welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is martin stanford. our main stories: presidents past and present hit the campaign trail ahead of the us midterm elections. polls show the race in many states is too close to call. donald trump warns iran to prepare for sweeping new sanctions, sounding the death knell for diplomacy and the 2015 nuclear deal. hello. next week america goes to the polls and the vote could help define the rest of donald trump's presidency. both the president and his predecessor, ba rack obama, were out rallying their supporters in the hope that they can increase turnout. however the president seems

to be hedging his bets, admitting at a rally in west virginia that the democrats mightjust have a chance of clinching a midterm win. they will try to erase our gains and eradicate our progress. that is what will happen, they will fight hard and we will be fighting. it will be ridiculous, frankly, bad for our country. the democrats, it could happen. it could happened. we are doing very well and we are doing really well in the senate, but it could happened. you know what you do, my whole life, you know what i say? don't worry about it. you know, iam not say? don't worry about it. you know, i am not saying they don't say it, i can't go everywhere. i can't go everywhere. but now they are talking about this. let's see what happens. it will be an interesting day at the office. meanwhile, former us president barack obama has been campaigning in florida for candidate andrew gillum in his bid for the governorship. mr obama warned against rhetoric he said was designed to sow fear and encouraged people to get out and vote.

we have been at crossroads like this before. and each time we made the right choice, not i sitting back, not by waiting to history to happen to us, but by marching and i mobilising and by organising. and by evoking, to make history happened. —— and by voting. that is how we abolished slavery in this country. that is how we overcame a great depression. that is how we won women's rights and workers rights and citizens rights and lg bt rights. meanwhile, twitter has shut down more than 10,000 accounts which discouraged people from voting in next week's mid—term elections in the us. the company said most of the accounts were posing as democratic supporters. for reaction on this and to explain more about the hotly contested midterms, i've been speaking to our north america correspondent, peter bowes.

it is extremely close in a number of races from florida, always to talk —— always talked about as the swing state where it could go either way. is no different this year. nd, misery is another state with an extremely close race, the incumbent democrat really fighting for her political life, donald trump putting everything he can behind the republican candidate. why would that be significant if he were to win a seat like that? there is a wafer thin majority currently in the senate for the republicans and just one or two extra senators would make some much difference to president trump as they try to move forward his agenda over the next couple of yea rs. his agenda over the next couple of years. it may not be so easy for him in the house, where the democrats may well make some gains, they could possibly sleep —— sneak in with a

majority or possibly have a very close majority. the democrats gaining seats, for example here in california, there are seats in traditional republican areas that are perhaps not so republican any more and the democrats have high hopes of winning. we have heard now from the president, perhaps preparing his supporters for some defeats and if there is any indication that this is extremely close, what we have just heard from the president shows that. today we are learning that twitter has had to delete a lot of what they are calling fake accounts. why are they doing that? yes, this has onlyjust come to light that towards the end of october they were deleting these accou nts of october they were deleting these accounts after being alerted to them by the democrats and these were tweets coming from automated accounts, supposedly, but incorrectly, from the democrats. they were not behind this but

spotted it happening. suggesting that people do not go out and vote. echoes contrary to the messages of both political parties encouraging people to go out and vote. twitter deleting thousands of accounts, these automated accounts, saying that they have no close relations with local election officials and party officials for this very reason, to maintain the integrity of its service. as we heard, president trump has threatened to send thousands of american troops to the southern border, to prevent a group of migrants from central america entering the united states. critics have suggested he's stoking fears over immigration, to win over voters in the elections. around 7,000 people are heading north, and have now reached wahaca in southern mexico. 0ur correspondent will grant is travelling with them, and has sent us this special report. —— 0axaca. in the desperation to cross mexico as fast as possible, even the most dangerous

of lifts will do. on this trip, a helping hand can cut the migrants' journey time by hours. for decades, one of honduras's main exports has been coffee. now it seems is coffee farmers. translation: our crops had a disease called leaf frost. it meant they wouldn't mature at harvest so we lost our entire livelihood. no—one here has money. 66% of hondurans live in poverty, but the rural poor maybe have least of all. jose maria didn't even let his family know he was leaving forfear they might talk him out of it. now he is struggling to reach them to tell them he's 0k. translation: when the coffee harvest was ruined, there was no money, no work, nothing. if there is regular work, we could try to stay, but right now we just don't have enough to live on. i even had to pull my daughters out of school because i can't afford for them to study. not everyone is leaving over failing crops and poor harvests, though. others are fleeing for their lives.

