there are vicious battles going on here in the east and the north. in the south, they're making progress bit by bit, but here in the east, it's russia that's advancing. florida braces as idalia intensifies to a category 4 hurricane with catastrophic damage expected in some areas. this thing is powerful, if you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. you don't want to be messing around with these wins, there will be things flying all over there will be things flying all over the place. travellers are still facing disruption after a fault on the uk's air traffic system saw hundreds of flights cancelled. hello, i'm maryam moshiri, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction.

we start in kyiv where officials say it has been hit by the most powerful attack since spring — as ukraine and russia launch a wave of air strikes against each other. moscow says ukrainian drones have targeted at least six russian regions, warning attacks on its soil will not go "unpunished". ukraine says it was targeted by a wave of russian cruise missiles and drones, but shot down nearly all of them. the mayor of kyiv says two people were killed and two others were injured by falling debris. these are the moments the debris fell to ground in kyiv — as you can see, there was a large explosion when it came down. and this is more video from kyiv — it's not clear if this is a separate incident, or the same debris filmed from another angle. our correspondent paul adams is in kyiv, and sent this update on what happened there in the early hours of the morning. this is what a single intercepted russian cruise missile will do to a street here in kyiv.

it's been a few hours since the explosion here in the early hours of the morning, no—one was on the street, no—one was as far as we know hurt. but for 100 yards in both directions, people are having to get on with the business of removing all this broken glass, repairing shutters, doors, checking to see what the stock has been destroyed in these various shops along this stretch. it's a tiresome business, it is something that the city is very familiar with. it has been through this in many locations, many times. translation: a bright flash woke me up and then my husband saw - a ball of fire. there was an explosion and the car alarms were going off. then there was a second explosion. this was one of 28 cruise missiles and 1a drones that landed in various parts of ukraine this morning. one of the biggest strikes

of its kind since the spring. but as you look around, you can see that people are not really fazed, they are very, very familiar with this and they're just getting on with fixing what needs to be fixed. across the road in the park, the police are looking at the wreckage of what appears to be part of the missile that was intercepted. one of the interesting things about this is that as the months of russian attacks have gone on, ukrainians have become better and better at shooting these projectiles down. of the 28 cruise missiles and 1a drones fired overnight, almost all of them, we are told, were shot down. drones are also being used on the front line of the war. so far, kyiv has focused its counter—offensive in the southeast of ukraine. it's hoping to split the areas in red, occupied by moscow, to reach the sea. but progress has been slow. in the northeast of ukraine, russia itself is pushing forward,

towards kupyansk and lyman. our correspondent quentin sommerville reports now from the eastern front line where they have spent the last few weeks speaking to ukrainian soldiers and civilians, who are being bombarded by russian artillery. the battle on ukraine's eastern front has reawakened. it's in these fields and trenches that the conflict now burns at its hottest, ukraine says. there's been a lot of russian activity in this area over the past couple of days. in fact, there were air strikes on the village just behind me. so they're having to move before dawn to get to the trenches. south of kupyansk, they cast russian forces out of here almost a year ago, but their enemy is threatening to return. beyond these fields, russia has advanced in recent weeks.

the men of the 68th jaeger brigade, newly installed, are here to ensure that they go no further. go, go, go. they are up against infantry and artillery attacks daily along these lines. you can see here... that's outgoing artillery. along the front, it's said some 100,000 russian troops have gathered in newly formed battle groups, some beyond this tree line. if you look all around here, there's been incoming fire here. there's lots of damage. so there's plenty of trench positions to take cover in. it's easy to forget with so much focus on the counter—offensive in the south of ukraine that there are vicious battles going on here in the east and the north. in the south, they are making

