meanwhile, in the uk flash flooding leaves homes inundated and businesses damaged after another night of intense rainfall. and britain's "youngest knife murderers" to be sentenced over the killing of shawn seesahai. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. flash flooding has caused damage to homes and businesses in parts of england, after another night of heavy rainfall. it's just days after some areas experienced more than a month's worth of rainfall on monday. 60 flood warnings are now in place. simon jones has more. ooh, look at my car. in leicester last night, this road resembled a river and the relentless rain keeps on falling. some areas received more than a month's worth in a single day. in egham in surrey, the wind

has been whipping up too, creating wild conditions. in birmingham, cars have been caught out. in selly oak, it's been a busy time for the emergency services helping rescue drivers. public transport has been doing its best to keep on running, but at birmingham new street station there have been delays and cancellations. the environment agency has this advice for anyone heading out. there will be a lot of water out on the roads and travel might be really difficult, so we need them to make sure they pay attention to any emergency services. and later in the day we are expecting further rainfall in areas through the midlands. telford united football club says it's been deluged after a thunderstorm. it's appealing to fans to come and help dry out their flooded pitch. this nearby street shows any clean up is going to take some time. with rain falling onto already saturated ground, the warning is that there

is more disruption ahead. and simon updated us from one of the worst affected areas. i'm in bedfordshire, and the rain has been coming down all morning. it has been really, really heavy, and that has meant a lot of anxious people, when they look at the level of the river here. on monday, when there was torrential downpours here, the river reached its highest level ever recorded. a number of homes flooded here nearby, so people are wondering when this rain will feed into this river, whether there will be flooding here again. we know that some roads have been affected, and some local schools have decided to close today because the conditions on the roads are so bad. overall, there are more than 60 flood warnings in place in england, that means flooding is

expected, and more than 120 flood alerts in england and wales, meaning flooding is possible. it gives you an idea of the severity of the situation. further afield, on the m5 motorway near bristol, a really important route, that has had to be shut because there's so much water on the carriageway. there were some cars stuck there. it gives you a sense of just what we're dealing with, because we have had days of rain coming down, deluges really, feeding into the river system, into the road system, causing a lot of problems. in terms of what we are expecting, the situation is going to improve in terms of the weather. the weather warnings in place this morning have now expired, but the consequences of the rain that has come down over the past few hours, but i probably yet to be felt. thank you very much for the latest on that. you can go to a life page that

we are running on that, it has all of the information on, it has all the information on the latest there when it comes to the floods, and of course we have some more than 60 flood wan wantings in place at the moment. —— warnings in place at the moment. we have a also heard we were telling you more about... we were tell jog were telling you more about... we were telljog more about developments on storm helene, hurricane helene in the us which hit florida as a category four, we have had an update, we have been told that it is now weakened to a tropical storm us officials say, there is still concerns about storm surges and flooding in the aftermath of hurricane helene, which is now moving towards the us state of georgia, in the south of america. we will bring more on that, and as you can see on the screen, there is a qr code you can scan if you want to stay across developments when it comes to the weather conditions

in the united states as well. there is increasing international pressure for a ceasefire between israel and hezbollah. sir keir starmer used his first speech at a un general assembly to call for an end to the fighting in lebanon. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has said ceasefire negotiations will continue but the idf will not yet stop targeting the iranian—backed group, which continues to fire rockets into israel. us officials said that mr netanyahu originally gave his assent to a truce, but changed his mind in the face of opposition from hardliners in his government. mr netanyahu will address the united nations general assembly later today. robert fox, the defence editor for the evening standard, gave us his reading on what's going on in the region. will continue and sometimes intensifies, both sides think

that they can get an advantage, israel particularly, in that it is claiming to knock out hezbollah positions, particularly rocket launching sites and command and control posts. it is striking into beirut at times, which is causing a lot of collateral damage but they seem to be targeting commanders, the intelligence is working well at the moment, as far as israel is concerned and the hezbollah leadership is concerned, there is no realistic prospect immediately of a ceasefire, because they can both think you talk about that present way of washington war, you have studied hezbollah in detail in your reporter career, there has been a real, it has been a real blow to their capabilities since the last week or so with those pager and walkie—talkie attacks, but do you think they still have sufficient

