this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 1a people in northern phillipines have died in the strongest typhoon of the year so far, with violent winds and 20—foot storm surges. in the united states, tropical storm florence is causing significant flooding on the east coast. five people have died. this system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall. in some places, measured in feet and not inches. a former british soldier is jailed for seven and a half years in turkey for helping kurdish forces in the fight against the so—called islamic state group. an overhaul of divorce law — ministers set out plans for "no fault—divorce", removing the need to attribute blame. nasa launches its most advanced space laser ever, the ice sat 2. the billion—dollar mission is aimed at studying the condition of earth's ice cover. and coming up on sportsday:

the english cyclist simon yates secures victory in la vuelta, crowning an extraordinary year for british cycling. that's in half an hour here on bbc news. up to 14 people have now died in a massive storm which has brought destruction to the northern philippines. typhoon mangkut has seen violent winds of over 100 miles an hour, torriential rains and warnings of 20—foot storm surges. more than four million people live in its path — thousands have already been evacuated. howard johnson sent in this report from the affected area. mangkhut has been called by meteorologists the strongest typhoon in the world so far this year. and now the reality of the utter devastation it has caused

is becoming obvious. extreme flash flooding. the fragility of human existence laid bare. the road to cagayan province was littered with destruction. electricity posts ripped from the ground, street lamps bent in two, and this man's house torn to shreds. he showed me where the roof had been pulled back like a tin of sardines. fighting back the tears, he told me how he had spent the night in an evacuation centre worrying about the fate of his home. when we arrived in cagayan province, we saw a line of people queueing for fuel to power their generators. how did you feel? scared. we were so scared. trees broken and some electric posts were falling down. all the windows are broken. the whole night.

the whole night, no sleep. the scenes are repeated across this vast region. in cities, debris scattered across the ground. electricity cables dangling dangerously. people wading their belongings through floodwaters. two rescue workers were killed in one of many landslides and a third person drowned in six metre high storm surges. we paid a visit to the provincial government headquarters in the capital, tuguegarao. the grand old american colonial era building has certainly seen better days. outside, a team of search and rescue workers, clearly it had been a long night. our evacuees total about 15,000, scattered in more than 500 evacuation centres. we have not really released them yet because of the kind of wind we have. the typhoon is now on its way to southern china, and vietnam. it is expected to pass

near hong kong tomorrow. the magnitude of the devastation left back here in the philippines still is not known, and more heavy rain is on its way. howard johnson, bbc news, tuguegarao. in the united states, there have been warnings of the risk of life—threatening flash flooding in parts of north and south carolina and virginia. storm florence continues to soak the east coast area, downing trees and damaging homes. at least five people have now died as a result of the storm, including a woman and her baby who were killed when a tree fell on their house. chris buckler reports. large parts of north carolina's coastline now lie underwater as the rain continues to fall. florence is no longer a hurricane but this is still a dangerous storm and as water levels have risen, people have had to be rescued from their homes. it is obvious as you drive through this area how much damage has been done here.

pavements were forced to give way as trees were uprooted in the high winds. many roads remain blocked. and powerlines lie across streets. many people are expected to be without electricity for days, if not weeks. more people now face imminent threat than when the storm was just offshore. i cannot overstate it. floodwaters are rising and if you are not watching for them, you are risking your life. repairing all of this destruction is only slowly beginning in the town of wilmington. some families will never recover from this deadly storm. among those to be killed were a mother and her baby. they were in their home sheltering from the hurricane when a tree crashed through the roof. we have had so many trees down, and you can see them in the neighbourhood and down

the street, trees barely missing houses, massive trees. you know, when you see something like this, you're just really, really lucky. it is awful it is happening to someone because so many people chose to stay. the effects of florence are still being felt and there has been a stark warning that as long as the rain falls, there is the danger of further catastrophic flash flooding. our correspondent, laura trevelyan, sent us this update from wilmington, north carolina. look at this rainfall. we are getting two or three inches an hour in some parts of north carolina. what is happening is the river behind me, which is already swollen and moving fast and breaking its bank at high tide, is getting more and more rainfall dumped onto it. this is being replicated across parts of north and south carolina as this very slow—moving, enormous

