is philadelphia where the stage is set and the camping teams are making theirfinal set and the camping teams are making their final preparations as donald trump and kamala harris get to set to face off for the first time. our other main stories this hour. the un condemns an israeli air strike in southern gaza that killed at least 19 palestinians. israel says it was targeting hamas. prince william on his wife's cancerjourney. he tells well—wishers she still has a long way to go. three, two, one, ignition... spacex launches the polaris dawn rocket from florida and the first privately funded spacewalk by non—astronauts. welcome to bbc news. there are just a few hours until the first head—to—head tv debate between donald trump

and kamala harris. the 90—minute showdown will take place in philadelphia in the swing state of pennsylvania. the bbc�*s sumi somaskanda is there for us. thank you, steve. it's the first time the rivals for the white house go head to head and vice—president kamala harris has again highlighted donald trump's poor record with facts ahead of their debate. we have heard from both campaigns about how these candidates have prepared. donald trump having policy discussions with his team ahead of the debate. kamala harris was hunkered down in at the tail in pittsburgh, actually going through the pieces in an actual debate stage scenario with a colleague was dressed as donald trump. those were the perforations the immensity, just a few hours away and there will be facing each other for the first time head—to—head. it comes as the election is on a nice edge.

the latest poll of polls shows that kamala harris is three points ahead but many pundits say the reality is that it's too close to call. our north america editor, sarah smith, reports. after all the showbiz razzmatazz of the summer conventions, this race is about to get a lot more scrappy as they go head—to—head in what may be the pivotal moment of this very close race, and the stakes could not be higher. the last time donald trump took part in a tv debate, his opponent's candidacy collapsed. president trump? i really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don't think he knows what he said, either. kamala harris insists she is more than ready to meet donald trump face—to—face for the first time. as the saying goes, "if you've got something to say, say it to my face". american voters say they do want to see major change, and that could be tricky for a candidate who has been in office as vice president

for the last four years. kamala harris wants voters to focus instead on the dangers of re—electing donald trump. donald trump is an unserious man, but the consequences... but the consequences of putting donald trump back in the white house are extremely serious. donald trump has appeared unsettled by kamala harris. lying kamala harris, lying. i call her laughing kamala. you ever watch her laugh? she's crazy. i'm a better looking person than kamala. philadelphia loves this famous landmark sculpture. well, the summer love—in enjoyed by kamala harris, both in voter enthusiasm and fundraising, is inevitably fading. in fact, this debate feels so crucial because both candidates are now neck—and—neck in the polls. this will be donald trump's seventh presidential debate, kamala harris's first. with hillary clinton

in 2016, he loomed intimidatingly behind her. because you'd be injail. four years ago, in the vice presidential debate, mss harris wasn't taking any nonsense from mike pence. and i want to add... mr vice president, i'm speaking. the manner in which both candidates are preparing for this debate tells you a great deal about them. kamala harris has been carefully practising for days on a purpose built stage while donald trump is discussing policy with some aides, but he won't actually rehearse. he wants to rely on his gut reactions on the night. both candidates know they cannot afford any mistakes. it could be this debate that decides who claims victory in eight weeks' time. as we have said, the stakes are high here tonight, we have spoken to both camping teams about the strategy for tonight, and for kamala harris, her team

has been clear about focusing on policy and talking about kamala harris economic policies, talking about an opportunity economy, focusing on the middle class and those high cost of living, tax breaks for small businesses and startups, on the other hand, donald trump side say they want to focus on policy and what they say is kamala harris railings over the last three and half years. they say it is not president biden who is responsible for inflation and the chaos at the southern border, referring to immigration, but kamala harris was the chief architect of those policies, and they believe they can talk to american voters on these issues, and i want to ask some questions now. i'm joined now by stacey plaskett — a democrat — who's the delegate to the us house of representatives from the us virgin islands. congresswoman, if you can hear us, i hope you can, but great to have you with us, i don't want to start with what you think kamala harris needs to achieve in this debate tonight.

thank you for having me. i think there is so much that can be done in this debate this evening. i think there is the ability for the vice president to show the start difference in vision for our country. vice president harris is focused on the future, on the new way forward, protecting our freedoms, including reproductive freedoms, or voting rights, as well as a vision for the middle class, and what she will try to attempt to show is the stark difference between her and donald trump, who is running to re—enact, enact, stream dangerous project 2025 agenda, but as was to take us back to a time that i don't believe americans are willing to go to, whether that is women having less rights than they did after the 70s, voting rights, etc. let me jump the 70s, voting rights, etc. let mejump in there, because

