will warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and the around the world —— a warm welcome. president trump praises nikki hailey, after her shock resignation as us ambassador to the un. but is she after his job? we're all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you. hopefully you will be back at some point, maybe in a different capacity, you can have your pick. hurricane michael strengthens as it bears down on america's gulf coast. forecasters warn of 3—metre storm surges and winds approaching 200 kilometres an hour. fresh revelations about the second russian suspect linked to the nerve agent attack in england. we travel to his home village and talk to people who know him. and turkish authorities are to search the saudi consulate in istanbul, as the investigation into missing journalist jamal khoshoggi gathers pace. over the past two years, we've had a lot of well trailed high

profile departures from the trump administration, but today there was a shock resignation. un ambassador nikki haley's exit didn't come via a tweet, instead she got the oval office treatment. he said his door was always open to her. she heaped praise on the president, and very publicly, insisted she is not considering a bid for mr trump's job in 2020. the bbc‘s nick bryant starts our coverage. through the revolving door of the trump administration, another shock departure. the un ambassador, nikki haley, by far the most high—profile woman in the cabinet. she has done an incrediblejob. she is a fantastic person. they both stress this was an amicable separation. donald trump lavishing her with what is, for him, high praise. saying she brought more glamour to the role. i think it has become maybe

a more glamorous position than it was two years ago. maybe i wonder why, but it is. she made it a very glamorous position. this was far from glamorous but showed her eye for a television moment. brandishing pictures at the security council of children killed in a chemical weapons attack in syria. many think she is a future president, but today this high—flying republican ruled out challenging donald trump. no, i am not running for 2020. i can promise you that what i will be doing is campaigning for this one. i will look forward to supporting the president in the next election. it has been a dizzying 2a hours of comings and goings in the white house. the new supreme courtjustice brett kavanaugh up paraded last night on prime—time in what felt like the season finale of a reality tv show. the president confirming he is hired with a partisan blast at the democrats. on behalf of our nation, i want to apologise to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering

you have been forced to endure. those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. not a campaign of political and personal destruction, based on lies and deception and with that i must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent. thank you. applause a normally solemn ceremony became a republican victory rally. the party's leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, given a standing ovation. but with vital congressional elections now less than a month away, the politics of the brett kavanaugh nomination battle are by no means clear cut. the republicans claim they are already seen evidence of a brett bounce that will help them retain control of the us senate. the democrats claim that there will be a backlash from female

voters that will help them regain control of the house of representatives. and both are probably right. as if to emphasise the politicisation of this moment, the white house released what looked like a campaign video, but will this triumphalism hurt donald trump? nick bryant, bbc news, washington. earlier i spoke to matt moore, who was south carolina's republican party chairman from 2013 to 2017. he worked closely with nikki haley while she was governor. he is also a personal friend. i think many of us were surprised, today, as were waning of your viewers, no doubt. nikki haley is one of the most talented political leaders of this generation. she has the smile of ronald reagan and the steel of margaret thatcher. her future is very bright. i think nobody believes today's announcement is the final chapter for her. there is a lot of speculation about what comes next. i believe she was a fantastic he me here in south carolina. she did a lot of amazing things and was an even better un ambassador

in new york. by all accounts, received rave reviews in her time there. you have given a quite a buildup. do you think she would like the oval office is a place to work, do you think she was thinking? there's a joke that every us senator looks in the mirror in the morning and says "good morning, mr president." who knows, right? it is easy to ascribe aspiration to those who serve in high office. i know she has used every chance in public service to do what she believes to be the best for the people she serves. she did at the un and i believe would be a great president and one of the frontrunners for when donald trump leaves office. why has she gone now? that's an interesting question. she came from the private sector, in business. certainly, this will be the end of her two terms as governor here in south carolina, eight years in office, a ten—year campaign grind. returning to the private sector must be appealing to her. she has two children, she loves south carolina, she probably misses being at home.

it is a tumultuous time in politics and i think is a natural reflection point at the midterms of any first—term president, and now is as good time as any. republican strategist matt moore there. let's get some of the day's other news. president trump says a second meeting with kim jong—un "is happening" and officials are working to set it up right now. he told reporters that it would take place after the mid term elections on november 6. three or four locations are under consideration, although singapore probably won't be the venue again. the international monetary fund has warned that there is a real risk of a new and widespread shock to the world economy. imf said global investors should beware of complacency over rising stock markets and warned governments to spurn nationally based policies over global solutions to inequality. brazil's social—democrat party has said it will not openly support the left—wing presidential candidate, fernando haddad.

