this is bbc news, the headlines: the fighting in northeastern syria intensifies, as the turkish army faces stiff resistance, from kurdish forces. the battle is for strategic towns along the border, with pro turkish troops trying to cut kurdish supply lines. the fighting has already left around 50 civilians dead, and forced more than 100,000 to flee their homes. typhoon hagibis has hitjapan with record—breaking amounts of rain and powerful winds. at least four people have been killed and 17 people are reported missing. millions of people had been advised to leave their homes. the storm has disrupted the rugby union word cup. the president of ecuador has placed the country's capital, quito, under military control in an attempt to end days of violent clashes between security forces and indigenous protestors.

scotland has banned plastic stemmed cotton buds over fears that they're harming wildlife. the new regulations will prevent their sale and manufacture. david cowan reports. bathed in autumn sunshine, this east lothian beach looks beautiful. is that one there? but ugly pieces of plastic are scattered in the sand. let's have a look. six years ago, a charity called fidra noticed thousands of plastic stemmed cotton buds washed up along the coast. they‘ re not just unsightly, they've been found in the stomachs of fulmars and turtles. fidra has talked to manufacturers and retailers into switching to paper stems and today, new scottish government regulations come into force. well, it's going to be against the law to sell these plastic cotton buds any more. so, we should start seeing paper cotton buds replacing them in shops. this is a small but significant step in the campaign against single—use plastics. scotland is the first part of the uk to bring in such a ban.

and only the second country in europe to do so after italy. the ban on plastic stemmed cotton buds comes into force today. david cowan, reporting scotland, east lothian. now on bbc news the travel show. this week on the travel show, i am in the jungles of borneo exploring malaysia's biggest state, sarawak. in the western corner of malaysia and borneo, sarawak has some of the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems. but it can be overlooked by tourists drawn to the bright lights of kl and the resorts of its neighbour state sabah. so i am going to discover for myself the sights and inhabitants of this remarkable state. along the way i will be hanging out with these guys... climbing jagged peaks... easily one of the most beautiful and most difficult hikes

i have done. ..and getting a taste of one of the world's most remote food festivals. sucking. laughs. i have to work on my snail sucking technique. yes, i love sarawak so much. everything very unique in sarawak. we have 26 ethnic groups in sarawak. sarawak mean "surrender to you" in malay. my trip starts here in sarawak‘s biggest city, kuching. and does the word kuching mean, it means something special, right? yes, kuching is mean cat, in english, called cat. like the city of cats? yes, cat city. we are starting here in the state capital kuching, and we are travelling all the way up here to the kelabit highlands. it's going to be a journey.

on my first stop, i am going to meet one of the state's most iconic residents. and here he is. the orangutan. so much soul in their eyes. 97% of their dna is shared with humans. that where they get the name — orangutan means "man of the forest." 0rangutans are native to only two islands in southeast asia. some live on sumatra, but the vast majority live here in borneo. i have come to the semenggoh nature reserve where the rangers are preparing for the morning feed. it looks like they eat quite well because there is a whole buffet

here, and it seems like every day there is a different meal plan. so today is saturday, so they will have 21 kg bananas, and then sweet potatoes, chicken eggs and pineapples. oh, it's heavy. maybe 15 kilos. ooh, 0k. where are we at? almost 20. we are ready, 21 kg. so emel, tell me what is special about semenggoh nature reserve? ok, so semenggoh wildlife centre actually started off as a rehab centre, so we were established back in 1975, so it is more than a0 years ago. the reserve took orangutans that had been rescued from captivity or suffered from habitat loss, and taught them to live wild in the surrounding forest. since then, the rehabilitation programme has been moved elsewhere, but the forest is still home to 33 orangutans, and tourists have a chance to glimpse those tempted back by a free meal. it is very different to a zoo,

there no orangutans in cages here. yeah, totally different to a zoo. two in the basket. yes. 0ur ranger, he will... thank you very much. yeah. enjoy. he will bring the food to the main feeding area. when the tourists arrive, a ranger heads to the feeding platform to call the apes. calling. welcome to our centre. coming here is no guarantee you must see the orangutan. if you happen to see one, consider yourself very lucky already. in the rainy season between november and march there is an abundance of food in the forest, so the orangutans often don't need

this extra food. but lucky for us, we don't have to wait long for a sighting. this is edwin, one of the biggest males in the park. and like the ranger said, this is not a zoo. the orangutans can come from any direction at any time, so you have to be careful, especially around the big males like edwin here. while these orangutans are used to people, they are still unpredictable, so tourists are kept at a safe distance. edwin is 23 years old, born in 1996, and he was the first male offspring born in semenggoh. now fully grown, edwin is competing to become the reserve‘s sole dominant male. only one orangutan dares to approach him on the platform.

