i was born in cuba. i was in one of cuba's most prominent schools when i made a joke about president fidel castro. i was a teenager. the kid that slept on the bunk bed on top of me recorded our conversation and i was expelled from school. my mom said the only choice is for us to leave cuba. i'm a business man. i've lived in miami for 35 years. it's my home base. i come back and forth to cuba. i've been coming to cuba for over 20 years. i mean, cuba is a communist country in economic transition. fidel castro allowed cubans to establish more businesses. there are people that are making money. there are people that have created a tremendous amount of wealth. >> anthony: people with family connections to the states, people tied to the exploding tourist industry, small business owners, taxi drivers, people operating in ever-changing gray areas of what is permissible. how's it work right now? if you're cuban, you can sell your property to -- >> hugo: another cuban from cuba. and that's what's happening right n

-cuba relations. in june, donald trump announced he would reverse the normalization of relations between the u.s. and cuba, re-imposing travel and trade restrictions less than a year after president obama relaxed the decades-old embargo on the island. pres. trump: our new policy begins with strictly enforcing u.s. law. -- liftnot live sanctions on the cuban regime until all political prisoners are freed. freedoms of assembly and expression are respected. all political parties are legalized. free and internationally supervised elections are scheduled. restrictery strongly american dollars flowing to the military, security, and intelligence services that are the core of the castro regime. they will be restricted. enforce the ban on tourism. we will enforce the embargo. one code that was president almosteversing completely president obama's toward cuba.-- your response? >> and fact, he did not reverse it completely. they toward cuba. your response? are cutting back on it, but we still have diplomatic rel

influence in cuba could also stand to gain from a rift between the united states and cuba but certainly there is no evidence to indicate that either of these theories is what happened here the details and the cause of the of the attacker is still very much a mystery about our progress from the atlantic council thank you very much for your time thank you so much. still ahead on al-jazeera a crackdown on so-called incompetent teachers in asia their colleagues say not so fast plus that eventually you've got to get off the planet if we're going to continue as a as a as the human race. what was once a science fiction is not just a science get ready to do book your tickets to mas. and sri lanka's captain makes his mock action from the first test against pakistan in sport. hello the heat waves over such as it was not quite a heat wave and it was pretty warm really for the u.s. for sure you now see what cloud you see here is now in the cooler read temperatures are more or less where they should be a little bit below sixteen in toronto nine thousand new york two days ago we're talking about thir

occupation of cuba has officially begun. he arrives in santiago and opens up the first north american banking institution in cuba, which is the north american trust company. the activities of the north american trust company start and a very slow. the other kind of involved in remitting money back from american soldier back to the fence at home, trying to introduce currencies to u.s., u.s. currency to the other. trying to build a system of telegraphic transfers of money can be moved about the island.. but they are also trying to become the kind of primary player in cuban government finances.. they want to control the taking of customs revenues, the money generated by the poorest, and they are also looking to displace the old spanish banks to become cuba's central bank. there's a lot of controversy around them. many observers at the time see them as a kind of corrupting influence whose activities are really based on patronage. but the actually soon collapse. they don't collapse but they dissolve and reformed and become an ins

competed with them for deposits in cuba. you know, when as an example when the cuban revolution occurred in 1959, there was more of a negotiated settlements with the castro government's on behalf of the canadian banks and with the us banks. us banks had to get out. us banks could work something out. we see now in the caribbean that the canadian banks are prevailing especially in the form of british colonies of jamaica etc. the us banks to some degree a retreat from the caribbean, though, you see citibank has recently returned to haiti after many years. i think the larger legacy was less aboutac the actual presence of wall street of the us bankers in the caribbean then it was of their understanding of what this history meant to them for the present and if you look at the kind of corporate biography of citibank, you understand that they looked at the 1920s and-- 19 tens, 1920s and early 1930s as this glorious time of international expansion, when they were able to kind of create new financial institutions and financial instrum