the announcement is a major upset for mr haddad, who lagged behind the far—right candidate, jair bolsonaro, by 17 percentage points in the first round of voting on sunday. hurricane michael is speeding towards the florida panhandle, and 120,000 people in its path have been told to evacuate. it's currently a category three storm, swirling in the gulf of mexico, and it's expected to make landfall on wednesday late afternoon. it's wide, and it's moving quickly, leaving residents with just hours to get out of the storm's way. in a moment gary o'donoghue will have the latest from florida but first here's laura trevalyn on what we can expect. hurricane michael seen from space, a monstrous storm still strengthening, barrelling towards the north—eastern gulf coast of florida. the gillam family are heeding the warnings, taking no chances, and ending their beach vacation in panama city early. three kids. if it was just the adults, we would have rode it out. we need to be said

because they are with us. the roads are crowded with people fleeing the vulnerable coastline. already gas is in short supply. the authorities warned that as well as dangerous winds and up to 12 inches of rain, hurricane michael could bring record storm surge. 8—12 feet feet storm surge is deadly. i cannot tell you how deadly this will be. we have seen tsunamis were it has just been three feet, and deadly. 8—12 feet is absolutely deadly. there are states of emergency in alabama and parts of georgia and florida as the region prepares for hurricane michael. heavy rain is forecast for the carolinas as the storm crawls up the east coast, possibly drenching areas still recovering from hurricane florence. the president says his administration is at the ready. we are very well prepared. fema is ready. we're all ready. hopefully we'll get lucky, but maybe that won't happen. but we are prepared. despite warnings, not

everybody is leading down. our house is hurricane safe. we have generator and plenty of water. we are good to go. already the storm has claimed 13 lives in central america. the effects have been felt in cuba. forecasters say this is the most serious hurricane in threat to florida's northern gulf coast in more than a decade, and the time to leave is now. hurricane michael has been steadily increasing in strength over the last 36 hours at authorities said that when it does hit this part of the florida coast, it will be a serious threat to life and property. some 120,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders. and 35 of florida's 67 counties have states of emergency already imposed. there is a food and gas shortage in the area, and for those who have stayed and boarded up their houses with wood — and we saw one man trying to protect his house with rubbish bags filled with sand. many schools and local authority buildings will be closed for several days. the hurricane making its way up the gulf of mexico and due to make land for late on wednesday afternoon. the panhandle is bracing itself for one of the strongest hurricanes in decades.

gary o'donoghue and laura trevalyn reporting there, and for more on the storm and all our stories, just go to our website — bbc.com/news. more details are emerging about the second suspect in the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter. according to the investigative website bellingcat, the alleged attacker‘s real name is alexander mishkin, a man who was decorated by president putin himself. mishkin is a doctor who worked for russia's military intelligence service. although he lives in moscow, he is originally from the remote village of loyga in the north—west of the country, from where our correspondent steve rosenberg sent this report. there are some places in russia so remote,

they cannot be reached by car because there are no roads. but we're lucky. the train to archangel will pass through the village we're trying to get to. this is loyga, population 1000. only in winter when the ground freezes can you drive here. it's emerged that one of the salisbury suspects was born and raised in the village. his true identity has now been revealed. he's not businessman aleksander petrov, as he'd claimed, but gru officer alexander mishkin. "yes, that is alex mishkin," a man in the village confirms to me when i show him the suspect‘s photograph. according to the investigative website bellingcat, alexander mishkin was born in loyga in 1979. he went on to train as a doctor at a military medical academy in saint petersburg,

where it's believed he was recruited by the gru. in 2014, he was given the hero of russia award by vladimir putin. the british authorities do not dispute these claims. so now the two men moscow says were salisbury tourists have both been unmasked as russian agents. the other officer was identified last month as anatoliy chepiga. britain says they tried to kill sergei and yulia skripal with novichok nerve agent. they survived, but dawn sturgess died when she came into contact with novichok hidden in a perfume bottle. this is a world away from salisbury, which is 2500 miles to the west. and people here are shocked that someone from this village has been accused of deploying a chemical nerve agent on the streets of britain. in loyga, not only do they not believe it, some here think that russia should strike back. "i'd drop a bomb on those british," he tells me, "so they'd all blow away and stop bothering russia." russia may feel increasingly isolated, but it's in no

mood to change. our correspondent steve rosenberg, reporting from north—west russia, with the latest on the investigation into the salisbury chemical attack. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: could switzerland hand the aquarius rescue ship a lifeline to continue saving migrants in the mediterranean? this was a celebration by people who were relishing their freedom.