seduku, rescued from captivity in the 1970s, and one of the first to be rehabilitated here. are they a thing? yeah, in a way. we called her the great old lady, because she is the oldest female, age 48 years old. and she is doing still very well. she is a8, he is 23. that is quite a big age difference there, right? yes, but love doesn't see age as a problem. feeding time is over, and there is edwin. i'm nervous. he is massive, so much hair. if you saw that from behind you wouldn't know what it was. sadly, despite conservation efforts,

orangutans face an uncertain future. over a 16 year period, the numbers in borneo fell by more than 100,000. a decline blamed on hunting and deforestation. it is now estimated that there are just over 100,000 orangutans left on the island. and so the facility here, how does it help? by having a centre like semenggoh, people get a sense of seeing the wild orangutan, and not disturb the orangutan in their natural habitat. and i guess the more people come here, the more they learn, and that also helps as well? definitely, the feeling, the excitement of seeing wild orangutan, bring you closer to conservation efforts, and to be able to share it with people out there, it really means something. next up i am crossing the state

to reach gunung mulu national park, sarawa k‘s largest piece of protected rainforest. this place is teeming with wildlife — over 4,000 species of plants, 20,000 species of invertebrates, that means thousands of different kinds of spiders, beetles and butterflies, but no orangutans, though, not here. mulu is also home to groups of penan, one of the last remaining hunter and gatherer tribes in southeast asia. a lot of their traditional tribal land has been lost to deforestation, so the vast majority now stay in settlements like this one. plucks instrument. laughs. i didn't expect you to do that.

plucks instrument. laughs. ok, with the nose... laughs. so these are flutes, right? blowpipe? you make these? can you show me? i see, so you drill it by hand, so many times... (n0 audio (no audio translation available) that would be countless hours. there we go. mike corey, blowpipe maker. blowpipes are the penan‘s traditional hunting weapon. they are loaded with darts, tipped with strong poison extracted from the bark of the local tajem tree.

and you would use one of these big ones? wow, it's, look, iam about six feet tall, that would be 1.8 metres. ok, so we are here like this... that one goes in the back. armed and dangerous. you first. safety off. sharp shooter! laughs. i guarantee i will not... like this? and then... ok. he we go. here we go. hopefully there is some beginner's luck. i hit the target?!

laughs. further inside the park there is a truly unique landscape. below ground there are some of the world's largest caves, formed from limestone and shaped by millions of years of ground and rainwater. this process also created a bizarre collection of stone spires above the ground. they're called the pinnacles, and i have come all the way up river to base camp 5 to see them. at almost 50 metres tall, the pinnacles are an imposing spectacle. but to get there, sightseers face a three day round trip and a long, brutal trek through the rainforest. so the guides have some rules

in place to make sure tourists are up to it. the first 60 minutes, so this is considered as a check—in point. if you make it more than 60 minutes, you are considered a slow climber. we you are sorry, we have to say you are not qualified. so if i don't make the first checkpoint in 60 minutes, you turn me around and say sorry, you are going back home? yeah, this is the rule here. 0k, we are just about to head to bed for the big hike tomorrow, this is bed tonight actually, underneath this mosquito net, this is a bee, by the way, that just flew away. this is coming with me tomorrow... person: shh. there are some people sleeping, ijust got shushed. i am a little bit nervous for the hike tomorrow, it is supposed to be quite hard, a lot of very, very steep inclines, so i am going to get a full eight hours tonight, i will see you in the morning and we will see if we can make it

to the top. "caution, a high degree of physical fitness is required past this point." eight hours round—trip. lead the way. let's go. i havejust 60 minutes to make it to the mini pinnacles, the first checkpoint. you weren'tjoking. how is it? steep. the checkpoint is less than a kilometre up the slope but the humidity makes it feel a lot further. we've only just started and i'm already exhausted. and we're here, the pinnacles!

not quite, right? mini pinnacles. that is...not a joke. having reached the checkpoint within the time limit, it's another kilometre before i reach the most treacherous stage. this is the first ladder, mike. helmets on, right? who's first? after you. after me? 0k, one down, 70 more to go. beautiful limestone cliffs are sharp but at least lots of places to grab onto.

it looks like it's rained down there. think it's going to rain? yeah, heavy rain. 500 metres to go, 100 metres to go. hope we get there before the rain. what ladder‘s this? last ladder. this looks like the summit. isn't it? the summit, yes. we are here, guys. wow, yeah. and there are so many of them. this is beautiful. just daggersjutting out of the forest canopy. really is spectacular, right?

the final stop in myjourney across sarawak is bario, in the kelapit highlands, home to one of the world's most remote food festivals. it is not exactly a smooth road, it's like being a greased up piece

of popcorn in the back seat, but it's a lot of fun. i'm quite an adventurous eater, i will try everything. at least once, it is not good, only once. but often when you come to these places will find some pretty far out food and i'm hoping we'll find some very interesting stuff. bumped around and a little bruised from the journey, i get there to find the festival in full swing. we're catching the eye of a lot of locals, because there's not that many foreigners, surprise surprise, in this part of the world. i don't know half of the foods here today and that's quite exciting for me.

