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. lebanese officials say more than 700 people have been killed in israeli strikes since monday. british prime minister sir keir starmer used his first speech at a un general assembly to call for an end to the fighting. our diplomatic correspondent james landale from new york. there is no ceasefire in beirut. this was the aftermath of yet another air strike in the lebanese capital. israel says it's targeting hezbollah commanders. these were their images of the attack, one that had devastating consequences. at the united nations, the prime minister has been meeting key regional leaders. he signed up to an international call for an immediate ceasefire, a call he echoed as he addressed the un general assembly for the first time. i call on israel and hezbollah, stop the violence, step back from the brink.

we need to see an immediate ceasefire, to provide space for a diplomatic settlement. and we are working with all partners to that end, because further escalation serves no—one, it offers nothing but more suffering for innocent people on all sides. the trouble is that israel's prime minister seems unswayed. he's arrived in new york before addressing the un today. he hasn't explicitly ruled out a ceasefire, but many of his ministers have. my policy, our policy is clear. we are all continuing to strike hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we reach all our goals. chief among them, the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes. american diplomats warn that all—out war will not make northern israel safer, but a negotiated settlement would. but this argument seems, for now, to be

falling on deaf ears. diplomats here were initially optimistic about the possibility of a ceasefire, but that is ebbing fast. they fear that mr netanyahu will bow to domestic pressure rather than international pressure. one said to me, "we are inching towards the brink, not back from it." netanyahu's got to go! benjamin netanyahu was not given a universally warm welcome in new york, protesters calling for an end to the fighting both in lebanon and gaza, a sentiment he may find echoed in the un assembly chamber later today. james landale, bbc news, new york. key arab nations — the united arab emirates, qatar and saudi arabia — were alongside the uk and the united states and others when they grouped together at the un this week to push israel and hezbollah to agree a 21—day ceasefire. the saudi ambassador to the uk, prince khalid bin bandar al saud, has told the bbc there has to be more international pressure.

the whole international community has failed. the fact that we're still. . .that things are escalating means everyone has failed. it's not... it's wrong to apportion blame on one or the other. all of us have failed, and perhaps some have more responsibility than others. but, i've said this before on your show, i think the world has a blind spot to israel. israel does things that under no other circumstances, any other country could get away with and still be considered normal. i can't explain why, itjust is what it is, and i think there is a lot more scope for pressure from the united states. um, and, you know, after the whole world is in new york now, hopefully some of the discussions will lead to a situation where people can feel they can apply the right, correct and fair pressure on israel.

and it's just... what we're looking for is fairness, not something unfair and unjust on israel. israel has a right to defend itself. our correspondents hugo bachega in beirut and yolande knell injerusalem, gave us this update from their respective positions. more rockets being fired by hezbollah. and i think this is another indication that it is very difficult to see how a ceasefire can be achieved. i think yesterday, there was some hope that these intense diplomatic efforts could result in a ceasefire. i think today the mood is much more pessimistic. hezbollah has continued to launch those rockets, and i think this is an indication that the group is unwilling to back down. it says it will continue with those attacks until there is a ceasefire in gaza. and the israelis are saying that their offensive against hezbollah is going to continue, that these air strikes targeting positions

across the country are going to continue. there's also the possibility of a ground incursion into southern lebanon to create a so—called buffer zone, to destroy the infrastructure that has been used by hezbollah, and to push hezbollah away from the border. so, you know, growing calls for a de—escalation. but so far, they haven't been able to stop the violence here. 0k, hugo bachega, thank you for bringing us the latest from beirut. now let's go tojerusalem and join yolande knell, our correspondent there. so, yolande, of course, a lot of eyes will be on the un later today as benjamin netanyahu speaks before the general assembly. what is the thinking at the moment in the israeli government? what's your analysis of how they see things going forward? he says he's still open to a ceasefire, but is that a reality given so many tensions within his own government? well, definitely what we've seen from across the political spectrum on the israeli side is a lot

of pushback against that idea of a three—week ceasefire as proposed by the us and others. and much of the speculation in the israeli media is that does seem to have changed the mind of the prime minister, perhaps, about this whole proposal. i mean, what we had, really, is, when he arrived in new york, the israeli prime minister had come out saying that he didn't agree with the report, suggesting that the lull in the fighting that was seen for a few hours had been because of an agreement about a ceasefire that he'd given that the green light. he said that he had told israeli forces to carry on fighting with full force and then, you know, indicating some tensions going on behind the scenes between israel and its closest ally, the us, we had the white house then coming out and stressing that its efforts to come up with this ceasefire proposal through the week had been carefully

coordinated, it said, with israel. now, early this morning, we had a statement that came from the israeli prime minister's office that said that israeli and us officials were still working very closely together, and it said that israel shared the aim of the 21—day ceasefire proposal, which is basically to get israelis displaced by the 11 months of fighting between israel and hezbollah forces back to their homes in the north of the country, about 60,000 people. so, you know, at the moment, we wait to see where things will go with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, due to address the general assembly later. but he has had members of his coalition government on the far right saying that they would walk away from that government if he was to sign up to a permanent ceasefire with hezbollah at this point. so there are some echoes here of the political influence, the domestic political influence on mr netanyahu, the same

