this is the briefing, i'm sally bundock. our top story: —— our top stories: just six months until brexit — the bbc hears exclusively from britain's prime minister and her promise to lead britain out of europe. typhoon mangkhut lashes parts of southern china. nearly 2.5 million people are evacuated from their homes in guangdong province. leading democrats calls for a delay in considering president trump's nominee for the us supreme court. brett kavanaugh denies allegations of sexual misconduct. is the trade war between the us and china about to get a lot worse? president trump's new tariffs on chinese products could be announced as soon as today. also in business briefing, we'll have the latest on amazon, as it investigates claims its employees accepted bribes in exchange for leaking confidential sales data. a warm welcome to the programme,

briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. also in the programme, the latest research concludes elderly people in good health should not take an aspirin a day, as it may do more harm than good. so we are asking do you ever take any notice of this type of advice? tell us what you think — just use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. 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 of programmes. in an exclusive interview

with nick robinson for the bbc‘s panorama programme, prime minister theresa may has defended her blueprint for leaving the european union and said the debate should be about the country's future, rather than her own. our political correspondent chris mason reports. thank you. the brexit negotiations, as you've never seen them before. hello, john claude. as you've never seen them before. hello, john claude. the programmers to talking to the president of the european commission jean—claude juncker, panorama given a glimpse of the behind—the—scenes arm—twisting going on at a crucial stage. yes, andi going on at a crucial stage. yes, and i realise it's been a busy period for you... then perhaps inevitably, this happened. some of

her mps want her to ditch her brexit plan. others want to ditch her. this is where i get a little bit irritated. this is not — this debate is not about my future, this is about the future of the people of the uk and the future of the united kingdom. that's what i'm focused on andi kingdom. that's what i'm focused on and i think we should all be focused on. it is ensuring we get that good dealfrom the on. it is ensuring we get that good deal from the european on. it is ensuring we get that good dealfrom the european union which is good for people in the uk. some brexit supporters say her plans involve to close relationship with the eu. others, like michael gove, acknowledge they have compromised but he says as compromises needn't be for ever. a future prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between britain and the european union but the is the right one for now because we have to make sure that we respect the vote and ta ke sure that we respect the vote and take advantage of the opportunities of being outside the european union —— the chequers. but this former conservative leader and a good number of his colleagues

are not convinced. i think that's a bit of a cop—out, really, to explain away is essentially jam tomorrow and we can prophesy what the future is. we can't. we only have what is now, what the public voted for, which is brexit. with so many arguments still swirling around, who makes the final call? the labour mayor of london thinks it should be us, voters, in a referendum. the question should be a choice between the deal done by this government or staying in the european union, and the deal done by this government, we can now see what actually the consequences would be. labour's leadership remains to be convinced on another referendum. the prime minister insists it won't happen. and, she says, she will fight for her plan. you know what some people say. they rather liked it when you joked about being that bloody difficult woman. they liked that, and they sometimes say, "where's she gone? we want her back." she's still there. but i think there is a difference between those who think you can only be bloody difficult in public and those of us who think actually

you bide your time and you're bloody difficult when the time is right, and when it really matters. that resolve will certainly be tested in the coming months. chris mason, bbc news. it certainly will and will have more on that story later. —— it certainly will and we will have more on that story later. typhoon mangkhut has swept its way through the southern chinese provinces of guangdong and hainan, with winds of over 160km/h, bringing torrential rain. the chinese authorities evacuated about 2.5 million people from the heavily populated region and recalled thousands of fishing boats to port before the storm made landfall on sunday evening. most shops and public services were shut. local media said two people were killed. mangkhut is said to be weakening as it heads inland. the storm also hit hong kong, where it swayed skyscrapers and blew out windows. earlier, the typhoon wreaked havoc in the philippines, killing at least 59 people. our correspondent, howard johnson,

joins us from santiago, in the north of the country. how would, i know you have been travelling around to see just how the philippines has been affected, how bad has it been hit —— howard. i'm standing outside the provincial headquarters here and you can see some of the damage behind me, yesterday we drove up the road towards the coastline. this is one of the worst hit areas in the country. we went to a small seaside town and on the way there, we saw electricity poles that had been felled by the wind, we saw crops destroyed and also forests ripped to shreds but we got the coastline, with all houses damaged, and we met a man whose house had been com pletely a man whose house had been completely flattened. his route had been torn back like a can of sardines. but what we're hearing todayis sardines. but what we're hearing today is a more details of the story

ina today is a more details of the story in a mountainous region where mining ta kes in a mountainous region where mining takes place, a lot of rainfall there leads to a landslide in which all than a0 people died. they are currently trying to find another a0 people who are missing at the moment. details are still emerging there, and death tolls keep changing. what we've heard is these miners went to a bunkhouse that had been converted to a chapel and sought refuge there from the storm and a landslide buried the bunkhouse, killing many of them. they are still looking to the other people, a search and rescue operation is ongoing bare at the moment and what hear is president rodrigo duterte will be flying down to that region later today to visit people there to see what went on. thank you indeed, howard, in the philippines for us. if you look at the bbc news app you consider predict that part of the typhoon and

