this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 8.00: at least 1a people in northern philippines 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. heading for space — nasa launches its most advanced laser satellite ever — the icesat—2. the billion dollar mission is aimed at studying the condition of earth's ice cover.

and, in half an hour, a journey into the controversial world of live animal exports, as bbc scotland investigates the dairy industry. the mag good evening and welcome to bbc news. —— good evening and welcome to 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've 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 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's 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 downed — and you can see them in the neighbourhood and down

the street, trees barely missing houses, huge 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. that was chris buckler reporting. our correspondent laura trevelyan sent us this update from wilmington, north carolina. just look at this rainfall. we are getting two to 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. and this is being replicated across parts of north and south carolina as this very slow—moving, enormous storm just dumps rain on us.

now there is this risk of catastrophic flooding. we have just 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 even made landfall. that is because of the water, walls of water, the governor called it. and we will get this for another 2a hours. this river behind me, the cape fear river, is not even if they did to reach its peak height until tuesday. that means the most damaging flooding is still to come. laura millerjoins us from an emergency shelter at the town of conway in south carolina. laura, thank you for my dog in the first night. tel us why you had to be evacuated. we were in flood zones, firstly, and also in a mobile home, which was very dangerous —— thank you for talking to us. what

sort of facility is an? high school, conway high school, and the red cross is here, providing cots. you have to bring your own water. how many of you are they are? it was up to about 700. a few people have gone ahead and gone home if they feel they have power, but there are still at least 400 here. what is the morale like among everybody? at least 400 here. what is the morale like among everybody7m at least 400 here. what is the morale like among everybody? it has been varying. some people are kind of moody and getting irritated with one another, because we have been here for so long, but overall it is pretty good. some people were singing last night. you know, trying to keep up spirits, laughing. a lot of little kids running around. we are doing our best. it back as far as you know, what are the conditions like around your home? right now our

power is still off where i live. there are trees down, there is going to bea there are trees down, there is going to be a lot of water. actually one of the representatives from congress was here earlier and he said one of the major things that could happen in the next 24 hours, our rivers will swell from all the rain in north carolina, because we get our rivers from north carolina, so all that water will come down here and oui’ that water will come down here and our flood zones will become even greater. how much longer do you expect to have to stay in the emergency shelter? well, i thought i would go home today, but u nfortu nately would go home today, but unfortunately it looks perhaps monday or tuesday. that will feel like a very long time. it already feels like a very long time! how does this storm, for you, laura, compared with previous ones you have seen? because you are no stranger to storms of this type? well, i haven't

beenin storms of this type? well, i haven't been in south carolina that long, but i have had some storms in atla nta, but i have had some storms in atlanta, where i lived previously, but i have never had to be this close to a harry kane, —— to a hurricane. well, laura miller, in south carolina, we hope you get one soon and we are glad you are well and being looked after. a former british soldier's been sentenced to seven years in prison in turkey, according to his family. joe robinson who's twenty five 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 reports. 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. 2! people had to be rescued after a roller—coaster became stuck at a theme park in warrington. the incident happened around one o'clock 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 and rescue service say no—one was injured. 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. the headlines on bbc news:

at least 14 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. sport now, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here'sjeanette. good evening. britan's simon yates is set to become only the second britain to win the vuelta a espana. he's extended his overall lead to one minute 46 seconds

after the 20th and penultimate stage today, and will be crowned champion after the processional finale in madrid tomorrow. joe lynskey reports. just a decade ago this sight seemed impossible, but british riders now rule the roads of the continent. in simon yates this sport has entered new territory — in one year three men from one nation are set to win all the grand tours. yates nowjoins chris froome and gerard thomas as one of cycling's superstars. he all but sealed the title in his new home. the man from bury lives and trains in the hills of of andorra, years of mastering these mountains led to this. his job on stage 20, to protect his overall lead, but his approach in the coming stages has been to attack. soon his nearest challenger could not keep up. commentator: valverde looks a spent force. as valverde fell away yates could start the uphill procession. in spain and the legs have stayed with him, the jersey stayed red and simon yates rides into madrid tomorrow as britain's latest endurance king. the premier league has returned today after a two—week international break. both chelsea and liverpool still have 100% records.