looking at some of the recent polling from the new york times, you see voters absolutely want change, but they actually see donald trump as more of the change candidate, not kamala harris, what do you think of that? i think what they see is donald trump as a disruptor, but that they don't really see him as a change agent, and i think that is what the whole is not really getting at. i think what the voters are going to hear from kamala harris is that she is going to show, quote or yes, i am about creating opportunities for americans they have not had before, that we are willing to turn the page on this america, and while donald trump is a disruptor, what she is offering is a way that's actually from the past, that is when men,... whiteman, were in charge, not

really women or minorities in this country. really women or minorities in this country-— really women or minorities in this country. let me ask about some issues — this country. let me ask about some issues come _ this country. let me ask about some issues come the - this country. let me ask about some issues come the top - this country. let me ask about i some issues come the top issues for many voters right now are the economy and immigration, or border security at the southern border. looking at the polls, voters trust donald trump more than kamala harris on these issues, and how do you think she needs to address this? i don't think that is entirely correct regarding the two issues all voters are interested in, you're looking at the specific demographic when you're looking at the polls that are just about the economy or the border, but i think emily harris, when it comes to the border, will show a former president, was willing to tank one of the strongest border protection bills that was negotiated with conservative republicans in the senate at his own behest, and thatis senate at his own behest, and that is what donald trump did. when it comes to taxes and the

economy, what she is going to be able to show is the number ofjobs and contrasting what has happened in the united states, which is the envy of the world in terms of lower inflation than other countries, and what she is continuing to do to ensure that middle—class americans have opportunities, whether in terms of lowering taxes for us in the middle class, health care, and price gouging in the marketplace, what she is working on and he's not. so i think it's time to show her vision.— not. so i think it's time to show her vision. she is talking about the _ show her vision. she is talking about the opportunity - show her vision. she is talking l about the opportunity economy, so one more question for you, we were speaking to a democratic structure just earlier, talking about the fact that voters feel they do not know who kamala harris is and what she stands for, and she referred to this as a make or break evening for kamala harris, do you see it that way? it is one opportunity over many

she would have in the next 60 days to show the american people who she is, and i think it will be her ability to show not only who she is and what their policies are, but to show it in contrast to someone who is in fact a strong man, whether it is donald trump, vladimir putin, or heads of other despot, totalitarian, would be, regimes, and that is a contrast she needs to show in this debate as well as showing americans a vision for the future, and she has been going throughout the country and showing to everyday americans, democrats have been knocking on doors, we had the largest surridge in volunteers throughout this country talking to everyday americans and getting them to the polls, getting them to the polls, getting them to vote, that is what is most important at the end of the date. 0ne —— not one

debate, but everything happened in our barbershops, grocery stores, at kitchen tables with the american people.- the american people. stacey plaskett, — the american people. stacey plaskett, democratic - the american people. stacey plaskett, democratic house | the american people. stacey i plaskett, democratic house of representatives from the us virgin islands, thank you for joining us tonight. and steve, just as we are getting set, just as we are getting set, just under two hours since the debate, just to get a sense, to my left is a spin room, and your hearing more noise because just ahead of the debate and after you see the biggest surrogates from the democrats and republicans, big names from the parties who are supporters of the nominees speaking to the media and we would speak to some of them, so tune into our coverage starting at 8pm us time.

don't forget you'll be able to watch full coverage of the abc news presidential debate here on bbc news. 0ur coverage starts from 8pm east coast time — and 1am if you're in the uk. let's get the rest of the news. at least 19 people were killed in an overnight israeli strike in southern gaza according to the hamas—run health ministry. the strike obliterated an area within the designated humanitarian zone for displaced palestinians, leaving huge craters in the sand. you can see from this satellite image where the attack took place. it's an area crammed with tents and a place the israeli army has been encouraging gazan civilians to go to. the al—mawasi humanitarian zone is in the south—west of the country. it's being increasingly stripped back by the israeli army, and now spans just 25 square kilometres, according to the un. with the latest, here's our middle east correspondent, lucy williamson. they searched for survivors in the place people fled to survive. gaza's mawasi safe zone, hit by israeli air strikes last night. an encampment of displaced families who went to sleep

in tents and woke up in this. even the living stood lifeless this morning. the loss after 11 months of war impossible to avoid, difficult to take in. there had been no warning, survivors said, of the air strikes that buried families, set fire to shelters. local staff at a uk field hospital said shrapnel sliced through their tents. "there are no fighters here," this man says, "just displaced people." "these are the rockets they drop on children." aya madi, displaced from rafah, said she dug her seven children out of the rubble. translation: we woke up| to nothing but sand and fire. my children were screaming "mama, mama." i couldn't tell if they were alive or dead. i held my two—month—old son, thinking he was dead, covered in sand.

