very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: the un says more than 190,000 people in indonesia who survived friday's earthquake and tsunami now need help urgently. as the rescue operation struggles, we report from palu, where food and fuel are in increasingly short supply. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh is accused of lying under oath about heavy drinking. president trump now says he does want a comprehensive fbi investigation. and unprecedented pollution on engish beaches — —— and unprecedented pollution on english beaches — the discovery of millions of plastic pellets highlights a global problem. hello. united nations officials estimate at least 190,000

people in indonesia urgently need help after friday's earthquake and tsunami. rescue teams are calling for heavy lifting equipment, and more qualified staff, to search for survivors. we have correspondents in the region. in makassar, a port city on sulawesi island, where many evacuees have been arriving, and palu, one of the areas worst affected. from there, rebecca henschke. from above, you get a sense of the scale of the destruction here in palu, and the huge task for rescue workers. in palu, more than a8,000 people are unable to return to their homes, many of which lie in rubble. this used to be a road. the residents say the ground rose several metres, swallowing homes and leaving huge rifts along it. translation: the soil somehowjust rose up and buried the houses. in my heart i said, if this is the time i die, what more can i do?

ijust prayed to god. when the huge waves hit the coast, this woman picked up two youngest children and ran. translation: we were running for our lives, the waves chasing us. it was a race between us and the waves. it's like a bad dream. when is help going to arrive? when will the government pay attention to us? they're turning to creative ways to get their plea for help out. her family has painted this sign that says, "pray for palu, we miss our home and we need help," in an attempt to try and get attention from passers—by. this town enters its fourth day without power and clean water, people are getting desperate. the city is almost out of petrol, with people queueing for hours for what little is left. there is no electricity.

there's no signal, communication. and even, you know, gas. everyone is queueing for this, and especially supply of food is very limited, you know. desperate people are now trying to salvage anything of worth from the debris, and today there has been more looting, as people take what they need. this was a building shop, so people have been coming in to take a equipment from it. you can see things like children's doonas and pillows also amongst the rubble. residents say there are also dead bodies here, that they can't retrieve, and there is a smell of decaying corpses in the air. up in the hills, authorities have dug mass graves, enough for thousands of bodies, in an attempt to stop the spread of disease. as things worsen, people

are desperately trying to get out, crowds flooding the small, damaged airport in palu, hoping to get on limited military and commercial flights to nearby cities. rebecca henschke, bbc news, palu. 0ur south—east asia correspondent jonathan head is also in palu. he gave us his assessment of the relief effort there. the areas hit by the wave arejust appalling. i mean, just dreadful sort of scenes of absolute, complete and total destruction. i think there needs to be a more systematic effort by the authorities, if they are going to find people who might still be alive. it's all a bit haphazard. there aren't really enough people here, there aren't clearly people in charge. there are lots of volunteers coming in, but in terms of a functioning town, palu has ceased to function at all. there's no normal services, and the living themselves are without absolutely anything. i mean, it's extraordinary to meet people rushing up to your car and begging you for water.

there is no drinking water. they've got no power. it is absolutely desperate. i mean, part of the problem is this is a very, very isolated place, and it took me 21 hours to drive here today. the airport, as rebecca said, is damaged. it's very hard to get aid in, and yet you would think, by now, the government would be prioritising some absolute basic essentials. we're not seeing very much of it. there are an awful lot of people being left completely on their own, and there is a very, very desperate atmosphere here. people really feel abandoned. i think they willjudge the government very harshly if it can't speed things up. there is always this complaint, every time there's a disaster, about aid. but this one, it does feel that very little has been done up to now. jonathan head there. a few hundred miles to the south of palu a large part of the aid effort is being co—ordinated in makassar. nick beake is there. well, this place is the biggest indication of the level

of support indonesians are offering to the victims of this disaster. all of this aid was donated just today, would you believe it. there are toiletries here, snacks. they arejust going through the clothes, putting it into different piles for men, women and children, and they have been working through the night here. i asked one man, why are you doing this? he said, they are our brothers and sisters. we need to do all we can to help them. now, this is not high—tech medical equipment, but it will be extremely well received by those in need. there is a concern as well that it is too little, too late, and crucially, it is not the sort of machinery needed to free people from the rubble. so the fear is that many people who may have survived the initial earthquake and then the tsunami may well have perished while they have been waiting for aid to arrive. let's just take you to these live