see the journey it has been taking. we were just live to the philippines we re we were just live to the philippines were aftermath, the real concern about landslides except write as howard was saying, so stay with us on the bbc as we keep you right up to date with what is happening. people in the us state of north carolina are being advised to stay off the roads because the risk of flooding after storm florence is still high. the storm dumped huge amounts of rain as it moved through north and south carolina. hundreds of people have been rescued and thousands are still in emergency shelters or without power. the storm has been blamed for at least 16 deaths. 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. leading democrats are now calling

for a vote on mr kavanaugh‘s nomination to be delayed while the allegation is investigated. in a moment, we will hear from professor sahar aziz from rutgers law school. but first, david tafuri, an international lawyer from the law firm dentons. he told us more about a republican senator who has also called for a delay. senator flake in arizona, who is a conservative who supported brett kavanaugh, is now saying not that he has withdrawn his support, but he does think that we should hear from kava naugh‘s accuser, which means the scheduled vote for thursday would need to be postponed in orderfor us to hearfrom her. now so far, i think he is the only republican that has said that but, as you know, the majority is very slim for republicans in the senate. it looked like kavanaugh was going to be confirmed before this allegation came out and became public, but it was a razor—thin majority

that would have voted for him. now, we are not sure. this is a very serious allegation. this is an allegation of attempted rape that goes straight to the character of a nominee to the highest court, which is going to have significant power over the rights of women, in particular, because there is a movement attempting to reverse the roe v wade decision that came out in 1973, which makes abortion legal and makes it unconstitutional to pass laws that prohibit abortion. so this is a very important issue to women all over the country and i think it is very important for everyone to be sure that this nominee is not someone who attempted to rape a woman when he was in high school. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has strongly denied the allegations made against him. that is the story and we are keeping

a close eye on that for you as well. now, one of the leading business stories. amazon is investigating claims that its employees accepted bribes in exchange for leaking confidential sales data. independent sellers were also allowed to delete negative reviews and restore banned accounts for payments of between $80 and $2,000, according to allegations in the wall streetjournal. priya lakhani from century techjoins me now. always lovely to see you. . so tell us always lovely to see you. . so tell us about amazon. this is an intriguing story and apparently it is happening more prominently in china? it is going on? there has been an investigation with amazon and they are internally investigating that chinese officers and what has been happening here is, it's extraordinary actually, the independent merchants on amazon and half of their revenue is coming from

these the party retailers and go for third—party retailers and the recent allegations of merchants can delete allegations of merchants can delete all the reviews which we all think is trusted in terms of third—party websites and can get them delivered by intermediaries by riding amazon officials and employees so this is something they are taking very seriously. —— bribing. $80, $2000 in some cases. we can also get an e—mail address of someone's independent reviewer, someone writing up information, contact them on chat and contacting them. how damaging do you think this is for amazon? they say they do not tolerate this and are investigating this but to what extent will this hinder us using amazon? it is all about platform integrity so with all of these things like amazon, netflix, trip advisor, so many people go and there are many products and they have 550 million

products and they have 550 million products on amazon... and so many different suppliers, how do you please them? as a consumer, how do you choose what you want? now we find we may not be able to trust the rating system because it is read by some dodgy employees —— rigged employees, most of whom seem to be in china. they will stamp down on it but it is hard for a large country go for company to look at where this is happening. priya will the back later in the programme. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a dramatic victory for american golfer angela stanford at the evian championship in france — her first major title after 18 years as a pro. that and more on the sports briefing. 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 yet another blessing of st elizabeth. you're watching the briefing.

our headlines: typhoon mangkhut lashes parts of southern china. nearly two—and—a—half million people are evacuated from their homes in guangdong province. with just over six months until brexit, britain's prime minister underlines her promise to lead britain out of europe in an exclusive bbc interirew. let's stay with our top story now. bbc news has put together a special series, trying to answer some of the questions many people across the uk still have about brexit. nick robinson has been to the town of chesterfield, in the east midlands, where the question on many people'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 a5 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. 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. if a medic‘s job is to save lives then this protest is them trying to do just that. hundreds of doctors, nurses and other medical staff on the streets of idlib 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 of the strikes on hospitals and we ask the united nations to protect us from shelling because medical staff

are impartial and 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 rights, an underground hospital was hitjust a week ago. the syrian government denies this and says it's trying to clear the area of terrorists. idlib is the last remaining rebel stronghold and for weeks people have been 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 battlefield of syria's seven—year war. the united nations has repeatedly warned of the consequences such action could have. it says it would be like having a war in a refugee camp. but so far, attempts to get assad and russia to stop any further action have failed. many here have come to accept that