storm just dumps rain en masse. now there is this risk of catastrophic flooding. we have heard from the governor of north carolina who was telling us that more people are at risk now than they were when the storm had not yet made landfall. that is because of the water, walls of water, the governor called it. we will get this for another 2a hours. this river behind me is not even if they did to reach its peak height until tuesday. that means the most damaging flooding is still to come. well, we can speak to storm hunters mark robinson and jaclyn whittal, who are in wilmington, north carolina. thank you forjoining us. you have a choice about which storm to follow. yeah, we decided to come down to this area because it is easier to get to and we could make a difference by being here and inform people of what is going on. what do

you intend to do? how do you use your time when you are following a storm like florence? we start by planning our target zone, where the best part of the storm will be come where the strongest winds are going to be. we target a place to be, usually find a safe structure to ride the storm out in and then it is about the wind damage and the aftermath, and sometimes the flooding that will come for several days after that. in a way, you are doing what the authorities don't wa nt doing what the authorities don't want people to do, your parking yourselves where it is most dangerous. how do you keep safe? we we re grey dangerous. how do you keep safe? we were grey ha rd dangerous. how do you keep safe? we were grey hard to try and ensure that we are safe. we carry a lot of supplies, gasoline and so one. if the rest is that deserve us in any way, we have failed badly. we're here to try and help them and know exactly what is going on. we are both meteorologists and we report back to the weather authority in

canada and that they know what is going on. describe what florence has brought to woman ten?|j going on. describe what florence has brought to woman ten? i think it will be remembered by its size rather than its intensity. it was a high end category one at landfall. that doesn't sound like a big deal in terms of a high end category five storm, like it was initially forecast. what will stand out about this one is the wind field was so large and the weather pattern basically stalled this system out so that allowed for a tropical storm or had to be one hurricane winds to batter this area for hours on end, and then the grade is continuing —— the rain is continuing, which will add to the flooding. it was moving so add to the flooding. it was moving so slowly, it sat over the ocean, sucking up all of that energy and moisture. you witness katrina. is it

sensible to try and compare the two? each storm is unique. katrina came in with a punch, a hard single punch. this one had lots of little punch. this one had lots of little punchis punch. this one had lots of little punch is constantly going for a very long period of time. you can see the wind right now, i'm having trouble holding onto the phone as it got stronger. that is what this one will be, a constant long endurance run marathon at the storm. what will the consequences be for the people who live there. down in the wilmington downtown core, there are a lot of old oak trees, in some cases up to 150 years old, it is a beautiful neighbourhood. some of them will never stand again. tonnes of tree damage, a lot of structural damage, we have seen foottis damage, a lot of structural damage, we have seen rooms alone of the buildings. —— roofs blown off of building. people will remember this

storm, you can't let your guard down, you can issue that a forecast to stay the same. the storm kept changing as it got close to shore. the next one, they will say, remember florence, it didn't do what we thought it would do, it did something different which was about as well. you have been a storm hunter since 2000. anyone who knew asa hunter since 2000. anyone who knew as a child would have been surprised that this will. yes, i was terrified of storms. i used a hide under my bed when blunder storms came this what fascinates you as a child, or terrifies you as a child, fascinates you as an adult. i have been chasing tornadoes since 2000, i have jumped into volcanoes, i have been to antarctica. i just need into volcanoes, i have been to antarctica. ijust need to come to england to see your weather. you are welcome any time. it is often very wet. not like the meat and at the moment. we are grateful for you

