this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 103m: five ministers in theresa may's cabinetjoin forces to try to persuade her to make changes to the draft brexit agreement. i'm covering the developments here in westminster and those five cabinet ministers are concerned that the deal as it stands may not be winnable when it is debated here in parliament. the number of people missing in california's wildfires has now risen to more than 1,000. 71 people are known to have died. the cia thinks the saudi crown prince ordered the murder of the journalist jamal khaa—shog—ji — according to reports in the us media. the bbc‘s annual children in need appeal raises a record amount, of more than £50 million. and at 10.30am, the travel show goes to lebanon, as beiruit tries to regain its reputation

as the paris of the middle east. good morning and welcome to bbc news. mps loyal to theresa may have been urging others to get behind her, as she tries this weekend to build support for her brexit deal. it's understood that five leave—supporting cabinet ministers are hoping to persuade mrs may to make changes to the withdrawal agreement, while speculation continues about the number of tory mps who've submitted letters of no confidence, and whether there are enough to trigger a leadership vote. here's our political correspondent, iain watson. this weekend, theresa may will take to the papers, television and social media to try to sell her brexit deal to the public, but she may have a tougher task selling it to her

party. if 48 of mps call for it, she will face a vote of no—confidence in her leadership. last night, she gulped dozens of leading lights in local constituency parties to try to persuade them to support. and one of oui’ persuade them to support. and one of our allies has returned to the cabinet with this message. this is a time for changing our leader. this isa time time for changing our leader. this is a time for pulling together for making sure that we remember who we are here to serve and help. that is the whole of the country. and i worry sometimes that my colleagues are too concerned about the westminster bubble rather than keeping their eye on what ourjob is, to serve people. but other cabinet members are not quite as supportive. five leading leave campaigners, penny mordant, michael gove, chris graham, andrea leadsom, and liam fox will meet within days to call for further changes to the brexit deal. if the prime minister oi’ brexit deal. if the prime minister or the european union would give way, then further resignations can't be ruled out. so far, theresa may has confounded conventional wisdom by surviving a series of setbacks.

but any further loss of support could leave her vulnerable. 0ur political correspondent, susana mendonca, is in westminster for us this morning. let's talk about these five cabinet ministers. what gives them hope that theresa may can be persuaded to ask for changes are indeed that brussels would be willing to give changes. well, that isn't clear, to be honest, because as we know brussels has indicated it doesn't want to be any changes in theresa may ploughing ahead, she said, in the numerous beaches we have heard from her over the past few days, that she thinks this is the best deal that she can get. but nonetheless, we do have these five cabinet members, key brexiteers, who have decided to stay. remember, there was a lot of speculation about whether michael gove and penny mordant would be going. they decided to stay in the cabinet, but what they are particularly concerned about, as i understand, is that they think that the deal as it stands will not be winnable in terms of here at

parliament, when there is that vote in parliament, that they won't be able to get it through. and so they think there needs to be some tweaks. they are talking potentially about andrea leadsom looking again at the irish border and whether or not technological solutions can be introduced, whether that can be introduced, whether that can be introduced into the deal in some way. difficult to see, though, how thatis way. difficult to see, though, how that is going to change between now and the 25th of november, which of course is when the special eu summit is being held in order to effectively rubber—stamp this deal. but obviously if these five cabinet members do not get what they are after. we don't know whether or not they would resign. but we have deceived. liam fox, someone who previously had talks about whether no deal is better than a bad deal, this week saying that he would rather have a deal that no deal. so people are changing their views perhaps on what they have said in the past, but we will wait and see what happens. but of course theresa

may, for her it would be very difficult if she loses another cabinet member and certainly if she lost five it would be very difficult for her because she has obviously already lost two key figures this week, not least her second brexit secretary to go, so very difficult times for her. and the government now saying that effectively she is taking charge of the negotiations. ernie brexit secretary won't actually be doing any of that. yes, exactly. her new brexit secretary, who is stephen barclay, who is not very well—known. he is someone who previously was a former health minister. he is the third brexit secretary to take over but what we are seeing is that he will not be dealing with the negotiations. difficult for him to do so considering that we are so far through certainly the negotiation of the withdrawal agreement it is supposed to be rubber—stamped in a little over a week, so it would be difficult for him to get on top of all of that in such a short period of time but we are hearing that he will focus on the domestic issues around brexit rather than the negotiations. but even if you look

