this is bbc news. i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: hurricane florence is pounding the carolina coast with powerful winds and devastating rains. the first fatailities are reported and there could be worse to come. as far as i know, the eye is still off the coast and it is heading south, so we could be in this wind for a long time. super typhoon mangkhut has made landfall in the northwestern philippines, with winds of over 200 kilometres per hour. thousands of people are being moved to safety. the manager of this hotel has taped up the windows to stop them from blowing in the comes. livelihoods, properties and lives are all at risk tonight. —— from blowing in when the storm comes. livelihoods, properties and lives are all at risk tonight. donald trump's former campaign manager paul manafort agrees to co—operate with an investigation into links between the president and russia as part of a plea deal. one of america's biggest basketball stars visits the uk for a series of exhibition matches. he tells the bbc why he's an advocate for those who can't speak out for themselves.

hello and welcome to bbc news. one of the most savage storm of the hurricance season is causing devastation on parts of the us east coast. four people have died in seperate incidents in north carolina, including one child killed with its mother. hurricane florence hasjust been downgraded to a tropical storm, which has left more than 700,000 homes without power. 0ne meterologist has warned that the slow—moving storm could bring eight months worth of rain in the next three days. 0ur correspondent chris buckler is in wilmington. this storm is continuing to cause real problems for people here. they

said time and time again that there could be a deadly hurricane. and as we stand here being battered by the weather, it is very clear that it continues to threaten both property and people. we're just continues to threaten both property and people. we'rejust a short distance away from the beach, that's where the hurricane made landfall today. and with it all of that rain and all of that flooding. the carolinas knew what was coming, but they could never fully prepare for the force of florence. along this coastline, houses found themselves on the front line for a fierce incoming storm. and a surge of water that flooded streets and homes. despite the many days of warnings, there were people caught out, and families who needed to be rescued from their homes. cool water. there you go. in new bern, in north carolina, the emergency services had to move in as people became cut off.

i've never been so terrified in my entire life. it was horrifying. just wondering what was going on and where the water is going to go, how high it's going to go and how we are going to get out. in the town of wilmington, street after street was littered with the debris of the storm. huge trees, no match for the power of the winds, even though this hurricane had weakened before it reached land. this morning, people gathered to see what was left of their neighbourhood. they kept telling us how bad it would be, and we thought we were prepared. but you just can't be prepared for that. there's nothing to do when a tree falls, you know? and this storm has already proved to be deadly. a fallen tree near here was responsible for killing a mother and her child. hurricane florence is powerful, slow and relentless. it's an uninvited brute who doesn't want to leave.

while florence is here, some families have headed to emergency shelters. places where they know they will be safe. what are you worried about? not having a place to go home to or a job. all those practical concerns are shared as florence continues to hover over the carolinas. she's wheelchair—bound, and it's been really rough. i said, "god, throuthesus christ, our lord, please, please, protect our home and everyone else in wilmington." evacuation warnings remain in place, as families steel themselves for another night of wind, rain and damage here on cape fear. people might have been briefly

relieved, but the truth is the wind is still strong enough to knock you over and it will remain like that for some time. the particular concern is of course about the rainfall and the flooding as these storm surges continue. the problem with hurricane florence is that she is just hovering over this area and will do so throughout the weekend. and that means people need to continually be aware of florence and indeed the damage that she can do. chris buckler in such terrible conditions. in the philillippines, thousands of people have been moved out of coastal areas in the north of the country, in preparation for the arrival of typhoon mangkhut. more than five million people are in its direct path. 0ur correspondent howard johnson has been travelling through the provinces of cagayan and isabela, two areas weather forecasters say are likely to be hardest hit. within the last few hours, typhoon mankhut has hit the northern tip of the main island of luzon.

5 million people are thought to be in the path of this potentially deadly storm. authorities had already urged thousands of people to move inland from vulnerable coastal areas. in nearby santa ana, local officials aren't taking any chances. this village school has been turned into an emergency shelter. translation: there is a tendency for landslides in this area in the past, so a village council has advised them to get out early. on the road out of cagayan province, we pass farmers anxious to do what they can to salvage their harvest. the philippines endures about 20 typhoons and storms each year, mankhut is the strongest storm of 2018 so far. it's more than 500 miles in diameter, with sustained winds of over 160 miles an hour. we're around 100 miles away

from where this storm is about to hit hardest. already, the winds are up and it's been raining heavily. as you can see, most people have heeded the warnings to stay inside and wait for this potentially devastating typhoon to pass. alexandra pura is the country director for uk charity christian aid in the philippines, she joins me live from quezon city near manilla. good to have you with us, thank you very much, what is your biggest challenge right now? good morning. you have seen the map of the path of the typhoon and you will see mountainous areas and small islands, and those are the geographically ha rd to and those are the geographically hard to reach areas. and an early warning system, even if it is done in many parts of the part of the typhoon, there will be areas where they will be disasters, so that's