thank god he was still alive. israel's army said it used precise weapons to target three hamas commanders directly involved in the 7th 0ctober attacks. so far, it has not confirmed they are among the casualties, but medics say women and children are. today, they wrap three—year—old aleen in a plastic sheet for burial. her mother and her aunt, both pinned to the floor in grief. israel has bombed the mawasi safe zone several times before, blaming hamas for using it as cover. and raising questions over whether that grim calculation is breaking international law. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. more details have emerged about israeli soldiers forcefully intercepting a un convoy carrying polio vaccination workers into northern gaza on monday. the un said troops pointed

their guns at un staff, fired shots near them and rammed un vehicles with tanks and bulldozers. some then faced more than seven hours of interrogation. israel said it was working on intelligence about palestinian militants. the world health organization said israel also stopped one of its polio convoys on tuesday, causing it to abandon its vaccination efforts. the aim of the campaign is to vaccinate a total of 640,000 children. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. russia is reported to be planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tighten its system for censoring the internet. part of the aim, they say, is to better restrict the use of virtual private networks to bypass controls. russia says it's to prevent criminal activity and ensure the integrity of the internet. poland has criticised a decision by germany, to impose tighter controls along all its borders. the polish prime minister, donald tusk, called it �*unacceptable' and has called for urgent consultations with

germany's other neighbours. germany's interior minister announced the measure on monday, calling it temporary. a court in brazil has awarded the far—right former president, jair bolsonaro, and his wife more than 2500 dollars in compensation for claims made by his successor. president luiz inacio lula da silva had accused mr bolsonaro of stripping the alvorada palace of more than 300 pieces of furniture, including the bed, upon his departure. the court found that the objects taken had belonged to the bolsonaros. harvey weinstein is said to be recovering after emergency heart surgery. the disgraced hollywood producer, who is held at a new york prison, was taken to hospital on sunday for the operation. he is currently serving a jail sentence for sex offences, including rape, committed in los angeles. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

the number of people killed after typhoon yagi swept through northern vietnam has climbed to 127, according to the disaster management agency. the authorities estimate more than 50 people are still missing; the number of injured has surpassed 700. the storm has left large areas under floodwaters, and forced thousands of people to leave their homes. yagi made a landfall in vietnam on saturday, bringing with it torrential rains and causing the worst flooding the country has seen in decades. some 600,000 people gathered in a field outside timor—leste's capital dili for one of the biggest masses of pope francis's papacy. the open—air congregation represents nearly half the population of the small southeast asian country — one of the most roman catholic places on earth and the only catholic—majority nation the pontiff is visiting on his asia—pacific tour. pope francis flies to singapore on wednesday for the last leg of his 12—day tour.

prince william has spoken about his wife's cancer journey to well—wishers in wales on his first public engagement since the relase of a personal video narrated by princess catherine on monday. meanwhile buckingham palace have released details of king charles and queen camilla's state tour of australia and samoa next month. it will be the king's first formal royal tour overseas, since his cancer diagnosis in february. 0ur senior royal corresspondent, daniela relph, reports. cheering and applause. wherever he went in llanelli, there were cards, well—wishers and questions about his wife. the prince of wales told the crowds catherine had a long journey ahead, but life was looking more positive. i shook his hand and i wished him all the best and i said to give our regards to kate. i said how pleased we were to see that catherine was feeling better and recovering from her treatment, and how much she is loved, how much we all love her. and what did he say to that? thank you — yes, she is better. children sing.

a musical welcome at a local primary school... very nice to see you. ..where he met pupils and was given presents for his own children — although he warned he would have to keep an eye on his youngest son. keep them away from louis, because he will try and steal all his sisters'. from the princess of wales yesterday, there was cautious optimism about the future. the personal family film marked the end of her treatment and the next stage of her recovery. cameras click. but for the king, his cancer treatment is ongoing. doctors, though, have said he is well enough to visit australia and samoa next month, with changes made to his schedule. a palace spokesperson said they were tying to preserve the king's energy as much as possible. he won't now visit new zealand, to reduce the amount of travelling. rest periods have been built into his schedule. and in australia, engagements will be limited to sydney and canberra.

pipes and drums play. it has been a challenging year for the royal family, but the king and queen's tour of australia and samoa, a sign that normal royal business has resumed. daniela relph, bbc news, buckingham palace. a space x rocket has blasted off from florida carrying four people due to make the first spacewalk by non—professional astronauts. polaris dawn is also aiming to travel deeper into space than any crewed mission in more than half a century. 0ur science correspondent, pallab ghosh has the story. three, two, one... ..ignition. for a moment, night turns to day. the polaris dawn mission lights up the skies as it makes its journey into orbit, higher than anyone has been since the apollo moon missions. t plus 35 seconds into the polaris dawn mission. flying crew onboard dragon and falcon 9 to new heights.

