this is bbc news. i'm rebecca jones. the headlines at 11: boris johnson fiercely criticises the prime minister's brexit plan at the conservative conference. this is to do that. there are is time. this is the moment to chuck chequers. he will put on a good show. what we have been doing here at conference and what matters to people out there is what the government does and what we focus on in terms of their day—to—day lives. new immigration rules after brexit. focus will be on the skills workers bring to the uk, not where they are from. the desperate race to save lives in indonesia, as the death toll reaches 1,300 and continues to rise. this city has, in effect, ceased to function. it is almost anarchic on the streets, people are very stressed, very angry. is very

volatile situation. —— it is. challenging cuts to special educational needs by surrey county council. four mothers take their case to the high court, claiming the cuts are unlawful because they weren't consulted. and for the first time in 55 years, the nobel prize for physics is awarded to a woman, for work with lasers. and at half past eleven we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, author and columnist for the london evening standard, tony evans, and the author and journalist, yasmin alibhai—brown. stay with us for that. the prime minister has told the bbc that borisjohnson makes her cross after he launched a scathing attack on her chequers plan for leaving the european union at the conservative party conference.

addressing a crowd of more than a thousand people, the former foreign secretary said theresa may's strategy was not what people had voted for, calling it dangerous. but the prime minister hit back, saying her plan was the only one that guaranteed northern ireland would remain part of the uk, and she dismissed borisjohnson saying he put on a good show but she was concentrating on what mattered to people's lives. from birmingham, here's our political editor laura keunssberg, her report contains some flashing images. deep breath. was he ready? was the party ready? this conference had not seen anything like this. is this the leadership bid, mrjohnson? brexiteer in chief, now the prime minister's critic in chief. what is he up to, borisjohnson?

honestly, i think he's doing a truly useful and important thing here today. boris is the one that they do want to hear, and they want to hear that vision directly from him. wondering how big a crowd he would find. borisjohnson. discovering, more than a thousand, many who hate theresa may's so—called chequers compromise, too. thank you, everybody. sit down. what the chequers proposals show is that the united kingdom, for all its power and might, and network of influences around the world, for all its venerable parliamentary history, was unable ultimately to take back control. do not believe that we can somehow get it wrong now. budget now, and fix it later. get out properly. that is a total fantasy. if we bottle brexit now, believe me,

the people of this country will find it hard to forgive. there is time. this is the moment to chuck chequers. applause. the stage was his, notjust on brexit, his spotlight alone. except, of course, borisjohnson is not the leader, not the prime minister. today, at least, she is competing in his shadow. did you watch borisjohnson's speech this afternoon? no, this afternoon i had been meeting activists, i have been talking to people about the conference and i have been seeing a party that is in really good heart. well, people were certainly in good heart in the borisjohnson speech. more than a thousand people cheered him for suggesting demanding that you drop your

chequers compromise plan. he said it's not democracy if you continue. well, first of all, there is one thing we all know about boris, he will put on a good show. but what we have been doing here at conference, of course, and i think what matters to people out there is what the government does and what we focus on in terms of their day to day lives, and what really matters to them. this is the man whom until very recently you trusted to be your foreign secretary. do you want to directly stand up to him? first of all, of course. boris when he was foreign secretary signed up to the chequers plan, and then a few days later resigned from the cabinet. but he's directly challenging your authority, prime minister. borisjohnson has come here today and trampled all over that. you must be cross. how can you put up with it? well, there are one or two things that boris said that i am cross about. he wanted to tear up our guarantee to the people of northern ireland. northern ireland is part of the united kingdom. we are all, he and i, all members here, are members of the conservative and unionist party.

that is because we believe in the union of the united kingdom. northern ireland is part of that union. and do you...? and we have a guarantee for the people of northern ireland, and we are upholding that. our chequers plan does that. it is the only plan on the table at the moment that does. he left almost as quickly as he arrived, but theresa may knows that borisjohnson is notjust a loudmouth brexiteer, but her rival who will not simply be here today and gone tomorrow. during the day, the prime minister insisted that the uk would have full control of immigration for the first time in decades, after brexit. she promised to reduce the number of unskilled workers coming to the uk and treat eu citizens the same as those from other parts of the world. our home editor mark easton has been to bournemouth to find out how the plans might work. regaining control of our borders is a fundamental aim of the government after brexit.