we've seen samuel's family at almost every stop. they keep dragging their daughter north, insisting life in honduras would amount to a death sentence after sameul refused to join a gang. ask the migrants why they left central america and most will either say extreme violence or extreme poverty, especially those involved in honduras's decimated cofee production. ask them why now and many say they simply grabbed the opportunity when it presented itself. three weeks ago, the group set off from honduras in a wave of optimism. the caravan‘s supporters say it was a spontaneous exodus. the trump administration says it was organised, paid for by everyone from the democrats to venezuela to george soros. in reality, there are politics at play here, both from honduras and the us mid—term elections, but most of the migrants are just caught in the middle. will grant, bbc news, oaxaca, mexico. president trump has announced

the return of all us sanctions on iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. the measures, targeting iran's energy as well as banking and shipping will come into effect on monday. mike pompeo said gnabry easing will be introduced. 0ur correspondent barbara plett usher explained the significance of these sanctions. these are the big ones. these are affecting the core sectors of iran's economy, especially the energy sector because it gets 80% of its revenue from oil sales at. the energy, oil and financial sectors, it has been made clear that the goal is to cut off as much revenue as possible. they have the working for the past six months since they let the past six months since they let the iran nuclear deal to try and convince iran's loyal customers to stop buying oil. that is down to the

threat of force, sanctioning them, excluding these countries from the us financial system if they go ahead and continue to do business with iran. tell us they have had considerable success with that, already the oil sales dropped considerably and still they have made some exemptions for certain countries, especially those who are iran's biggest customers. they have not revealed the list of the eight countries that will get temporary waivers, but it is expected that will include india will possibly china. this will be limited and temporary exemptions. —— these will. let's get some of the day's other news. an islamic cleric known as the "father of the taliban" has been killed in pakistan. maulana sami ul—haq was killed in the city of rawalpindi, after a group of men burst into his home and attacked him with knives. pakistan's prime minister imran khan has condemed the killing. the brazilian president—elect, jair bolsonaro says there's no point

in keeping diplomatic relations with cuba. speaking to a local newspaper, mr bolsonaro accused cuba of violating human rights and said the communist—run island had little to offer in terms of trade and business. the actor alec baldwin has been arrested in new york for reportedly punching a man over a parking space. police say the 30 rock star was taken into custody over the incident which took place in the east village. baldwin's been in the spotlight lately for his impersonations of president trump on nbc‘s "saturday night live. " and you can keep up to date all with the latest news, business and sport on the bbc website. for reaction and analysis from around the world, including up—dated live pages, reports from correspondents based in over 80 international locations, along with eyewitness accounts. just go to bbc.com/news, or download the bbc news app. britain's most senior police officer, cressida dick,

has revealed that a criminal investigation has begun, into allegations of anti—semitic hate crime among labour party members. she said it appears "there may have been a crime committed". it comes after an internal labour party dossier detailing messages posted by members online, was handed to the metropolitan police in september. anti semitic hate crime involves hostility towards jews ranging from verbal abuse to assault. the labour party itself, is not under investigation. 0ur deputy political editor, john pienaar reports. today, no escaping this question. mr corbyn, any response to the police investigation? good morning. any response at all about the police investigation? good morning, how nice to see you. do you think the labour party was involved in anti—semitism? good morning, how nice to see you. goodbye. are you finally going to take action on this, mr corbyn?