pictures, back to palu, where rescue operations, well, we call the rescue operations, well, we call the rescue operations, attempts to find people, as we can see the digging here, and the problem is it might result in wreckage falling on people. the authorities are looking for heavy lifting equipment. the problem with thatis lifting equipment. the problem with that is that the roads they need to travel on our very badly damaged. joining me live from the indonesian capitaljakarta is helen vanwel, country director for care indonesia. paint usa paint us a picture of what you are facing. what needs to be done. how much of it you can do. yes, a very desperate task, but makassar is —— care is responding. we are trying to reach the most difficult area, donggala, which has received the

least attention, we don't know the total situation but we have an assessment team on their way today to figure out the situation, also most importantly the logistics, how to get there and how to get supplies there. and i know your charity focuses specifically on women and girls, often disproportionately affected by this kind of disaster. that's true. in the tsunami of 2004, for example, three quarters of the people who perished were women. and there are many reasons for this. one is women are often the caretakers of the poor and the sick. they are often the last to leave a situation because they are responsible for bringing the sick people and the injured people. they are also often the ones who then came to them, so they themselves become sick. and then they have to provide for their family, finding water, which is in difficult supply. they are also at

risk very often in an economic situation like this, because of course there is hardly any money, they don't have money to find anything, there is sexual violence which occurs, and one of the exa m ples we which occurs, and one of the examples we have found in the past, and we believe this to be true in this case as well, something as simple as access to the latrines because it night it is very dark because it night it is very dark because there is no electricity and this leaves women open to sexual abuse. so there are many reasons why women suffer more, and also the sick and the elderly are often isolated and the elderly are often isolated and it is very, very difficult for them. so those are the people that we concentrate on the most. and, helen, our correspondents have described children wandering the streets, clearly in some kind of shock, but also not sure if they have any family still surviving. are those kids vulnerable in all sorts of ways ? those kids vulnerable in all sorts of ways? yes, absolutely. and when i

mentioned, unfortunately, sexual abuse, of course, children fall into that category. so that is another area that we will look at, also together with our other ngos. care has an appeal for $5 million and thatis has an appeal for $5 million and that is only the start because of the needs that need to be met. fortu nately the needs that need to be met. fortunately care uk and other care members are working tirelessly to make sure we can work on this emergency and fill some of the needs that are there. helen vanwel, country director for care, thank you for giving us your time. thank you. president trump has said he wants a comprehensive fbi investigation into historic allegations of sexual assault against judge brett kavanaugh, the man he's nominated for a seat on the us supreme court. brett kavanaugh has faced allegations of assault by several women, which he's denied, but now a former classmate of his said he was not telling the truth about his drinking

in the past. 0ur north america editorjon sopel reports from washington. after the traumatic "she said," and the defiant "he said," and the bitter division over the nomination of brett kavanaugh to the supreme court, the fbi has now been given a week to investigate the allegations. but at a rose garden news conference, the president was repeatedly asked, would investigators be free to talk to whoever they liked? i think the fbi should interview anybody that they want, within reason. but you have to say, "within reason." they should interview, but they should also be guided, and i'm being guided, by what the senators are looking for, because they have to make the choice. and the president told me he still had an open mind onjudge kavanaugh. mr president, if the fbi does find something, and brett kavanaugh falls, is there a plan b? i don't want to talk about plan b, ‘cause i think — i hope that he gets approved. i hope that the report comes out, like i really think it should. ithink it will, i hope, i hope.

but i'm waiting, just like you. certainly if they find something, i'm going to take that into consideration, absolutely. i have a very open mind. a prosecutor engaged by the republicans on the committee to question dr christine blasey ford has written to senators saying that, in her legaljudgement, because of the "he said, she said" nature of the claims... sometimes i probably had too many beers, and sometimes other people had too many beers. we drank beer, we liked beer. but a college mate of brett kavanaugh has also come forward to say that the judge wasn't being honest when he spoke under oath about his drinking. and, on the subject of drinking, the teetotal president cracked a joke at his own expense. i can honestly say i never had a beer in my life, 0k?

it's one of my only good traits — i don't drink. can you imagine, if i had, what a mess i'd be? would i be — i'd be the world's worst. the supreme court opened a new session today, still one person short, still far from clear that brett kava naugh will be the ninth justice. protesters clashed with police in barcelona as thousands took to the streets there and in other cities across catalonia to mark the first anniversary of a controversial referendum on independence from spain. riot police charged in to break up a demonstration in front of catalonia's regional parliament and the headquarters of the spanish national police. the separatist catalan government declared independence just weeks after catalonia held the vote. but spain's constitutional court deemed the referendum illegal stay with us on bbc news.

