welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: pulled from the rubble of indonesia's earthquake — rescuers are racing to help survivors, but the death toll is now 1,300 and rising. police are struggling to keep control as thousands grow increasingly desperate. here in palu, emotions are running high as survivors are still struggling to get hold of basic supplies like food and water. did donald trump help his family evade tax? officials in new york say they are vigorously investigating. and the mayor, the migrants and the alleged marriages of convenience — a very modern row hits southern italy. and with multiple deaths of deep—sea whales, claims that noise pollution from ships and submarines is to blame. hello.

the government of indonesia is racing to find and rescue any remaining survivors of the earthquake and tsunami on the island of sulawesi. the president has ordered military and police reinforcements to the areas worst affected by friday's disaster. but thousands of people are homeless and in need of emergency supplies and the number of people confirmed dead has risen to more than 1,300. our correspondent mariko oi is in the disaster zone in the city of palu. i'm standing outside the main mosque, or what used to be the main mosque of the city of palu, where local residents used to come and pray, and also relax by the beach. on friday afternoon, they were here to gather to pray, but also, many of them were staying back to enjoy the evening by the beach, and that's when the earthquake hit.

and, of course, only after about 30 minutes later, the tsunami hit the seas just over there, and it completely destroyed the mosque. we started driving from the city of makassar yesterday afternoon. it took us about 30 hours to get to palu. it was quite a long journey. it took a lot longer than expected, because the police had to escort us into the city because of reports of looting. i keep saying looting, and i feel really bad because these are the survivors who are so desperate for water and food, and we've been asked for it as we came in, as well. they're really desperate, because it has been four days, and some of them still haven't managed to get those basic supplies. as you mentioned, tens of thousands homeless. we also slept outside last night because of fears of aftershocks. there have been hundreds of them, and we actually felt one earlier this morning, as well. hospitals are overwhelmed.

the city is really trying to deal with it, and the supplies are starting to trickle in, but still a long queue of people queueing up to get access to petrol and so on. jonathan head, our correspondent, has been to the city as well, and he has been speaking to some of the survivors. three days under the ruins of an office building, but he is alive. few of the thames has 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 try to open some of the blocked roads. from the air, you can see what the indonesian government is up against. this is the 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, not just hit by a whole series of catastrophes, notjust the earthquake and tsunami. in this neighbourhood, a sea of mud that fell down the mountain and has buried all of the houses right up to half way, and some of the inhabitants do. this man has come back with his younger 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 orfour minutes right after the earthquake, he told me. three or four minutes later. right after the earthquake, he told me. three orfour minutes later. he and his family just me. three orfour minutes later. he and his familyjust ran with only the clothes they were wearing. him and his neighbours have salvage what they can. it isn't much. they need everything and they are not getting it yet. the 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. 0ne back by police officers who seemed afraid of being overrun. one hour later, the police relented. the crowd poured into the shop. they did make a token effort to stop non—essential items being looted. but a government unable to help most of these earthquake victims can't really stop them helping themselves. the first real sign of order, this extraordinary lines of petrol. each bottle with its own number while its owners sit in the shade for the long hours they will have to wait. getting the survivors those crucial

supplies, food, water and petrol has been a major challenge. the local airport has been shut for commercial flights. they were open to chartered planes and helicopters bringing in supplies, but because the airport was damaged by the tsunami, that has been quite challenging. as we experienced ourselves, the road journey is quite long and very challenging as well. the international community has started to offer some help and the indonesian authorities have been saying things like sanitary facilities at clean water, tents, health service, fuel, blanket, all about are still in need. tens of thousands of people took refuge in the hills and they have now been brought down, but they need all the help they can get. the uk's offer of help they can get. the uk's offer of help should be arriving on thursday. all the aid agencies have been arranging all the supplies. desperate for help after days

without food, when the aid convoy finally arrived at this camp near donggala, 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 too. they have been donating boxes of food, water, mountains of clothes. the only problem is getting it to those in need. with the roads impassable, all of this will somehow have to be put on a boat and sailed to the north of the island. it is 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 that they were not well prepared. it's not impossible to prepare

for disasters like this, but it is very difficult. one of the frustrations for the humanitarian sector is that disasters are treated as surprising events, to which we all have to respond. whereas actually, we mostly know where disasters take place. every aid flight which leaves this air base has returned carrying people fleeing the disaster zone. some clutch their only possesions, others hold onto the hope that missing relatives will be found. this woman told us her 2—year—old niece hasn't been seen since friday. "she's too young to speak," she says. the only words she knows are mum and dad. the agony some here feel cannot be quelled, but they need their nation, and the world, to support them. hywel griffith, bbc news, on sulawesi. you made it very clear how difficult

is the year and your team to operate there, but apart from people who have lost absolutely everything. is it clear why they are having so much difficulty helping people and what impact that has on the chance of any more survivors. a lot of people run away to the hills and had to be told to come down. we are hearing from the national disaster agency that they have now been in a camp where they have now been in a camp where they can get some help. also, we have all the collapsed buildings that needed to be cleared, but when it was so difficult to get basic supplies like food and water into the town, it was so much harder to get 80 machinery into the city to get 80 machinery into the city to get rid of the rubble to rescue