a local farmer called dayang offers to show me around. would you like to try our dure... i don't know what dure is... one of the local exotic vegetable found here in bario. it is a plant that lives in the jungle? yes. i can eat that all day. that is delicious. but it's got, like, i was thinking it would taste like spinach, but it doesn't taste like spinach at all. it has like a heartier than spinach would. would you like to try the akep? yeah, we can try akep. this looks to be boiled snails. yeah, found in the paddy field here. it smells like boiled snails too. this is how we do it. this lives in the jungle, you suck it out? sucking.

just like that. you bit it first? it's stuck on my teeth. and you suck it? sucking. there we go. how do you find... the taste must be fantastic? i wouldn't use that word, but it's not bad, it's very chewy. this is classic traditional kelabit food, sourced from the surrounding area. welcome to bario. dayang takes me to herfarm, where she grows one very important ingredient. it's cool, cause each plant has one pineapple? yes, but it will take about one year to ripen. but this looks ripe. look at the colour, its golden yellow.

how do we... how do we pick one? you can pluck it. i'm going to have puncture wounds after this but it's ok. that was easy. yes, because its golden ripe pineapple, is very sweet. look at this, my first pineapple. back at the festival, locally grown pineapples have been made into jams, juices and even pineapple cider. down the hatch. a little chunky, how many do you have to drink to have a really good day? i'm not sure. shall we find out? since it started in 2006 the festival has celebrated both the cuisine and the culture of the highlands.

up top there are some bags with soda pop, cookies, the point is to climb up to the top, grab your prize and climb down. it's my turn. so... slowly from th bottom. freestyle ? as the games continue, my form doesn't really improve. it was by a feather that we lost. applause. a game that i'm not bad at, i think it's my height advantage. let's watch.

that's way farther than mine. i guess you might think that coming so far away you wouldn't be able to make friends, or that it might be a strange tourist experience. but i always find it's some of the best ones, when you come to these places, there's not many foreign tourists, so people are so accepting and grateful that you are here, and will share everything with you.

hello. 0ur fairly changeable theme to the autumn weather is set to continue over the next week or so. low pressure in charge. this was the picture taken saturday afternoon in northumberland. we did have a bit of sunshine around here and there. i think sunshine will be in shorter supply for the north—east of england, in particular, on sunday. we've got some heavy rain at times. there will be some drier and some sunnier weather pushing in later on in the day. so a bit of a mixed story for sunday's weather. we'll have quite a few weather fronts on the map as you can see. low pressure still driving things, sitting out was the west. we start off the day, a bit of brightness around, dry weather initially across the far south of england and east anglia. but fairly quickly the rain will sweep in here. lots of rain across the bulk of england and wales, moving north—eastwards. scotland and northern ireland start off with some mist and some fog patches, perhaps even a touch of frost for rural eastern scotland. but the rain will move in from the south, affecting many

eastern parts of northern ireland, southern and eastern scotland, too. but some sunshine returning towards southern england and wales. the winds generally less of a feature than they have been recently. but it will turn quite breezy across central and southern england, i think, behind that area of rain. now, temperatures around about 11—16 degrees. not great if you're stuck under the cloud and rain across the north—east of england, for instance. that rain will clear away towards the north sea through sunday night. so a bit of a quieter picture over night into monday. most places looking frost free. could just be a touch of frost for the most prone spots across northern scotland. some mist and some fog possible first thing monday morning. but we start the new working week, once again, with low pressure in charge. and we've got this waving weather front sitting close to the south—east of england on monday. some uncertainty about the exact positioning of any rain. but it does like we could have some heavy, possibly thundery downpours across southern and south—eastern england as well. a bit of rain also for northern ireland,

which could fringe into the likes of pembrokeshire and also cornwall. but actually elsewhere quite a lot of dry weather. some sunny spells for northern england, eastern scotland as well. and those temperatures will be 12—16, fairly typicalfor this time of year. but things are set to stay really quite unsettled as well for tuesday. still some rain, especially for north—east england and eastern scotland. it does look like that should clear away fairly quickly on tuesday. so not a bad day. lighter winds, just a few showers. a respite, i think, after the recent rain in the south during the day on tuesday. 12—16 degrees the top temperatures. but more rain waiting out in the wings towards the west. and that sets us up for unsettled picture again through wednesday into thursday. sunny spells, some blustery showers around. and temperatures generally in the mid teens. bye for now.

welcome to bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: heavy fighting continues as turkey presses ahead with its military operation against kurdish fighters in northeast syria. torrential rain and tornado—like winds claim at least four lives injapan in what could be the country's worst storm for 60 years. hello and welcome to bbc news. there have been fierce clashes between turkish troops and kurdish forces in northeastern syria.