elian's fear of having to spend the night on the surfboard was becoming real.

from nicaragua, celimar had travelled across honduras and guatemala and then, crossed into mexico, evading the migration police. in mexico, celimar was hidden in a safe house controlled by the cartels.

after windsurfing for nearly two days, elian was drifting closer to florida but he had pushed his body to its limits.

elian was rescued just after sunset. he received urgent medical care. after three days, alejandro thought he could see lights on the horizon. as the sun rose, he realised it was a hotel.

after 13 days on the road, celimar was getting close to the us border. but there was one final challenge — the notorious rio bravo. because of the strong currents, many migrants have died on this crossing, and celimar was trying to cross in winter.

at the start of 2023, following a record influx of migrants, the us government took radical action. in texas, troops were deployed to the mexican border. and a new parole programme was introduced. cubans who entered the us illegally would not be eligible to apply. with elian already in florida, his wife and daughter had been making the dangerous crossing by land from nicaragua. they made it over the us border just before the new system came into effect. all three of them are now applying for asylum.

celimar is now also living in florida with herfather. she is also applying for leave to remain. but under the new application system, cubans trying to come to the us now need prior authorisation. those who attempt a journey like hers risk being deported.

alejandro hopes one day to bring his son to the us, via a safer route — through the new parole programme. but the new programme is estimated to have received nearly 400,000 cuban applications already for limited places. as long as the economic crisis in cuba remains, it's feared more will risk their lives trying to leave the island.

hello. there are big changes happening weatherwise again this week, but at the moment, still feeling very much like autumn. temperatures below the seasonal average, lots of dry weather, blue sky and sunshine, pretty autumn colours over the weekend and high pressure still dominates as we head through monday. it will push ever so slowly further eastwards, eventually allowing low pressure systems to push in from the southwest. it's another chilly start to the day on monday, but a patchy frost again possible across england and wales in particular. temperatures a little milder across northern ireland and scotland with more in the way of cloud. but that cloud will tend to break up, i think, as the day wears on.

so some brightness and sunshine emerging, especially through the afternoon. maybe a few isolated showers. we'll see some showers towards north sea facing coasts for england and wales. it's a sunnier start to the day, but more cloud will build through the afternoon. temperatures likely to peak again a little below the seasonal average, ii to 14 degrees celsius. it's still windy across the northern isles on monday and it will turn windier towards these channel coasts too, as we head towards the end of the day. why? well, this area of low pressure pulls in from the southwest. it's going to turn pretty unsettled for much of the rest of the week. but on tuesday, again, it is largely dry, quite blustery, with a brisk easterly wind, especially towards the south. there'll be outbreaks of rain edging into parts of cornwall, western wales, i think by the time we get to the end of the day, further north, largely dry, top temperatures peaking between 11 and 15 degrees celsius, starting to draw some milder air in along with these weather fronts.

and they're due to push further northwards and eastwards as we head throughout the night on tuesday and into wednesday. so turning much more unsettled across the border, brisk easterly to south easterly wind blowing. there'll be outbreaks of rain. some of that rain likely to be heavy at times, especially across the south west of england, wales, those showers pushing up through to parts of scotland as well. but in the milderfeeling air, temperatures will rise as high as perhaps 18 or 19 degrees celsius across the south west and the channel islands. but then the focus of that rain will change as we head through thursday and friday. and it's quite likely that we'll see some of the heaviest downpours across central and eastern areas of scotland. and there are already met office weather warnings in force. there could be some exceptionally heavy rain in these areas. severe gales, too, towards the east coast. here's the outlook for our capital cities, turning milder but much more unsettled. bye bye.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm arunoday mukharji. the headlines. release the hostages and let

aid in — the double appeal to hamas and israel from the un secretary general as he warns the middle east is on the verge of an abyss. israel continues its bombardment of the gaza strip, with fighter planes and drones striking targets across the territory. the white house says israel has turned on the water supply in southern gaza following a conversation between us president and the israeli prime minister. and the us secretary of state antony blinken is to return to israel following talks in the region — he says israel should take every precaution to avoid harming civilians.

welcome to the programme.