welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: hurricane harvey, the strongest storm to hit the us mainland in more than a decade, has made landfall on the coast of texas. the latest short—range missiles launched by north korea have been u nsuccessful. one missile blew up almost immediately and two failed in flight. protests turn deadly in india, after a self—styled spiritual guru is convicted of rape. curfews are in place across several northern states. and counting down to the most—hyped fight of the year — mayweather versus mcgregor — it could be the richest in boxing history. welcome to the programme. hurricane harvey has made landfall on the gulf coast of texas.

thousands of residents have been told to evacuate their homes and president trump has issued a disaster proclamation. the authorities warn it will be the worst to hit mainland america for more than a decade. this was a satellite picture of the category four storm as it approached texas, with winds of 130 miles per hour. us meteorologists are predicting "catastrophic flooding" due to the heavy rains kicked up by the monster storm. earlier, i spoke to dr chris landsea, operations officer from the national hurricane centre in miami as the storm approached land. yes, as of 8pm central daylight time, hurricane harvey was just offshore of texas in the united states. it was located about 60 kilometres east of corpus christi. and unfortunately it continued to strengthen. it is a category four. that is sustained winds of 215

kilometres per hour — so that is very strong. the concern is with multiple hazards. the first is extreme winds. those kinds of winds can cause very substantial structural damage to your links, roofs, agriculture. as well, the strong onshore winds are going to be producing storm surges of up to a0 metres. we are hopeful that the worst of it will come ashore in a not—very—populated area, but that remains to be seen. lastly, there is going to be rainfall over the next five days, because harvey's not going to be moving slowly. we might see up to one metre of rain in some parts of texas over the next five days.

all three of those houses are extremely severe. we are looking at catastrophic flooding over the next few days. i was going to say, dr landsea, five days is quite an incredible amount of time. i guess that means that a lot of areas are not going to be able to watch this water away, and they? no, that is part of the problem. you have the ocean contributing with the onshore flow as well as the rain is contributing. with harvey staying close to the coast, that may continue producing onshore winds over the next few days over portions of texas. the ocean won't recede, and at the same time, the rain will continue to add to the flooding on the ground. the biggest cities that are going to be in harm's way over the next few days would be houston and corpus christi, because of the extreme rainfall. changing category from three to four only happened in the last few hours, can you tell us why it was upgraded? well, we're very fortunate with the technology we have.

we have brand—new satellites, ground—based radars. and we have both the us air force and hurricane hunters that have been watching and going through the storm or evening. and so the winds got a little bit stronger. it wasn't a dramaticjump. it went up ten kilometres per hour, which moved it from category three to category four. this is a very powerful hurricane, and the hazards of extreme winds, extreme storm surges and not now, but over the next five days, perhaps one metre of rain. the us military says north korea has fired three short—range ballistic missiles. but the latest test appears to have been unsuccessful. earlier i spoke to our correspondent in seoul, yogita limaye, who told me that us territory wasn't threatened. well, the us and south korean

militaries say that these were fired early saturday morning, and were fired from a north—eastern province of north korea, in north—eastern direction. the us pacific command say all three launches are said to have failed. they say two exploded mid—flight, while one pretty much exploded as soon as it was launched. they said that there is no threat to guam or any other american territory — and that's a reference to a threat that north korea had made about ten days ago, saying it would fire four rockets at the waters around guam. it is also important to distinguish this particular launch from launches we saw injuly. those were intercontinental ballistic missile launches, very long—range ones, and north korea said they were even capable of hitting the us mainland. this is short—range missile testing. they conduct these tests regularly. but this is important because the us and south korean forces are conducting joint military exercises,

and they have been since last week. these will continue for the next few days. and we always see some kind of response from north korea when those drills are conducted. so last year, shortly after these joint drills, north korea actually fired a nuclear test. so the timing is significant also because it comes shortly after donald trump said north korea might be backing off. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. a man has been shot and killed by security forces in brussels after attacking two soldiers with a knife. the man — a belgian of somali origin — shouted "allahu akbar" or "allah is the greatest." prosecutors said they were treating the incident as a terrorist attack. the soldiers were slightly wounded. two police officers in london have been slightly wounded tackling an armed man outside buckingham palace. police said a 26—year—old man has been arrested under the terrorism act.

