. that's right, the reason why hurricane irma is strengthening now it's because the eye of the storm is out to sea, it's across the straits of florida, crossing the florida keys, as soon as the eye goes over the open water and the water in that part of the oceanis and the water in that part of the ocean is very and the water in that part of the ocean is very warm, and the water in that part of the ocean is very warm, the warm water is the fuel for the hurricane and when it's open water there isn't much resistance and it can spin up and become powerful. it is expected

to maintain its category for intensity as it approaches the west coast of florida. by the time it reaches naples, you will be a big storm surge, possibly up to around ten feet high. —— deal will be. the entire cost, all the way up to the tampa bay. tampa is expected to be hit around 12 i was, maybe a little bit more, a top and category three hurricane, which is still very severe. “— hurricane, which is still very severe. —— 12 hours. hence why we are making sure we are in a safe place. we are nearly at our hotel now ready to stay put. glad to hear it, stay safe. thank you very much indeed. all the very latest on hurricane armour is on our website. two of the five men arrested

as part of an investigation into the far—right group national action have been released without charge. on tuesday, the five, which included four serving soldiers, were detained in a joint operation involving the police and the army. —— on thursday. national action was banned after a white supremacist murdered the labour mp, jo cox. there's been a sharp increase in the number of people known to have been killed by thursday's major earthquake in mexico. the number now stands at about ninety, more than seventy of them in one state. aaron safir reports. clearing the rubble injuchitan in southern mexico, the town worst hit by thursday's earthquake. rescuers have told the bbc they don't believe there is anyone left under the 7000 buildings that collapsed here. and while the machines, men and sniffer dogs continue their work, others continue to bury their dead. at least 36 people are reported to have been killed here.

among them, this man's son. translation: he didn't have time to get out and the building completely collapsed. it was very old, over 200 years old, and unfortunately out of the seven people who were inside, only four were able to be rescued. the other three unfortunately died. tabasco, chiapas and oaxaca states are among mexico's poorest and least developed. the earthquake that hit them was the most powerful anywhere in the world since 2015. 8.1 in magnitude. tremors were felt in mexico city, some 500 miles away. the earthquake was deep so the shaking felt on the surface was less strong than it would have been for a shallower one. that's little comfort for these people picking up the pieces in juchitan. one in three houses are affected and thousands of families have lost their homes. food and water are scarce and parts of the city don't have electricity. the hundreds of after—shocks

felt since thursday have left people fearful. translation: a lot of people are sleeping on the streets because they fear another quake, because they fear the after—shocks that have been happening continuously, and it's a very ugly fear that we're experiencing. the authorities say tens of thousands of ration packs, blankets and cleaning kits are arriving to help the recovery efforts, but for the homeless and bereaved of southern mexico, it is help that can't come soon enough and will only be the first step in rebuilding their lives. aaron safir, bbc news. rohingya muslim rebels in myanmar have declared a unilateral one—month ceasefire, saying they want to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country. rebel attacks on security forces triggered a two—week military campaign, during which nearly 300,000 rohingyas fled to neighbouring bangladesh. soldiers have been accused of carrying out killings and burning villages. 111,000 people attended

the re—opening of the manchester arena last night — less than four months after 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack at the venue. noel gallagher, rick astley and peter kay were among the performers at the we are manchester show. the fifteenth series of strictly come dancing began last night, as the celebrity contestants were matched with their professional partners. a newjudge made her debut. tributes were paid to the show‘s former host sir bruce forsyth who died in august at the age of 89. presenters tess daly and claudia winkleman said everyone missed him dearly. let's check on the latest weather prospects. hello there. before taking a look at the uk weather, here is an update on hurricane irma. once again, it has strengthened

to a category four storm and it is still expected to make landfall across the florida keys during midday our time. we are looking at devastating gusts of wind, huge destruction, a lot of heavy rainfall and a huge storm surge behind the main impact of the storm, which is expected to drag up the west coast of florida. for us, an area of low pressure is the story today. circulating around that low, plenty of isobars, strong and gusty north—west winds, driving in plenty of frequent showers for the rest of the afternoon. some of those for scotland and northern ireland merging together for longer spells of rain. some of them heavy with rumbles of thunder. it's going to feel disappointing if you're caught in those showers. 12—15 degrees at the best. a scattering of showers across the north of england. weak weather front producing light and showery rain through the spine of the country. it should stay dry during daylight hours into east anglia and the south—east, 17—18 degrees. afternoon improvement potentially across wales and the south—west.