what worries us. that will be up land communities, where indigenous peoples live, and also inhabitants of small islands, so that's what we are worried about. and how will you reach of them, alexandra, or the authorities, what do they need? what we've done in the past is to build disaster risk reduction and building plans in these remote areas, but you can never be too sure about how prepared the communities will be. we arejust hoping that prepared the communities will be. we are just hoping that all those awareness regimes and education sessions have paid off and that there are institutions in the communities like churches and ngos to support them. we have done a lot of preparers with local government officials also, so we really hope that this pays off —— preparedness. and, alexandra, are you able to hear

from them, is their communications, because that can be one of the first things to go in a situation like this? so, we've co-ordinated, actually days before this weeping toward meeting and trying to figure out how we can communicate with, you know, telecoms and power lines will be down, so we made sure that they have done their disaster prepare a —— preparedness work and we are sending ina —— preparedness work and we are sending in a team as soon as roads so we get that information. so just making sure that they're safe and to get information from them, that will be our next priority. alexandra pura, thank you very much, member of christian aid in quezon city. thank you so much. president trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort, has agreed a plea bargain with the prosecutors investigating claims russia meddled with the 2016 election. it means he will co—operate with the team led by special counsel robert mueller, and in return will see some charges dropped.

but the exact nature of that co—operation has not been revealed. here's mr manafort‘s lawyer outside the courthouse in washington. it is a tough day for mr manafort. he has accepted responsibility. and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. he has accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years. so thank you, everyone. earlier i spoke to our north america correspondent david willis. i asked him why this latest move by mueller is significant. just three weeks ago donald trump was heaping praise on paul manafort, calling him a "brave man" for resisting the temptation to give evidence to robert mueller, the special counsel's inquiry.

it will be interesting to see or to know what donald trump makes of paul manafort now, now that he has agreed to talk to the special prosecutor's team. paul manafort has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of conspiracy, one in relation to his work for pro—russian ukrainians and the other for alleged witness tampering. here is a man, paul manafort, who has undergone one trial for bank and tax fraud charges, he was found guilty of eight of those charges and is looking to spend quite a few more years in prison. it is highly significant, i think, that he has agreed now to talk to the special prosecutor's office. not least because in his nearly six months on the trump campaign paul manafort was present at some key moments, not least that now fateful meeting at trump tower injune 2016, when also present were donald trumer, the president's son

and the presiden‘ts son—in—law jared kushner, as well as a russian lawyer who was offering to dig the dirt on hillary clinton. so, with this, it seems to be an awful lot of people have been in the news or have accepted some sort of deal. can we expect things to move quickly? well, that's a very good question. there are a lot of people here who are saying, nuala, that this really has essentially changed the dynamic of the investigation as far as robert mueller is concerned. because paul manafort is a big get, if you like. we have already seen key former members of the trump administration switching sides, if you like,

for national security advisor michael flynn has been talking to the mueller team, so too has the former foreign policy advisor, george papadopoulos, but paul manafort is the man, it is thought, who knows, really, whether there was a conspiracy and whether there was some sort of agreement to conspire between the trump campaign team and russia. thanks very much to david. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: ten years after the collapse of lehman brothers bank, marking the beginning of the global financial crisis, how is middle america coping with the fallout from the financial meltdown? 30 hours after the earthquake that devastated mexico city, rescue teams still have no idea just how many people have died. there is people alive, and there is people not alive. we just can help and give them whatever we've got. it looked as though they had

come to fight a war, but their mission is to bring peace to east timor, and nowhere on earth needs it more badly. the government's case is being forcefully presented by monsieur badinter, the justice minister. he's campaigned vigorously for the abolition, having once witnessed one of his clients being executed. elizabeth seton spent much of her time at this grotto, and every year, hundreds of pilgrimages are made here. now that she has become a saint, it's expected that this area will be inundated with tourists. the mayor and local businessman regard the anticipated boom as just another blessing of st elizabeth. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: hurricane florence is pounding the carolina coast with powerful winds and devastating rains.