talking to us with —— not like wilmington at the moment. a former british soldier's been sentenced to seven years in prison in turkey, according to his family. joe robinson, who's 25, was arrested there last year and charged with terrorism offences following time he spent in syria. he's been accused of being a member of the kurdish ypg, whom turkish authorities regard as terrorists. but his family say he was in syria helping civilians. richard galpin has more. joe robinson travelled to syria in 2015 tojoin a kurdish group known as the ypg, which was fighting against so—called islamic state. the former soldier, who had served in afghanistan, was apparently frustrated by what he viewed as the british government's lack of action. although the ypg is backed by the united states, turkey views it as a terrorist organisation — anyone associated with it is vulnerable to arrest. so whenjoe robinson and his fiancee, mira rojkan, went on holiday

to turkey last year, he was detained and has now been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. he was very shocked by the news from yesterday. he is very desperate to come home. he is broken, he is tired, and he just wishes to come home as soon as possible. his family say that while with the ypg, he never fought. he was a medical orderly. they say there will be an appeal against the conviction. for the moment, he is not in prison but cannot leave turkey. richard galpin, bbc news. the government is proposing a significant changes to the law on divorce — removing requirements to allege fault or show evidence of separation. launching a consultation on the proposals, justice secretary david gauke said he wanted to make the process less acrimonious. our legal affairs correspondent, clive coleman, reports. at present, divorcing couples are forced to blame each other for their marriage breakdown

on the grounds of adultery, desertion or behaviour which it's unreasonable to live with, or prove they have been separated for a minimum of two years, even if the separation is mutual. like many, jenny thinks blame can make a difficult process a lot worse. it caused an awful lot of arguments. it caused me obviously to feel very hurt, i got angry, then there were arguments which my children were witness to, it hurt them, and i really think it was completely unnecessary. when couples divorce, they are being torn apart emotionally and financially, often trying to work out sensible living arrangements for their children, so if you throw blame and fault into the process at that stage, most people think you're just making a bad situation a whole lot worse. the government's persuaded, and it's proposing removing the need to show evidence of the other spouse's conduct or a period of living apart, introducing a new notification process where one

or possibly both parties can notify the court of the intention to divorce and removing the opportunity for the other spouse to contest the divorce application. it's right that we try to take the animosity out of this process as much as possible and we have a system that isn't looking back and trying to play the blame game but looking forward to find the best way in which we can have a reasonably constructive relationship between the divorcing couple. the consultation also seeks views on the minimum time between the interim and final divorce decrees, in order to allow couples time to reflect and reach agreement on arrangements for the future if divorce is inevitable. clive coleman, bbc news. 21 people had to be freed after a rollercoaster became stuck at a theme park in warrington. the incident happened around 1pm at gulliver's world. fire crews used ladders

and scaffolding to rescue the passengers from the ride, which was stuck 50 feet in the air. cheshire fire & rescue service say no—one was injured. the headlines on bbc news: at least 1a people in the northern phillipines have died in the strongest typhoon of the year so far, with violent winds and 20—foot storm surges. in the united states, tropical storm florence is causing significant flooding on the east coast — five people have died. a former british soldier is jailed for seven and a half years in turkey for helping kurdish forces in the fight against the so—called islamic state group. the liberal democrats are discussing a major shake—up of the party as their conference gets underway in brighton this morning. the changes, set out by the leader sir vince cable earlier this month, include allowing supporters — as well as fullyjoined—up members — to vote for a new leader.

the lib dems are also urging disillusioned labour and tory supporters to join them to help stop brexit. well, our politics correspondent, jonathan blake, sent this update earlier today. there are two big themes as liberal democrats gather here in brighton for their annual conference. they will be talking amongst themselves over cu ps will be talking amongst themselves over cups of tea and drinks in the bar in the evening about those proposed changes which servants cable has made that would really see a big shake—up of the way the liberal democrats are run. he knows it is struggling to achieve a significant level of support among the public and, with only 12 mps, they are not the presence in parliament they once had. the liberal democrats were in government just over three years ago as part of a coalition with the and services. he says the whole thing should be "people should be allowed to join without a member shipley and people who were not mps should be able to run and be leader of the party.