we know that it's hit cuba. there are people though, chad, that are up in florida, they weren't expecting it to be as bad on the west coast as it is. how long as they start to feel these first ecffects and they thinking how long is this going to last? can you give them any indication of that. >> >> well, from eye wall to eye wall, i would say that's two tours. when you get the 130 going to the east comparing to the eye and it gets calm and you get to the backside of the eye, it would be a two-hour period. you cannot go outside because the wind will pick up and blow everything that is displaced and blow it back on you. from where we are now to when miami finally feels less than 50, might be 36 hours. >> i mean it's going to blow a long time. this thing is only doing 12 miles an hour. >> that's why it's hitting on sunday. it's not getting outs of the state of florida until tuesday or late monday? >> that's how long it would take you to drive out of the state because i have a friend that lives in grassy key and his

we found a diary that recounted his 1978 trip to cuba and conveyed a very positive image of cuba, a very negative image of the united states. >> it was a glowing report about the cuban revolution, how the people are doing well. castro's a great leader. >> it essentially conveyed kendall's infatuation with cuba. >> kendall 's diary was critical. the next piece in evidence was stunning. >> in a filing cabinet in their closet, there was a record that indicate gwen a tumor on her shoulder in late 1996 that was a matrix point that we were looking for. we knew that one of the cuban agents had a tumor on their shoulder. i had had chills up my spine when i saw this medical record. i couldn't believe it and this is where i think all doubt in my miepd was removed. this was beyond coincidence. >> we could have charged them with being foreign agents, false statements but none of those charges in our mind held them accountable for what they did and quite frankly didn't come with the penalty we thought that they deserved. >> shortly after the fbi searched, we found out that kendall was signing up for

because it's over cuba and cuba is tearing it up. that's terrible for cuba. the florida keys and the cubans have a line of keys, too, arc a pell layarcpelago. >> how strong is it? >> there's 90 miles between havana and key west. everyone on key west will tell you that because there's a big buoy on the side of key west that says 90 miles to cuba. that's nine houring in the water. so, i believe it will intensify. it continues to tear itself up and takes a long tithe to put itself back together, but i think that's going to happen. >> all right. take us from where we're going from here. because i know the keys, first and foremost, are the most vaul national right now? about what time do you think that's going to happen? >> it will be storm morning when we start to see the storm surge. but we're already seeing the first bands of weather. if you're traveling out of the keys, you're going through some squalls. no doubt about that. there's the area that is being torn up tremendous right now. there is key west here, and i'm zoom in here a little bit. you can begin to

is relations with cuba from struggles have emerged u.s. ordering more than half of its personnel and its cuban embassy to leave the island following what it calls a series of attacks targeting diplomats now some embassy workers have reported injuries including concussions and hearing loss and authorities say they're working now to establish exactly how these injuries occurred and who could be behind them. for more i'm joined now by jason marks act he's the director of latin american center at the atlantic council jason thanks for being with us this is such a mysterious story what else can you tell us about these alleged attacks. well thanks for having me i think that you know these attacks date back to about a year ago when they were first reported first didn't get much public attention that's come to greater light these are these are attacks not only against u.s. diplomatic personnel but also canadian personnel the secretary tellers and i met with the cuban foreign secretary with bruna rodriguez earlier this week the u.s. had been away a

you're going to see what's happened in cuba. they did some bad things and you will see what happened. cuba says the decision to downsize the embassy was hasty and will further affect ties. the ending of hostilities between the two cold war enemies was a legacy moment for president obama. celebrated with scenes that could have been filmed for a feelgood american movie. now sabotaged by a plot that could have been written for a cold war spy novel. barbara plett usher reports, bbc news, havana. someone from a group that specialises in connecting us and cuban specialises in connecting us and cu ban citizens spoke specialises in connecting us and cuban citizens spoke to us earlier about the impact this decision might have on relations between the two countries. on the surface this is incredibly alarming. there are some things that will cause problems between the us and cuban people. a travel advisory could affect us travellers going to cuba, which i think is warranted. there's zero risk for us travellers. it continues to be one of th