at david davis and dominic raab, certainly when dominic raab came in as the replacement to david davis in as the replacement to david davis in a few months back, we were told that number ten would be very much taking the lead. before that, david davis, the lead. before that, david davis, the previous brexit secretary, often complained of not being given free rein, of not being given free rein, actually having to answer to the prime minister's team. so actually win at this new brexit secretary taking a very different role as we understand to the previous one. we perhaps should look a little more immediately head a buzz to mrs may's own fate because she might not even get to that summit next sunday if these letters trigger a vote of no—confidence and she leaves. exactly. currently, we got how many letters have gone at basically for this no—confidence vote to be triggered, 48 conservative mps would have to write to the chairman of the 1922 committee, which is the committee of backbench mps, and would have to call for her to be

standing down, for a vote of no—confidence. and so if we got to that point, then there would be able to no—confidence, but theresa may could win that vote of no confidence when it comes down to it because it would be a vote of all of the mps in parliament and you would be having too, i suppose, parliament and you would be having too, isuppose, presume parliament and you would be having too, i suppose, presume that they would all want to get rid of her in orderfor her to go, so we don't know whether or not that would happen and certainly will we even get to that stage? that is not clear. so far, the indication is that they haven't got enough, they haven't got the numbers. whether that changes in the coming days remains to be seen. we have had over the last couple of days a series of conservative mps, brexiteers, putting forward letters and telling us, actually publishing those letters, and so more may come, is challenging times for theresa may before she even gets a bit vote to mps here in parliament. we can speak now to simon hoa re conservative mp for north dorset and parliamentary private secretary to

the home secretary. good morning. thanks for speaking to us. good morning. thanks for speaking to us. it must be a relief to be out of the hothouse. it is always nice to go back to your family in your constituency. . what is your feeling about the mood you detected amongst your parliamentary colleagues? the thing that was was striking to people watching and listening to theresa may's segment in the commons, and i listened to i think probably two hours of it that was broadcasted on the radio, barely anyone stood up to say that this was anyone stood up to say that this was a good deal. i think it was in the third hour that people started to support it. frankly, if i had been called first or second, then i would have been making supportive comments, as with a lot of other colleagues. is that supportive because of the content of the agreement or supportive because you are agreement or supportive because you a re loyal to agreement or supportive because you are loyal to the prime minister and you don't like the idea of the party

turning on her in this way? it is both. i have always been a pragmatic realist on this matter. anybody who tried to view this as though it was a theological pursuit and we could get everything we wanted to achieve was always going to be disappointed. because a negotiation is all about give and take. i think what we are starting to say is that there were some of my colleagues who over the last few months have hidden behind this argument of no deal is better than a bad deal, which was to cover what they always meant to say which is that no deal is a good deal. i think the majority in the government and of the country and the people i have been talking to over the last couple of months in my constituency is that we must get a deal and we must support the prime minister. and thatis must support the prime minister. and that is very good to hear. i am sure she will be pleased to hear it, but

there are colleagues of yours who think that this is not a situation to continue and that theresa may is no longer the right person. we don't yet know whether or not they will have the numbers to trigger a vote of no—confidence. for those who are still agonising over whether or not to put their signature on the letter and send it in, what we do say?” would say, read the documents, reads all of it and make sure we know where we are and think about the alternative. we seem to have some of our colleagues running around like obstreperous toddlers who are trying to pull the house down around their ears but not ready for the consequences. the prime minister was right to make the point this is the only deal on the table. nobody else has come up with an alternative. what would changing the prime minister achieve if it wasn't followed by a general election? due

to the parliamentary arithmetic. the majority of members are in favour of a pragmatic, workable deal. but nothing would change. you could change the prime minister on a daily basis. unless you have a general election, nothing will change in parliament. and presumably they are not prepared to vote for a general election. it is all the turkeys voting for christmas. guillamon in that case, what is the point of changing the prime minister? we are close to leaving and it does seem that those who advocated leaving the european union are the greatest strength and force, now appear to be prepared to follow a risky strategy of seeking either to extend the period or to revoke the opportunities of brexit altogether by trying to throw pebbles into the