the first fatailities are reported — with predictions of worse to come. super typhoon mangkhut has made landfall in the northwestern philippines, with winds of over 200 kilometres per hour. thousands of people are being moved to safety. north and south korea have opened a joint liaison office on the north's side of the heavily militarised border. that may seem a small step, but it means a lot — it'll let the two sides communicate on a regular basis for the first time since the korean war. from seoul, here's our correspondent laura bicker. this building is, in essence, a factor at joint this building is, in essence, a factor atjoint korean this building is, in essence, a factor at joint korean embassy. this building is, in essence, a factor atjoint korean embassy. it is the first time since the korean war where the two sides will be able to talk 2a hours a day for 365 days a year. now, how it will work is that officials from the north and

the south, about 15 to 20 each will both be in the building, a floor each, and there will be a meeting floor where they can talk about various tensions. in the past communication came via fax or special phone lines, but during times of tension those communication lines were often cut. so this is a structure where they can both talk at any structure where they can both talk atany time, structure where they can both talk at any time, even when there are tensions. now, this all comes ahead of resident moon, south korea's leader, going to pyongyang next week. —— president moon. he will be the first south korean leader to visitjohn yang in over a decade. and he has a job to do. he will try to get concrete steps from kim jong—un to try to get some sort of concrete promise out of him with regards to disarmament, and he will try to break the diplomatic deadlock that currently exists between the united states and north korea. but what this building today, and the

launch of this building, tells us is that even if things are not going well between the united states and north korea, the two koreas, north and south, seem determined to try to find a path to co—operate. this weekend is the 10th anniversary of the collapse of lehman brothers bank, which marked the beginning of the global financial crisis. the seeds of the problems had been planted in the years before, including the selling of subprime mortgages in the united states, when too many people were given mortgages they couldn't afford to repay. our north america correspondent correspondent nick bryant has been to one of the areas affected, in southwest florida. fort myers in florida was once the home of the american dream. but in 2008, it was dubbed the ground zero of the great recession. affluent, dream suburbs where more than 40% of properties were repossessed. everything in this area was totally in foreclosure. estate agent machoseph witnessed the mystery of the crash, saw the tears of people who not only lost their homes, but also their faith

in the economic promise of america. that whole dream of working hard and actually reaping the benefits of working hard, i think, for me, the american dream was that. that wasn't reality. the dream would have been i would have been retired ten years ago. not so many americans own property any more, a child's chance of earning more than their parents has plunged from 90% after the war to just 50%. and as lynn williams and her daughter emma will tell you, the children of the financial crisis are finding it harder to leave home. i have twojobs, plus an internship, and i'm probably getting about four to six hours of sleep. maybe three. maybe three, some nights. it depends on, like, when i get off of work. and you still can't afford to move out? no. it's not any longer that you can go and get a degree and automatically get a well paying job. that isn't... that'sjust not how it runs any more in this country. what we didn't anticipate ten years

ago was how the financial earthquake would upend the american political landscape. how voters like brenda biddle, who lost two luxury homes, would become donald trump's forgotten people. i had a really horrible eight years of just trying to get back on my feet. for a couple of years it was hard to feed my children, to be honest with you, especially when i did become single. and so your feeling when donald trump came along? excitement. i think hope was instant, day one. i think everybody was lifted. much of the us economy has rebounded. unemployment is at an 18—year low. but even in the sunshine state, 2008 continues to cast long shadows. and its sprawling suburbs are no longer such a symbol of american upward mobility. nick bryant, bbc news, florida. the church of england has been forced to defend itself against accusations that it's not practising what it preaches. earlier this week the archbishop

of canterbury criticised the retail giant amazon for paying "almost nothing" in taxes, and described zero hours contracts as "evil." but it's emerged amazon is one of the church's biggest global investments. our religion editor martin bashir reports. packed full of references to scripture, justin welby delivered his speech to the tuc on wednesday. the bible is political, from one end to the other. he took on zero—hour contracts the gig economy and then attacked the online retail giant amazon for paying so little in tax. and, having leeched off the taxpayer once, they don't pay for our defence, for security, for stability, forjustice, for health, for equality, for education. but it's now emerged that amazon is one of the church's 20 biggest investments, out of a total portfolio of almost £12 billion. and, despite the archbishop

condemning zero—hours contracts, several churches and cathedrals are advertising zero—hours vacancies. he either chose to ignore or was unaware that the church of england had significant holdings in amazon. ijust cannot understand why the leader of the church of england, the leader of the nation's church, chose to be so poorly briefed or just ignore facts that he knew about. the church commissioners issued a statement defending its investments, saying... "we take the view that it is more effective to be in the room with these companies, seeking change as an active shareholder, than speaking from the sidelines. justin welby chairs the church commissioners' annual general meeting. he also heads up the archbishops‘ council, which provides guidance to the church of england on its investments. so, if he's so opposed to companies like amazon, why hasn't he used his influence to disinvest? unfortunately, lambeth palace has declined our request for an interview.