and the cooperation with cuba is so fundamental to u.s. security from everything from narcotics trafficking to environmental concerns and across a number of other issues and so that has been i think very positive over the last couple years to actually have us in cuba thorstein down and talking about issues that affect both countries as part of the announcement last night the secretary torsen and i was that the u.s. will no longer be sending official delegations to cuba as well so any of these talks if they're going to continue to occur must now occur even in either washington or potentially in a third country all right times there are changing jason marsac he's the director of the latin american center at the atlantic council thanks for talking with us today. german police are hunting for a man they say is blackmailing companies for millions of euros by threatening to poison food on supermarket shelves including baby food and authorities have actually released footage of him doing just that putting food on shelves at a supermarket in south

amy: and we go to havana, cuba, where the officials have slammed trump's attack on cuba during his address to the u.n. general assembly, saying trump's comments are disrespectful, unacceptable, and meddling. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in mexico, a massive 7.1-magnitude quake struck 100 miles southeast of mexico city tuesday, collapsing dozens of buildings around the capital city, trapping school children, workers, and residents beneath the rubble. the government said this morning at least people are dead, but 217 that number is expected to rise as rescuers with sniffer dogs work to cut through collapsed structures. among the dead are least 21 students at a primary school in southern mexico city and 15 worshipers who died during a catholic mass when the earthquake triggered an eruption at a volcano southeast of the city. the disaster struck just hours after an earthquake preparedness drill held to mark the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 earthquake that killed 5000 people. it came less than two weeks after

we know the waters between cuba and the florida straits between cuba and the keys are warm. they are feeding grounds for a powerful hurricane to regain strength no matter what happens there. we know the storm will make a right hand turn. we know the storm is 300 and something miles wide. every city in the state of florida needs to be on guard for this storm. and yes it's true, the most powerful force of this storm is in the eye wall. the worst winds, the worst storm surge. if the eye wall is on the east coast of florida towards miami it makes a difference. if it's on the west coast and that means fort myers or naples and it's on up the west coast. it makes a difference. i want everyone as we have been saying for days, everyone in the entire state of florida prepared for all aspects of this storm. this storm will hit the state. we just don't know exactly which tip of the state will get the worst. we'll all be facing big time rain, big time winds and damage. power outages. you name it. >> weather contributor there. with what he's watching. helping those in need. that's a big d

they have many terrorists in cuba. —— they have many tourists in cuba. we heard earlierfrom sam lever, who's on his honeymoon cuba in a hotel in the middle of the storm. he says he feels the tour company are to blame. we have suffered an evacuation here, which in itself was a real hardship for all involved. this was an eight—hour journey to get here, arriving at midnight on a coach, so to be moved from one location to this location, which pretty much got hit full force last night by the storm, spent all night in an un—air—conditioned room, it was a real, real hardship. and who do you blame for that? was that the cuban authorities or who do you blame for moving you to what you think is wrong place? imean... i'll be honest with you, we all blame our tour company, thomas cook, and the reason is we shared a hotel with canadians, they spent the tuesday to thursday flying every single one of their citizens out. we were left pretty much not knowing what was happening until thursday, when we were ushered on those coaches and driven eight hours to be put sm

it's roaring past cuba. the latest visuals, of course, the radar showing it moving through the northern sides. here it is again. this as all of florida braces for what lies ahead the next 48 hours. survivors in the caribbean survey the damage left behind. okay, at this hour, hurricane irma pounding cuba as a cat-5 storm with ferocious 160 mile-per-hour winds. the storm on track to go and go north toward florida, pummelling the keys there tonight and into sunday, before charting a path through western florida where it is expected to hit naples, orlando, ft. myers, potentially tampa. the threat in those areas is higher than initially thought at least by the latest information that we got two hours ago from the national hurricane center. this after the storm does take a turn westward. a little bit tacking farther to the left of your screen. rest of florida is still expected to be battered by the storm the size of texas. twice the size of florida, huge. with hurricane-force winds wide enough, strong enough to re