pond by changing the prime minister. isn't the difficulty here is that whether or not mrs may remains... lets say she remains. she goes to this board in december. it looks on the basis of what we have seen so far is that she will have a hell of a fight on her hands to get this through the commons and she may not do so. if, as you say, it is the only deal and parliament voted down, then what? i don't think parliament will. i think the strategy would be wrong. it would be trying to seek to deliberately vote solely... the conversations i have been having, i think they are having the realisation that this is the only deal in town. is it perfect? no, it's not. but it's a good deal that

delivers the referendum results, saves the economy and preserves the united kingdom, and if the option therefore is between that, with all of its imperfections, are crunching out with no deal, the so—called hard brexit option, which leads us in a very isolated situation, then i think people will go with the former. and any student of european politics will remember that the united kingdom joined the eec back in the 1970s and all of those things we re in the 1970s and all of those things were on a cross—party basis. enoch powell and tony benn. i think there will be a growing amount of people who believe in the national interests, you a re who believe in the national interests, you are prepared to get in the lobby with the prime minister and support her. we will argue with all of the other details. sorry to

interrupt you again. this is an issue which transcends the boundaries of this parliament. it is certainly transcends party interests. when the prime minister says, we are working in the national interest, she means that. if she means it is, then, are you clear that it wouldn't matter if she got her deal through on the back of labour, liberal and other votes, so long as she got a true? it wouldn't matter if you majority of tory mps didn't back her. opposition mps came into our lobby to support our tool —— article 50 and that was presented as parliament coming together to deliver on the referendum result. so this is not without precedent in history. if we did its for that and

also plenty other times, for example be voted to approve the referendum to ta ke be voted to approve the referendum to take place, this whole process has been delivered with cross—party support. it should end with cross— party support. it should end with cross—party support as well. there's nothing new, novel or shocking in that. mp for north dorset and monetary aid to the home secretary, thanks very much forjoining us on bbc news this morning. hannah white is deputy director of the institute for government — an independent think tank which scrutinises the workings of government — and she joins us from westminster. thank you for being with us. let's do if you practical things. what is the timetable the government is working to in terms of trying to get this deal approved in order to ensure that we do, as we have said, leave at the end of march 2019? well, the prime minister's preferred

timetable now is to get through the next week and to get to this special european summit next sunday where the deal would be rubber—stamped. after that, she has got to give parliament it is meaningful vote that because parliament has to decide how it wants to conduct that vote and whether the motion that the government brings forward will be amendable or not, which is quite significant. if the government succeeds in getting the meaningful vote agreed, then the next thing is to introduce a piece of primary legislation to put the withdrawal agreement into uk law. and that is in keeping that has to happen. 0n the government's timetable for us to leave in an orderly fashion on the 29th of march. and in terms of that process , 29th of march. and in terms of that process, then, the big stumbling block is the parliamentary one and the arithmetic on that. you will have heard what simon hull had to say because he brings more people will swing behind it on a pragmatic basis, but at the moment, given

public statements, how does the arithmetic look? well, it is very difficult to tell. from what i have heard, from the prime minister and her supporters, herfirm heard, from the prime minister and her supporters, her firm conviction seems to be that this is the deal which is the right thing for the country, so i don't think she is necessarily going to be picky about who it is she goes through the voting lobbies with in order to get that deal agreed. and the president for that is, i suppose, where prime ministers have ended up needing the support of other mps when their own party is not necessarily being fully behind them. and practically we have a minority government at the moment, a minority government at the moment, a government which may or may not, depending on who you listen to, have a confidence and supply deal with the dup, but the reality of minority government is that they do have to build coalitions with the policies that they think are for the good of the country. in the past, we would have talked about the prospects of a general election when parliament was so bitterly divided and the

government didn't have a majority, but it is not quite as simple as it used to be, is it? you know, that's right. we now have the fixed term parliament act and there are now very specific ways in which an election would have to be triggered and so there are two main mechanisms. one would be the two thirds of mps in the house of commons voting for an election, which is of course what happened last time we had one. the other would be a vote of no—confidence, but the board has to have very specific wording. the wording set out the act. and that means that prime ministers can't use other votes as a proxy for a confidence motion. they can say, if you don't support this, i will treat it as a confidence motion. it has to have the exact wording that is in the act. and saw that again makes it that much more compensated. finally, your reflection on this week. how extraordinary a week has it been? how extraordinary a time are we in?