inside, four private—sector astronauts. they are billionaire jared isaacman, who's paid for the mission and is the commander, his close friend scott "kidd" poteet, a retired air force pilot, and two spacex engineers, anna menon and sarah gillis. stage separation confirmed. applause. that's the successful separation of the first stage. a critical moment now over, next stop, space. the spacecraft will reach a maximum altitude of 870 miles above the earth. that's nearly three and a half times the distance to the international space station, which is 250 miles. its orbit will take it through a region of space that's higher in radiation, called the van allen belt, which starts at about 600 miles. but the astronauts should be safe inside the spacecraft. isaacman and gillis will be carrying out a two—hour spacewalk below the radiation

belt at 435 miles. the astronauts have been training for the spacewalk for more than two years. they'll be wearing extravehicular activity, or eva spacesuits, that have been upgraded to withstand the vacuum of space. spacex does not take this lightly. they know they need eva capability, the knowledge of the operations and the suit, in order to fulfil their long—term dream of of potentially populating another planet someday. thus far, really only countries have been able to perform a spacewalk, and spacex has these huge ambitions of getting to mars and making life multi—planetary. and in order to get there, we need to start somewhere. and the first step is what we're doing on this mission, which is testing out the first iteration of a new eva suit. applause. the first stage lands successfully — ready to be reused.

it's so far so good for polaris dawn, as the crew begin to prepare for the very first private sector spacewalk in just three days' time. pallab ghosh, bbc news. some �*breaking' news now — break dancing that is. the australian breaker raygun who came to fame at the paris 0lympics, after being eliminated without winning a single battle at the games has risen to the number one spot in the world rankings. here's the proof from the world dance sport federation website. it says it calculates the rankings based on each athlete's top four performances over the last year. raygun�*s performances failed to score points in any of her 0lympic contests. she lost 18—0 all three times. she said that perhaps thejudges didn't appreciate her moves — which included the sprinkler, and kangaroo—inspired hopping. she also pointed out that she's been the top—ranked b—girl in australia for three

of the last five years. don't forget our special coverage of the abc news presidential debate from philadephia begins in just about 30 minutes — at the top of the hour. there's also a live page on our website. you can find out all the background to the debate plus lots more about the election in november. just head to bbc.com/news — or use the bbc news app. ibe i be back shortly business today. hello. it's going to be quite chilly over the next few days. in fact, it'll feel more like 0ctober rather than the first half of september. wednesday is going to bring some sunny spells, but also brisk winds and quite a few showers, especially in the afternoon. so, here's the big picture across our neck of the woods. here's that stream of chilly air all the way from

the arctic, spreading across ireland, the uk, and many northwestern parts of europe. and the early morning forecast for wednesday shows clearer skies across many eastern and southern areas of the uk, but showers spreading into the northwest. early morning temperatures typically between 6—10 degrees, but it will be colder in rural spots, particularly in the north. so right from the word go, yes, lots of sunshine, but brisk winds and showers from the word go in the northwest of the uk. and some of these showers will become more widespread right across the uk. i think your best chance for dry weather will be along the channel coast and perhaps the southeast and east anglia, but i wouldn't rule out one or two showers here as well. here are the temperatures — really disappointing for this time in september — 15 in london, more typically around 13 in the north, perhaps as low as 10—11 on the north coast of scotland. now on thursday, the winds will be lighter. i think showers will be less frequent. there will be more sunny spells around, so it'll feel better, but on the thermometer i think it'll be about the same.

so 15, 13 or 15 across the bulk of england and wales, perhaps no higher than ten degrees again for many central and northern parts of scotland. now, come the end of the week, we are anticipating the winds to ease, and that's because high pressure will be building in from the southwest — this is the azores high — and this time of the year when that happens, we do tend to see some somewhat warmer weather streaming in from the south. so perhaps the temperatures rising a little bit, maybe 16, maybe 17, in one or two spots and back to about 12, i think, in the north of scotland, not that you'll particularly notice the difference. but you should notice the difference as we go through the weekend. that's because weather fronts are coming closer towards us. that also means a change in the wind direction. it will mean the temperatures will rise, but we'll have to pay for that. there will be some cloud and rain. so yes, slightly more unsettled, but the temperatures for some of us at least will rise. so back into the 20s we go as we head into next week, not everywhere, but it will feel just that little bit warmer. bye— bye.

the us presidential debate is less than two hours away, and candidates are set to clash on key economic issues. plus — one of the former board members of twitter tells the bbc how the firm was acquired by elon musk.

hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the united states, where presidential candidates kamala harris and donald trump are set to take the stage for a one—to—one debate in a few hours' time. they have proposed very different economic policies — involving changes to taxes, spending, immigration and especially trade. that could have a major impact on the asia pacific region, with relations at china at stake. angela mancini explains how us economic policies would evolve under each candidate. i think all eyes are on this debate and typically it's a domestic policy discussion, because china and... the key issues here of course for either of them industrial policy is here to stay and protectionism is here to stay in the united states, we will see largely but not exactly a rerun of the biden and the trump 1.0 administration for the key things are as follows —

how strict would trump be