dave oakley, on holiday in cuba, thanks forjoining us. in a statement, thomas cook says while the region is on lockdown, all customers have now been moved to hotels that were built to withstand hurricane strength winds and rain. the company also says there'll be an additional 21 members of their special assistance team flying to cuba over the next 2a hours to offer further support. they've asked customers to bear with them as they do all that they can to keep customers safe, comfortable and as well—informed as possible. there's also been widespread damage in the british virgin islands. laura bicker is in tortola. well, it's five people died here in the british virgin islands and you can see the devastation brought by hurricane irma. as we flew in we saw homes that looked like they've been blasted away by the hurricane. they liked tattered and in ruins and scattered across the island, as do boats —— they lie. you can see the effect of a 20 foot storm surge. there's boats scattered all across the island and when they've been moored to

but now you can see a very well defined eye again swirling over cub cuba cuba, first time they have seen a category 5 since the 1920s. you can see the pockets of orange, yellows red, these bands moving through. an isolated tornado can't be ruled out when you get this motion over land masses. key west is likely the area where landfall will occur tomorrow morning. take a look at the watches and warnings. red indicating the hurricane warnings that are right now in place. the purple color, those areas under a watch that may be extended into a warning as irma continues to approach. so let's look at the updated track. winds have now actually dropped from 155 miles per hour just a few hours ago to 130 miles per hour. irma is weakening for a couple reasons. first of all off, it made landfall over cuba, so that land interaction can mess up the motion of the storm. on top of that, there is something called shear, this is different winds at different levels of the sky that will try to cut apart a hurricane. nonetheless, irma is very strong. right now moving twoets whiing because that will shift the

state department pulls over half of their staff out of cuba after a string of attacks against nearly two dozen americans. it's friday september twenty ninth four pm in washington d.c. i'm manila chan you're watching our team america. twitter has a new report on how it says it battled alleged russian meddling in the twenty six thousand presidential election and this network r.t. came up in that report and twitter revealed to congress that r.t.e. promote itself through tweets and social media posts to the united states just like any other news outlet go figure r.t. and daniel hawkins have that story just when you thought the russian presidential election hacking saugor was coming to a finish a new chapter emerges and this time it's what about social media twitter have released a report to the senate which was investigating those russian on the day sions in the document they talk about troll accounts blogs accounts that were described as malicious much money that accounts and spam now they found out of the hundreds of millions accounts that do exist in the twitter sphere they've identif

the storm skirted along cuba. did some significant damage to the northern coast of cuba. the people that were still here received 160-mile-per-hour winds, not barbuda type damage but close because of the way the structures were built but it also took the steam out of the storm it brought it down significantly. i know they're still saying 150, but i'm looking at the hurricane under aircraft. they're finding 130 and that's helpful for america, terrible for cuba. you're about to get slammed, victor and pretty much all of miami. i'm going to zoom in and show you what's going on. there's the eye of the storm. the cuban keys as they're called here. we're going to move some of these first outer bands into the keys this morning and victor is right there where that lightning bolt hit. i hope you were out of the way. here is key biscayne. this is the water of key biscayne and biscayne bay. here's north key largo. there's ocean reef, but the water is pouring now, getting pushed into biscayne bay. as it ill fills up with water that's where the storm surge will get to 6 to 10 feet. it

isn't pointing the finger at cuba but cuba has been unable to assure the u.s. government that diplomats are safe on cuban soil and the u.s. has to take significant actions to protect not only american diplomats but tourists that could be harmed by this. >> sure. they're extrapolating saying it's not just the u.s. envoys. if you travel to cuba and you're in havana, then, you know, you have the same risk. and the question becomes if you look at cuba's response and i know they're denying this, josh, but there's not this all hands on deck mentality to get to the bottom of who is responsible for these attacks. >> well, the u.s. has actually praised cuba's wellingness to investigate this. many officials flied down to havana to do some searches what the cubans have not been able to do is get to the bottom of this and say it won't happen again. it's considered the responsibility of a host country to protect diplomats, make it a hospitable environment and in the absence of cuba being able to say we are not going to be experiencing these things happening to american dipl