capability to carry on doing what they want to do from their perspective? well, i think that the, you need to make the comparison with 2006, which was a war that lasted almost to a day for a month, between israel and hezbollah, in which they both entered the war, if i could put it like this, on the wrong terms and both ended badly. it was very, very damaging for both. now the hezbollah of today compared with the hezbollah of then, is many, many times over many factors better armed. this is the thing that really worries, quite rightly, the israelis. medium term, rockets, but also missiles that they believe they claim can strike any israeli conurbation, city, village, in israel, and also there is the sharing of the technology coming from iran, with other allies, like the houthis in yemen, who have been firing

ballistic missiles, we now think, experimentally on israel. that is the state of hezbollah, but i don't want to get into great details but it is very, very difficult to frame the political entity that is hezbollah. we tend it get it wrong by calling it a terror organisation, no it is a state within a state. it participates in the lebanese state. they have portfolios in the government which couldn't work by the way, the government coalition, coalition government, they have a large amount of the shi'ite population, the largest minority in lebanon, the shias across the arab world and a lot of allies, they have a brand of militancy which drives a brand

of politics which is not going — politics, that is the mistake of the absolutist approach of israel. they have got come to terms with hezbollah, and they have got to come to terms in a way that doesn't pitch them into an outle right war with iran. the sentencing of two 13 year—old boys for the murder of shawn seesahai is expected to conclude today. the 19—year—old was killed with a machete in wolverhampton in november last year. the boys are believed to be the youngest convicted murderers since the killing ofjames bulger more than 30 years ago. our midlands correspondent phil mackie reports. posing with the machete just hours before it was used to take a teenager's life. this picture was found on one of the boy's phones, where the police also found a conversation in which one said "i'm scared man," to which the other replied, "i'm not," and "idrc," or i don't really care,

the morning after they'd murdered shawn seesahai. this is the last image of shawn a few minutes before he was fatally attacked in a nearby park. they killed my son like they kill a dog or something, you know? they chop his leg, they chop his arm, they chop piece off his head out. they stab him through and through. the boys were arrested the next day, and the murder weapon was found under one of their beds. they were convicted after a five week trial injune. because they were so young, the judge and barristers abandoned their gowns and wigs, and specially trained staff and family members sat alongside the boys to offer support. shawn seesahai had come to the uk from the british overseas territory of anguilla for treatment after suffering a detached retina during a basketball game. his parents couldn't afford to come back to the uk for this hearing, but hope the boys are given a long sentence. give these children maybe a life sentence to show other children that what they will reach if they do something like this.

ijust want good, good justice for my child. i really want good justice for my son. ijust hope and pray that we get good justice for him. shawn's family couldn't afford to come to court for sentencing. instead, the anguillan government's uk representative read out a statement on their behalf in which they said, "it has left a huge hole in the pit of our stomachs, which nothing can fill. we are devastated as a family, totally heartbroken." the boys will both be sentenced to life for murder, but in a few hours, mrsjustice tipples will set out the minimum term that each must serve before they become eligible for parole. back in anguilla his family will be watching today via a video link, knowing that whatever happens, it won't bring their son back. phil mackie, bbc news. the bbc�*s navtej johal has the latest from outside court. the two boys who were 12

at the time of the murder, and are now 13, will be brought into the court. they have not been sitting in the dock of the court, due to their age, they have been sitting in the main body of the court, the well of the court. they have been accompanied by a family member each and a member of court staff, to explain to them what is going on in simple terms they would understand. and then the judge will read out their sentence, and she will set out the minimum term that they will have to serve in prison before they are eligible for parole. you heard a moment ago from phil there, that the sentencing began yesterday, and during that sentencing we heard a very emotional and distressing statement read on behalf of shawn seesahai's family. his parents and his younger sister talked about the devastation his death caused them. how they are haunted by his final moments