president trump has taken another step towards barring transgender people from the us military. he signed a memo banning recruitment and stopping payment for gender—related surgery for those already in the armed forces. he's left the fate of those already serving up to the pentagon. let's stay with donald trump, then. president trump's deputy assistant, sebastian gorka is no longer working for the administration. in his letter of resignation, the national security expert said people in the white house were undermining the president's policies. and in a separate move, the us president also pardoned the controversial former arizona sheriffjoe arpaio. ben schreckinger is a staff writer with poltico magazine has more on this latest white house departure. sebastian gorka was a national security adviser who seems to have never been given a security clearance. he was never really on the national security council once hr mcmaster took over from michael flynn. he wasn't even based

in the white house but was based next door in the office complex that is next to it. he was someone who was under the protection of steve bannon, wasn't really doing much in hisjob, and now that bannon‘s gone, gorka is leaving as well. in terms of this other announcement, a former arizona sheriff, that is going to be controversial, isn't it? the pardoning of this man? that's right. yes, sheriff arpaio had been convicted of contempt of court. a federaljudge had ordered him to stop the practice of racial profiling of hispanics in his attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. donald trump was obviously elected

on a promise of cracking down on illegal immigration. arpaio endorsed the trump campaign back injuly of 2015. politically, this is on message for trump, but obviously this is going to be controversial, if not explosive. now, ben, it is friday evening on the east coast of the united states, and a natural disaster, possibly, we think, in the making, in terms of hurricane harvey. what interesting timing for this two events? yes, it was a classic friday news dump. the hurricane made this more effective. donald trump teased, earlier this week, at a rally in arizona that he was likely to pardon the sheriff, but he thought it would be too controversial to do it at that point. he has now done it at a point

where the story is not going to get as much attention as it otherwise would have. a curfew has been imposed in two states in northern india after clashes which left 28 people dead. the violence in the town of panchkula followed the conviction of a self—styled holy man on rape charges. justin rowlatt has the details. violence broke out almost as soon as the guilty verdict was handed down by the court in north india. more than 100,000 of gurmeet ram rahim singh‘s followers had flocked to the town to demonstrate their support. they went on the rampage, burning cars and attacking the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. when that didn't subdue the crowd, they fired live ammunition, and there have been clashes elsewhere, too. this train was torched by an angry mob here in the indian, delhi. elsewhere in the city,

buses have been set on fire. the guru has an absolutely enormous following, he estimates 50 million people, and the is that violence could spread in north india. guru ram rahim is a charismatic figure, he makes movies calling himself the messenger of god. his huge beard and flamboyant style has led to him being called "the baba of bling." despite his sometimes extraordinary appearance, he is regarded as a living saint by many of his followers. this is the latest in a series of scandals here in india involving ascetics who claim exceptional spiritual powers. guru ram rahim insists his sect is a social welfare and spiritual group, but these two rape convictions aren't the only allegations of criminal behaviour. he has been accused of helping plan a murder and it is also claimed he persuaded 400 of his acolytes to have themselves castrated in order to get closer to god. it's that kind of devotion that explains the scale and intensity of the violence here in north india

and also why the authorities are so concerned about it spreading. justin rowlatt, bbc news, delhi. a rescue operation is underway off the coast of yemen after a us military black hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise. us central command said a search is on—going for one service member 30 kilometres off the country's southern coast. five other people have been rescued. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the driverless cars being deliberately crashed as insurers try to work out who'd be to blame in an accident — the motorist or the computer? he is the first african—american to accept the presidential nomination of a major party, and he accepts 45 years ago to the day that martin luther king

declared, "i have a dream." as darkness falls tonight, an unfamiliar light will appear in the south—eastern sky. an orange, glowing disc that is brighter than anything save the moon — our neighbouring planet mars. there is no doubt that this election is an important milestone in the birth of east timor as the world's newest nation. it will take months, and billions of dollars, to re pair what katrina achieved injust hours. three weeks is the longest the great clock has been off duty in 117 years, so it was with great satisfaction that clockmaker john vernon swung the pendulum to set the clock going again. this is bbc news. the main headline:

hurricane harvey, the strongest storm to hit the us mainland in more than a decade, has made landfall on the coast of texas. iraqi forces say they have broken through the defences of so—called islamic state and reached the centre of the city of tal afar. close to the syrian border, the city is one of the jihadists' last remaining strongholds in iraq after they were driven out of the city of mosul. sarah corker reports. iraqi soldiers fire rockets at is positions in tal afar. so—called islamic state has held the city in northern iraq since 2014. the battle in alleys, streets, and houses is fierce. iraqi forces say they have now seized about three quarters of the city, breaking through is defences. translation: the units move towards the neighbourhood, which has only about 5% left

to retake from islamic state. then we will announce the liberation of this area. what remains is one neighbourhood, the citadel known as the old city of tal afar. sitting on a major road between mosul and the syrian border, the city was once a main supply route for is, and is one of its last remaining strongholds in iraq. tens of thousands of civilians have already fled. food and water in tal afar are running out. in one neighbourhood, soldiers found these vehicles, believed to have been prepared as car bombs by is. translation: while inspecting these liberated areas, we found these storage warehouses and these vehicles. we are continuing our search of the whole area. they also discovered a network of tunnels, packed with missiles and mines, which government troops then blew up. explosion. it is estimated up to