progress, bit by bit. but here in the east, it's russia that's advancing. this is a war on many fronts, and it's straining russia's resources, but it's also straining ukraine's, too. so in the south and the east, the demands on ukrainian forces are rising. this is front line. front line. i cannot go... andriy is taking us forward. but a russian drone spotted his vehicle before we took cover. "we must go," he says. "get in the car." a dozen shells land in as many minutes. we need to get out, come on. we first met andriy injune when he was fighting in the southern counter—offensive around velyka novosilka. this eastern front is far deadlier, he says. translation: velyka novosilka was less dangerous. _ there were far fewer soldiers

there than there are here. and they have more weapons here, more of everything. that's why it's more dangerous here. its gains are modest. but from kupyansk to lyman, further south, russia is resurgent. and in the serebryansky forest, it's especially fierce. we're heading deep into this forest. there's been a lot of fighting here. this is artillery strike this morning, maybe a couple of hours ago. you see it's still burning. all this road is shelled by drones and missile systems. can you see? no tops of the trees. the men compare the artillery barrages to the first world war�*s verdun. but there is a new lethal threat to contend with here — kamikaze drones.

shouting in ukrainian the gunner has fallen inside. he's unhurt, he signals. that was a drone attack against our car. that was a drone. russian drone. so they saw us. they sent a drone and now they are seeking us and hunting us. so we need to go faster. we're just a couple hundred metres from our position. the drones work in pairs. a surveillance drone is still up above, so they get off the road. speaking in ukrainian so we've had to stop going forward because the danger here is, the deeper you get into the forest, cover doesn't get better. there's constant russian artillery.

seeing some of the trees on fire. and it's turning these areas into wide open areas, very exposed. no tree cover here. so we've had to come off the road. there are drones up above. we just saw what they can do. speaking ukrainian the humvee's thick armour and the driver's quick thinking means that everybody inside was unhurt. but of course, civilians along these re—ignited front lines have no such protection. young and old, villagers around kupiansk are being evacuated from their homes. they are now in range of russian guns, and russia doesn't discriminate. last year, they endured six months of occupation here. they refuse to again. once more on the eastern front,

the advance of russian guns is casting ukrainian families apart. viktor gives his family a final hug before they separate. sofiya is just five months old, too precious to remain in harm's way. why are you leaving? translation: because it's very scary to live here. - i want to safeguard my children. it's very scary not knowing if the shelling will hit or not, if we will survive or not. viktor hoped that he was done with goodbyes. but as russia advances, he's once again left praying that he'll see his family again.

quentin sommerville, bbc news, kupyansk. the uk's foreign secretary james cleverly has defended talks with chinese officials in beijing, the first such visit in more than five years. this is the moment he was greeted by vice president han zheng — the body language seemed to be warm enough, despite some recent tensions between the uk and china over human rights, espionage and the war in ukraine. mr han spoke of promoting what he described as the "healthy and stable development of bilateral relations" — through what he said would be "mutual respect and pragmatic co—operation". so what's likely to have been discussed in the meeting? the uk is unhappy over china's growing military support of russia in its war in ukraine. london has also voiced concerns about china's crackdown in hong kong

and its treatment of the uyghurs. and then there are accusations that china is spying on the west — something beijing strongly denies. mr cleverly�*s visit comes as the parliament's intelligence and security committee warned that china is involved in every sector of the british economy. live now to alicia kearns, conservative mp and chair of the commons foreign select committee. good to talk to you. should mr cleverley be in china? i good to talk to you. should mr cleverley be in china? i believe it is really important _ cleverley be in china? i believe it is really important that _ cleverley be in china? i believe it is really important that the - cleverley be in china? i believe it l is really important that the chinese come party hears from as many instructors that we will not accept their sliding move towards totalitarianism or authoritarianism so i think it is right he is there, but it has to be to have the toughest of conversations to make very clear that we will not accept transnational repression and that when we uphold the rule of law, self—determination, human rights, thatis self—determination, human rights, that is not a threat to china and they must stop trying to present defence as an escalation.- they must stop trying to present defence as an escalation. could go there and say _ defence as an escalation. could go there and say that, _ defence as an escalation. could go there and say that, with _ defence as an escalation. could go there and say that, with the - defence as an escalation. could go there and say that, with the listen|