goodbye. jeremy corbyn badly wants to put this row behind him, but the accusations of anti—semitism in the labour party follow him, whichever way he turns. labour's been split and the leadership under attack for months. critics want more action, more regret at cases of anti—semitic abuse. corbyn loyalists claim the problem's exaggerated. but now police are on the case. we have been assessing some material which was passed to me in fact to me, in a radio studio of all things. about two months ago, and we are now investigating some of that material because it appears there may have been crime committed. the leaked file at scotland yard includes an online message calling one female labour mp a zionist extremist who is about to get a good kicking. four cases are said to be under particular scrutiny

for potential hate crime, though not labour as a whole. some jewish labour mps say it's a lesson to their party. the labour party, particularly in the wake of thejo cox murder, has a duty of care to its members and they should have referred these matters themselves to the police. as a jewish mp for whom the labour party is the natural home, i now go round feeling fear and always looking over my shoulder. jeremy corbyn commands huge labour loyalty, many like him critical of israel. but he agreed under pressure to a new definition of anti—semitism and promised support to british jews. the row over anti—semitism has caused immense hurt and exciting in the jewish community, and great dismay in the labour party. i say this to all in the jewish community: we are your ally. seniorfigures accept there's more to do. we have anti—semitism in the labour party. we've improved our measures to deal with it. i don't want any anti—semite in my party. we want them out, and if they're guilty of hate crime we want them

investigated and convicted too. accusations of anti—semitism may already have cost labour manyjewish supporters. political opponents from theresa may down mean to attack on this front, convinced it will hurt labour and maybe hinderjeremy corbyn‘s chances of winning power. there is anger and frustration in the party but the main political casualty could be labour itself. john pienaar, bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump and barack obama have taken their message to voters ahead of tuesday's midterm elections. polls show the race in many states is too close to call. the white house has warned iran to prepare for the return of all us sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. the united states is days away from congressional midterms — a vote widely seen as a referendum on the trump presidency. one of the most controversial races is in georgia — which could make american history next week, by electing the first black female governor the country has ever seen.

the battle is mired in controversy over accusations of voter suppression, in state with a world famous history of racial discrimination. emily maitlis reports. evening worship at the baptist church is a full throated affair, a congregation unafraid to raise its voice in per hour or psalm. —— pray. but this week, they are being asked to participate in more earthly matters too. just days away from mid—term elections, they are being encouraged to vote earlyjust to make sure nothing goes wrong. in the soul of america's deep south lies georgia. electoral local will tell you they don't see political upsets

here very often. its recent history, its heart, are a deep, sonorous red, but clinton was the last president to turn it blew that was more than five years ago. yet this time round, there is a nailbiting race, the of which could determine notjust to get is to govern but who is even allowed to vote. meet stacey abrams. if she wins here next week, she will be the first black female governor the country has ever seen. she is spent years fighting changes championed by georgia's secretary of state that have removed thousands of people from the electoral register. those changes appear to hit ethnic minority voters most who, guess what, tend to vote democrat. are you worried about voters being removed from the ballot in georgia? i'm concerned about voter suppression but the antidote is voter engagement. tell the playing field, we can win by overwhelming the voting box with a number of eligible

voters and he's concerned, and he's right. if everyone who is eligible votes he will not win, and we will intend to prove them right. it's ha rd to intend to prove them right. it's hard to talk about voting in the south without going back to the civil rights movement and atlanta's most famous son, martin luther king. because of the racist disenfranchisement that existed yet the decades, george was put on a watchlist of states with the history of discrimination. and any change to voting measures had to be preapproved federal government. five yea rs preapproved federal government. five years ago, the us supreme court struck down a key provision of the 1965 voting rights act, allowing georgia to make the rules for registration much stricter. the result was overwhelming. associated press reported that 670,000 people we re press reported that 670,000 people were purged from the electoral roll last year alone. the question is this. how much of that was intentional racial voter suppression? the problem is not new but with a race this tight, it feels

even more critical. clearly i need to put questions to the office enforcing electoral rules. but here is where that gets compensated. the man in charge is also... brian kemp. the republican candidate the governor, georgia's secretary of state, brian kemp. he's come to cobb co, one of the handful that went to hillary clinton in 2016. he has refused a request for an interview but time is tight. brian kemp, you've been accused of voter suppression. that's ridiculous. we have a record turnout, minority participation up, we have1 million more people on the roles than we had when i took office. you got hundreds of thousands of people purged from the register, many of them african—american. the register, many of them african-american. we are following state law, and i took an oath to do