whilst paddy ashdown, the former leader of the liberal democrats, gave his backing to date to servants cable's suggestions, there are mutterings amongst members that it is not necessarily the best way forward. some say that the party struggles for recognition as it is and to have one leader in parliament and to have one leader in parliament and one for the wider party would be the god and people would struggle to recognise who the lib dems were and what they stand for. he is on a sales pitch to convince them that what he proposed is the right way forward this weekend. the other topic is brexit. this afternoon, the brexit spokesman, tom brake, made a speech here, setting out the problems with brexit. the liberal democrats are the only real anti—brexit party in the uk. he also

mentioned what he sees as the problem with the limited timescale that parliament would have two vote on any deal that the governor had reached with the european union over britain's exit from the eu. it is unlikely we will be allowed to know the full extent of the damage a chequers brexit deal would inflict. although the government had pledged to provide a full impact assessment before the meaningful vote, the time between the conclusion of the negotiations and a parliamentary vote will be incredibly short. that means any assessment is likely to be very, very sketchy. what happens in that scenario is very important. if parliament votes against a deal that the government has reached with the eu, then it is effectively a vote of confidence in the government. we could be into territory where there is a general

election or the article 50 period is extended. the liberal democrats are appealing beyond their own membership, to people who are supporters of labour or the conservatives, who have concerns about brexit either they have changed their minds or against it from the start, to join them. but it is going to be a struggle for them to do that and attract many people in because, as we have explained, they have a limited presence in parliament, and servants cable has a ready and as too will be stepping down at some point in the next couple of years. they are try to bridge themselves as the anti—brexit party but they are struggling to be heard. labour will likely vote against any brexit deal theresa may secures with the eu, according to senior frontbenchers. in a newspaper article, shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry said she can't see the government coming back with an agreement that labour could endorse. the shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, reiterated the message. we cannot see that theresa may will bring back a dealfrom brussels which is acceptable notjust to parliament but even to her own party.

and certainly not meet the criteria we have set to safeguard jobs and the economy. we will examine what comes back and we will be as constructive as we can but ijust cannot see that she will be able to deliver anything that most of parliament can vote for and our view is this is getting really worrying now, so why don't the conservatives move to one side, let us get on with the negotiations or failing that, let's have a general election and let the people decide. the church of england is considering a buy out of the pay—day lender wonga after the company collapsed last month. the idea was suggested by frank field, the chair of the work and pensions committee, who said he hoped the church might lead what he called a group of "good" people willing to run wonga without charging high interest rates. a review of the rail industry is to be launched by the government following criticism of the way the franchising system has been run, with extended periods of disruption across the country. the department for transport said

it was committed to improving journeys for passengers. labour has said it would renationalise the railways if it gets into power. pope francis has delivered an empassioned speech in sicily, appealing to italy's mafia to abandon a life of crime and violence. he visited the island to pay homage to a parish priest who was murdered by the mafia 25 years ago. courtney bembridge has more. 0n on his way to the sicilian capital with a clear message, pope francis chose the place to send it. we need men and women of love, not of honour. we need men and women to walk together, not to chase power. the catholic church has had a

chequered history of relations with the mafia in southern italy, but the pope says people cannot believe in god and belonged to the mafia at the same time. a mafioso does not live asa same time. a mafioso does not live as a christian because he blasphemes his life in the name of god. the event was held to mark 25 years since a paris priest was shot dead by the italian mafia. it was his 56th birthday and apparently he said to the gunmen i have been you. he was known for being outspoken against injustices. he preached against injustices. he preached against the mafia and worked with young people to keep them away from the group. translation: we hope that something will change bit by bit. there are many youths arriving here at this social centre that are beginning to realise that life is not only about violence and degradation. he ignored their threats and banned mafia

members from religious processions. before his murder, the mafia planted car bombs throughout italy, killing at least ten people. it was part of at least ten people. it was part of a bloody offensive against the state and anyone who threatened the group's existence, which also claimed the lives of two magistrates. he was shot in the neck at point—blank range with the six men were charged over the murder. large crowds attended his funeral. why did the mafia kill him?|j large crowds attended his funeral. why did the mafia kill him? i don't know, maybe because she wanted to destroy the mafia, and he could do it. he was beatified in 2013, the last step before sainthood in the church. a diabetic boxer is to become the first insulin dependent fighter to turn professional when he makes his debut in manchester later tonight. muhammad ali has spent the last three years persuading british boxing that his diabetes won't impact on his fights.