there and say that, with the listen to him? , , ., , there and say that, with the listen tohim? , , ., , . ., to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so _ to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so far _ to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so far is _ to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so far is that _ to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so far is that the - to him? this is the reality. what we have seen so far is that the wolf - have seen so far is that the wolf warrior approach of the chinese government is reducing sulphur can be think that is in response to a consolidated approach by countries around the world such as britain where we have been absolute with the chinese communist party at every interaction that they must stop, particularly with their efforts are transnational repression. the reality is that xi jinping and his team here from russia, from russia, from saudi arabia, iraq and others, no—one will deliver these messages and that is how diplomacy works. what about iain duncan smith disagreeing, he has called this project kowtow, he thinks that this is some sort of appeasement. the reality is different colleagues have different views. i do not believe we can completely do as he proposes. the reality is they need to know our positions, we have to stand firm and it's about actions, common words by

the day wishing meetings which are we can de config, make sure we don't end up in direct conflict with them, thatis end up in direct conflict with them, that is vitally important, even during the cold war the us and russia continued to have discussions, albeit private, when they were at war. we are not at war with china, we must make sure we do not end up at work, however, it is important that james cleverly gets something from this visit, whether it be the commitment to stop transnational repression or whether it be some sort of reduction in human rights abuses they are inducted —— but they are conducting. thank you very much indeed for joining us here on bbc news. we go now to tampa in florida, this is the scene, there are warnings now from ron desantis to florida governor that we could see up to six

foot storm surge, 1.8 metres for those of you who use those measurements. he says in his own words, that is life threatening. we also added, don't go outside in the midst of this. so florida is well truly bracing itself for this hurricane to hit, its going to be absolutely devastating. a catastrophic category four hurricane comments being called. more on the hurricane in a moment or two. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. the man who was chief executive of the nhs trust where lucy letby murdered seven babies wrote in a now—deleted blog about being "persuaded" to run a london trust by a senior nhs england boss. tony chambers went on to get three senior nhs jobs following the serial killer's arrest. nhs england said its london region was unaware of the murder probe. the property website zoopla says the number of houses sold in the uk this year is on track to be the lowest in more than a decade.

around one million sales are set to be completed, down almost a fifth from last year. the cost of mortgages and rents have risen sharply since banks started increasing rates on lending. hundreds of tents have been left behind at campsites following leeds festival at the weekend. drone footage shows camping equipment littered all over the fields at bramham park. volunteers and charities who visited the site to salvage the tents described it as "appalling". this year, the festival featured headline acts including billie eilish, the 1975 and lewis capaldi. you're live with bbc news. idalia has strengthened to an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane as it moves towards the united states' south—east coast. idalia is nearing landfall in florida's big bend region, bringing a storm surge that could reach up to 15 feet, around four and half

metres and destructive, life—threatening winds. thousands of people have fled their homes as evacuation orders are in force in more than 20 counties in the state. in a briefing in the last half hour, florida governor ron desantis said 511,000 houses in the state are without power. he added that the surge will reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the big bend region which makes it life threatening. this thing is hitting billy within the next hour and a half, most likely. it is going to make landfall, it is a major hurricane as we've been saying, it was likely to be for the last couple of days and we just hope everybody stays safe. don't put your life at risk by doing anything done at this point. this thing is powerful. if you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. you don't want to be messing around with these winds, there will be things flying all over the place. 0bviously, be things flying all over the place. obviously, if you are in a place thatis obviously, if you are in a place that is close to the coast and you

see that surge, that's going to be a legitimate surge, it's going to be a big, big dealand legitimate surge, it's going to be a big, big deal and very dangerous. and there we go, with our power here. we are back! florida governor ron desantis there. bbc meteorologist tomasz schafernaker has the latest on the path of the storm. hurricane idalia is a state —— my serious storm florida at the south—east of the united states for have occurred around further�*s big bend, the part of the coastline that curves around the gulf of mexico into the panhandle. destructive winds, the storm surge and indeed other states will be affected by the storm. in fact there are two storms, one out in the atlantic but we are watching italia as it approaches the coastline. torrential rain, destructive winds occurring, on the course in itself, then the flooding rains and the risk of tornadoes will