among those who will be made less welcome, arriving here in dorset for example, are low skilled migrant workers. but what is a low skilled migrant? today, government ministers suggested it might mean a minimum salary, and the official advisers to the government have said that after brexit, a new immigration system should describe anyjob that pays less than £30,000 a year as low skilled. so, that would include many care workers, health workers, farm workers, construction workers, hospitality workers, the very people who currently keep this local area functioning. but the prime minister is clear, after brexit she wants the uk to become a low migration economy, with greater emphasis on british workers. we'll be bringing an end to free movement once and for all, so we'll be able to decide the basis on which people come to the uk. that has not been possible many years, for people coming from the eu, that will change.

the government says the new immigration strategy will prioritise high skilled workers, with no preferential treatment for eu citizens, and a minimum salary requirement to keep out lower skilled migrants. but in leave voting retirement haven bournemouth, what might that mean for the care sector, for example? you are my sunshine... half of the staff at this care home are immigrants. the manager herself from slovakia, says without foreign staff the situation would be bleak. i think most of the care homes will be shut down because they take in european people who work for them here. but why can't bournemouth‘s care sector employ more local people? we haven't had much success to date in recruiting new workers to find interest in a career in social care. tourism and hospitality adds almost £1 billion to bournemouth‘s economy, and employs close to 15,000 people. tea for you. without staff like lillian

from spain, it has warned many businesses will close. service would be reduced considerably. it would have to come down to you carrying your own bags, you not having a restaurant in many of the hotels, and i'm afraid the service levels would be down to almost zero. it's the same question i'm asking everybody, why can't you get british people to do these jobs? i'm afraid the british people do not want to work in hospitality. the prime minister wants control of our borders, an end to free movement and a big fall in net migration, but she also wants to negotiate what is best for britain, and that is where the debate will rage. emergency services in indonesia say it's now a race against time to help survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. more than 1300 people are known to have died and the number is still rising. many thousands are homeless and in need of emergency supplies. food and water are in short supply

and hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured. our first report this evening is by our correspondent jonathan head, who's in palu on the island of sulawesi, which is one of the worst—hit areas. three days under the ruins of an office building, but he's alive. few of the victims have been as lucky as this 38—year—old man, pulled out after a three—hour rescue operation. many more are still buried in these impossible mountains of rubble. in the city centre, they are trying to open some of the blocked roads, but from the air you can see what the indonesian government is up against. this is a village which was literally swallowed by the liquefying ground churned up by the earthquake. and here, they were hit by a mudslide.

sometimes it seems the city has been hit by a whole series of catastrophes, notjust the earthquake and the tsunami, but in this neighbourhood a sea of mud that fell down the mountain and has buried all of the houses right up to halfway, and some of the inhabitants, too. this man has come back with his youngest son to check what's left of his home. they had a narrow escape. the mud came down right after the earthquake, he told me. three or four minutes later he and his familyjust ran with only the clothes they were wearing. he and his neighbours have salvaged what they can, but it isn't much. they need everything, and they're not getting it yet. so, palu's inhabitants are taking matters into their own hands. here, trying to break into a small supermarket,

and then being driven back by police officers who seemed afraid of being overrun. one hour later though the police relented, and the crowd poured into the shop. they did make a token effort to stop nonessential items being looted, but a government unable to help most of these earthquake victims cannot really stop them helping themselves. the first real sign of order we saw — this extraordinary line for petrol, each bottle with its own queue number while its owners sit in the shade for the long hours they will have to wait. and jonathan gave us this update from palu. we are hearing now of convoys arriving that have been coming on the very long road up from further