it brushed the northern coast of cuba. there was a mandatory evacuation order there in cuba trying to move tourists, residents, cuban citizens off of the northern coast. as we heard stephanie there say, any hopes that hurricane irma may have begun to break up as it made its way off of the coast of cuba seems to not have materialized because it is making its way towards the florida keys for potentially two landfalls. one on the florida keys and later on on the actual peninsula of florida. a lot of concern there. obviously, we've already received reports of deaths in cuba. we know that 90% of barbuda earlier in the week was also damaged as a result of hurricane irma. this is a hurricane that is not slowing down any time soon. stay with us. >>> welcome back to msnbc world headquarters. we're closely tracking hurricane irma as it approaches florida's southern coastline. at this hour the storm is now a category four and poised to make landfall in the next 24 hours. it hit cuba as a category five before being downgraded. irma sl

. >>> cuba travel alert. americans warned not to visit cuba. embassy staff ordered out after mystery attacks on diplomats. >>> another violent collapse in yosemite's el capitan. why are climbers not being kept away? >>> and hidden hotel fees. if you're off for a weekend getaway, what you need to watch for. hidden extra charges on your bill. "nightly news" begins right now. >>> this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt. >>> from los angeles tonight, good evening to our viewers here in the west. apologies and reimbursements were not enough to save president trump's embattled health and human services secretary who a short time ago resigned over his high-flying travel ways at taxpayers' expense. we'll get to those breaking details shortly, but we want to start with the incredibly emotional plea today from the mayor of san juan, puerto rico. a cry for help. we are dying, she said, as she angrily demanded washington untangle the bottleneck that has prevented aid from reaching so many puerto ricans suffering in the aftermath of hurricane maria. the

its last stop was in cuba. will grant of our partner network bbc news, is there. >> reporter: well, i can tell you that from havana, which up until this stage has been pretty protected from this storm, it's clear that the winds are now picking up significantly, and a hurricane warning is in place for here as well. we've seen the sheer amount of rain and water that has hit coastal villages along cuba's northern coast. the small fishing village of mitchell islargely submerged. telecommunications to those parts of the island are out. and there is a desperate situation for many, many families on the northern perimeter of cuba. a lot of people have already been taken out of harm's way, and brought to places like havana. but there is no protecting from the sheer magnitude of this storm, a category 5, when it hits cuba. that's the first time a category 5 storm has hit cuba, has made landfall in cuba, since 1932, just to give you a sense of the historic nature of this storm. elaine. >> quijano: will, thanks. coming up

cuba was battered overnight. there's been "significa nt damage" and the recovery process is now beginning. in other news: officials in mexico say at least 90 people are now known to have died in thursday's earthquake. tony blair calls for tougher immigration rules numbers without the need for brexit. sir mo farah becomes the first athlete to win the great north run four times in a row. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. after battering its way through the caribbean, hurricane irma — currently a category four storm — has slammed into the lower florida keys, lashing the island chain with winds up to 130 mph. the hurricane made landfall in cuba late on friday. it engulfed villages, causing widespread damage and leaving whole communities homeless. the eye of the storm has now reached the florida keys, bringing extreme winds that are expected to last for the next few hours. all residents had been ordered to leave amid fears that a storm surge reaching 15 feet could hit the islands, most of which are only a fe

anchor: cuba has said this could affect the relationship between cuba and the u.s.. in a negative way, it could strain things. how do you see things in the relationship now? >> i think this is clearly a setback in the relationship. the cubans did not want this to happen. the foreign minister met with secretary tillerson on tuesday, came up to washington because there was a suggestion the closing of the embassy in havana, the u.s. embassy, was under review. the cubans to not want this to happen. a want to avoid this kind of decision. it is clear the embassy is open, but personnel has been reduced by 60%. they are no longer issuing visas at the u.s. embassy to cubans. this is sends a strong message, and more than anything, it is a psychological blow with possible economic implications and costs for a company -- for a country already in dire straits. anchor: relations were already strained given that president trump said he would roll back some of the relaxations some -- some of the relaxations president obama brought in. >> absolutely. it was a partial relaxation. -- a