they believe everything's going to be different from now on. they think their country will be respected in the world once more, as it used to be before slobodan milosevic took power. the dalai lama, the exiled spiritual leader of tibet, has won this year's nobel peace prize. as the parade was reaching its climax, two grenades exploded, and a group of soldiersjumped from a military truck taking part in the parade and ran towards the president, firing from kalashnikov automatic rifles. after 437 years, the skeletal ribs of henry viii's tragic warship emerged. but, even as divers work to buoy her up, the mary rose went through another heart—stopping drama. i want to be the people's governor. i want to represent everybody. i believe in the people of california. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: donald trump has accepted the resignation of his ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley. she has dismissed speculation she's planning to run for president in 2020. hurricane michael has strengthened further as it bears down on america's gulf coast. forecasters are warning of three metre storm surges and winds approaching 200 kilmetres an hour. the turkish president has challenged saudi authorities to produce evidence that the journalist jamal khoshoggi is safe. he left saudi arabia last year, fearing retribution for his criticism of saudi policy. he was last seen entering the saudi consulate in istanbul and there are fears he was murdered there. writing in the washington post, his fiance has said they were due to meetjust after that visit to buy appliances for their new home.

they were setting a date to marry. she's appealed to president trump for help. the uk's foreign secretary, jeremy hunt, has told riyadh britain expects urgent answers. mark lowen has the latest from istanbul. weeks since jamal khashoggi disappeared at this saudi consulate, the saudi authorities have given a turkish investigative team access inside the consulate building. now, the leaks from that turkish investigation allege that mr khashoggi was killed inside the consulate building by a saudi hit squad. the focus of the investigation is looking at various black vans that left the saudi consulate later that day. could they have contained jamal khashoggi's body? and two saudi planes, also, that flew from istanbul back to riyadh later that evening. there are even reports that the saudi team could have taken cctv footage from inside the consulate with them. and that turkish staff working here were given a day off that day. now, the saudis have flatly denied the whole thing.

the saudi ambassador to the us yesterday said that the accusations were completely false and baseless. jeremy hunt says he wants urgent answers from the saudi government. if it is confirmed, this could put a lot of pressure on western governments to give a tough response to the saudi government. that, say critics of riyadh, should have happened many years ago. the first global mental health summit, with experts from around the world, opened in london today. according to the world health organisation, low—income countries spend on average just 0.5% of their health budget on mental health. in a country such as ghana, that means there is just one psychiatrist to treat every 1.2 million people. because of the lack of medical support, many people with mental problems turn to prayer camps and traditional healing centres for help. the bbc‘s sulley lansah, who is based in ghana, has this report. and i pray tojesus! praying away their problems. these worshippers at mount horeb prayer camp believe they are possessed by the devil and are in need of deliverance.

because of a lack of psychiatrists in ghana, desperate families pay prayer camps to treat their mentally ill relatives. backstage, it's a different story. the most vulnerable live here in these basic shelters, chained to the walls and the floor. this is how they treat people like us. they think we are mad or something. the government outlawed chaining last year, but the leader of this church says the change must be done slowly. we are gradually going away from it, but it's not easy because we don't have the facilities to confine them. and the moment we stop what we are doing, you will see a whole lot of mental people walking on the streets of ghana. this is one of seven psychiatric hospitals in ghana. it's expensive and only has space for 20 patients. the owner believes you don't need any form of restraint.

chaining is wrong. a lot of the time, what you find out is that the aggression and the violence is actually from anger, from being violated, et cetera. that violation doesn't just include chaining. we have been told that this prayer camp in the town of edumfa is using cages to beat the ban on chains. i visited the camp with a secret camera. a member of staff told me how they deal with difficult patients. but that room is full of cages. you can see the patients lying on the floor. i went into one of the cages. i felt restricted and couldn't stand up straight. not idealfor someone with mental health issues. the camp insists that the conditions

are good and that they are protecting society from what they call "deranged people". caging somebody is a human rights violation. it is unlawful, and i condemn it in no uncertain terms as a human rights lawyer. and i believe that the commission on human rights, the ghana police, the ministry of health, the ghana health service should move in to address and stop caging of mental health patients in prayer camps in ghana. we then went to a traditional healing centre that also helps the mentally ill. we found 16 men chained in one room. one of them told us he had been there for seven years. government is trying to enforce its ban on the use of chains, but for centres like this, it is too expensive to build rooms for each patient. they claim chaining is the only option. chaining is banned, and we are taking steps to make sure

we go around the country to enforce the ban. so those who now are caging them, which is even more of a human rights issue, what are you doing about it? likewise with chaining, so what we are doing is that we are bringing the for training, the prayer camps' proprietors, the owners. after you have done the training, whoever persists will be taken as having violated the law. mental health is a worldwide challenge, and ghana's government is failing to help those most in need. sulley lansah, bbc news, ghana. let's get some of the day's other news. protestors in venezuela have accused the government of killing an opposition lawmaker, who was in custody. authorities say fernando alban took his own life byjumping out of a window of the 10th floor of the intelligence agency headquarters in caracas. he'd been accused of taking part in a failed plot to kill president maduro two months ago. south africa has seen its fifth change of finance minister since 2014.