that weather front will move through by the end of the day on sunday. for a time we could see gales through the bristol channel in the early hours of monday morning. plenty of showers waiting in the winds for the north and west. —— in the wings. that will be the story for the start of our new working week. it's a windy start to the week. it's a showery one. it's not going to be too cold — 9—13 degrees first thing. if you are up and off early on monday morning, worth bearing in mind that those winds will be a feature. really gusty on exposed coasts. then going to drive those showers further inland. if you dodge the showers, keeping sunshine, lucky you. some of the showers will be frequent. heavy with some hail and thunder. top temperatures disappointing even for this time of year — 13—19 degrees at the very best. into tuesday, looks likely that we could see a bit of a brief respite. not for long but something a little quieter, fewer showers and some sunny spells coming through. but there's another spell of very

wet and windy weather overnight tuesday into wednesday. it rattles through at quite a pace. things still stay pretty unsettled. good afternoon. hurricane irma has reached the us state of florida, bringing winds of 130mph. the category 4 storm which has already caused devastation across parts of the caribbean and led to the death of at least 25 people — has flooded roads and left 250,000 people in florida keys without power. the national weather service are warning that people should take cover due to the "extremely dangerous and life—threatening situation". sarah campbell reports. hurricane irma is bearing down on the sunshine state, these scenes only an indication of what is to come. power outages are widespread and roads are flooded. for those who haven't been able to leave, time has run out. we are talking about wind gusts over

100mph, perhaps up to 120 or 130mph. these kinds of winds can do tremendous damage especially to wood framed homes, trees, rooves, power lines. the other deadly risk we have is storm surge flooding. most people who die in hurricanes do so from drowning in the storm surge. the people of cuba are already starting to count the cost of hurricane irma which battered the island for hours before finally moving north. now, a popular holiday destination, there are thousands of british tourists currently stranded there with the airport closed to all flights. operators, including thomas cook, have been criticised for not doing enough to help. it's a very unpredictable scenario, some of the airports are still closed so we are taking each day as it comes. the next 2a hours for us are about looking after the welfare of our customers in cuba and making sure

that the customers in florida are well plan and prepared for what the next 2a hours might bring. well plan and prepared for what the next 24 hours might bring. the hurricane weakened slightly as it passed over cuba but has strengthened once again on its approach to florida. british airways said today it's in contact with its holiday—makers and is sending a plane to the region which will be on stand—by to pick up passengers as soon as stand—by to pick up passengers as soon as it's safe to do so. that may not be for some time. thousands of florida residents are packed into mass shelters. in all, six million people were advised to leave, making this one of the biggest mass evacuations in us history. and this is why. these pictures show what's left of some of the caribbean islands already hit by the hurricane. its destructive power is all too clear. jane o'brien is in miami for us. jane, what is the picture there? pretty miserable, ben. we are

skirting the eye of the storm but even here in miami we are getting hurricane force winds up to 70mph and excessive gusts. as you can see, we are also getting these bands of torrential rain which are bringing flood warnings on top of the expected storm surge which is what everybody is really worried about here. we have also been under tornado warnings most of the morning and across the state. nobody can expect to escape this storm. the hurricane has shifted slightly west overnight, tampa which was one of the most vulnerable cities on florida's gulf coast is expected to avoid a direct hit at the moment. even so, as irma moves into the gulf, it could still push a catastrophic wall of water inland, exacerbating this deadly storm surge that we are all talking about. hundreds of thousands of people are without power at the moment and