i can tell you every time i come back from cuba, i am half deaf because we and cuba seem to yell at each other all the time. we can't week a normal tone of voice. more seriously, -- amy: it is americans and canadians. part of some people -- correct. americans and canadians. there have been attempts over the years by some people to scuttle good relations between the two countries. in 1976, there were secret negotiations going on between the ford administration and the cuban government. and we know that some cuban exiles and gauged in the worst -- engaged in the worst year of terrorism because they wanted to provoke the cuban government into her response and for a rupture to the secret negotiations. i would not be surprised that anybody was involved in these attacks, it would be somebody in miami or somebody in the united states who did not want normal relations between the two countries. i would be absolutely shocked if it was the government of cuba. president castro is even i -- invited the fbi to come here. he is spoken to the american ambassador. this is unprecedented. l is baffled as

in cuba, the recovery is now beginning. havana's streets cuba, the recovery is now beginning. hava na's streets resemble cuba, the recovery is now beginning. havana's streets resemble a river. officials in mexico say that 90 people are now known to have died on thursday's earthquake. a bbc investigation discovered that the bodies of more than 400 children could be buried in a mass grave close to an orphanage in lanarkshire. chris froome wins the prestigious lab welter cycling race, and becomes only the third man to win that and the tour de france in the same year. —— la vuelta. the governor of florida is warning that the entire west coast of the state is at risk of major storm surges as it is battered by hurricane irma. overi million homes and businesses in southern florida are without power and thousands of an storm shelters. irma moved in after causing widespread damage in cuba. it slipped through coastal resorts and tourist resorts, flooding many areas. extreme winds and storm surges continued as the hurricane travelled on, hitting the florida keys. now the city of tamp

hurricane irma is causing widespread damage in cuba after devastating several caribbean islands. more thani million cubans have been forced to leave their homes as winds of up to 160 miles per hour were recorded. meanwhile, in florida a quarter of its population have been told to move as the storm approaches. at least 20 people are known to have died so far across the caribbean. richard galpin reports. four days after hurricane irma first hit the caribbean, cuba is now feeling the full force of its deadly winds. gusts of more than 150 miles an hour blasting these desolate streets in the north. the destruction is going to be terrible and the economic situation is very bad so great international assistance is needed. many houses here are old and unstable but so far it's not clear how much damage it has caused. what is clear is the category four hurricane will track along much of cuba's northern coast before shifting north to the united states. already, thousands of people have moved away from the cuban coast including british tourists. some of them save their holiday company could

that's bad news for cuba. they're getting hammered now with incredible winds up to 140 miles an hour even south of the storm, but as of 11:00 winds are back up to 160. so now it is back up to a category 5 which blowing my mind because it's kind of sitting over land right now. it will continue to move to the west right along the north coast of cuba overnight and eventually start to make its turn. by sunday morning winds are still 150 miles per hour. that is a high end 4 and remember even though that's where it's going to be almost over key west sunday morning, remember key west and southern florida will experience tropical storm force winds as early as tomorrow night and then it takes its turn essentially to the west now along the west coast of florida just inside of tampa and by monday at 11:00 still a category 4 well west of jacksonville. i think that's a little overdone. i think it will weaken a little quicker than that, but no place in the peninsula of florida is safe. we will come back and talk about wind

relations with cuba hit a ball no after a brief trawl the u.s. is pulling out half of its embassy staff and warning travelers to avoid the island that's after mysterious attacks that have left some diplomats deaf. and i'm sarah harman welcome to the show it's good to have you with us tensions in spain are rising ahead of attempts by catalonia to hold a referendum on independence on sunday madrid says that's illegal and has sent thousands of police to the region but kut want to thore say everything is in place for this vote to go ahead. these are the ballot boxes that the leaders of self-governing catalonia say its citizens will use to vote in the planned referendum from spain on sunday and i was drive from the catalan capital barcelona where thirty's in the town of vic insist residents will be able to vote despite the ban from madrid. mayor says for her the issue is personal but. for me the worst punishment would be to go out into the streets and not be able to give my citizens the opportunity to express their opinion and decide. i am not afraid