amazon has rebutted the archbishop's criticisms, saying that it paid all taxes required in the uk and every country where we operate. martin beshir, bbc news. in the world of basketball, stephen curry looms large. at six foot three he may not be the tallest in the sport but he's the highest—paid player in the nba. the superstar of american sport has been shooting hoops in east london, and our sports editor dan roan went to meet him. he's the sharpshooting superstar of american basketball. steph curry from downtown! twice voted the most valuable player in the nba, steph curry‘s become one of the biggest names in world sport — king of the long—range three—pointer. today he was the main attraction at a court in london's east end. he told me that basketball will soon grow this side of the atlantic. how big do think this sport could be

in britain in the future? i think it'll be extremely huge and aspiring for kids to play, especially at earlier ages. to get that instruction and develop their own passions for the game. curry‘s helped his team, the golden state warriors, dominate the nba, winning the title in three of the last four seasons. the californian franchise recently awarded him a record—breaking contract worth $200 million. are you at the peak of your powers now? i think so, but i'll hopefully stay there for a very long time. i've learned a lot about myself in the game. like you said, accomplished a lot. but i feel like there's more in the tank. but it's notjust on the court that curry‘s made an impact. last year he made a stand against the policies of the trump administration by snubbing an invite to the white house. the president himself then telling curry the invite was withdrawn. i said how i felt. i tried to provide reasons why i felt those ways and let it be.

obviously i'm not going to waver off of that. even if it comes with a risk or some fallout? for me, i know that you're not going to please everybody in this world. curry‘s also backed serena williams after her claims of sexism in the sport following an outburst during the us open final last weekend. leeway that she handled it post match, how eloquently she put it, her sentiments around gender equality in her sport, created that conversation that i think we can all kind of assessed for ourselves. another athlete activist who curry supports is colin kaepernick, the american footballer whose kneeled protests during pre—match national anthems became a movement that divided the nation. we wanted to shine light on police brutality, on racial inequality and things like that. that's what the nfl players have stood for, and i definitely respect that.

on and off court, curry‘s a man who rarely looks like missing. ata time at a time when sports and politics seem closer than ever, he is determined to speak for those who can't. a reminder of our top story. the us national hurricane centre says it expects hurricane florence to cause what it calls catastrophic flooding in parts of north and south carolina. the hurricane has claimed its first lives in north carolina, including a mother and her child, when a tree fell on their house. florence has now weakened to a tropical storm. the governor of north carolina, roy cooper, has appealed to people who ignored orders to evacuate coastal areas to now stay in their home while the hurricane batters that state. and you can find me on twitter. goodbye for now. hello again.

before we look at the weather in the uk let us have a round—up of what is happening with the storms elsewhere in the world. for northern parts of the philippines battered by typhoon mangkhut, that is heading out into the south china sea, not far away from hong kong on sunday, not as powerful by this stage. back over the pacific, into north america, where we find florence. that will weaken over land this weekend it will continue to bring flooding rains to the carolinas. this area of cloud contains remnants of an ex—hurricane that could be heading our way next week. this weekend, bit of a mixed bag. wetter windier weather in the north—west that will start to push its way will start to push its way into england and wales next sunday. the best of the weather will be in the south—east. we have this link of drizzly rain across northern england. perhaps even into north wales. the wetter weather a rise as the winds pick up

in the afternoon across northern ireland and into western scotland. elsewhere dry weather. the difference in temperatures in the sunshine. through the evening and overnight you can see how this rain develops more widely in northern ireland, in scotland, pretty heavy rain. quite windy out there as well. some of that will edge of the irish sea. the south—east dry and clear. and across the board it should be quite a warm night on saturday night. the rain should move away from scotland and northern ireland. being replaced by sunshine and showers in the north—west. the rain gets stuck across northern england, wales, not far from the south—west. the east midlands, east anglia, the south—east likely to be warm but towards the north—west of the uk a different story, quite a bit cooler with the show is coming in was the south—east, the temperatures continuing to creep up and up. into the early part of next week, this area of low pressure contains remnants of ex—hurricane helene. it will drive its way quickly northwards up the western side of the uk. uncertainty about the detail. the winds will collect really picking up as it sweeps its way northwards and is threatening to bring heavy rain briefly as well. the system has come from a long way

south and contains tropical air. that will be felt across the east and south—east of the uk for monday and tuesday. it will be not as warm in the north and west of the uk. stronger winds. rain for a while. towards the south—east this is where temperatures will continue to climb into the mid—20s. this is bbc news. the headlines: four people have died as hurricane florence lashes down on the us east coast. a mother and child were killed when a tree fell on their house in wilmington. emergency workers are battling strong winds and floodwaters to try to rescue hundreds of people trapped in their homes. a super typhoon has hit the north east of the philippines, making landfall in baggao —

with winds of over 200 kilometres per hour. more than four million people are directly in the path of the storm and thousands have been evacuated. president trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort, has pleaded guilty to two charges, relating to his former role as a lobbyist in ukraine. as part of a plea deal, he will co—operate with the investigation into russian electoral interference. the white house say the new deal has nothing to do with mr trump. now on bbc news — click.