southin the very long road up from further south in the island. this is a very isolated spot. anyone will tell you ina big isolated spot. anyone will tell you in a big disaster like this, that a full on aid operation involving international agencies does take about a week to get going. 0ne as the problem ——i of the problems you have seen is security. the aid agencies are not going to send trucks in if they are going to get booted. there has been a real problem of not enough security forces on the ground. this city has ceased to function. it is almost anarchic on the streets, very few police, people are stressed and angry, a volatile situation. if there is criticism of the government is that they did not have any real preparation in place for a disaster on the scale and it has taken a very long time to get the most basic services back, running water, things like that. when the security situation improves, which it slowly is, we will see a lot more aid coming in the next few days. officials in indonesia say they've now reached all four badly—affected districts on the island of sulawesi. help is starting to arrive,

and tonight britain announced it will send a transporter plane, full of aid, to arrive in indonesia on thursday. 0ur correspondent hywel griffith told us the latest from the city of makassar. people here in the south of sulawesi at getting what they have to help the victims of the tsunami. this amount of donations also lamenting the official government effort. but aged distribution on this island has been painfully slow. international assistance is on the way, but so far not everyone who needs help is getting it. desperate for help after days without food, or when the aid convoy finally arrived at this camp, it was grab what you can. shelter and supplies are getting to some of the 60,000 people forced from their homes, but thousands more are out of

reach, with roads turned to rubble. naturally, indonesia's people want to help they have been donating boxes of food, water, mountains of close. the other problem is getting it to those in need. with a rose in passable, or this has to be put on a boat and sailed to the north of the island. —— the roads impassable. it was a frenetic, heartfelt response, but some of these volunteers also feel frustrated. we need more help from the government because we are human. we need all the help we can get. more help is coming slowly. the indonesian authorities admit they we re indonesian authorities admit they were not well prepared. it is not impossible to prepare for disasters like this, but it is very difficult. 0ne like this, but it is very difficult. one of the treasured for the humanitarian sector is that disasters are treated as surprising events where we all have to respond. actually, we mostly know where

disasters take a. every aid flight that has left this place has been full of people. 0thers cling onto the hope that missing relatives will be found. this woman told us her two—year—old niece hasn't been seen since friday. she is too young to speak, she says the only words she knows our mum and dad. the agony song here feel cannot be quelled, but they need their nation, and the world, to support them. three men were stabbed in birmingham city centre this evening, and are in hospital. the police said detectives are investigating, and the ambulance service responded to three different locations in the centre. one man was said to have serious injuries, while the other two were in a better condition. the headlines on bbc news: the former foreign secretary launches a fierce attack on the prime minister's chequers plan, telling activists it is time

to chuck the proposals. new rules to control immigration, as theresa may says a new system will focus on the skills people bring, not where they come from. rescue teams in indonesia reach some of the worst areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami. at least 1,300 people are known to have died. the government says it is changing the law to allow heterosexual couples to enter into civil partnerships in england and wales as an alternative to marriage. injune, the current system was found to be in breach of european law, because same—sex couples are allowed to choose between a civil partnership or marriage. the change follows a legal challenge brought by charles keidan and his partner, rebecca steinfeld. today the couple gave their reaction to today's announcement. we are delighted with this wonderful news from the government today,

and we thank the prime minister and the minister for women and equalities for finally announcing that they're committed to ending the current situation, and the inequality, and opening civil partnerships to everybody, so that couples like charlie and myself can finally formalise our relationship in a way that we see fit, and have the legal recognition and the financial protections that we seek. an unarmed police officer who tried to tackle the westminster attacker last year has told an inquest he had no doubt that the man was coming to kill police. khalid masood drove his car into pedestrians on westminster bridge in march last year, killing four people, before fatally stabbing pc keith palmer outside the houses of parliament. amazon says it is to increase the wages of its lowest—paid staff. it will now pay at least £9.50 an hour in the uk, with a higher rate of £10.50 in london. the online retail giant has faced criticism over its working conditions and the amount

