welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: nearly two and—a—half—million people are moved from their homes, as typhoon mangkhut batters china. the storm has already left dozens dead in the philippines. police in the us state of north carolina say stay off the roads, as storm florence drops record amounts of rainfall. leading democrats call for a delay in appointrung, brett kavanaugh, president trump's nominee for the us supreme court, until allegations of sexual misconduct against him are investigated. why is it taking so long? and what happens if there's no agreement? with only six months to brexit, the bbc travels around britain to ask some key questions. welcome to the programme.

about two and a half million people in china's guangdong province have been moved out of the path of typhoon mangkhut, as it lashes the south of the country. in nearby highnarn province, authorities have also cancelled flights and closed all coastal resorts and schools. earlier, the storm wreaked havoc in the philippines, killing at least 59 people. from there, jonanthan head reports. after the deluge. the shrieking wind was bad enough, but heavy rain brought landslides to the northern philippines, burying vehicles, houses and people. the rivers are also dangerously swollen. here, rescuers managed to pull a mother and child to safety from theirflooded home. the storm has passed on,

but everywhere, it has left a trail of destruction. people are returning from evacuation shelters to find their homes in ruins, or as for this man and his family, swept away completely. there is nothing they can do but to pick up their possessions. "we don't know where we're going to live," he told me. "our house is gone, and we'lljust have to go anywhere we can." we've only got to look at the state of this school roof to see just how powerfully destructive this storm was. now, all this damage is a really heavy blow for communities

which have got very few resources, and where government help is sparing and slow at best. as we left his town, a good part of the population was where we had first seen them — waiting in the hope of government assistance or private donations. typhoon mangkhut has now moved west. winds of up to 110 mph hammered hong kong, showing that even this modern and well—built city is no match for its power. some of the skyscrapers swayed. others lost windows, shed scaffolding, and here, even a crane. waves crashed onto the deserted city streets, flooding some shops and restaurants. in places, the water rose more than 3.5 metres above its normal level, terrifying residents. more than 200 people were injured. chinese media have called it the king of storms.

this is how its arrival on the chinese mainland was seen from a hotel in shenzhen. after travelling thousands of miles, it was still wreaking havoc, this time in china's most heavily populated province. nearly 2.5 million people have been evacuated, and the authorities put on high alert for further damage. here, the wind heaved the sea up and right through a restaurant window. the cost of all this is incalculable, and the typhoon season in asia isn't over yet. jonathan head, bbc news, northern philippines. meanwhile, the governor of the us state of north carolina has warned of what he called a "rising risk to life", following floods triggered by storm florence, which has already been blamed for sixteen deaths. governor roy cooper urged people to stay off the roads, saying the threat from flash flooding had "never been more dangerous than now". chris buckler is there. believe it or not, at this is a

neighbourhood in north carolina. somewhere underneath all of this water are roads and deep, it deep under that is a garden of one of these houses that has already been damaged as a result of hurricane florence. of course, the hurricane has now been downgraded, it is now storm florets but there are still real worries. that is because all of this water has been left behind and still the rain falls. further inland, there is particular concern about rivers overflowing, it then is potentially breaking. and all that left people saying if you have been told to evacuate, you really should do so. also, those who have left their homes have been advised not to return for the minute. looking forward , return for the minute. looking forward, the big problem about this whole storm, as it has been for some time, is the fact that it is slow moving. it is essentially hanging

over the carolinas and is dumping huge amount of rain. in some cases, record rainfall or certain parts of the carolinas. when you take a look around, you can seejust the carolinas. when you take a look around, you can see just on that barricaded up window, there is a message that basically says florence the dawn. the problem is that the storm isn't going anywhere at the moment and ultimately, there is a concern about when all of this rain will stop and people will be able to recover. let's get some of the day's other news. a palestinian teenager has killed an israeli man in a stabbing attack at the entrance to a shopping mall in the occupied west bank. israeli security sources say a civilian shot and wounded the attacker at the scene. to russia, and hundreds of people have been protesting in st petersburg against