transfer across more northern parts of florida into georgia and into the carolinas and at this stage the storm will still be strong, possibly even maintaining hurricane strength as it nears the coastline on the atlantic side, so serious weather in the us. back now to live pictures of the area. i think this is clearwater beach. they are not great pictures but you would expect that because it is extremely windy and wet and the camera is not going to be perfect. what we are seeing there are trees swinging from side to side as the winds begin to pick up. hurricane idalia is expected to affect a lot of florida's counties, think about 28 of the 67 counties are under some form of evacuation. that is tampa, look at how close the sea water is to the road, where cars are actually still driving up and down. italia is

forecast to make landfall at the state's northern panhandle on wednesday morning local time. in the last minute or so, we have the latest update, which is coming to us here at the bbc, that that the winds have slightly eased to 125 miles per, which means it is now classed back as a category three hurricane. that is according to the national hurricane center. the hurricane has been category four for the past few hours those potentially catastrophic storm surges and destructive winds, which are still expected. so the winds have eased slightly but we don't know what's going to happen in the coming hours, so everyone who is out there and watching this, of course, please do take care. the fallout from monday's air traffic failiure in the uk is still being felt, with thousands of air passengers stranded overseas or stuck in airports here in britain. many passengers are experiencing flight cancellations and are paying huge bills for extended hotel stays, rescheduled flights and food. the flight disruption has been

caused by a data processing glitch that meant that air traffic controllers had to revert to a manual system. the fallout from monday's air traffic failiure in the uk the head of the national air traffic services, martin rolfe, told us why the �*rare' system failiure shouldn't happen again. we've worked incredibly hard since we restored the service back on monday, to make sure that this type of event can't happen again. now we operate a complex system. it is a system that covers the entire country and half of the north atlantic ocean and we work extremely hard to make sure that failures like this or in fact any failures that cause disruptions to passengers is minimised. so we are confident that these are rare events, we are confident this one cannot happen again and we are absolutely confident and everyone should be confident that whatever happens, we will always keep aircraft safe and we will always make sure passengers get to their destinations eventually, safely. we obviously aim to do it on time but if all else fails, then we will absolutely prioritise

safety, that's what we're here for. 0ur correspondent ellie price is at heathrow airport. before we talk about the why, what is the latest? power fights going today and how other passengers who have been delayed so far? weill. today and how other passengers who have been delayed so far?— have been delayed so far? well, i was in the — have been delayed so far? well, i was in the terminal, _ have been delayed so far? well, i was in the terminal, one - have been delayed so far? well, i was in the terminal, one of - have been delayed so far? well, i was in the terminal, one of the i was in the terminal, one of the terminals here early on and the scenes seem a bit more normal. 0bviously scenes seem a bit more normal. obviously it is always busy here whenever you travel ban not the images of people lying down on the floor or benches or wherever they can. as i say, a bit more normality returning. there have been 30 flights departing from the uk cancelled as of nine o'clock this morning and 3a flights cancelled that were due to be arriving in the uk. that's about 1% of what the total rotation should be. compare that to about 27% on monday. in

total there have been 998 flights due to depart that were cancelled on 983 arrivals that were cancelled. so the numbers are coming down but it has been up, 2000 fights since monday were cancelled and obviously all those people on those flights left disappointed. i say, i'm told that things are returning to normal. and we have had some insight on the last day or so as to what exactly happened and why this happened? yes. happened and why this happened? yes, we heard from — happened and why this happened? yes we heard from martin rolf, happened and why this happened? 123 we heard from martin rolf, saying... is the chief executive of nats, talking about the glitch. in effect saying what happened was that a flight, we think, one aircraft had put its flight plan in wrong and somehow the data had knocked off everything out of kilter. actually, it was only taken off plan, if you