those survivors. people are still continuing to look for their loved ones, hoping that they are still alive and the rescue operation is continuing. as you can imagine, this is definitely a race against time. more than 1300 people have lost their lives. that figure can only rise. yes, the authorities have been warning us from an earlier this week that the death toll, the official death toll is going to rise, that even on monday or sunday we were told that it could be in the thousands, up to 2000, so that is quite possible, they are continuing this rescue operation and to make sure, but at the same time to make sure, but at the same time to make sure that the survivors get all the crucial needs colour was yesterday, as you heard, we were told as we we re as you heard, we were told as we were driving into palu, that there we re were driving into palu, that there were some clashes between police and local residents and we were starting to get a bit nervous. as we drove in

comics was fine. after sunrise, it gets absolutely unbearably hot. after losing your loved ones without access to water and food it is quite understandable that you get irritable and there are police officers, military personnel patrolling the city as well, but there is not enough resources to manage the whole situation at the moment. they are in very difficult conditions in sulawesi. much more on that story on the bbc website. more of the main news for you. tests are being carried out to establish if two suspicious packages, delivered to the pentagon, contained the deadly poison ricin. initial checks have detected it and the mailroom has been quarantined. the envelopes were addressed to secretary of defence james mattis and the chief of naval operations, admiraljohn richardson. according to an attorney in virginia, four men have been arrested and charged with inciting riots at last year's deadly unite the right rally in charlottesville. the men were all part of the rise above movement, based in southern california

and described by prosecutors as a white supremacist group. all four face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. parliament in iraq has elected the moderate kurdish candidate barham salih as the new president. a member of the puk, he was running against the kdp candidate, fuad hussein, who withdrew from the second round of voting at short notice. that is in australia are predicting cervical cancer will be wiped out in the country within ten years and a limited —— eliminated as a public health problem within two years which will be a world first. experts attribute the development to the free vaccinations to high school students. around the world, cervical cancer kills thousands of women each year. here in the uk, borisjohnson has savaged theresa may's brexit plans, describing them as a "constitutional outrage". the former british foreign secretary said the chequers proposals would cheat voters and leave

the uk humiliated. he was speaking at the conservative party conference in birmingham. this is the moment to chuck chequers. applause to scrap the commission's constitutionally abominable northern ireland backstop... applause ..to use the otherwise redundant and miserable implementation period to the end of 2020 to negotiate the super canada fta, free—trade agreement. to invest in all the customs procedures that we will need to ensure continued frictionless trade. and to prepare much more vigorously than hitherto for coming out on wto terms. in a bbc interview, theresa may said she was cross with borisjohnson, in particular over what she called his desire to tear up the british government's guarantee to people in northern ireland.

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. you know, we are all, he and i, all members here, are members of the conservative and unionist party. that's because we believe in the union of the united kingdom. northern ireland is part of that union, and we have a guarantee for the people of northern ireland, and we are upholding that. 0ur chequers plan does that. it's the only plan on the table at the moment that does. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: from laser pioneer to nobel prize winner, we meet the woman setting new standards in science. 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 world news.

the latest headlines: thorities in indonesia say bulk supplies of urgently—needed food and water have begun to reach people on the indonesian more survivors have been pulled from the rubble as the death toll rises to more than 1,300 and looks likely to rise further. tax officials in new york state say they're investigating "vigorously" allegations that donald trump helped his family avoid millions of dollars in tax in the 1990s. a report in the new york times accuses the president of participating in what it calls dubious tax schemes to hide much of the fortune given to him and his siblings by their parents. mr trump, through his lawyer, has denied any wrongdoing. i spoke just now to our correspondent peter bowes, who pointed out that mr trump has repeatedly styled himself as a self—made millionaire who got little help from his wealthy father's empire. if this investigation is true, and,

as you said, this has been strongly denied on behalf of people for the president, if it is denied, people will be wondering where all the money came from. there are have been questions going back long time with the president... then candidate from refusing to release any of his tax returns. this goes back a long time, to the 1990s, and it's an allegation that involve his parents and donald trump and his siblings essentially and allegedly helping his parents not pay taxes, which resulted in donald trump receiving a huge sum of money, more than $400 million, from his father's real estate business. it certainly opens a lot of questions. this is a very long—running investigation by the new york times. they say they have a vast trove of documents, all tax returns, and they've done interviews as well that has resulted in these claims being made today. remnants of tropical storm rosa have flooded parts of arizona

with record rainfall. drivers in phoenix were caught off—guard as water levels rose rapidly. firefighters had to rescue at least six people, including a child, from cars stuck in flooded streets. schools were closed and thousands of homes and businesses lost power. the mayor of a town regarded by many as a model for migrant integration in italy, has been put under house arrest. domenico lucano is accused of organising "marriages of convenience" to help people seeking asylum. he made headlines around the world for welcoming migrants after the population of riace, in calabria, dropped significantly. lebo diseko has more. this is domenico lucano, smiling and waving here, but now under house arrest. he's the mayor of riace in the south of italy, famous for opening its doors to migrants. the town's population had dwindled, so newcomers were welcomed in and give an abandoned homes and on—the—job training. hundreds have come since

