hello. welcome to the programme. i'm lewis vaughan jones. more than 1,000 emergency workers have been deployed to valencia — and other affected regions — after devastating flash flooding killed at least 150 150 people in spain. let's ta ke let's take a look at some of the impact. some residents have accused the regional civil protection agency of not being prepared enough, saying it only issued its highest emergency alert on tuesday evening, when the flooding had already caused widespread damage. this is the european space agency's satellite image of the area south of valencia taken earlier this month, before the flooding, where you can see dry land land around the lagoon. keep an eye on that. in this second image, taken on wednesday, you can see

the level of flooding. on a visit to the region, spain's prime minister, pedro sanchez, said the authorities were using all resources at their disposal to rebuild infrastructure, and restore basic services. steve knibbs reports. this flooding is one of the worst natural disasters in recent spanish history. more than 90 people are so far confirmed to have died, and there are fears the number could rise. emergency teams are working around the clock to try to find the missing and rescue others trapped by the flood water. some places are only accessible from the air, residents being winched into helicopters to escape the devastation. hundreds of soldiers have also been deployed to help in the rescue effort. working in difficult and dangerous conditions. the prime minister, pedro sanchez, warned today that this crisis is farfrom over and he urged people to stay safe. please, do not go out, stay home, follow the alerts from the emergency services,

follow all the requirements, all their recommendations, because at the moment, the most important thing is to save as many lives as possible. in valencia, the floods caused havoc never seen here before. washing away cars that were left piled up in the streets, as the waters receded. the aftermath — broken roads, homes and businesses covered in mud and silt. in some areas, more than a year's worth of rain fell in just a few hours. translation: never before in history has there been so much rain. you can't even imagine the amount of rain that fell here yesterday. it is a catastrophe. the floods we had in 1982, when i was ten years - old, were a joke compared to what happened - here yesterday. the streets here are now a dumping ground, for cars, furniture and belongings destroyed by the floods. translation: yesterday, this was full of people -

and today, it is still empty, it's utter desolation. with time, everything will go back to normal, just like the river. translation: the day before yesterday. _ translation: the day before yesterday. it _ translation: the day before yesterday, it was _ translation: the day before yesterday, it was very - translation: the day before yesterday, it was very bad, . yesterday, it was very bad, horrible. we have never experienced this before. this is something that came to us and it is a ruin for the town. meanwhile, spain has declared three days of national mourning, as it comes to terms with the aftermath of this deadly force of nature. steve knibbs, bbc news. let's ta ke let's take a look at the map of spain to show you what areas have been impacted. earlier this week, parts of the valencia region received a year's with the rain in just eight hours. let's speak to the bbc�*s guy hedgecoe, who's in madrid. ringers up up—to—date the latest. ringers up up-to-date the latest. ~ . ., ., latest. well, that death toll continues —

latest. well, that death toll continues to _ latest. well, that death toll continues to rise _ latest. well, that death toll continues to rise -- - latest. well, that death toll continues to rise -- bring . latest. well, that death toll| continues to rise -- bring us continues to rise —— bring us up—to—date. that was the worry of authorities today. we were expecting that number to keep increasing. and that is because there are so many people who are still missing. a lot of local people on the ground have been talking about neighbours of theirs or even relatives who haven't been accounted for in many parts of valencia in particular. and it is valencia which has really bond the brunt of this, although the neighbouring regions, castalia and andalusia, have also been affected. but in valencia, there are areas where people don't have drinking water, they don't have drinking water, they don't have drinking water, they don't have enough food. they've struggled to find spades, for example, to dig out the mud from their homes. there has been some looting as well in parts of valencia. 39 people were arrested for looting shops and taking goods out of them today. and in other areas, the infrastructure such as rail

links for example, there is a tremendous amount of disruption still. the high—speed rail link between madrid and valencia is going to be closed for at least two weeks, we have been told by the transport minister. and more than 100 roads in valencia remain closed as well. just lookin: remain closed as well. just looking ahead, _ remain closed as well. just looking ahead, what - remain closed as well. just looking ahead, what is in store, what is coming up for the weather?— the weather? well, the authorities _ the weather? well, the authorities have - the weather? well, the authorities have been l the weather? well, the - authorities have been warning about more weather events in other areas of valencia or near valencia. those have not transpired. there was quite a severe warning for an area north of valencia earlier today. but that warning has been withdrawn. however, there is heavy rainfall in parts of andalusia. nearthe is heavy rainfall in parts of andalusia. near the city of seville, there is heavy rainfall. and there is a weather alert there. so bad weather alert there. so bad weather seems to have spread down there. and also, of the