still to come: a year after america's worst mass shooting, we return to las vegas and speak to survivors about gun culture. in all russia's turmoil, it has never come to this. president yeltsin said the day would decide the nation's destiny. the nightmare that so many people had feared for so long is playing out its final act here. russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world, but his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. israel's right—winger, ariel sharon, visited the religious compound, and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites — an idea that's unthinkable to palestinians.

after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest and richest nation. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: un officials estimate at least 190,000 people in indonesia urgently need help after friday's earthquake and tsunami. all us supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh has been accused of lying under oath about heavy drinking. president trump has called for a comprehensive fbi investigation. taking you back to the live pictures

from indonesia as live operations are going on. there is heavy lifting gear at work. emergency teams have said they need many more machines like this. one of the problems with this kind of work is you have to be so delicate that you don't disturb wreckage too much and move it on to, 01’ wreckage too much and move it on to, or let it fall, onto people who are still alive and trapped underneath. here in the uk, millions of small plastic pellets — known as nurdles — have been discovered on a beach near portsmouth on the south coast. it isn't clear where the microplastics have come from but experts warn they can release toxins with potentially devastating effects for marine life. duncan kennedy reports from hayling island beach. they're called nurdles. tiny plastic pellets that have washed up in their thousands on this so many, in fact, that volunteers

have collected more than 20 sacks full of them. millions of them, and we couldn't physically sit here and pick them all up... despite that, one volunteer says they keep appearing. and to give you an idea ofjust how bad the problem is here, take a look at this jar. in one small section of beach, two metres by two metres, one volunteer spent two hours collecting all these, and found a total of about 1000 of these nurdles. no—one knows where these tiny white beads have come from. we're horrified by what we saw, in terms of all of these tiny, tiny plastic nurdles, which are about the size of a lentil and they're used in plastic manufacturing. they are everywhere around here. all around the shoreline. they are melted down to create lots

of different things. no one is sure how they washed up here. the discovery in hampshire coincides with tonight's documentary on the wider problem of plastic pollution. this is a river in indonesia. while this is howe island, off australia, and the shocking discovery of what this bird has ingested. 0h! look at that. stomach full of plastic. one, two, three, four, five... 16 pieces of plastic. oh, look at that. yeah. six years ago, this wasn't snow in the pacific, but more nurdles, washed up in a typhoon. volunteers everywhere are cleaning up a worldwide deluge of plastic, but from hong kong... to hampshire, our seas, rivers and oceans remain in a fragile struggle

with human activity. duncan kennedy, bbc news, on hayling island. let's get some of the day's other news. save the children's health centres have reported a 170% spike in suspected cholera cases in yemen, rising from around 500 injune to over 1300 in august. 30% of all suspected cases are children under five years old. the rise in cases is thought to be caused by malnutrition, displacement and attacks on water supplies. britain's brexit minister, dominic raab, has told the eu to "get real" — and reach a deal on brexit. earlier, the foreign ministerjeremy hunt sparked controversy comparing the eu to a soviet—era prison and accusing members of wanting to punish britain in brexit negotiations. diplomats from several eu countries have hit back calling the comments "insulting".

it's a year since 58 people were killed in america's worst—ever mass shooting. it happened in las vegas when a man opened fire on crowds attending a country music festival. clive myrie has returned to the city to speak to some of the 400 people who were shot in the incident and survived. woven in the fabric of the stars and stripes is a profound belief in the power of firearms to promote liberty and maintain freedom. but that devotion carries a price. the bullet went through my chest, into my stomach, my liver, my spleen. there was so much shrapnel in my right eye that it broke the machine that they were suctioning it outwith. i can hear the sounds, i can feel the bullets. the bullets were six inches from my head. this is a story not about the dead, but about those who lived. meet rosemary, survivor of the worst mass shooting in american history. for close to a year her home has

been this hospital room, because of a gunman‘s bullet. there are times when i thought, i don't have the strength, because sometimes i felt so weak and my husband stayed, he is the one who gave me the strength to get through, because there are so many nights and days i didn't know, because i didn't feel good. it was a present from her daughters. an evening at a country music festival. gunshots, panic, a man high up in a hotel nearby is firing round after round. he kills 58, but for every minute he is firing he injures 40 more. ten minutes passed before he stops. the dead are buried and mourned,

yet the injured carry a special burden, as do those they love, like rosemarie's husband steve. it's been hard. she's cried, i cried. just watching her pain that she suffered. most people don't know what she has gone through. yes, i needed to remove a small piece of her intestines. rosemarie's doctor matthewjohnson understands the continuing traumas. their whole lives get changed, and that doesn't even include the psychological injuries. and, i mean, it can affect your whole way of life. you can't work the normaljob that you used to work. if you don't have disability insurance, then, i mean, you could end up on the streets. but, elsewhere, life is serene. the hotel the killerfired from has no trace of carnage. and the business of