2000 militants remain in the north—eastern quarter. iraqi commanders, though, say they are certain victory is new. iraqi commanders, though, say they are certain victory is near. the un warns that around 30,000 civilians are trapped by the fighting. sarah corker, bbc news. the united nations says airstrikes in yemen by the saudi—led coalition have killed more than forty civilians in the past week, including many children. the latest hit a residential neighbourhood in the capital, sanaa, killing at least 12 people — women and children among them — sparking more international condemnation. yemen, one of the poorest countries in the middle east, is now in its third year of war. seventeen million people are struggling to feed themselves. 7 million more are facing famine. the war is between a saudi—led coalition — backed by the us and uk — which supports the government, and the houthi rebels who have some support from iran. nawal al maghafi reports.

another ruined building in yemen's battered capital. this is what's left of an apartment block in sanaa. amongst the rubble, bodies of dead children. the pictures, too distressing to show. this man says civilian homes are always targeted. local people are convinced the attack was from a saudi coalition air strike. today, the coalition has responded and said it will investigate these reports. we were in the same neighbourhood just two weeks ago when we met nine—year—old nujood. you could hear the sound of coalition fighter jets. she told us they hit everywhere and how she and herfamily have been living in fear. "stop the war," she told me then, but today another tradegy has struck

just a few streets away from her home. tensions have been rising. wednesday's attack on a hotel has now led to a call from the un for an independent investigation. more than 30 were killed here. the saudi—led coalition said they were targeting armed houthi militants who they've been fighting in this brutal war. but aid agencies on the ground in yemen say they're increasingly concerned about what they call "the blatant disregard "for civilian lives". the high cost paid by civilians, in terms of deaths and casualties, is unimaginable and that comes in a situation where the war sees no sign of ending and we see the lack of political progress and, therefore, people see this as a daily... this is the new normal for people here in sanaa. the war, now in its third year, has crippled yemen. disease has spread, more than half

a million people here have cholera and a quarter of the population are on the brink of famine. this war has created what's now being called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and with the failure of international diplomacy and the growing threat to civilians, there's no end in sight for the people of yemen. nawal al maghafi, bbc news. we're told that driverless cars are the future, and some have already been trialled on the roads in some countries. now it's the turn of lorries because from next year convoys of semi—automated, self—driving lorries will be trialled in britain. it raises a number of questions, including who would be responsible for a driverless car crash — the driver or the computer? our transport correspondent richard westcott has more. on a military base in switzerland, important tests are going on.

one of the world's biggest insurance companies is deliberately crashing cars. for the first time, they're simulating what driverless vehicles might do when things go wrong, like if the computer was hacked, so the brakes don't work. well, this car is obviously a complete write—off, you can really smell that the airbags have gone off, but all of the sensors are now full of data, telling them what the car did, what happened to the driver here and all of that information will be used to determine how much insurance we all pay in future. not too many rockfalls in britain, but it's a problem in switzerland. there's not a lot a computer can do about this. so what are insurers hoping to learn? we want to demonstrate

that we can't have the same accident investigation methods as we had before for autonomous cars. we need to know whether the driver or the car was in charge of driving the car. and that's a key question. if a computer's driving, who'll be responsible for the crash? i don't think people need to worry about whether it's their fault or the computer's fault. the uk government has decided an insurance policy will be required and that will deal with the claim in the first instance, so people will be compensated and then the insurance companies, motor manufacturers, they can argue amongst themselves in the background. they save the real drama until last. this next test is about giving the computer a moral dilemma. when an accident is inevitable, does it hit the person on the quad bike or someone in a car? the bike's causing the accident, but the rider's more vulnerable, so who should the computer hit? for this test, they simulate a car choosing the rider.

it's just a dummy, but it's still hard to watch. computer—driven cars are inevitable and these tests will determine how our insurance will work. they already predict that premiums will come down because computers make better drivers than humans. richard westcott, bbc news, zurich in switzerland. the circus has begun in las vegas ahead of one of the biggest fights boxing has ever seen at the weigh in a short time ago, floyd mayweather and the mixed martial arts star connor macgregor stood before the crowd where they will go head to head on saturday night. the high stakes show is already being billed as the richest and most unlikely matchup in boxing history. from las vegas, richard conway reports. on face value, it is an unlikely match up.