that your law? it's the state lord in georgia that the legislature passed. i took an oath of office to defend and protect those laws. so did the attorney general. you should look at your facts. he argues stacey abrams is filling the register with people who don't have a right to vote. i called stacey abrams and i said, stacey, this is 0prah. vote. i called stacey abrams and i said, stacey, this is oprah. this race has become one of the hottest in the country. surrogates on both sides both have georgia on their minds. but perhaps this should be a big wake—up call to questions about america's future. the next governor gets to influence who counts and two is erased from the picture. a man who's paraplegic, is suing luton airport, after staff failed to provide a wheelchair he could use himself. justin levene says the one he was offered was too rigid and could give him pressure sores. it also meant he'd be less independent, having to rely on others. his own chair had been left behind on a flight, and so he was left he says with no

option, but to drag himself through the airport on the floor. our legal correspondent clive coleman has the story. what could have led to this? luton airport, thank you very much. justin levene, a paraplegic, dragging himself through luton airport after his wheelchair was left behind by an airline. aged 20, justin coughed and herniated a disc, and an operation went wrong. but it hasn't held him back. he's become an international wheelchair athlete, trainer, and mentor to disabled athletes. in august last year, justin arrived back on a flight to luton airport. stranded without his self—propelling wheelchair, the airport offered him a rigid, high—backed one which had to be pushed by someone else. i've worked very hard for a number

of years to try and maintain all of my independence. and one of the biggest problems i had was, if i didn't have my wheelchair, my legs had been taken away from me. all of my self—sufficiency and all of my independence was no longer there. and to be in one of those chairs, it made me feel humiliated and degraded. if you are in those chairs and they insisted on trying to strap me down in it, i wouldn't have been able to adjust myself. and i would have been at risk of getting a pressure sore. pressure sores can occui’ very quickly, sojustin asked if he could be transported by a motorised buggy. but luton airport doesn't have them. at the heart ofjustin's dispute with luton airport is his claim that, by failing to provide him with a self propelling wheelchair, the airport was in effect leaving him only one viable option, to haul himself along these floors for hundreds of yards, denying him both his independence and his dignity. 0nce outside the terminal, justin used a luggage trolley to wheel himself to his taxi.

his own wheelchair was returned a day later. in a statement, luton airport said: "0ur teams worked hard to find a solution, offering mr levene an assisted wheelchair as a temporary replacement. mr levene declined all offers of help, as he deemed them unacceptable. a significant number of international and uk airports do provide self propelling wheelchairs. paralympian anne wafula—strike, who has also faced problems at airports, understands justin levene's actions. i would feel like my independence was being taken away, and honestly, as a disabled person we are still in charge of the type of people we want to be. are we the people thatjust want to be pushed around, you know, for people to be feeling sorry for us? no. justin levene's story

is at the cutting edge of thinking about disability issues. is it enough for service providers like airports to give some assistance, even if what they offer denies the disabled person independence? clive coleman, bbc news. players for leicester city are preparing for their first match following the death of the club's owner in a helicopter crash last weekend. the strikerjamie vardy says the game against cardiff will be in honour of vichai srivaddhanaprabha, who was one of five people who died in the accident outside the king power stadium. natalie pirks reports . it's been one of the hardest, i think, weeks that myself and the lads have had to go through. it was another day of quiet reflection for leicester city players today. but this isn't just about an owner. it is more personal than that. he wasn'tjust the chairman. he always made sure that he went out of his way to get to know you on personal levels

as well with your families, he took us in as his extended family. so close with the players's relationships with vichai srivaddhanaprabha that he was a guest atjamie vardy‘s wedding to wife rebecca. as the shock subsides, honouring his memory is now at the forefront of the players's minds. 0bviously, at first you think no, that hasn't happened, it's not possible. everyone is feeling the same. we are all hurting, but we know that he would want us out there, and we as a team and club wants to do him proud. they will attempt to do that tomorrow against cardiff city, their first game since the accident. senior members of the team will then fly to thailand for the funeral of vichai srivaddhanaprabha where his body has arrived at a buddhist temple in bangkok for a seven—day period of mourning. air accident investigators continue