and their confusion about why this happened, a trivial matter over nothing — the two parties did not even know each other, and yet this incident will have consequences now, which will last the rest of their lives. the partner of nicola bulley has described the online obsession with her disappearance as a "monster" which got out of control. the 45—year—old mother—of—two went missing while walking her dog in january last year. her body was found a month later. her disappearance received world—wide coverage and became the subject of online conspiracy theories by amateur internet detectives. herfamily and friends have been speaking to the bbc. emergency. hello, my partner left this morning at 8:30 to take my two children to school, and the dog went with her. and then the school's just rung me to say that

they've just found the dog, somebody found the dog, and my partner's put her phone down on a bench and the dog lead. nicky would usually get back after taking the girls and walking willow. when i got there, got handed willow and like, then i was handed nicky's phone and i'm just sort of stood there like, what? what? i wasjust sat on my desk and i got a phone call from paul, and he was panicky and frantic, and he was like, "something's happened, something strange has happened." we got a phone call, i didn't we, from louise to say nicky's missing. we drove over as quick as we could to paul's, and i said, "i've got to go to st michael's." i've got to try and help. there was a possibility that she'd entered the water. there was a possibility that she'd sought time alone and left the area.

there was a possibility that she was ill or injured on land. but the biggest thing was the dog, willow. she was off the lead, there was nothing to keep her in that location physically, but she wouldn't leave the area between the bench and the water. in my mind she was in the water. i was really hoping we'd hear something before dark. somebody will be in touch with you there, 0k? we didn't sleep much. no. we just kept saying, where are you? - yeah. on the day that i took over the case, i went to meet the family. at no point was paul ever a suspect. he'd not left the house until he was contacted by the school. she just seemed like a normal person, like myself. it could be me, like, i walk my dogs. i was then trying to understand what had happened, why it had happened. there was an update a couple of days ago... on tiktok i started to do the lives and we got over a thousand, sometimes nearly two, so you could see

it escalating. it can absolutelyl spread the word. there's two billion users worldwide. and when i did that first video, it got. three million views. social media, nicky used it more than i did because she used to sell stuff so she would do live videos. hello, good afternoon. i hope everybody's having a lovely saturday. when you experience something like this, you realise what a huge monster it can be, i guess. lancashire police say they believe that... it was all over social media. it was on the television everywhere. speaking german. it was almost as if people didn't want to believe the police. ijust had a message come up from a lady referring - to a video of me dancing - during lockdown, and she sent me a message saying "wow, they say life goes on, - but dancing around your kitchen like that already." _ and i was like, what the hell? awful things started to be said. i was getting direct

messages from people that i've never met, and you can't do anything about it. we had arranged for a press conference in order to try and negate the conspiracy theorists. as soon as she was reported missing, based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of, nicola was graded as high risk. ijust remember watching it and hearing about - the vulnerabilities and looking at you and thinking, _ "oh, god, media are not. going to leave that there." we had to do something. we spoke to the family, we came up with a form of words with their agreement, and by that i don't mean they were happy about this, they absolutely weren't. "it doesn't have to say that, it doesn't have to say this," and then before we knew it, it had just gone. we were still working on it and then they'd released it. lancashire police are facing a growing backlash for revealing that she'd had ongoing struggles with alcohol and the menopause. what would nicky think of all this? i mean, she'd be, bless her, she would be mortified.

for anyone joining now, . lancashire police said this morning, "you may be aware of police activity around - the river to reports - of a body in the river wyre." at the river bank i could see the divers in the river with what i now know is nicky. so we put a tent up and i sat with nicky in that tent for quite a long time, until she was taken to the hospital. nicky, she was so beautiful, she didn't know it. as far as nicky, going missing and the mystery to it, i guess, it was just an accident. it doesn't always have to be something sinister linked to something that happens. sometimes bad things just happen. cheers, mummy, i miss you,j and i wish you could be here. i still struggle talking about nicky in the past sense. i feel very blessed