conditions are only expected to get worse. of course, it's the florida keys which are now bearing the brunt of this, sustained winds of up to 135mph, as this storm pushes relentlessly north and it's now threatening the other southern states. thank you very much. officials in mexico say at least 90 people are now known to have died in thursday's earthquake, the strongest the country has seen in a century. more than 70 people have been killed in the south west state of wahaca. hundreds of families have reportedly been camping in the streets, afraid of the dangers of aftershocks. aaron safir reports. clearing the rubble in southern mexico, the town worst hit by thursday's earthquake. rescuers have told the bbc they don't think there's anyone left under the 7,000

buildings that have collapsed here. the machines men and sniffer doings continue their work, but others continue their work, but others continue to bury their dead. at least 36 people are reported to have been killed here, among them this man's son. he didn't have time to get out and the building completely collapsed. it was very old, over 200 yea rs collapsed. it was very old, over 200 years old. out of the seven people inside, only four were able to be rescued. the other three u nfortu nately rescued. the other three unfortunately died. that bass co and oaxaca states are least developed. the earthquake that hit them is the most powerful since 2015, in magnitude. the earthquake was deep so the shaking fell to the surface was less strong than it would have been for a more shallow one —— in magnitude. that is little comfort for those

picking up the pieces. one in three houses are affected and thousands of families have lost their homes. food and water are scarce and parts of the city don't have electricity. the aftershocks have left people fearful. a lot of people are sleeping on the streets because they fear another quake because they fear the aftershocks that have been happening continuously and it's a very ugly fear that we are experiencing. the authorities say tens of thousands of ration packs, blankets and cleaning kits are arriving to help the recovery effort but the homeless and bereaved of southern mexico feel it's help that can't come soon enough but it's only going to be the first step in helping them rebuild their lives. tony blair is calling for tougher immigration rules as a way to cut numbers without the need for brexit. he's proposing that eu nationals should have a job if they want to live in the uk — and that those without work should be barred from renting property or receiving benefits.

critics have pointed out that it was his labour government that decided not to impose restrictions on immigration what i'm trying to do is have a comprehensive look at immigration, say there are ways of controlling european immigration that mean we don't have to do brexit, then you can concentrate on non—eu immigration which i think is a bigger concern for most people. a bbc investigation has discovered that the bodies of more than 400 children could be buried in a mass grave close to an orphanage in lanarkshire. the children were residents of the smyllum care home, run by catholic nuns until it closed in 1981. our social affairs correspondent, michael buchanan, reports. this is st mary's roman catholic cemetery in lanark, small and well kept, but in a far corner, a mass grave. an investigation has found

that at least 400 children are believed to be buried here, most dies of natural courses like tb and pneumonia at a nearby care home run by catholic nuns. francis stayed at the home in 1961. his brother eddie and francis were one of the 400 children in the grave —— said francis was one of the 400 in the grave. at least 120, you know. the ca re grave. at least 120, you know. the care home closed in 1981 and had been open for 117 years. in 2004, the nuns that run it acknowledged some children who died here had been buried at st mary's but say the records were too poor to say how many. the death records were the key to revealing what happened. once we found out who had died, we could

start asking where had they all been buried. the more we asked that question, the more we were astonished to be told there were virtually no burial records for the names on that list. the ongoing scottish child abuse inquiry was the most appropriate forum to investigate the care home. sir mo farah has won the great north run for a record fourth year in a row. the 34—year—old beat new zealand's jake robertson in a tight race to win in one hour six seconds. speaking afterwards, he said the race which is just over 13 miles had been tough. it was definitely telling at four miles to go. i was hanging on gritting my teeth. i managed to believe in myself and dig deeper. i was thinking, if i canjust sit believe in myself and dig deeper. i was thinking, if i can just sit on him, hawick sprint. you can see more on all of today's stories on the bbc news channel. the next news on bbc one is at half

past six, bye for now. hello, this is the bbc news channel. we are going to get a full sportsround up now and cross to the sports centre tojoin sportsround up now and cross to the sports centre to join my colleague. the premier league action is already under way today, the first of two matches sees frank de boer fighting for his first win as the crystal palace manager. his side travel to turf moor to face burnley after three defeats to start their season but ten minutes in, it's the worst possible start, a short back pass