floyd mayweather, one of boxing's all—time greats will, this weekend, step into the ring with conor mcgregor, the 29—year—old dubliner who has never boxed professionally. most experts give him little chance of victory. but then this is las vegas, where the bright lights act as a beacon for those hungry to make their fame and fortune. exact figures are hard to pin down, but both men are expected to earn tens of millions of dollars in the most lucrative boxing match ever staged. what will be the impact for boxing if you were to win? there'll be a new king and that's it. there'll be a new king. they'll begin to study my methods. they'll begin to implement my methods and that's it. i will reign supreme. mcgregor, ornately tattooed and nicknamed ‘the notorious' is already a star of the ultimate fighting championship, in which competitors use a brutal mix of martial arts. claiming unemployment benefit four years ago,

he's had a meteoric rise and a shock win on saturday would see him propelled to a whole new level of global recognition. his opponent, meanwhile, insists this fight will be his last. at the age of a0 and undefeated, floyd money mayweather wants to exit with one final mega pay day. i'm not the same fighter i was 21 years ago but, like i said before — mentally, no athlete is stronger than me, mentally. the usual hype and hoopla in the build—up to the first bell has, however, crossed several lines. last month's publicity tour was tarnished by homophobic slurs, allegations of racism and pantomime behaviour, with both men now admitting they made mistakes. such behaviour, though, has not prevented thousands of fans from flocking to las vegas, or millions around the world are purchasing the fight to watch on tv. conor mcgregor may never have fought professionally, but he's being greeted

here as if he was the champion. floyd mayweather, in this his home town, is being seen as very much the outsider and mcgregor is the man that the crowd here want to see win. but one former champion, who has fought and lost to mayweather, has concerns. i think genuine boxing fans and ufc fans probably feel a little bit like i'm feeling, that it's a little bit — it's making a little bit of a farce of our sports. what happens in vegas, should, according to the old saying, stay here. not with this fight. richard conway, bbc news, las vegas. third is the it is looking this. stay with us. hello. i'll get to the uk weekend forecast in just a moment, but first of all, what a night in texas.

dealing with a major hurricane. this is it on the satellite picture, here. but it's a hurricane that's just going to hang around for several more days to come, which means the rain willjust keep on coming. this is how it looks during saturday, bright colour showing the intensity of our rain. but sunday into monday, as well, it's still close by. we are talking hundreds of millimetres of rain, here. catastrophic, life—threatening flooding could well be taking place over the next few days in texas. we'll keep you updated. onto our weekend weather, and some warm, sunny spells on the way for many of us. the chance for catching a shower. for saturday and sunday, even though there'll be some around, most of us will not. sun for england to begin with on saturday. some showers — one or two dotted about in northern england. most places will avoid those and stay dry. if you do get shower in scotland, it could still be on the heavy side, maybe with a rumble of thunder, but pleasant when the sun makes an appearance, and some spots with temperatures into the mid—20s. the cricket at headingley, as it continues for the next few days,

things will warm up. it is a mainly dry picture. broken cloud and sunshine. it will turn breezier by the time we get to monday. as to the women's rugby world cup final in belfast on saturday evening, a fair bit of cloud around, by then, but is likely dry, and temperatures will ease away after the warmth of the day. now, this is a picture through saturday night. it's looking dry for nearly all of us. the odd mist and fog patch developing, after a clearer night on saturday night in sunday morning. so temperatures for some of us will be a little bit lower. but a fine start to sunday. there will be a bit more cloud about in northern scotland. a bit more breeze, too — some patchy light rain to be had. but the vast majority will be dry. i don't necessarily expect clear blue sky. there will be some areas of cloud. sunday looks like it will be a warm day, too. eastern scotland, temperatures will get to 20 celsius, but the higher temperatures will be in england and wales, low to mid—20s. that warmth will continue on monday.

ahead of the weather system, more outbreaks of rain in scotland and northern ireland on monday. if it is a bank holiday where you are, there are big contrasts across the uk on monday. so you can see the rain moving across scotland gales in northern ireland, but that sunshine for many across england and wales. and quite a range of temperatures, too. it will be on the cool side in the wind in scotland and northern ireland, but becoming very warm for a time in south—east england. this is bbc news. the headlines: hurricane harvey, the strongest storm to hit the us mainland in more than a decade, has made landfall on the coast of texas. the category 4 storm is expected to bring sustained winds of 130 miles an hour, and up to a metre of rain. president trump has signed a disaster proclamation. the latest short—range missiles launched by north korea have been unsuccessful. the united states military says one missile blew up almost immediately and two failed in flight. the latest firings come during a joint us—south korea

military exercise, which has been strongly criticised by pyongyang. and at least 23 people have been killed in violent protests over the rape conviction of a popular religious leader in northern india. a former rock star, who's beenjailed for multiple