that we found each other. the search for nicola bulley will be broadcast on bbc one next thursday, and will be avaible to watch on bbc?iplayer. it's been one year to the day since the sycamore gap, one of the most famous trees in the uk, was illegally cut down. the tree, which stood in a dip next to hadrian's wall in northumberland, was felled with a chainsaw — which sparked outrage and anger. now, the national trust is offering communities the chance to re—plant the saplings rescued from the site. our reporter harriet bradshaw has more. the iconic sycamore gap tree. it was shocking. it was devastating. it felt really brutal. but, a small team managed

to salvage seeds and twigs, which they successfully sowed and grafted in a secret greenhouse. this tree has been given a second chance at life. so, chris, the last time i was here, i could hold these seedlings in my hands. what's happened to them? well, they've grown a little bit. here they are. oh, crikey! look at that. that one's taller than me. and i'm five foot five. yeah, they've done pretty well. how many have you got? we've got roughly about 100 at the moment, but we've got a few more seedlings coming on as well. and there's about nine or so grafts and budded plants. you can't help but feel hopeful handling new life and seeing the roots here are established. but the question now is... ..where will their new homes be? the national trust wants these saplings to be symbols of hope and healing. each tree will go to

a very special place. one of the first will be planted here in memory of 12—year—old fergus. everybody, it's fergus from the cricket channel. and today we're going to be looking at the sweet shop. let's go. we're going to start on one knee. fergus was an absolute delight. um, it was a joy and a real privilege to be his mum. fergus was planning a trip to walk hadrian's wall, along which the sycamore gap tree was nestled. but he never made it. yesterday, they gave me some news. i have some sort of cancer in my leg. he was diagnosed with primary bone cancer — osteosarcoma. your worst fear after your child dies is that he'll be forgotten. since fergus died, nature has been a constant source of strength to us — its power to regenerate and to console.

take me to where this tree is going to go, then, ruth. this is the spot we chose. fergus came here every day. there's something about the story of the new life being created from the sycamore gap that made me think of all — all the children affected by childhood cancer. they deserve a second chance of life. the original sycamore was 49ft tall, and there will be 49 saplings for communities to apply for. it's really satisfying seeing how well they've done actually. it was a little bit touch and go at the beginning. the trees will be going to projects such as this — tina's haven in easington on the durham coast. where do we think that the sapling might go then, eric? thinking about the entrance, because i think it could be really powerful. and my daughter tina

was absolutely a unique human being. through her life, although she had issues with childhood trauma, addiction and her mental health, she was bold, she was strong, she was beautiful. sue robson's daughter tina died in 2020, aged 35. following her death, sue wanted to create a wild sanctuary — a place of recovery for others dealing with the problems tina faced. when tina died, my hope died with her. and, equally, when that beautiful tree was cut down, you know, it was a violent, devastating act. but where the parallel came in was about those themes of hope, of nature, of recovery. having the tree, you know, such a significant symbol of hope is absolutely massive. to be planted next year, they're being called trees of hope for the people and communities they'll

become part of. harriet bradshaw, bbc news. breaking news on the at investigation about the former owner of harrods mohamed al fayed. the bbc documentary of course, that uncovered allegations from a number of women who said they had been sexually assaulted, and even raped by mr al fayed who is no longer alive, although there is a statement we have received from the justice for haar records survivor group, and it says, since anning nows our proposed claim we have been responding to inquiries from more survivors of abuse, whether from more survivors of abuse, whetherfrom harrods more survivors of abuse, whether from harrods or in other corners of mohamed al fayed empire, we have heard from others who were witnesses to that abuse, finally we are hearing from current employees who were relaying both their current and historic experiences. the statement goes

on to say we thank the bbc for including our team on to say we thank the bbc for including ourteam in on to say we thank the bbc for including our team in their originaljournalism and we original journalism and we thank originaljournalism and we thank ourfriend and originaljournalism and we thank our friend and colleague and other media for sharing the stories of the dozens of survives we represent with such great care. we salute the courage of survives who are speaking for the first time about their experiences, their courage and visibility is helping our team ex planned pandemic our understanding of harrod's vast abuse. they say their response has been enormous, to date we have feel fielded well over 200 inquiry, messages coming from all over the world. result of this activity, we can now confirm that we represent 60 survivors of part of our claim. to reiterate our claim is becoming increasingly global, in scope. we thank each of these brave women for placing their trust in us as we now move forward together. it says we will continue to respond to inquiries and update the public inquiries and update the public