of tax it pays. us officials say two suspicious items delivered to the pentagon have tested positive for the deadly poison ricin. one of the envelopes was addressed to the secretary of defence, james mattis. the pentagon said its mail sorting facility had been put under quarantine by the fbi, which has removed the parcels forfurther analysis. four mothers who all have children with disabilities have gone to the high court to challenge plans by surrey county council to cut the special needs budget by £21 million. the council is contesting claims by the women that the cuts are unlawful. it is the second such case to reach the high court within months. 0ur education editor bra nwen jeffreys reports. do you want something to eat? would you like a sandwich? alicia's son kian has

settled in school. you can have some toast, yeah. kian has autism and adhd. each day, he gets council transport to a specialist school. it allows his mum to get his sister to school and herself to work. i do worry about transport, because if he loses his transport then i can't work, because i'll have to drive him to school and collect him from school. and the state would have to pick up the cost of rent, and pay the bills, and support me not working. today, she was one of four mums taking a case to the high court, challenging plans by surrey county council to spend less — less on services for children like kian, with special needs or disabilities, asking the court to decide if they should have been consultation. parents from around england were in court because they are fighting similar battles. counsel budgets are under

increasing pressure, and in many areas, the demand for support for children with special needs is growing faster than the funding. in court, surrey county council's lawyers argued... experts say counsel budgets have faced their biggest reductions since the second world war, and the political pressure is building. when parents, particularly when they're trying to use a case to lean on government, at a time when privately many conservative mps know that there's a reaction against the so—called austerity, there's a risk that the government sort of find itself on the back foot when a number of these cases come to court.

the mums tell me they will keep campaigning. many have battled for support for their children's extra needs. this is not about, you know, getting extra violin lessons or something for our kids. this is about the support they need to achieve their full potential. they now have to wait to hear from the court. another similar case will be heard within weeks. other parents have raised money to challenge the government on special—needs budgets. since the start of august, 70 deep—water whales have washed up dead on scottish and irish beaches. many of the animals were cuvier‘s beaked whales, deep divers which are normally found far out in the atlantic ocean. researchers have been trying to work out what caused their deaths. one theory is that military activity and sonar signals in the atlantic may have played a part. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports from tiree, in the inner hebrides. the islands along scotland's west coast have become a graveyard

for cuvier‘s bea ked whales. in one month, more washed ashore here than in the previous ten years combined. and scientists are trying to work out why they died. it's not a natural occurrence. is it concerning, what has happened? it's very concerning. very, very concerning. it's possibly the highest ever mortality, as a recorded mortality for this particular whale species, ever, anywhere in the world. cuvier‘s bea ked whales are creatures of the deep. they can dive to depths of almost 10,000 feet. research has shown they are sensitive to sound. after a spate of strandings in the canary islands, the use of sonar close to land there was banned. since then, they have seen no bodies. those involved in the investigations here will be scanning ear bones taken from the remains to look for trauma caused by excessive underwater sound.

they're also looking at samples to rule out infectious diseases or contaminants. these whales had already been dead for several weeks by the time their bodies reached land. but the fact they washed ashore in such a short period of time points to the possibility that a single event caused their deaths, hundreds of miles out into the atlantic. so could underwater noise or sonar be the cause? when groups of beaked whales strand across tens of kilometres of coastline, within a few hours, that's been associated with naval anti—submarine warfare exercises. it appears that the sonar that they use to hunt for submarines triggers a panic reaction. they may disrupt their diving, so they get decompression sickness. they then die at sea and they wash ashore. the british military have been asked to help by tracking down any source of noise in the ocean around the time of the animals deaths. the problem that we have

is that they can only report on what they have been doing. they're not responsible, or for that matter even have the information, about what has been going on by other agencies within nato. the royal navy says it is takes its possibilities in safeguarding the environment very seriously, and when possible, operators take avoidance action, should animals be detected before or during sonar operations. there is increasing awareness of the effect plastic has on marine life. it is possible there may soon be proof that noise pollution in our waters can be deadly too. lorna gordon, bbc news, tiree. a scientist who pioneered the use of lasers has become the first woman to win the nobel prize for physics in more than half a century. donna strickland, from canada, was one of three scientists to share this year's award. the other winners were a frenchman and an american. 0ur science correspondent victoria gill has the story. 2018 nobel prize in physics... the ultimate scientific accolade, and