it's a matter of when, not if, that new 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. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm chetan pathak. here's what we've got coming up for you on monday's sport briefing. goals, elbows, headbutts and spitting in an eventful serie a game involving cristiano ronaldo. there's more for british cycling to celebrate. and a first major title for america's anglea stanford. the four semifinalists at the 2018 afc champions league will be confirmed in the coming days, with the second legs of the quarterfinals to take place between monday and wednesday. iranian club esteghlal were beaten 3—1 at home by qatari side al sadd in the first leg of their quarter—final and have it all to do

if they're to make it into the semi—finals when they play in doha on monday. translation: the first game was a good for us and our fans and we apologise to them because of that. we have the opportunity to make up for it and we are 100% ready to provide our best football and seize our chances until the final whistle. we will fight with our hearts and souls in order to achieve that. simon yates won the vuelta a espana to complete a clean sweep of british victories in this year's grand tours. the michelton—scott rider crossed the line safely in madrid on sunday to secure his first grand tour, with spain's enric mas second and colombia's miguel angel lopez third. british riders have now won nine of the past 20 grand tours.

i really just enjoyed i reallyjust enjoyed the moment, i do know what else you can do in those kind of situations. trying to ta ke those kind of situations. trying to take it in as best possible. i was nervous because i take it in as best possible. i was nervous because i had to give a speech and i am not very good at doing the speech is. —— speeches. angela stanford has won herfirst major title, with a dramatic victory at the evian championship in france, as fellow american amy olson double—bogeyed the last. olson was a shot clear of clubhouse leader stanford going down the par—four 18th, but finished with a six. that meant a three—under—par 68 on the final day brought victory for a0—year—old stanford, who finished on 12 under. i have no idea whatjust happened. i

am grateful. i am so happy for everybody at home. everybody that has always cheer to me, just, they never gave up on me. —— cheered for me. cristiano ronaldo has finally opened his goalscoring account forjuventus. the five time ballon d'or winner scored both goals, as juve saw off sassuolo to maintain their 100% start to the season. ronaldo, who hadn't scored in his first three games since his move from real madrid, tapped in shortly after half—time. the 33—year—old then finished off a rapid counter—attack in the 65th minute for his second. however, even ronaldo's exploits might be overshadowed by what his teammate douglas costa got up to. this has been all over social media. the brazil winger escaped with a booking for head—butting midfielder federico di francesco, that was after he'd elbowed him.

you'd think he would have learnt from his lucky escape, but no, he was then sent off after video cameras caught him spitting at the same player in another altercation. you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that's bbc.com/sport. but from me chetan pathak and the rest of the sport team, that is your monday sport briefing. stay with me on bbc news, i'll be back with the business briefing in just a few moments. high will be talking to a leading economist that the clock is ticking when it comes to brexit, almost six months to go until we are supposed to officially leave the eu. more on that in just to officially leave the eu. more on that injust a to officially leave the eu. more on that in just a moment. hello. there is some turbulent

weather in the forecast for some of us over weather in the forecast for some of us over the next few days and it is amy down to this area of cloud, the re m na nts of amy down to this area of cloud, the remnants of what was harry kane helene, no longer a horror came but embedded in this is a lot of tropical energy. over the next few days it will be strengthening the wind. you can see the squeeze in the isobars, gale winds in places and also heavy rainfall northern and western parts of the uk. ahead of it western parts of the uk. ahead of it we are drawing up some warm tropical airand that we are drawing up some warm tropical air and that will extend across england and wales into parts of southern scotland and northern ireland over the next few days. but it is going to be windy. there will be gales at times, spells of rain particularly the further north and west you are, the further south and east dry and warmer. here is how one—day plans out. rain across western scotland becoming heavier and more persistent, working its way north and eastwards and that rain affecting parts of northern ireland.

noticed the wind strengthening. for england and wales, mainly dry with one or two showers, some bright and sunny spells, but a warm day for many. temperatures between 20 and 23 celsius, a few degrees higher for east anglia and south—east england. through monday night into tuesday, here is our area of low pressure. the squeeze in the isobars, seen gales across the irish sea and western coast, also across northern ireland, northern england and scotla nd ireland, northern england and scotland and strong wind gustss overnight. a really blustery start to tuesday. these are the expected wind gust early on tuesday morning, the average will be a little bit lower but you see strong wind gust across much of the country. they will start to lose some of their strength through tuesday but generally it is a windy day. further outbreaks of rain, particularly for scotland, parts of northern ireland, showers across western coast of the uk. south and east, mainly dry, pretty four and 25 celsius,

temperatures between 18 and 22. tuesday into wednesday, an area of low pressure is to the north but on its southern flank is where we are going to see some strong wind through wednesday, 60 or 70 mph across southern parts of scotland, northern england and northern ireland, heavy rainfall northern and western areas. further south and east, mainly dry and. some very windy weather over the next few days. —— dry and warm. this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. only six months to go. as the brexit date draws nearer, will embattled uk prime minister theresa may get her so—called chequers plan through? is the trade war between the us and china about to get a lot worse? president trump's new tariffs on chinese products could be announced as soon as today. and it's a stormy start to the week for financial markets in asia as typhoon mangkhut rips through the region. japan is closed today for a public holiday.