well, it certainly is an unusual time. this is a big decision that the country is taking. and there is a great deal of division in the country and a great deal of division in parliament as well. and those divisions cut across party lines, as we have seen over the past few years andi we have seen over the past few years and i think it was inevitable that we treat this point at some point but we are really now seeing the crunch and seeing how that ends up playing out. and you spend a lot of your time talking to politicians, talking to civil servants, trying to understand the mechanics of the way government works and the way to improve it or where it might not be working. what sort of strain has this spit on our system of government? well, i think the civil service is actually very adept at sort of living and reflecting the policy of the government of the day, and is used to taking the result of and is used to taking the result of an election and picketing and

implementing new policies. that said, brexit has put an enormous strain on the civil service. trends in the numbers of civil servants has been reversed so we are having more civil servants recruited to work on brexit because there is just a tremendous amount of work to be done, especially in this initial phase where we are having to legislate and get everton ready for the uk leaving, so there has been a lot of pressure put on the civil service. thank you very much for being with us there. deputy director of the institute for government, the think tank that looks at how government functions. the headlines on bbc news: five ministers try to persuade theresa may to make changes to the brexit deal. 1071 people are known to have died in the california wild files. the cia thinks that the crown

prince of saudi arabia ordered the murder of thejournalist prince of saudi arabia ordered the murder of the journalist jamal khashoggi. now, time for the sport. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's katherine downes. let's start with the cricket, and rain has stopped playjust to win the second test and it's been backwards and forwards all morning — wickets for england, some stoic batting from the sri lankans. they've just gone off because of rain, the hosts 226 for 7, 82 short of their target, and england have been excellent in the field, taking a couple of stunning catches.

great agility we have here and that is probably a good a catch is you will ever see and he didn't actually captured. he powers it to the wicketkeeper. just watch this, the way that he lives. and then a 1—2. thank you very much. that is genius at short leg. england's women meanwhile are through to the semi finals of the world t20. anya shrubsole starred with the ball, blowing away the south african tail with a hattrick. england knocked off the 86 runs they needed to win with six overs to spare. wales missed out on promotion from their nations league group after losing 2—1 to denmark in cardiff. gareth bale was back for wales, but they missed chances and were punished when denmark scored before the break. and they sealed it late on when martin braithwaite smashed in a second. bale got one back, but it was too little, too late. we'll see the champions of the northern hemisphere against the champions of the southern hemisphere later in dublin as ireland take on new zealand. that's the highlight of another packed day of action in the autumn internationals

as patrick gearey reports. the psychology of the haka is to beat you before you begin, to make battles seem futile. when faced with the all blacks, ireland would recognise the feeling. new zealand's unbeaten run of the irish lasted for 28 games over 111 years, through bruised bodies and broken hearts. until one day in chicago that is forever frozen in ireland's sporting history. since that 40—29 victory two years ago, the dynamic has changed. for this irish team, beating new zealand isn't an impossible leap, but a necessary step towards their aim — the world cup. it's always an achievement to beat the all blacks, that is why we limit ourselves to just every 115 years. it is formidable and would be a huge feather in these players cap if they could topple them on saturday. if ireland are the northern hemisphere's smash hit, scotland are perhaps this

yea r‘s breakthrough act. they beat england in the six nations and looked fluent against the fijians last saturday. there are six changes for a very different match against the hulking south africans and whatever happens saturday, sunday is going to hurt. i imagine you ask any coach in world rugby who is the team that provides the biggest challenge in the game physically with your forwards, it will be south africa. they select the biggest, strongest men they can find. ijust feel that south africa now are in the top two or three teams in the world in how they played and how they played against the best teams in the world. wales will be full of confidence after beating australia last weekend, but only one of that team will start the game against tonga, the welsh have the springboks a week later. england, meanwhile, have made 11 changes to the side which thought they had beaten new zealand, only to have a try disallowed. they face japan, the country of eddie jones' heritage, and the team he used