rahila bano has been following his story from the start and has this report. muhammad ali's in training for his first fight as a pro. he has type one diabetes and has been insulin—dependent since he was a child, but it hasn't stopped him from boxing. the 25—year—old from rochdale first applied for a licence to turn professional in 2015, but was turned down by the british boxing board of control. it wanted to make sure ali met all of its rigorous medical and fitness requirements. i've shown the world, i've shown united kingdom, and many people across the world, you know, not to give up on tracing your dreams. believe and achieve your dreams. it's something that he thought he would never be able to achieve, he has overcome that so obviously, there's going to be a lot

of emotion and excitement and obviously a lot of media behind it. ali's application was finally approved three months ago after he showed that he could monitor his blood sugar level without disrupting the bout by using a microchip implant which he scans. he'll take on his first welterweight opponent at what's being billed as a knockout event at victoria warehouse in manchester on saturday night. they are guaranteed fireworks, when they get in that square circle, i'm a different person, you know? it's like there's a switch in my body, i turned into a fiery person once i'm inside the squared circle. they will be expecting excitement and fireworks. what would you say to your opponent if he is watching? let's have a nice rumble. let's have a rumble in the ring. let's have it. may the best man win. muhammad ali now hopes to follow in the footsteps of his namesake, and like him, make an indelible mark in the world of boxing. rahila bano reporting there.

nasa has launched its most advanced laser ever into space. four, three, two, one. the ice sat 2 will measure the condition of earth's ice cover and should provide more precise information on how these frozen surfaces are being affected by global warming. tom neumann is the deputy project scientist for ice sat 2 at nasa. he explained what the satellite would do. as the antarctic sea ice accumulates more snow on it, that extra weight pushes the ice further down the ocean and eventually you get flooding. there is so much snow on top of the ice that the ocean water washes right over the top of the ice and saturates the snow. it is a pretty tricky problem down there. with the ice sat—2, we think it should be able to help with that in that we will be measuring that top surface of the snow,

but combining it with cryo sat helps us get at how thick that snow really is. now it's time for a look at the weather. it has been a fairly quiet saturday. some of the incoming rain will be heavy as it sinks south and eastwards, with some gusty winds as well. these are the average beads, but the cost will be higher, perhaps 40 but the cost will be higher, perhaps a0 or 50 but the cost will be higher, perhaps a0 or50 mph but the cost will be higher, perhaps a0 or 50 mph across northern ireland and western scotland. a mild night all of us with temperatures between and 1a celsius. through tomorrow, the rain starts to slip south and east. a band of cloud with the odd spot of rain across parts of wales,

the midlands. fairly cloudy with patches of rain for scotland. elsewhere, a breezy day with winds not as strong as they have been today. temperatures up to 20 and 23. hello there. this is bbc news. the headlines. 14 1a people have died in a massive storm it is storm in the northern philippines. the strongest typhoon this year so far with 20 foot storm surges. in the us the tropical storm causing catastrophic flooding on the east coast. by people have died as forecasters we re east coast. by people have died as forecasters were me “— east coast. by people have died as forecasters were me —— they storm surges are many dangerous that. a seven and a half yearjail sentence in turkey for helping kurdish forces in the fight against so—called islamic state. an overhaul of the

forest law. ministers set out plans forest law. ministers set out plans for no—fault divorce, and removing the need to allege blame.