professor donna strickland is only the third woman ever to have won a nobel prize in physics. she and her fellow winners were honoured for what the nobel committee called groundbreaking inventions in laser physics. professor strickland desert, devised a way to use lasers as very precise drilling or cutting tools. millions of eye operations are performed every year with his sharpest of laser beams, and when professor strickland spoke to me from her home via skype, she was still reeling from the shock of the 5am phone call telling her she had become the first woman in 55 years to wina become the first woman in 55 years to win a physics nobel. how surprising do you think it is that you are the third woman to win this prize? well, that is surprising, isn't it? i think that's the story that people want to talk about, that why should it take 60 years? there's so why should it take 60 years? there's so many why should it take 60 years? there's so many women out why should it take 60 years? there's so many women out there doing fantastic research, so why does it ta ke fantastic research, so why does it take so long to get recognised? physics still has one of the largest

gender gaps in science. 0ne physics still has one of the largest gender gaps in science. one recent study concluded that, at the current rates, it would be more than two centuries until they were equal numbers of senior male and female researchers in the field. not only is that great for women, it's great for early career research is. that you can make discoveries and inventions that can change the world, and you can do that at any point in your career, and it doesn't matter what background or gender you are. the last woman to win a physics nobel was this german born woman in 1963 for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. before that, it was murray to read who shared the 1903 prize with her husband, pa. —— marie curie. it is hoped the focusing future will be on the research rather than the gender of the research. —— her husband, pierre. blue plaques have been around for more than 150 years, making it one of the oldest schemes of its kind. but now, the chairman

of an organisation that puts up the plaques says there are far too many of them, and that some had only a tenuous link to the person they honoured. duncan kennedy has the story. it is like a who's who in blue. the plaques that take pride of place across britain. but are they too many of them, and are they all valid? take the hobbit author, jr tolkien. there is a clerk for him we re tolkien. there is a clerk for him were saying just this one night at this hotel in birmingham. while charles dickens is on about 50 blue plaques. michael reed, a former radio one dj, is head of the british pluck trust and feel they may be coming a little devalued. pluck trust and feel they may be coming a little devaluedlj pluck trust and feel they may be coming a little devalued. i remember another one which says this house is very, very old. and you think we have got a lot of houses which are very, very old. so i think you've got to be very careful and you've got to be very careful and you've got to be very careful and you've got to be very selective. so just how many of these blue plaques are there? well, here in windsor alone

there? well, here in windsor alone there are 2a, with everyone from renowned bridge designer charles hollis to the rather less well—known fred fuzzens, a local man who strove to make a perfect windsor. there are around 900 of these blue plaques in britain today. there are three main types of blue plaque in britain, including english heritage. but... when you hear that charles dickens has about 50, what do you think?m is ridiculous. you up on a blue plaque. i used to be a member of the band back in the 1960s cult badfinger. believe him or not, but blue and white, plaques seem to have created their own mini war of the walls. now it is time for the weather with ben rich. hello there. the weather will not

treat us all equally through the week ahead and that certainly was the case on tuesday. some places got a lot more sunshine than others. beautiful blue skies across western scotla nd beautiful blue skies across western scotland for this weather watcher but parts of scotland source in chilly and windy conditions. further south it was milder but pretty cloudy. some mist and murk and drizzle. and more of us are going to get into that sort of weather during wednesday. because this warm front is pushing its way north eastwards. behind that, a lot of cloud and a feed of warm, moist air from the atlantic. so generally most of us starting the day with grey skies. some misty, murky, damp conditions for western coast and hills. 0utbreaks for western coast and hills. outbreaks of rain pushing across the north—west of scotland, although it will be less windy here than it was on tuesday, and perhapsjust will be less windy here than it was on tuesday, and perhaps just a little bit warm as well. further south, if the cloud breaks up when you get some sunshine, your temperatures could well