watford had also made a perfect start to the season. going into the evening game with manchester united, jose mourinho's side, though, have put the brakes on that start with a 2—1 victory at vicargae road. the last time jose the last timejose mourinho ventured so the embarrassingly fell over at wembley. this evening, as manchester united travel to inform watford, he was hoping his side would be rather more sure—footed, but it was sure hands required early on, david de gea again proving why use one of the best. alexis sanchez has not scored away from home since signing in january, until now, that is... but no, flag is up, offside. the wait continues. someone not willing to wait any more was romelu lukaku, showing you don't need your feet when your stomach will do. just three minutes later it was two, chris smalling providing relief to the man who used to call himself the

hgppy the man who used to call himself the happy 0ne. the man who used to call himself the happy one. but said there was a sting in the tail as andre gray gave watford hope, but united's defence stood tall despite going down to ten men, and maybe they are starting to find their feet this season. bbc news. so chelsea and liverpool have both maintained their perfect starts to the season with wins against tottenham and cardiff respectively. there were also victories for bournemouth and crystal palace. manchester city maintain their unbeaten start to the season with a 3—0 win over fulham while arsenal won for the third time in a row against newcastle. in the scottish premiership, rangers thrashed dundee 4—0. steven gerrard's side are fourth in the table. hibernian beat kilmarnock 3—2. hamilton beat livingston i—0, while hearts remain top and are five points clear after a 1—0 win at motherwell. saintjohnstone and aberdeen drew i—i. lewis hamilton will be on pole for tomorrow's singapore grand prix after a first lap in qualifying

he described as magic. that lap from the mercedes driver was enough despite failing to improve on his second run. hamilton's title rival sebastian vettel was third behind red bull's max verstappen. vicky holland is the new women's triathlon world champion. she had to finish ahead of her american rival, in order to claim the title in the final race of the season on australia's gold coast and she did just that by finishing in second place in the grand final. alex gulrajani reports. dancing her way into the record books. vecchi holland, a title prize she never expected. world champion, that has quite a ring to it, doesn't it? -- vicky holland. i can't believe i got there. on the start line in australia holland knew what was needed. the american led the championship. in the water, she made her intentions clear. as they moved on to the bikes am looking bright

for:, on the course where she helped england win the commonwealth games she looked at home —— looking bright for holland. 0ut she looked at home —— looking bright for holland. out in front of a company not too far behind, title challenger in her shadow. the australian ashley gentle joined the party, but three soon became two as the pair moved out alone. holland is the pair moved out alone. holland is the world champion! a great race from vicky today. you have to look forward to the run, and the run, she executed an unsealed the world title. a day that vicky holland said she never expected. now, a new title to get used to. bbc news. great britain have taken a 2—1 lead in the davis cup afterjamie murray and dom inglot beat denis istomin and sanjar fayziev in four sets. britain and uzbekistan were tied at one—all as they went in to the doubles but murray and inglot have given great britain the advantage in glasgow.

if they win one of the singles fixtures tomorrow, they will be seeded in february's preliminary world group round. england's netball team have recorded their biggest ever win, over new zealand in the quad series this morning. england ran out 52—39 winners, after running away with the match in the latter stages. england play australia and south africa over the next week. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories, plus all the day's rugby results and news of the t20 final on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. jeanette, thank you very much. the government is expected to appoint a senior figure from the retail groupjohn lewis to conduct a review of the railways. the transport secretary chris grayling has asked keith williams, the deputy chairman of the department store, to take a detailed look at how the rail network operates, and how it could improve. 0ur political correspondent chris masonjoins me now. what has prompted this now, chris?|j

think what has prompted this now, chris?” think the government is very aware that whenever the railways make the headlines they tend to include headlines they tend to include headlines unfavourable for the government, the timetabling schedule chaos back in may, the strikes, franchises that have failed in the news recently, being back in government hands, not for the first time. and the government is wrestling with what to do and wants to be seen to be in charge and to have a big vision. and the kind of politics of this, they are very conscious they are up against the labour party that is suggesting rail nationalisation. in headline political slogan terms, that is quite an easy thing for people to get their head round, but quite a complex thing to actually pull off because it would involve letting various back the lead in down and would take some time but it is a clear offer. also, from the government perspective, opinion polls suggest that labour policy is quite popular. so the government has to latch onto its own big policy,