selling guns is undimmed. the murderer passed background checks, using an arsenal of more than 20 high—calibre weapons, because he could. i arrived in las vegas the day after the shooting to report on the tragedy last year, and many of the billboards here on the main strip were carrying words of condolence. by the time i left, 48 hours later, those words had disappeared and it was back to selling as usual. you're looking at live pictures in florida where there are is an active shooter. people die and america moves on, but some can't do that. they say lessons must be learnt, that the past must inform the future. i used to watch these shootings on tv before it happened to me. it is another level to have gone through one. and then to have it happen, it is like a punch in the soul. with every mass shooting,

lisa revisits that night in vegas. it knocks you back again and you can feel it, you can see it, smell it, all of it. and knowing, like, the sadness of knowing what those victims are going to go through. but what should america do? debates on gun control come and go. nothing changes. but everything's changed for vegas survivor chelsea, who lost an eye. it has been hard. i have had six surgeriesjust in the last two months. my son, if i go somewhere without him, he says, "mum, just make sure you go somewhere where you don't get shot, 0k?" so he fully understands what happened and the pain you went through? yeah. the many tens of thousands injured in gun—related incidents every year up america's dirty secret. —— are america's.

they live changed, quiet lives. chelsea, rosemary and so many others are paying the price for this country's love affair with the gun. clive myrie, bbc news, in las vegas. tributes have been paid to the french singer who's career lasted more than 70 years —— 20 years. briefly, to scientist who pioneered a breakthrough of cancer have won this year's nobel prize for medicine. they were jointly awarding the prize for their discovering of how the human body's own immune system how the human body's own immune syste m ca n how the human body's own immune system can be turned against cancerous cells. thank you for watching. hello.

after a rather chilly start to october, it will feel a bit warmer for many of us in the day ahead. there's an area of milder, warmer air that's been moving into the uk between these two weather fronts. but the weather fronts close by mean that there's a good deal of cloud around to begin tuesday, and for some of us it'll be rather damp, particularly from northern ireland into parts of england and wales. this is how it looks for early risers. from north—east england into scotland, though, there'll be some sunshine around to start the day, but there'll be a few showers running through northern scotland on through the day. and even where you begin the cloud, northern ireland, across a large part of england and wales, for many of us it will turn brighter during the day. but we could still see patchy rain, southern parts of northern ireland, north wales, and for some into north—west england and the west midlands. here is the picture at 4:00pm in the afternoon, white arrows indicate average wind speeds here for the day.

you can see the temperatures, a good few degrees higher than they were on monday for many. the stronger the wind, the further north we get, though. into some sunny spells north—east england and scotland, the black arrows indicate the wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour, and near 60 miles an hour in northern scotland and the northern isles, with those showers rattling on through. but for many of us, it'll be a dry afternoon, brightening up a little bit. some clear skies developing on tuesday night, through particularly the eastern side of the uk. and this is where we'll see the lowest temperatures going into wednesday morning. further west, well, temperatures will be holding up, with an area of cloud producing a bit of patchy rain for northern ireland and into western scotland. let's take a look at wednesday's big picture. high pressure is close by, but running around the north of that, we've got low pressure north of the uk, and a trailing weather front giving some cloud and a bit of patchy rain, particularly into the western side of scotland. and some of that rain may start to turn heavier late in the day, into the north—west in particular. elsewhere, rather cloudy

wednesday, some bright or sunny spells developing. probably the best of those will be in eastern england, and temperatures still into the high teens in the warm spots. now, thursday morning could well start with some fog affecting parts of southern england. it could be dense in places. a rather more active picture in northern ireland and scotland, as another weather front moves in, and some heavy rain beginning to move southwards and eventually into parts of northern england with the wind strengthening once again. just a quick tease as we look towards the weekend. could well have low pressure close by, a chance to see some heavy rain in some spots, and turning a bit cooler too. we'll keep you updated. this is bbc news. the headlines: the un has warned more than a 190,000 people in indonesia urgently need help after friday's earthquake and tsunami. rescue teams are calling for heavy lifting equipment, and more qualified staff, to search for survivors. the death toll is more than 840, but could end up in the thousands. president trump has said he wants a comprehensive

fbi investigation into his supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, following multiple allegations of sexual assault. meanwhile, a former classmate of the judge says he's lied under oath about heavy drinking in his past. protesters have clashed with police in barcelona on the first anniversary of a controversial referendum on independence from spain. riot police broke up a protest of more than 180,000 people now on bbc news it's hardtalk with zeinab badawi.