and cuba. well it's obviously thawed quite a bit under president donald trump remember this is these are two countries that didn't have relations for decades president barack obama went to the island a historic visit opened it up for american businesses did not get rid of the overall embargo only the u.s. congress can do that so when president trump came to office he made a big speech down in south florida where there are some republican donors who are very anti castro anti castro presidency he said he was going to make changes they were really just cosmetic so business as usual continues the state department going out of their way to say a bit that this is a diplomatic slight this is a measure they believe that needs to be to protect their people and as you mentioned they don't know who did it they're not saying that cuba is behind it they say cuba is cuban officials are helping the f.b.i. investigate they haven't ruled out that this is being done by a third country i have to point out that th

cuba is the latest island to be hit. the category four storm, it was category five, the highest, but has eased slightly, made landfall off the north—eastern coast of cuba overnight bringing strong winds and heavy rain. communities have lost power and communication is becoming increasingly difficult in more remote areas. the bahamas have largely been spared after the storm changed course. this is irma's trajectory. it's expected to make landfall with us coast tomorrow, before heading inland. in florida, more than 5 million people, a quarter of its population, have been told to evacuate. in the past hour, it has been confirmed that there have been six fertility is in the british virgin islands. —— six fatalities. and there's another hurricane approaching the carribean. jose has strengthened to a category four, driving winds of 125 miles an hour, and forecasters warn it could strengthen still further. richard galpin reports. four days after hurricane irma first hit the caribbean, cuba is now feeling the full force of

this is where it's been pounding much of cuba right now. boy, that torrential rain just continues to bring a lot of rain to the region and strong wind, as well. we're seeing the rain bands work towards the florida keys and it's relentless for cuba, though. 245 miles south-southeast of miami, florida. winds 155 miles per hour. this is a category 4 hurricane. possibly become ago category 5. the movement to the west-northwest at 12 and look at the winds. they picked up since my last broadcast. we want to talk about the track. if you're just joining us, things have changed. now it likes like a double landfall potentially in the keys sunday morning and second afternoon a second windfall in southwest florida potentially naples. the cone of uncertainty is fairley wide. if we see a landfall, it can be somewhere within the cone. but i want to let you know it's looking like western florida in terms of impact. many of you have been asking about what is steering irma. we wanted to break this down for you. we have this big high pressure system that is s

but all day long they've been telling people here, the coastal areas of cuba, this part of cuba, that it could flood, that the wind is going to come like this. and it's going to be very strong and that people need to evacuate. there will come a time when they will no longer be able to evacuate. that time has now come. you can't drive in this. you can't walk in this kind of weather. it is just going to continue to deteriorate. for people in florida who are still on the fence, these are the beginning of the conditions that they will face. this is not the full force of the storm by any measure because, remember, the storm is passing by cuba. it's not going to hit cuba the way it's going to hit florida. and i have to say, you know, i'm leaning in the wind now. half an hour ago there were almost clear skies. we've seen this come in and now it's blowing the trees. i can no longer see the water out there. it is a very much changed situation and it happened in the space of a few minutes, wolf. >> a few minutes. stand by, patrick. louie uccellini the national director of the weather service is

until the government of cuba can assure the safety of diplomats in cuba, he said, our embassy will be reduced to emergency personnel to minimise the number of diplomats at risk of harm. relations had begun to strain under the weight of the new president who rolled back some elements of the agreement. they did some bad things and you will see what happened. cubasaid the decision to downsize the embassy was hasty and will further affect ties. the ending of hostilities between the two cold war enemies was a legacy moment for president 0bama. celebrated with scenes that could have been filmed for a feelgood american movie. now sabotaged by a plot that could have been written for a cold war spy novel. so what is a sonic attack, and why might it be used? robin cleveland is a professor of engineering science at the university of oxford. the amount of data that has been provided is limited but the reports suggest that people who have been suffering from these effects have heard things, all sorts of different sounds. the sounds that have been reported have not themselves been loud enough to af