north east of the country, there is very heavy rain as well. ., ., , well. -- in the north east. ok, thank you _ well. -- in the north east. ok, thank you for— well. -- in the north east. ok, thank you for that. _ we will have continuous coverage from spain with the impact as emergency services still try to get to certain areas. where roads are still blocked. we will have plenty more coverage coming up. in a rare move, the international monetary fund has welcomed the measures announced by the uk chancellor, rachel reeves, in the first labour budget in 1a years. she told the bbc she hopes the budget — which includes tax rises of £40 billion, will "wipe the slate clean". 0ur political correspondent iain watson has the latest. keir starmer and rachel reeves have been on something of a politicaljourney — they promised limited tax rises before the general election, but announced substantial tax

increases just a few months later. the bulk of this, £25 billion, is coming from businesses in the form of higher national insurance contributions. while employees' national insurance remains unchanged, this morning, the chancellor admitted that working people would pay a price. i said that it will have consequences. it will mean that businesses will have to absorb some of this, through profits. and it is likely to mean wage increases might be slightly less than they otherwise would have been. but overall, the office for budget responsibility forecast that household incomes will increase during this parliament. and i was able to announce £22.6 billion of additional money for day—to—day spending in the health service... the prime minister and chancellor had travelled to the west midlands to meet nhs staff and to highlight their cash injection for the health service. keir starmer insisted higher taxes would provide better services.

so, yes, difficult decisions, but we've scrubbed down and taken the difficult decisions now. and i think everyone, many people, would agree health, education and housing and issues like that are the really important things for our country to be driving towards. the chancellor has said she does not want to do another budget like this again, with a red box packed full of difficult decisions. some of the independent experts have pored over the contents and think that further tax rises might be necessary. she's looking at significant - increases in spending this year and next, but then that rate of increase really falls - sharply, to the extent that it - might well mean cuts in budgets for so—called unprotected departments over - the next few years. in reality, that's pretty unlikely to happen, - it'll probably be topped up in the next year's spending review, and it could _ have a knock—on effect - on higher taxes thereafter. the political divisions

between the main parties seem even clearer now than they did at the last election. some measures suggest the budget is red on the inside as well as the outside. vat on private school fees, more tax on private jet flights, for example. this weekend, the conservatives choose the new leader, and rachel reeves appears to have succeeded in uniting the remaining candidates. they both hate her budget. rachel reeves is a compulsive liar. she said in the election she wasn't going to raise taxes. she's just raised them by more than any other chancellor in 30 years. she said she would not increase borrowing. she has just massively hiked borrowing. they don't understand what it is like to employ people. they do not understand what it means. that is one of the fundamental differences between conservatives and labour. labour say the big picture is the promise of change will become tangible through more investment in public services, but the budget does not in itself boost economic growth in this parliament

and the chancellor may have to make more difficult decisions. iain watson, bbc news, westminster. the chancellor insisted again today that a £22 billion black hole was left to her by the conservatives and effectively forced some of those "difficult choices" on tax in the budget. meanwhile, the conservatives claim that the office for budget responsibility, the official spending watchdog, has failed to back up the figure. so, what's the reality? here's ben chu, from bbc verify. the 0br's review into this very question was published yesterday alongside the budget and it is true, as the conservatives say, that it does not endorse in black and white that £22 billion figure, which has been cited by rachel reeves and many other government ministers. however, what it does say is that the 0br asked the treasury back in august to tell it what it didn't tell it in the preparations for that march budget about spending pressures. unexpected spending pressures. unexpected spending pressures. and the 0br says that the treasury told it that those spending pressures that

it had not talked about of £9.5 billion a year in 2024 to 2025, the current fiscal year. so thatis the current fiscal year. so that is obvious the half of the £22 billion figure roughly the rachel reeves cited. but the 0br did also say this. that this analysis was not provided to the 0br at the time of the march budget, talking about the £9.5 billion figure. and it also said that had this information be made available, a materially differentjudgment about spending in 2024 to 20 to 25 would have been reached. so i think it is fair to say judging from that that the 0br does think for whatever reason, it was not given as full a picture as it should have been about the spending pressures during the preparations for the budget in march. although perhaps that £22 billion figure is, as pauljohnson the director of the institute for fiscal studies, said earlier today somewhat over egged. but i think what we really need to