new pension reforms. the changes will raise the age at which people can start claiming pensions to 65 for men and 60 for women. president putin says it's necessary to reflect rising life expectancy in the country. british police have sealed off a restaurant in the city of salisbury after two people were taken ill on sunday. they say they are not linking it to the nerve agent poisoning of a former russian spy in the city in march. here's duncan kennedy. what we do know is that ambulances were called to the prezzo restaurant, which is the black—and—white restaurant over my shoulder here, at about 5:45pm tonight. they were then followed by the police, and about five or six police cars turned up, a similar number of ambulances turned up. also some men wearing those white hazmat chemical protective suits that we've seen a lot of here in salisbury. they went inside the restaurant, as well. we understand it involves a man and a woman who became ill. an eyewitness told the bbc she was in the restaurant at the time and saw the woman become hysterical. in her words, the woman started standing up and sitting down. the eyewitness didn't see

the man in question, so she didn't know what happened there. the police are describing it as a medical incident, they're not giving any more details on that. they're also saying that they've sealed off the roads around here, as what they call a precautionary measure. now, public health england say they've been informed of this incident, they're aware of it, but there's no suggestion from anyone so far tonight that this is connected to the novichok incident, which of course began here back in march. the woman alleging she was sexually assaulted by the us supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh, has identified herself in an interview with the washington post. christine blasey ford says mr kavanaugh was drunk when he pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothing when they were both teenagers. mr kavanaugh denied the allegations when they first surfaced last week. we can speak to david tafuri, an international lawyer at the law firm dentons. he's in washington for us. thank you for coming on bbc news.

democrats, as would be expected, are saying hang on, we need to investigate this, post home the appointment. but perhaps dangerously, for brett kavanaugh, republicans are coming forward, or one senator in particular. isn't that right? that is right. senneterre flake in arizona, who supported brett kava naugh, senneterre flake in arizona, who supported brett kavanaugh, is now saying, not that he has withdrawn his support, he does think that we should hear from his support, he does think that we should hearfrom his accuser, which means the scheduled vote for thursday would need to be postponed in orderfor us to hearfrom her. so fari in orderfor us to hearfrom her. so far i think he is the only republican that has said that, but the majority is very slim for republicans in the senate. it looked like brett kava naugh

republicans in the senate. it looked like brett kavanaugh was going to be confirmed before this allegation came out and became public, but it was a razorthin majority that would have voted for him. now we are not sure. you just mentioned that the republicans want to get this locked down by next week in order to have kavanaugh down by next week in order to have kava naugh sitting by down by next week in order to have kavanaugh sitting by october one, just explain to us why the timetabling for all of this in the next few months is really important for president trump and the republicans. well, it is going to be a wild week here in washington. as you mention, republicans want to push this forward, they want to have the vote on thursday and both houses of congress want to go out of sessions in in order to start campaigning for the mid—term elections. it is of course very important to president trump that he gets his nominee through. one of the things president trump has been saying when he has been containing four republicans across the country is that he has pushed through to

supreme court nominees, his choice is very conservative judges, and this is part of him fulfilling the conservative agenda. if this gets stalled it will be troublesome for him and the republicans running the agenda in these mid—term elections. of course, he wants kavanaugh on the court, he likes him, kavanaugh could potentially be a support for him on future cases that come before the court and perhaps there could be cases coming before the court out of the robert miller special counsel investigation. —— mueller. thank you for your analysis on this. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the south korean artist who tells us why she feels her own body is the best canvas for her work. 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 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's become a saint, it's expected that this area will be inundated with tourists. the mayor and local businessmen regard the anticipated boom as just another blessing of st elizabeth. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines — nearly 2.5—million people have been moved from their homes as typhoon mangkhut batters china. the storm has already left dozens dead in the philippines. police in the us state of north carolina are warning residents to stay off the roads as storm florence drops record amounts of rainfall. the russian president vladimir putin and turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan are due to meet in sochi to discuss the syrian crisis this week. their previous talks failed to agree a ceasefire in the last rebel—held province of idlib. russia, along with iran, strongly supports the syrian government, while turkey backs opposition groups in idlib. meanwhile, doctors and nurses there have been protesting, to demand that hospitals be protected from airstrikes. lebo diseko reports. isa