in due course, it also says that they are now in possession of credible evidence of abuse at other mohamed al fayed properties and businesses, including fulham football club. so that is the summary of that, to remind you we heard from michael ward the current ceo of harrods yesterday and he said harolds was appalled by the allegation of abuse perpetrated by mohamed al fayed, and they condemned them in the strongest terms, he said harrodeds today is a very different organisation to one that was owned and controlled by mohamed al fayed. we will have more on that very important story throughout the day here on bbc news, so do stay with us, now let us take a quick break from the news and look at the weather with matt taylor. hello. we've already seen record rainfall across some parts of england and wales this month. there is a little bit of a respite with us though, during the rest of today and into tomorrow, with some sunshine around. there'll still be a few

showers, but the big difference as well will be how chilly it will feel. this is the cloud which brought all the rain yesterday. been moving its way southwards and eastwards. here are the clearer skies working their way in. but with it we are seeing the colder air push its way south, as that cloud starts to clear. now some of that cloud, outbreaks of rain, even to the start of the afternoon, will be lingering across east anglia and the southeast. but elsewhere the sunshine will be starting to break through. a few showers dotted around here and there. the odd heavy one, particularly across northern scotland, could be wintry over the higher ground. and these are your temperatures this afternoon — eight to 13 or 14 degrees, down on the september average, but also made to feel colder than that, given the brisk wind coming in from the north or northwest, which eases a little bit as you go into tonight. a few showers dotted around the coast. more cloud, outbreaks of rain into western scotland later, but inland, with clearer skies, winds falling a bit lighter in the countryside, we could see temperatures drop low enough for a touch of frost, maybe even subzero across parts of northern england and into scotland. scotland, northern ireland, a bit more cloud again tomorrow, with some showery bursts of rain, but a bit of brightness here at times. england, wales, lovely bright, crisp start, sunshine around.

many will have a dry day. some northern and western areas, just one or two showers, but nowhere near the intensity of the showers we've seen this week. another cool one at 11 to 15 degrees, but the winds will be a little bit lighter. then another cold night saturday night into sunday. but cast your eyes down to the south west. this is not what we want to see. and a big deep area of low pressure set to bring windy weather, but also more wet weather onto already saturated ground. the day starts dry and bright for many. cloud increases, scotland stays largely dry though throughout, but we'll see rain edge into ireland, wales, parts of southern and western england as we go through into the afternoon, some of which could be on the heavy side. again, not quite as heavy as we've seen recently, but it is going to be falling where we've already got risk of flooding. 50—60 mile an hour gusts are attached with that as it pushes its way across mainly england and wales through saturday, sunday night into monday, gradually clearing. some drier weather around monday, tuesday and wednesday, but there will be some brisk winds along eastern coast with some high tides as well.

bye for now. live from london. this is bbc news. israel's prime minister says ceasefire talks will continue even though he's called for the military to carry out further strikes on hezbollah targets in lebanon. helene weakens to a tropical storm as it moves over the us state of georgia after battering florida with powerful winds

and severe flooding. sudan's vicious civil war puts women and girls at severe risk of sexual violence — we have a special report from the front line. and could criminals use ai clones to steal money? businesses are being told to watch out. hello. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has said negotiations on a ceasefire with hezbollah will continue, even as he's called on israeli forces to continue their offensive against the iranian—backed lebanese group. mr netanyahu is due to address the united nations general assembly in a matter of hours. one southern lebanon mayor says nine people — including four children — were killed in an israeli attack during the night. and syrian state media says an israeli strike killed five syrian soldiers near the border with lebanon. hezbollah continues to fire rockets into northern israel,

hitting two areas near haifa.