as we've seen when it comes to negotiations with the us mediating about a gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. some breaking news that has come into us, are matters that the uk government has asked commercial airlines to lay on extra flights out of lebanon's capital, beirut. that is to allow british nationals to leave. as we have been reporting throughout the week, is estimated there are several hundred people with british passports in the country, and around 5000 dual nationals and their immediate families. the foreign office has been urging people to leave. it is no reiterating that, urging them all to leave and ii on now is that conflict continues on. middle eastern airlines, middle east airlines i should say, is also laying on extra flights over the weekend, but demand for them is not thought to be huge at the moment, with many people choosing to move

northwards rather than leave the country. that information coming from our diplomatic correspondent there. the uk government urging british nationals to leave lebanon now, and asking commercial airlines to lay on extra flights. but bring you an update on what is going on at the border as well between israel and lebanon. this is looking out onto southern lebanon. the idf has said it has launched dozens of strikes against hezbollah infrastructure sites in southern lebanon. in a statement, it says it has struck a launcher from which rockets were fired this morning towards cities in northern israel. we can show you the scene in northern israel, looking out towards haifa as well. meanwhile, hezbollah say they have launched rockets into haifa, and israel says some were intercepted and fell in open areas. so, activity

launching strikes toward hezbollah by the idf, and hezbollah by the idf, and hezbollah firing rockets into haifa, and the idf saying they struck a launcher from which rockets were fired towards haifa. one more thing to say, the idf are separately seeing that approximately ten projectiles identified coming in from lebanon following sirens in the area of lower galilee. there is more on all of this, and if you want to read developments play by play, they are on the bbc news website on the live page there. you can see the details there on the screen, notjust the website, of course if you are on the move you can find that live page on the bbc news app or on your mobile. we will stay across all developments in the middle east as and when we get them. let's take you to another story we are watching as well. that is the weather in the united states. hurricane helene is barrelling across georgia after causing chaos in florida,

killing three people. it's weakened to a tropical storm but forecasters warn conditions remain "life—threatening". helene hit the big bend region in florida as one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the united states. it's been hurtling southwards — and its expected to hit tennessee and the carolinas next. many roads are under water and nearly two million people are without power. rescuers have been driving through floodwater to reach stranded people. some houses are underwater with residents reporting having to swim out of their homes to get to safety. our weather presenter, sarah keith—lucas, told me more about the meteorological systems behind all of this. well, yes, it has been downgraded now. it did make landfall with winds of 140 miles an hour. winds at the moment are about 80 miles an hour, about 130km an hour. but it is a really huge system. in fact, on the satellite image

you can just see the extent of that system. it's stretched all the way from the gulf of mexico right up towards the great lakes as well. so the rainfall that's been produced with this storm system is absolutely massive in terms of the area it covers. so, a record—breaking size of storm system. it is now heading its way northwards. so once it's moved inland, i think the focus is going to be less on the strength of the wind, but on the really, really intense rainfall as it pushes north really intense rainfall. as it pushes north across parts of georgia into kentucky and tennessee as well, it's going to become increasingly slow moving. so those regions, particularly around the southern appalachians, i think, are going to see flash flooding up to about 20in of rainfall in the worst affected regions. so this is a huge storm system. it is record—breaking in terms of not only the wind speed as it made landfall around the big bend, but also the storm surge. we've already seen nine foot of storm surge, a huge storm surge. we're still seeing, the next few hours, storm surge ongoing, and then it's going to be

the rainfall that's going to be the real focus of the devastating weather associated with helene as it pushes its way northwards over the next 2a to 48 hours, and then just becomes slow moving and sitting across that region of kentucky and tennessee, i think. sera keith lucas there. there is more developments on the bbc news website if you want to stay across what is happening in the united states in the aftermath of her lean, which is now weakened to a tropical storm. 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. simon updated us from one of the worst affected areas. well, 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. now, 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 all feeds into this river, whether there's going to be flooding here again. we know that some roads here 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 that means flooding is expected. and more than 120 flood alerts in england and wales, meaning flooding is possible. so 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 and it gives you a sense there, and it gives you a sense of just what we're dealing with because we have had days of rain coming down, of deluges really, feeding into the river system, into the road system, causing a lot of problems. now, in terms of what we're expecting, the situation is going to improve in terms of the weather. the weather warnings that were in place this morning have now expired, but the consequences of the rain that has come down in the past few hours, well, they're probably still yet to be felt. if you want continuing updates on the situation in the uk when

it comes to the flood seer, you can of course go to the bbc news website. we are running a live page with updates on all of the situations, including the latest on those flood warnings. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

in the past hour, it's been revealed by lawyers representing victims of alleged abuse at the hands of the former harrods boss mohamed al fayed, that more than 60 people have come forward as part of a claim, with more to come. justice for harrods survivors say their claim is becoming increasingly global in scope. this comes after the bbc heard testimony last week from more than 20 former harrods employees who said the billionaire sexually assaulted or raped them. we will have more on that story throughout the day here on bbc