is a medic‘s to list to save lives than this protest is to do just that. hundreds of doctors and other medical staff pleading with the international community to protect hospitals in the event of a renewed government offensive. translation: we came out today to demand the end on strikes on hospitals and we asked the united nations to protect us from shelling because medical staff are impartial when we are treating civilians. the regime has been accused of bombing hospitals before and according to the uk—based monitoring group the syrian observatory for human writes, they say another hospital was heaped —— it just say another hospital was heaped —— itjust a week ago. they say another hospital was heaped —— it just a week ago. they say they

have tried to clear the area of terrorists. idlib is the last remaining rebel stronghold and four weeks people have been in bracing themselves for a new push and more bombs by russia and president assad's troops. the province is now almost completely surrounded by government forces meaning this could effectively be the last big battle field of syria's seven—year war. the united nations has repeatedly warned of the consequences such action could have. it says it would have like having a walk in a refugee camp. —— ——a war. so far hopes to get assa d camp. —— ——a war. so far hopes to get assad to change his action have failed. it is a question of when not if that military push comes. for these doctors and nurses it is a question of trying to make sure they can help the casualties which seem so inevitable. lebo diseko, bbc

news. new research from australia suggests that taking aspirin every day could increase the risk of heavy bleeding in healthy adults over the age of 70. many people take the blood—thinning drug as a preventative measure against cardiovascular disease and stroke. professorjohn mcneil from monash university did the research, and hejoins me now from melbourne. the key thing is healthy adults over the age of 30. —— 70. it focused on people who hadn't had a previous stroke and taking aspirin in the hope it would stave off a first stroke or heart attack or keep people alive for longer. what are the risks if healthy adults over the age of 70 are regularly taking aspirin? what could it be doing for them? you limit the risks are small

but on the other hand, significant. they appear to at least outweigh any benefit. as people get older, their blood vessels get more fragile. aspirin appears to make this worse. this goes against what so many seniors think. lots of people believe that taking small amounts of aspirin helps keep people healthy. how surprised would you buy your research findings? we were very surprised because it has been an important evidence gap and regularity bodies around the world has been aware that above the age of 70 we simply don't know or haven't known the balance of risks and benefits of apps —— of aspirin. we we re benefits of apps —— of aspirin. we were not surprised to find that the risks did not outweigh the benefits. do you believe that general

practitioners and positions should now be changing their advice to patients? haven't --i think that people who haven't had any strokes oi’ people who haven't had any strokes ora people who haven't had any strokes or a reason to take aspirin, as a result of this study, they shouldn't consider starting. professor, explained to us how this research came about. this was a large create -- clinical came about. this was a large create —— clinical trial with over 19,000 people in the united states and australia. half of them took low—dose aspirin and half took a placebo. after 11.5 years, we added up placebo. after 11.5 years, we added up to the number of medical events in each arm. very interesting to hear about your findings. thank you for joining hear about your findings. thank you forjoining us. pleasure. it's nowjust six months until britain is due to leave

the european union. to mark the milestone moment, bbc news has put together a special series, trying to answer some of the questions many people across the country still have about brexit. nick robinson has been to the town of chesterfield, in the east midlands, where the question on everyone's lips is: why hasn't britain left yet? how will trade work after brexit? what will brexit mean for the union? will it definitely happen? why haven't we left yet? "why haven't we left yet?" "why is brexit taking so long?" come to a place like this where 60% voted to leave and you get asked that all the time. so, let's see if i can explain. no country has ever left the eu before, there is no manual telling you how to do it, which means that we — or our government — and they — the governments of the 27 other eu countries — are really having to make it up as they go along. those working on brexit say it's the most complex challenge any government has faced since the second world war. here is why: over 45 years in the european club,

britain has agreed to a huge collection of things as a result of its membership. it reminds me a bit of one of these boxes you get on the street that contain the phone wires. look inside, there's all those wires, all those colours, all those interconnections. the difference is, when it comes to brexit, no plan exists for how to rewire it. that relationship is about much more than trade with europe. trade with the rest of the world is covered by, you guessed it, agreements made through the eu. the eu of course is about much more than trade, so that is hundreds of agreements, thousands of laws and rules and regulations that have to be rewritten or re—made. now, you may have thought the man from number ten who called the referendum would have had a plan, but no, david cameron stopped civil servants from planning for defeat. but what about the other side — those who campaigned to leave, like boris johnson? surely, they would have had a plan. well, no again. they were worried that if they did have a plan,