nhlanhla nene has quit. he admitted meeting members of the gupta family, who are accused of corruption. they deny any wrongdoing. former central bank chief tito mboweni is the new finance minister. the operation of migrant rescue ships in the mediterranean sea has been controversial. some countries — italy for one — argue that the presence of the ships encourages people to risk their lives coming to europe. aquarius was the last ngo boat picking up migrants in the med, but last month, it was stripped of its panamanian flag. it's just been stuck in port ever since. now ngos are wondering if the swiss government can help, as lebo diseko reports. the charity which runs this rescue ship says it saves desperate people's lives, but italy says vessels like mss aquarius do just the opposite — running what it calls a taxi service for illegal migrants.

that's why italy banned such ships from using its ports. until last month, the aquarius was the only ngo rescue boat left operating in the mediterranean. but then panama stripped the ship of its registration, allegedly under pressure from italy. it means the aquarius can't set sail again, unless another country agrees to let it use its flag. and now there could be new hope from an unexpected source. a 27,000 strong petition handed in to authorities in switzerland demanding the aquarius be allowed to fly under that country's flag. translation: eu states disagree on asylum issues and also on the rescue of refugees in the mediterranean. switzerland's a neutral country and therefore ideal for this campaign. switzerland isn't a member of the eu and it's not clear if or when authorities there will respond to the petition. and it's differences over migration

policy within the eu which are really at the heart of this problem. countries like italy and greece say they've taken more than their fair share of people with little or no support. italy blames both eu policy and the actions of countries like germany for exacerbating the crisis. the aquarius is currently docked at the french port of marseilles. a new flag would be welcome news for the crew, but it seems their future rests on whether the eu sees ngo rescue ships as helping people smugglers, or as charitable rescuers. lebo diseko, bbc news. a couple of brief things for you. the hubble space telescope has been placed in safe mode because it's lost one of the gyroscopes needed to point the spacecraft. hubble had been operating with four of its six gyroscopes, when one failed. controllers tried to switch on a backup, but found that was malfunctioning too.

mission team members are hopeful it can be brought back to use, though they point out the telescope can still work with only one gyroscope if necessary. hubble is scheduled to be replaced in three years' time. and before we go — take a look at this indoor parkour challenge. swiss freestyle skier andri ragettli set up this course as part of his training programme. we have sped it up a little bit, but you get the idea ofjust how tricky some of it is. it took him 53 attempts before he came up with this perfect run. and you will see when he gets to the end, just how happy that makes him. that is it for now. thank you very much for watching. hello.

we'll start the forecast with some sunshine and end with something quite different, but for wednesday, the sunshine we saw on tuesday across england and wales extends across northern ireland and scotland. finally, we say goodbye to this rain bearing front. however, it's all change again by the time we get to friday. potentially, some disruptive, wet and windy weather pushing across the uk, but we'll talk about that in more detail in just a moment's time. first to wednesday, which is going to be a fine, dry day, plenty of sunshine across the uk. there will be a little bit more cloud for the north and west of scotland first thing, it will soon thin and break. you can see how that warmth extends across england and wales into northern ireland and scotland. temperatures widely in the high teens, low 20 celsius, perhaps even 23 or 2a for east anglia and south—east england.

the skies will turn hazy across the south—west in southern england later in the day. outbreaks of rain pushing their way northwards overnight into south—west england, wales, northern ireland, the midlands. northwest england probably staying mainly dry across scotland and the east of england. look at these temperatures. this is what you expect by day at this time of year. also a very mild night as we go into thursday. but thursday is going to be a transition day, we have not one but two cold fronts moving their way across england. patches of early—morning rain in south—west england. more rain arriving into south—west england. it will eventually push its way up into the midlands and north—west england. ahead of this, we have still got some warmth across east anglia, south—east england. 21 or 22 celsius there. we will start to see something cooler further right. then some very turbulent

weather potentially friday. the deep area of low pressure, tightly packed isobars, gales. we've got multiple heavy warnings in place at the moment. that will be pushing its way across the uk, bringing heavy rain to the west of scotland, wales and south—west england. that rain may not get across to the far south—east of england until late in the day. these are the average, sustained winds, but the gusts could well get up to 50 or 60 miles an hour, maybe even higher. so potentially some disruptive winds, keep an eye on the warnings. there are lots of them and they are all on our website. bye— bye. this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has praised the outgoing us ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, following her shock resignation. the move fuelled speculation that she has presidential ambitions. but in her resignation letter, she said she would support his re—election bid in 2020. hurricane michael has strengthened further as it bears down on america's gulf coast.

forecasters have warned of three—metre storm surges and winds approaching 200 kilometres an hour. mass evacuations are under way — and alabama, florida and georgia have declared states of emergency. florida's governor has described the hurricane as a monster storm which kept getting more dangerous. turkish authorities are set to search the saudi consulate in istanbul, as the investigation into missing journalist jamal khashoggi gathers pace. turkey's president has challenged the saudi authorities to produce the evidence that he's safe.