news. there have been further attacks in ukraine overnight. authorities in the south—western odesa region it include a russia drone strike on the danube port of izmail. three people were killed and 11 people were wounded, including a child. it comes as president zelensky continues his diplomatic push in the united states after a meeting at the white house, president biden pledged more military aid. the ukrainian leader also met the us vice president — and democratic presidential nominee — kamala harris, who insisted it was vital to stand up to the russian leader. zelensky will meet donald trump today. sudan has been embroiled in a vicious civil war for nearly 18 months, during which women and girls have been at severe risk of sexual violence. factions of the ruling military fell out over a path back to democracy, and the sudanese army have now launched a major offensive against their rivals, the paramilitary rapid support forces. the un has said sudan is home

to one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises, with 150,000 people killed and 10 million displaced. the bbc�*s barbara plett usher has been given rare access by the army to the front line and reports from the city of omdurman. sudan is at breaking point. just outside the capital city is a crossing between the warring parties. these women have come out of rsf territory. they carry bags to buy food, and also tales of horror. i asked them why

they didn't leave. "we're too poor," they told me. "we have nowhere else to go." almost a year and a half of civil war has destroyed parts of this city and other areas of the country. one of the fiercest battles took place here in omdurman market. it was the largest market in sudan, but you can see the level of destruction now. over several months of intense fighting, the army defeated the rsf in these streets, but the capital is still an active war zone, and diplomatic attempts to end the wider conflict so far have failed. we were escorted at all times by the military who took us to the front line. both sides are accused of war crimes, the rsf more so than the army — charges they deny. i spoke with the commander leading the latest operation.

we're the last line of defence for the sudanese armed forces in a part of southern omdurman. you can see the barrier here and beyond it, less than a kilometre away is the rsf, and in between is a no man's land where there are snipers. and we'vejust heard sniper fire. there's also regular artillery fire. another danger here. but it's sexual violence that's become a defining characteristic of the conflict. one woman told us rsf fighters broke into her house demanding to rape her two daughters. the youngest was ten years old. we've chosen not to identify her for her own safety.

then one of the men raped her. it's late morning — time for the women we met to start the walk back home. for as long as this war goes on, they have no choice but to return to its horrors. barbara plett usher, bbc news, omdurman. japan has a new prime minister. shigeru ishiba has won the race to lead japan's ruling party. he'd been the defence minister beforehand — but now has beaten party rivals to take over leadership of the liberal democratic party. just the liberal democratic party. a reminder of some ( information just a reminder of some of the information coming into us from the middle east, and that is that the uk government has asked for extra flights out of the capital of lebanon, beirut. that is to enable british nationals to leave. you can see these scenes of beirut airport.

that is basically, as it is estimated, there are around several hundred people with british passports in the country, and around 5000 dual nationals and their immediate families also in lebanon. the british government is urging them all to leave lebanon now stop middle east airlines is laying on extra flights over the weekend, but demand for them is not thought to be huge at the moment. all of this as israel and hezbollah continue their cross—border fire, while officials in the un are calling for an immediate ceasefire. i will have more after a short break, so do stay with us here on bbc news. 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 will still be a few showers, but the big difference will be how chilly it will feel. this is the cloud which brought all the rain yesterday. it's 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. some of that cloud, outbreaks of rain, even to the start of the afternoon will be lingering across east anglia and the south—east, 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, they could be wintry over the higher ground. these are your temperatures this afternoon — eight to 13 or 1a degrees, down on the september average, but also made to feel colder than that given the the brisk wind coming in from the north or north—west. that 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. for scotland and northern ireland, a bit more cloud again tomorrow with some showery bursts of rain, but a bit of brightness here at times. england and wales will have lovely, bright, crisp starts, sunshine around. many will have a dry day.

some northern and western areas will have 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 — a big, deep area of low pressure set to bring windy weather, but also more wet weather on to already saturated ground. the day starts dry and bright for many. cloud increases. scotland stays largely dry throughout, but we will 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 to 60mph gusts are attached to that as it pushes its way across mainly england and wales through saturday, sunday night into monday, gradually clearing. some drier weather around for monday, tuesday and wednesday, but there will be some brisk winds along eastern coasts with some high tides, as well. bye for now.

banking on good times — investors cheerjapan�*s next prime minister. attack of the ai clones — is that person on your video call really who you think it is? the inside story on the rise of so—called �*ceo fraud'.

welcome to business today. i'm tadhg enright. we start injapan where the ruling liberal democratic party has chosen a new leader, who will become the next japanese prime minister. shigeru ishiba, a 67—year—old political veteran, won the vote to lead the scandal—hit party into a general election next year. mr ishiba is a former defence minister, who takes the top job on his fifth attempt. seen as something of a continuity candidate, the currency markets have responded favourably to his election with the value of the yen surging on the result, although that could have had more to do with the defeat of his rival, who represented the party's nationalist wing. the japanese economy has been on something of a roller—coaster of late. this year it dropped down the global economic league table. it was overtaken by germany

and is now the world's fourth largest economy.