and outgoing shells, every 30 seconds or so. it really doesn t stop. and science fiction made reality as nasa plans to try to divert an asteroid by crashing a rocket into it. we start in the uk where the bank of england says it won t hesitate to take action to control inflation, after the pound slumped to an all time low against the dollar. take a look at this chart from this morning s asia trading. at one point sterling fell to $1.03 the lowest since 1971 though it s since recovered slightly. there s been speculation that the bank of england may announce an emergency hike in rates to control rising prices. for the moment, that hasn t happened. well there s lots to unpack. first to understand what s happening today we must go back to friday and to this annoucement in parliament. i can announce today that we will catch the basic rate of income tax to 19p, in april 2020 three, one year early. that means a tax cut for over 31 million people injust a few months time. t
for a rematch. and we begin this hour with tropical storm ian, and that s churning in the caribbean and getting stronger as it heads north towards cuba. now, ian, is expected to reach hurricane status monday before hitting western cuba. officials say they re expecting strong winds, heavy rain, and dangerous storm surges. now, ian then expected to turn into a major hurricane tuesday and forecast to hit the florida coast some time later this week. now, people in florida as you can imagine already preparing for ian. florida s governor has activated 2,500 national guard troops. tampa residents, meantime, are filling sandbags you see them there to try and prevent that flooding. and emergency management officials preparing for storm surges. we are loading and by the day we would have loaded 360 trailers and more than 2 million meals and more than 1 million gallons of water ready to be sent into impacted areas. you need to be prepared for sheltering in place. you may lose po
putin s plan to mobilize thousands more troops for his war in ukraine. and a historic election in italy where the most far-right ruling coalition since mussolini looks set to tak e power. and we begin this hour with tropical storm ian that s churning in the caribbean and gaining strengthen as it moves towards cuba. now it s expected to rapidly intensify before hitting western cuba with strong winds and dangerous storm surges. now, ian is expected to turn into a major hurricane tuesday and forecast to hit florida midweek. people in florida are already preparing for the storm, filling sandbags trying to prevent flooding. here s more now from the mayor. of course there s a high degree of worry whenever we have a named storm that we are in the trajectory or in the path of that storm. but we are preparing. you know, we like to rehearse and practice for these, but we certainly don t want it be on the main stage of ian. now, floridians are stocking up on emergency essentials
good morning, monday september 26th, 9:00 a.m. in london, 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. where the state of florida is under a state of emergency. officials are warning residents to prepare for the worst as tropical storm ian gained strength in the caribbean and barrels towards the state. the storm is pushing towards western cuba right now but a tropical storm watch is in place for the florida keys. the national hurricane center says ian is close to hurricane strength and could become a major hurricane on tuesday. florida s governor and officials are urging people to get prepared now. expect heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge and even isolated tornadoes. make preparations now. i know a lot of people have been doing it throughout the state of florida and the things that you should be prepared with, food, water, batteries, medicine, fuel. anticipate particularly the closer you are to where the eye of the storm makes landfall, anticipate power outages. t
ready. have supplies for five, seven days. having everything you need, medicine, food, water. you have to take it serious. we have activated the florida national guard. they are activating 2,500 guards men at the moment. and if there is a need for more, we could do more. we have meteorologist standing by in the weather center. we saw that 5:00 a.m. update, now officially a hurricane. what is the latest on ian s track across the caribbean toward florida here. the system has everything it takes to really amplify over the next couple days and strengthen possibly to a category 4. that s the concern. all the environmental concerns absolutely conducive for rapid development of the storm system. we take a look at this because category 1 right now about 100 miles south of the cayman islands, about 300 islands south of the tip of cuba. the governments of these countries have taken this seriously. hurricane warnings have been prompted in advance of this feature. northwest caribbe