do is put this in a bigger context, actually. the broader context. so let's look at that funding gap that was cited by rachel reeves, that £22 billion figure. let's compare it to the £9.5 billion figure in the blue bar, that is the number cited by the 0br. but look at the light green bar. that is how much she is raising taxes goodbye the final year of this parliament. £41 billion. so look, while the chancellor's pascoe balancing the books wasn't made any easier and was probably made harder by the inheritance she had, the idea that all of her decision yesterday on raising taxes were driven by that inheritance just was not credible —— the chancellor's challenge of balancing. she decided to spend more and taxed more. find balancing. she decided to spend more and taxed more.— more and taxed more. and 'ust briefl , more and taxed more. and 'ust briefly. the fi more and taxed more. and 'ust briefly. the day i more and taxed more. and 'ust briefly, the day after i more and taxed more. and 'ust briefly, the day after a i briefly, the day after a budget, the eyes turn to the market for any kind of response.— market for any kind of response. market for any kind of resonse. ~ . . ., response. what have we got? the market response _

response. what have we got? the market response today _ response. what have we got? the market response today has - market response today has actually been quite worrying in some ways because the value of the pound is down and the value of uk government debt has gone down as well, pushing the interest cost of the uk government up. we are not in the same territory by any means of the aftermath of the 2022 mini budget which you will rememberforced a reversal mini budget which you will remember forced a reversal of that budget, but there are clearly some nerves and jitters among investors about the scale of the borrowing. watch this space, we don't know it will have any impact yet and it may go down again, but a little bit of nerves and they will be watching it closely within the treasury right now.— watching it closely within the treasury right now. thanks to ben for that. _ around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

this is bbc news. we are going this is bbc news. we are going to the usa now. to the usa now. kamala harris and donald trump kamala harris and donald trump are on whirlwind tours are on whirlwind tours of battleground states of battleground states in the us, as the presidential in the us, as the presidential election enters the final days of campaigning. election enters the final days of campaigning. it is one of the closest it is one of the closest

election races in decades. election races in decades. in each of the seven in each of the seven key swing states — key swing states — which, historically, which, historically, have voted both republican and democrat over the years — have voted both republican and democrat over the years — the difference between the main the difference between the main candidates falls inside candidates falls inside the margin of error, the margin of error, making it hard to draw any making it hard to draw any concrete conclusions concrete conclusions from the numbers. from the numbers. ione wells is in detroit. ione wells is in detroit. both candidates are going to be both candidates are going to be campaigning in two battleground campaigning in two battleground states, arizona and nevada, states, arizona and nevada, hoping to create viral moments hoping to create viral moments and momentum withjust and momentum withjust hoping to create viral moments and momentum with just days hoping to create viral moments and momentum with just days after go of this campaign. after go of this campaign. kamala harris appearing with kamala harris appearing with jennifer lopez in nevada. jennifer lopez in nevada. donald trump expecting to donald trump expecting to appear with the commentator appear with the commentator tucker carlson in arizona. with tucker carlson in arizona. with more than 40% of people in more than 40% of people in arizona having already voted, a arizona having already voted, a lot of this is about trying to lot of this is about trying to swing those undecided voters swing those undecided voters and also trying to rally both and also trying to rally both their bases and this will be their bases and this will be done especially by trying to done especially by trying to stress some of those areas they stress some of those areas they see as key dividing lines see as key dividing lines between them and their between them and their opponents. for donald trump, opponents. for donald trump, this is rhetoric around mass this is rhetoric around mass

deportations for example. for kamala harris, this is a deportations

let's go to the middle east now, where local authorities in the north of israel say a rocket has killed five people. at the same time, the lebanese health ministry says six lebanese health workers have been killed in israeli strikes across the south of the country. my colleague ben brown is injerusalem. yes, this was a day that began with some cautious optimism from the lebanese caretaker coach mike, who was telling us that he thought there could be a ceasefire either within a few days or maybe even a few hours. but what we have seen is more death and destruction on both sides of the lebanese border. 0n the israeli side in northern israel, five people were killed by hezbollah rocket fire. in two or more near haifa, so seven dead in total inside israel. 0n the lebanese side, we have seen more israeli air

strikes around the city of baalbek, unesco world heritage site where there were yesterday air strikes which killed around 19 people. again, the israeli military warned people in and around baalbek to flee the city, to get around baalbek to flee the ci