the scheme started in 1997. but now lucano, who's nicknamed mimmo, is accused of organising sham marriages for the purposes of immigration. his partner also faces the same charges, and has been banned from living in riace. translation: if mimmo did something, he did it for a good reason. maybe it's irregular from an administrative or legal point of view, i don't know. italy has been at the sharp end of the european migration crisis, with more than 600,000 arriving on the country's shores since 2014. injune, a new populist government was sworn in with a mandate to cut immigration. the new interior minister, matteo salvini, says he won't let his country be turned into what he called a refugee camp, and he reacted to news of lucano's arrest with a comment on twitter about good guys who want to fill italy with migrants. the mayor's critics say what he's done in riace is an example of immigration policy gone wrong, but his supporters say his only

crime was showing humanity. as for the man himself, lucano is yet to issue a statement on his arrest. lebo diseko, bbc news. a scientist who pioneered the use of lasers, has become the first woman to win the nobel prize for physics in 55 years. donna strickland from canada shares this year's award with a frenchman, and an american. our 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 devised a way to use lasers as very precise drilling or cutting tools. millions of eye operations are performed every year with these sharpest of laser beams. 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 many women out there doing fantastic research, so why does it take so long to get recognised? 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 there 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 researchers. 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 german—born maria goeppert—mayer, in 1963, for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. before that, it was marie curie, who shared the 1903 prize with her husband, pierre. it is hoped the focus in future will be on the research, rather than the gender of the researcher. now, a story that's been baffling british scientists. since the start of august, 70 deep water whales have washed up dead on scottish and irish beaches. one theory is that military activity and sonar signals in the atlantic may have caused their deaths. our 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. just briefly, a reminder of the menus, authorities in indonesia say that bulk supplies of urgently needed food and water have begun to reach people on the island of sulawesi laid waste by friday's earthquake, 1300 people are now known to have died, with the island of palu the worst affected. search and rescue effort had been hampered by power cuts, landslides and further after—shocks. much more on all of the news any time on the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello.

the rather warm for the time of year and humid air that became established across wales and england on tuesday will, in the day ahead, spread across northern ireland and scotland. it will feel noticeably warmer here. behind this weather front, a warm front, the leading edge of milder air. but that's coming with plenty of cloud, and to start wednesday it's a damp, and drizzly, and cloudy, misty, murky start across many parts, western parts, especially coasts and hills. it will be clear overnight in scotland and eastern england. there will be a chill around first thing, but the cloud will thicken here as we go on through the morning, which leaves us during wednesday with a good deal of cloud around. a few bright and sunny spells here and there, but still, along western coasts and hills, you could see a lot of patchy light rain and drizzle into western scotland and northern ireland. more especially, those outbreaks of rain affecting western and northern parts of scotland, the more substantial bursts of rain possible here at times. still with a noticeable breeze here, but not as windy as it was on tuesday, and particularly where you get to see some occasional sunshine,

it will feel quite warm for the time of year, quite humid. and these temperatures are higher in northern ireland and scotland compared with tuesday. now, as we run on through wednesday evening, wednesday night and into thursday morning, there are some breaks in the cloud. now, you might think some of it is going to drop away, but they won't, really, because remember this quite warm and humid air mass established across the uk. actually, it's quite mild night wednesday night into thursday. the chance for a few fog patches developing the further south you are in england and wales, through a centre of high pressure, where there's really not much breeze at all. again, some moisture in the air, it's humid. and then an approaching weather front on thursday will shake the weather up a bit in scotland and northern ireland once again, as we see some outbreaks of rain moving in. later in the day, that could reach as far south as north—west england and north wales, with a freshening breeze. but for many southern and eastern parts on thursday, once any fog clears away, we get to see some sunny spells, and again temperatures are a good few degrees above normal for the time of year. i want to show you this weather front as we go through thursday into friday.

it stalls through the middle part of the uk, and north of that you get the blues moving in. it will feel cooler and fresher across much of scotland. sunny spells, one or two showers. the front may linger through southern scotland, more especially northern england and wales, with cloud and outbreaks of rain, and south of that weather front, you still have the rather warm and humid air. so for friday, a bigger range of temperatures. this weather front will clear away south—eastwards over the weekend, lingering with some rain for parts of england and wales on saturday. may still be getting some rain into south—east england on sunday, we'll keep you updated on that. once it's gone, though, it brightens up, but it's much cooler for all. this is bbc news. the headlines: the number of people known to have died in indonesia in friday's earthquake and tsunami has risen to more than 1,300. rescuers are continuing to pull people from the rubble, but many more remain trapped. police in the coastal city of palu are guarding shops against looters as people desperately search for food, fuel and water. tax officials in the us say they're vigorously investigating claims that donald trump helped his family avoid millions of dollars in tax in the 1990s.

a report by the new york times accuses the president of participating in "downright fraud" to hide much of the family's fortune. a lawyerfor mr trump denied any wrongdoing by the president. here in the uk, borisjohnson has savaged theresa may's brexit plans, describing them as a "constitutional outrage."