this is cuba. the north coast of cuba. there's the eye of irma that has made landfall there. reports are coming out of cuba that said the winds were so high it broke the anemometer. the gauge that measures the wind speed. the wave heights were between 16 and 24 feet. this is a category five hurricane. now as we trek it going into the next 24 hours, there it is still more hugging right along the cuba coast and then it looks like it makes landfall around the florida keys. already in the florida keys, we have seen some wind gusts as high as 55 miles an hour. this is before the hurricane even gets there and we are looking at perhaps making a second landfall in the vicinity of naples, florida by early saturday afternoon. here is a different perspective. this is the northern coast of cuba. there it is as a category five. it goes to the florida strait. warm water temperatures. that's what it needs. it is interacting with different land masses. it interacted with the turks and caicos and bahamas and made landfall in cuba. the trek shifted further west. now the western counties of flo

that means meetings with cu ban diplomats will be here in washington, but not in cuba. i have just seen that reuters is saying that cuba says the decision is hasty and will affect bilateral relations. we need to confirm that. what do you think the fallout will be and has there been any explanation by cuba or by anyone else? this has been going on for months, hasn't it? the cubans have denied they have played any role in this issue and they have been cooperating in the investigation. the americans haven't accused the cuban government of being behind it, they have however said they're keeping their options open, are not ruling anything out, they are still investigating. they said that the cubans should be providing security and safety for diplomats on their soil and until they were able to do that, the americans would have to operate with a skeleton staff. he did say that diplomatic relations would continue. they are not cutting ties, they are keeping the embassy open, but they will be affected. even if there are bad feelings, to reduce the number of diplomatic staff and

i think it's an incredibly important time for the united states to have a presence in cuba. not only is cuba undergoing a political transition, there is a process of economic reform and the united states and cuba have made incredible strides over the last couple of yea rs strides over the last couple of years in terms of talking to each other, cooperating on issues such as drug interdiction, environmental issues. a couple of weeks ago there was a hurricane hiddink cuba and miami at the same time so it's imperative we talk to each other and i think the majority of americans feel that way. certainly the majority of cubans feel that same way so i'm hoping that will prevail. colin, we appreciate your time. birmingham's bid to host the 2022 commonwealth games has officially been backed by the government. at a cost of at least £750 million, the city council is expected to fund 25% of the bill. the deadline for official bids is tomorrow, but there are no other cities currently in the race, so barring a last—minute shock, one of the world's biggest sporting events will be heading

cuba is good at dealing with hurricanes. they obey instructions by and large. 0ther they obey instructions by and large. other parts of the caribbean, sometimes they ignore advice, and don't want to leave homes. but in cuba, they generally do what they are told because there are consequences if they do not. even though they have had poor relations over the years with the united states, the actual work together very well. it looks like they will continue to try to do that this time around. we know the region well. is there a contrast with cuba and say florida? considering what we have seen on television, there are people reacting early in florida. that is perhaps because of what happened in texas and louisiana. i think when we get closer to the weekend, we will see a quicker and more broad reaction in cuba too. but things are hard. you cannot just reaction in cuba too. but things are hard. you cannotjust go down to the local store and get hardware. they still have economic embargoes. that makes preparations difficult. but whe

it's currently hammering both cuba and the bahamas. the path shifted slightly to the west, meaning florida's west coast residents could face a more direct hit than they originally thought. al and dylan will have much more in a few minutes. >>> and in mexico, residents are recovering after a different hurricane made landfall there. hurricane katia roared ashore as a te it's a one-two punch for residents after friday morning's earthquake and now the hurricane. at least 61 people have been killed throughout the country. >>> and the d.c. classroom that got a surprise visitor on friday. former president barack obama stopped by. the high school students at mckinley tech were settling into a new year of classes when the former president stopped by to welcome and encourage them. the former president and first lady make frequent visits to schools around the world while in the white house. >>> of course, we start with hurricane irma this hour. the category-4 storm sets its sights on the sunshine state. back to al in ft. myers. al, good morning.