they might scare off potential supporters. the truth is, there is no political agreement about what brexit does mean, could mean or even should mean. theresa may has got no majority in parliament, her party is deeply divided, and so are the labour party. if getting agreement at home has proved mighty hard, it's made getting a deal in europe much harder. thank you. now, there are people who do business deals who say, "why doesn't the prime minister do it like i would? talk tough and threaten to walk out of the negotiations if she doesn't get what she wants. why doesn't she behave a bit more like donald trump?" there is an answer to that. there aren't a lot of business deals

in which you are having to negotiate with 27 other leaders at the same time as your board, your shareholders and your customers are all having a row in public about what you're doing, and at the same time as those 27 other leaders are having to persuade their cabinet, their parliaments, their parties that they are doing the right thing. all of which goes to explain why we haven't left yet, and why the only thing that's certain when it comes to brexit is yet more uncertainty. nick robinson, bbc news, chesterfield. they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and one young south korean artist has certainly taken that to heart. dain yoon has been using her own body as a canvas for the past couple of years. she says she considers her face to be a page of a diary — and her elaborate make—up a form of painting. she's been telling the bbc about the reactions she gets to her work. don't forget you can

reach us on twitter — i'm @ duncan golestani. typhoon mangkhut lashes the south of china. authorities have cancelled flights and closed coastal resorts and schools. earlier, the storm wreaked habit in the philippines killing at least 59 people —— wrecked havoc. there is a rising risk to life in the united states after hurricane florence. people are urged to stay off the roads. you are watching bbc news. stay with us. hello.

there is some turbulent weather in the forecast over the next few days and it is mainly down to this area of cloud. it is the remnants of what was hurricane helene, it is no longer a hurricane, but embedded in this is a lot of tropical energy. what that will do is strengthen the winds over the coming days. you see this area of low pressure tracking it's way northwards to western part of the uk, the squeeze in the isobars means there will be strong winds, gales and heavy rain, but also ahead of it is drawing up some very warm, tropical air and that will extend all the way northwards into parts of northern ireland and southern scotland over the next few days. yes, it is going to be windy. there will be gales at times, some spells of heavy rain, particularly the further north and west you are, further south and east, dry and warm as well. here is how monday pans out. further outbreaks of rain across western parts of scotland becoming heavy and more persistent as it works its way north and eastwards, some of that rain affecting northern ireland, the wind starting to strengthen. across england and wales, aside from one or two showers, most will have a mainly dry day,

some spells of sunshine, often cloudy, but feeling warm for many, temperatures between 19 and 23 celsius, 2a or 25 for east anglia and south—east england. as we go from monday night into tuesday, our area of low pressure works its way northwards across western parts of the uk, notice that squeeze in the isobars will bring strong winds, likely to see gales through irish sea and western coasts, some heavy rain as well, particularly for northern ireland and some of that extending into northern parts of wales, northern england and into scotland. a blustery start to tuesday, these are the wind gusts, the average speeds will be somewhat lower, but it is a windy day for all of us on tuesday and even though the winds do lose some of their strength, we will pick up strong gust particularly for western coasts. could be some rain around for northern parts of scotland, showers for northern ireland, northern england down into wales. again, further south and east it stays mainly dry and it could be quite warm for many, 19 to 23 celsius, perhaps a degree or so higher across south—east england. as we go into wednesday, our area of low pressure is in the north of the uk, but on its southern flank we have some very strong winds. we could see gusts of 60 or 70 mph

across parts of northern england, southern parts of scotland on wednesday. so it's a windy day. heavy spells of rain across northern england, northern ireland and parts of scotland, still very little rain further south and east, where it again it will stay fairly warm. some unsettled conditions over the next few days. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: typhoon mangkhut is continuing to batter china's most populous province of guangdong, after wreaking havoc in the philippines and hong kong. at least 2.5 million people have been moved out of the typhoon's path. authorities have cancelled hundreds of flights and closed all coastal resorts. police in the us state of north

carolina are warning residents to stay off the roads as storm florence continues to drop record amounts of rainfall. the storm has already been blamed for hundreds of debts. thousands have been evacuated and are in shelters. a leading democrat senator calls for a delay in considering president trump's nominee for the us supreme court. brett kavanaugh denies allegations of sexual misconduct.