to be in charge of. but international rugby allows little room for sentiment. jones says he wants england to physically "smash" them. patrick gearey, bbc news. novak djokovic will play south africa's kevin anderson in the semis of the atp world tour finals later he beat marin cilic in straight sets last night, and is the favourite to win the tournment after easing through the round robin stage with three wins from three matches. that's all the sport for now. thank you very much. more than a thousand people have been reported missing in a california wildfire which has destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 71 people. president trump is due to visit the area of northern california devastated by the state's worst—ever wildfire. the town of paradise and villages around it were almost completely destroyed. from there, the bbc‘s dave lee reports. this is the first step in a very long process. a crew of firefighters lifts away large debris and makes

sure the area is safe. soon, a second team of cadaver dogs will sweep the area. if they find remains, the coroner's office will arrive. it takes time, even with the more than 400 specialists now on the ground in paradise, the town worst hit by this fire. progress seems to be going backwards. each day we hear about several confirmed deaths, but with it comes news that there are a growing number still unaccounted for. as of tonight, the list that we will be releasing, the current list of unaccounted for individuals stands at 1,011, which is an increase from yesterday of 380. the majority of those on that unaccounted for list are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. some of them may have lived in a place like this, this mobile home park used to be known as the enchanted forest, but is now one focus of the enormous search operation.

the impact from these fires is being felt across the state of california, more than 100 miles away in san francisco, schools and businesses were closed down due to terrible air quality, currently measured as being the worst anywhere in the world. on saturday, its expected that president trump will pay a visit to teams fighting these fires and maybe meet some of those who have been evacuated. hundreds of which remain in emergency shelters. the president will meet a community determined to get back on its feet. i think we will come back bigger and better. right now they have got paradise strong, ridge strong and that is what we are. and i know there is a lot of people ready to come back, let's get this done. let's make paradise again. dave lee, bbc news, in paradise. america's foreign intelligence service — the cia — believes saudi arabia's crown prince ordered the murder ofjournalist

jamal khashoggi. that's according to reports in the us which claim the agency has carried out a detailed assessment of evidence. saudi arabia has called the claim false and insists the crown prince knew nothing of the plans to carry out the killing. the bbc‘s chris buckler reports from washington. the saudi crown prince is very aware of how things look. following jamal khashoggi's murder, he arranged to meet his son in front of the cameras, apparently to offer his condolences. but the cia believe it was mohammed bin salman himself who gave the order for the washington post journalist to be killed. mr khashoggi was attacked when he entered the saudi consulate in istanbul. according to his former newspaper, the cia has been given details of phone calls, including one that was made at the request of the crown princes brother, reassuring mr khashoggi he would be safe if you to the consulate to get documents that would allow him to marry. the washington post says the intelligence agency also examined the call made by the saudi team who flew into istanbul

to carry out the killing. apparently they contacted one of mohammed bin salman's top aides after the murder. the crown prince, seen here meeting the us secretary of state, is a very powerful figure in a country that is an important ally to america. the united states has already imposed sanctions already imposed sanctions on 17 individuals allegedly involved in the murder, but this cia report is likely to increase the pressure for more action. saudi arabia, which has been conducting its own investigation, has blamed an intelligence officer and they've called the claims against prince mohammed bin salman false and based on theories and speculation. it's understood that the cia doesn't have one stand—alone piece of evidence that shows the crown prince was directly involved injamal khashoggi's death, but the agency's conclusions will further test relationships between washington and riyadh. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. one of britain's biggest newspaper groups, johnston press,

is going into administration. the company prints more than 200 local and regional titles, including "the scotsman" and "the yorkshire post", as well as the 'i'. it's blamed changes to the way facebook and google display stories, which has led to a fall in advertising. the move into administration is part of a rescue plan to keep the papers in circulation. the company had put itself up for sale last month and the group said in a statement 'this is the best remaining option available as it will preserve the jobs of the group's employees and ensure that the group's businesses will be carried on as normal. the group hopes that this transfer will be completed within the next 24 hours.‘ the bbc‘s annual children in need appeal has raised a record amount, of more than 50—million pounds, taking it past the one—billion pound mark since it first started, almost 40—years ago. 0ur entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba looks back on last night. go on, rob.