like, for a short time but the knock—on effects of that, having aircraft and passengers and flight crew in the wrong place, that is what has caused the disruption or cancellations and that's why it has taken days to get back to normal. le, thank you so much. a super blue moon will be visible on thursday night, treating stargazers to a phenomenon that will only happen once this year. these are pictures from tokyo. the blue does not refer to the colour — but instead it refers to the second full moon in one calendar month — an event which only happens once every two or three years. it won't be happening again until 2037 so get out there tonight. you don't need binoculars or a telescope — cloud permitting, you should see it with just your eyes. and if you also spot what looks like a bright star next to the moon,

it's not a star, it's the planet saturn. in get all the latest on all the stories you have been watching on our website. stories you have been watching on ourwebsite. if stories you have been watching on our website. if you want to find out more about italia and where it is heading right now, you can go to the bbc�*s live page which is being updated minute by minute and all the latest lines. that is the live picture from tampa in florida on the interstate highway, which is ever so close to those surging seas and waves. back in a couple of minutes, stay with us. hello again. over the next few days, the weather is going to become more settled. but we do have some rain in the forecast, and today we also have sunshine and showers. low pressure is still very much driving our weather and we've got showers wrapped around it. and as we go through the course of today, what you'll find is with fair weather cloud bubbling up, we'll see a few more showers develop and some of those,

especially across east anglia, could be heavy and thundery. but many of us will miss them and get away with a largely dry day with sunny spells. now, temperatures today down a little bit on yesterday. we're looking at a range of 15 in the north to 20 as we push further south. into this evening and overnight, then, many of the showers fading. a lot of dry weather, a lot of clear skies. 0ut towards the west, though, the cloud is going to thicken, heralding the arrival of a weather front, which is going to bring in some rain and also strengthening winds. but if you want to see the supermoon, you've got a good chance in central and eastern parts of the country. but you'll need to wrap up warmly because it's going to be a chilly night, especially in the countryside. tomorrow, we start off with a lot of dry and sunny weather in central and eastern areas, but the rain is going to continue to push northwards and eastwards as we go through the course of the day. so the best of the sunshine will be across northeast england and also much of scotland. temperatures, 15 to about 20 degrees north to south. so then as we move from thursday

into friday, high pressure starts to establish itself across the uk. so we're looking at a fair bit of cloud to start with, some mist and some fog — that will lift. there will be a few showers dotted around as well, but fewer than on thursday and we are looking at a lot of dry weather and sunshine by the afternoon. highs, 11: to 21 degrees. so here is that area of high pressure i was talking about, really establishing itself across the uk as we head on through the course of the weekend. so a lot of dry and a lot of settled conditions to come. so on saturday, we start off with some low cloud, some mist and some fog, that will slowly lift. there will be one or two showers here and there, but most of us again will miss them and get away with a largely dry day with sunny spells. temperatures 11: to 23 degrees, so those temperatures starting to pick up. and then for sunday, again, a similar story with high pressure firmly in charge, a lot of dry weather, a fair bit of sunshine, with highs up to 22.

this is bbc news, the headlines russia has reported ukrainian drone attacks in six different regions, with military cargo planes damaged at an airport in pskov. army officers in gabon appear on national television saying they've taken power

and are annulling the results of saturday's election. the president is reportedly under house arrest. australia will hold a constitutional referendum in october on whether to recognise its indigenous people for the first time. back to our top story. ukraine and russia have launched a wave of air strikes against each other. the biggest air attack on ukraine's capital kyiv in months has killed two people. russia has also reported ukrainian drone attacks in six different regions, with military cargo planes damaged at an airport in pskov. the local governor said the military was repelling an attack. he uploaded a video showing a large fire while an explosion could also be heard. all flights have since been cancelled as local officials investigate the scene. pskov is more than 600 kilometres , or about 370— miles away from ukraine, close to the border with estonia. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg sent us this update from st petersburg...

well, this is following a pattern.