to work outjust what caused the death of all five people on board, the players have tried to ease their pain by reflecting on their memories together of their friend, who always had a smile for everyone. natalie perks, bbc news. after the joint hottest summer on record this year, the met office has confirmed the uk has experienced more weather extremes in the last 10 years compared to previous decades. the hottest days have become almost 1 degree centigrade warmer while the coldest days are not so cold. and the number of nights when temperatures stay above 20 degrees centigrade is increasing. the met office says the changes are consistent with man made global warming. here's our science editor david shukman. the year began with the punishing conditions of the beast from the east. roads were paralysed by snow.

but 2018 also brought the total opposite, with intense heat in the summer. and the met office says that as the climate changes, more extremes like this are likely. it is no picnic being on the road before the gritting and sanding vehicles put in an appearance. the scientists went through weather records from as far back as the 1960s, tracking floods and other events and they confirmed what other researchers are saying, that the impacts of rising temperatures are already being felt. we often think of climate change as a problem for future generations, but what the numbers show in this new report is that we are already starting to experience the effects of climate change and these extreme events will continue to increase into the future. so, for someone like me in his early 30s, it is my generation that are going to be experiencing the brunt of those effects. 0ne effect of more intense heat is the risk of fires. this one, lastjuly in south wales, was one of many fanned by prolonged

spells of high temperatures. even now, signs of the blaze are still visible. a reminder of why understanding weather extremes really matters. this new report comes up with very striking findings by comparing the years between 1961 and 1990 with the most recent decade. here is what they have found. the hottest days have become even hotter, up 0.8 celsius. the coldest days have become a bit less chilly, up 1.7 celsius. and we are getting more so—called tropical nights, where the temperature never goes below 20. up from eight in all the 60s, 70s and 80s, to as many as four in the last ten years. and it's night—time heat that's most threatening to the elderly. there's lots of different symptoms,

the most obvious things being things like heatstroke or dehydration and they can have a myriad range of different symptoms in themselves, but there are also what people do not necessarily realise is, heat can increase our risk of lots of different health conditions, things like stroke, heart failure and even heart attacks can be increased in risk by it. the country has always faced storms and other dangers from the weather, but this latest research is a warning that they may become more threatening in future. david shukman, bbc news, in south wales. friday was a chilly day, as sunny day for many, generally speaking quite a quiet day. but the weekend sees things turning a little bit more lively, in fact they have already started to liven up another reason ours, the wind has been strengthening and through the weekend we will see some rain at times. this is the satellite picture from a little earlier, you can see this well of cloud here, this was a hurry came, 0scar, not a hurricane any more it

still a lot of low pressure pushing to the west of the uk, bringing a surge of mild air from the south—west. a mild start to saturday compared with recent mornings, particularly in the west where we will see outbreaks of rain continuing across northern ireland scotland, 50— 80 millimetres of rain across parts of western scotland, later in the day that spilt out into north—west england and parts of wales. and it will be windy, wind gusts of 60 or 65mp at times close to the western isles of scotland, but north—east scotland with some shelter from that south—westerly wind and some sunshine, could get to 17— 18. quite gusty winds for northern ireland, but brightening up through the afternoon as rain slides into north—west england and parts of wales, flirting with the west of cornwall, for the southeast it will be breezy but not as windy as further west and it will be mild. into saturday evening it will be the central slice of the country that will continue

to see outbreaks of rain, so for fireworks displays in cardiff and perhaps edinburgh are likely to see some rain. rain tending to clear away from belfast, london mostly dry, mild for all and quite windy as well. deeper into saturday night, into sunday morning, that front will fizzle away. it will be some clear spells either side, but minimum temperatures 8— 11, considerably more mild that has been of late. this is the weather set—up going into sunday morning, still with this slow—moving weather front providing rain across some central parts of the uk, the rain quite light and patchy initially and picking up later in the day across the south—west, particularly as a new area of low pressure spins inwards. elsewhere there will be some spells of sunshine,