and the government thinks renationalisation would be a bad idea and they speak about going back to the old british rail days as being a mistake and all that kind of thing, but they have to offer an a nswer to thing, but they have to offer an answer to the question, what would you do then? why has keith williams been asked to do this? choosing somebody from the retail sector to look at the railways is not the most obvious choice. it isn't. he has worked before in the aviation industry so has something of a transport background. i'm told one of the appeals of this gentleman given his most recent business experience is the business model at the heart ofjon lewis, the idea of the heart ofjon lewis, the idea of the partnership, the idea that the people you bump into shopping there are not just people you bump into shopping there are notjust employees but that owners of the business, they all have little micro shares, if you like. chris grayling has said for some time, since first pointed as transport secretary, that one of his ideasis transport secretary, that one of his ideas is to try to empower railway workers with a stake in the industry, so they have a direct connection with its success or

failure, which i guess loosely is the kind ofjon lewis model. what mr grayling is also trying to pull off, trying to find a solution that recognises the current model which is model introduced by the current conservative government, the privatisation of the railways, is seen privatisation of the railways, is seen by some to be less than ideal. not wanting to go for renationalisation because they think that would be a mistake, but having something sufficiently bold to offer that says, "we get there are problems and we want to improve things," hence this review. pretty substantial, will last about a year, pretty broad term of reference, looking at timetabling, infrastructure and a whole lot, in the hope they can get across the message that they have a vision for the future. chris, thank you very much, chris mason. 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.

0ur political correspondent jonathan blake is at the conference in brighton. jonathan, what has vince been saying this evening? he has been addressing the after—hours rally for party members here in brighton on the first day of the conference, designed to get the party membership fired up. he got a warm reception for his comments. he addressed in this speech this evening has plans to open up the party, which you mentioned just there, to allow people tojoin mentioned just there, to allow people to join without paying a membership fee and potentially have someone lead the party who wasn't one of its elected members of parliament. he focused on that phrase he used in that speech a couple of weeks ago, "turning the liberal democrats into a movement for moderates." that has cost a few raised eyebrows and grumbles among the party membership. a lot of people don't necessarily like being labelled a moderate, they think it doesn't sound quite exciting, radical or principled enough, and so vince cable acknowledged that in his

speech this evening. but he also talked about the status of the liberal democrats, who you could argue are going through something of an identity crisis at the moment. he said in an interview a couple of days ago that potentially the name of the party could even change, and with his talk of opening it up and trying to turn it into more of a mass movement than a political party thanit mass movement than a political party than it is now, there has been some criticism that it doesn't really know what it stands for any more. but he addressed that by saying the liberal democrats were different, they were distinct and proud of it. so they are not just distinct and proud of it. so they are notjust the ones in the middle or on the fringes of british politics. so you got a good reception for that, but those proposed changes to the party will

be the main focus of the conference in brighton. earlier on the brexit spokesmen made a speech where he made a direct appeal to disaffected labour and conservative supporters to come on board, tojoin the liberal democrats, and he also spoke about the potential of the liberal democrats voting against a deal in parliament reached by the government with on brexit. he said there would not be enough time for parliament to properly scrutinise that, and he again put forward the party policy of allowing the public to vote on a final deal. so they one of the conference, so vince cable will be speaking again here in his keynote speech on tuesday. it may well be his last conference as party leader, as he has announced plans to stand down, certainly before the next general election due in 2022, and as he put it once brexit has been resolved or stopped. thank you, jonathan blake in brighton. nasa has launched its most advanced laser ever into space. five, four, three, two, one...

the icesat-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—two at nasa 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 icesat—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. tom fightback from nasa.

now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. you can see our bricks of rain, some heavy, gradually sinking southend east but for much of wales, central and southern scotland, dry, later wins, clear spells. these are the average wind speeds but the gusts will be high, 40—50 a long irish sea coasts and in the north of scotland, but mild generally, following two below 14, ii celsius. this band of rain will slowly we moving south eastwards. cloudy with the drizzle at times for the western isles. a good deal of sunshine across south—east england with cloud across here, bringing the spot of rain. again quite breezy. when is not as strong as overnight, quite gusty in the western isles of scotland. temperatures tomorrow generally between 17 and 23 celsius. bye—bye. hello, this is bbc news

with martine croxall. the headlines: 14 people have died in a massive storm in the northern philippines. it's the strongest typhoon so far this year, with 20—foot storm surges. in the us, tropical storm florence is causing catastrophic flooding on the east coast — five people have died, as forecasters warn that storm surges remain a dangerous threat.