the uk prime minister, rishi sunak, arrives in manchester for the annual conservative party conference, amid a row within his party over taxes. welcome to bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the united states is on the brink of a government shutdown, unless congress can agree a bill to keep funding federal services. a rare saturday session is taking place in the senate — but the clock is ticking. if no deal is in place by the end of today, government agencies will begin shutting down injust the gentleman you can see on the screen is hakeem jeffries who has

been speaking for a few minutes. we will hear more on what he says later. if no deal is in place by the end of today, government agencies will begin shutting down injust under ten hours�* time — that's midnight local time. it would mean hundreds of thousands of federal employees sent home without pay. much of the attention is focused on the republican speaker kevin mccarthy. here's what he had to say earlier. because the senate cannot act in time, the government would shut down. the house is going to act so government will not shut down. we will put a clean funding stop—gap on the floor to keep government open for 45 days for the house and senate to get their work done. the house is debating over the funding plans now. and hakeem jefferies, democratic minority leaders has been speaking in the last few minutes.

we are here at this moment on the brink of a shutdown that was entirely unavoidable and has been brought to us by the extreme maga republicans who have decided that rather than pursue the normal legislative process of trying to find common ground, not as democrats or independents or republicans, but as americans, rather than try to pursue policy achievements through the normal legislative process that they want to threaten the american people with a shutdown. let's find out what is taking place. that debate is currently underway as i said and watching that and following the story for us is our

correspondent, sean daly. sean, hakeem jefferies has been speaking. that is not the first time he has had a standing ovation for what he has had to say. what is he trying to achieve right now?— has had to say. what is he trying to achieve right now? well, there's an awful lot of — achieve right now? well, there's an awful lot of speculation _ achieve right now? well, there's an awful lot of speculation what - achieve right now? well, there's an awful lot of speculation what he - achieve right now? well, there's an awful lot of speculation what he is i awful lot of speculation what he is trying to achieve is talking for as long as it can to give democratic members of the house of representatives, that's what we're looking at, the senate is having a different debate, enough time to read through the complex document. he said in the last few seconds actually that republicans in the past have said they need 72 hours to consider any bill. in this case, he is saying this has been dropped on the house of representatives at 11th hour. an awful lot of the phrases he's using are repeating, he spent a while earlier saying that shutdowns are in the republican dna. he pointed to the 35 day shutdown at the end of 2018, the longest there

has ever been. and he said that was when donald trump was in the white house, when the republicans controlled both the house of representatives and the senate that make up congress together. and he said they managed to shut themselves down. at the moment it's highly political but he's using a privilege open to him as the leader of the democratic minority leader in the house of representatives to talk for as long as he would like to. after that, it's possible for the republicans to respond. this was a pub —— possible the could adjourn. 0n pub —— possible the could adjourn. on a bipartisan basis have already passed another deal that speaker kevin mccarthy the republican has been saying was dead on arrival. we said earlier before we can speak to this lot of attention at the moment is focused on the speaker kevin mccarthy. is focused on the speaker kevin mccarth . ., ,., is focused on the speaker kevin mccarth. ., a, ., ,,, mccarthy. there are some analysts sa in: he mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has _ mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has left _ mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has left this _ mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has left this a _

mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has left this a little - mccarthy. there are some analysts saying he has left this a little bit i saying he has left this a little bit too late to take action now and that he is essentially fighting for his job. he is essentially fighting for his “ob. . ., ., , job. yeah, i will 'oin those awash job. yeah, i will 'oin those analysts are _ job. yeah, i willjoin those analysts are saying - job. yeah, i willjoin those analysts are saying that i job. yeah, i willjoin those analysts are saying that it | job. yeah, i willjoin those - analysts are saying that it seems certain that if you wanted to have called upon democratic support, he could have forced through their bipartisan a great deal by the upper chamber that was opposed by at least nine hardline republicans who are unhappy and in their view it didn't offer enough border control and spending cuts weren't deep enough. yesterday, the house of representatives failed to pass its own alternative suggestion for short—term funding bills that would have funded all the way to the end of october. the cuts they were proposing were too deep. later in the evening, kevin mccarthy said the stumbling block in his view was over funding to ukraine. but let's be frank, the stumbling block here is the republican speaker of the house

of representatives who struggled to get elected in the first place, he is heavily opposed much more by the hardline republican party than he is by the democratic house of representative members. indeed. there are so _ representative members. indeed. there are so much _ representative members. indeed. there are so much going - representative members. indeed. there are so much going on. - representative members. indeed. l there are so much going on. thank you very much. we will come back to this story shortly. we are watching the debate taking place in washington now. armenia says more than 100,000 ethnic—armenians have now left nagorno—kara bakh. it means that that almost the entire population of the enclave has left since azerbaijan seized the region last week. ethnic armenians have been taking the narrow, mountainous route through the lachin corridor negotiating the russian check points and then finally the last azerbaijani checks — before reaching armenia. nagorno—karabakh has been controlled by armenian separatists for three decades, but is internationally recognised as part of azerbaijan.

the united nations says it's sending a mission to the region this weekend, to assess the humanitarian situation. the team will look at the needs of people remaining in the territory as well as those who are on the move. azerbaijan has said it would allow such a visit to take place. people who were forced to flee their homes — like milena from kert village — have been describing what happened. after having seen everything, it pains me to be leaving, but i have hope that i'll be able to come back. this is one of the paradises on earth that cannot be traded with or compared to lands or wealth. the world should not believe that we are willingly leaving. we fought till the very end with our blood, with our lives to protect our country. earlier i spoke to our correspondent

rayhan demytrie who was outside a registration point in the armenian town of goris. a warning, there are some flashing images in this report. this is the nearest and biggest town to the azerbaijani border, which has been in the epicentre of a mass exodus from nagorno—karabakh. it's now been almost a week since people, ethnic armenians, started leaving their homes inside nagorno—karabakh. and still there are people right here registering and trying to find some temporary accommodation. i spoke to one guy who actually just approached me. he wanted to talk to me and was just holding...he was handed a duvet in a plastic bag. and he told me that a week ago he was fighting. he said that he was a contractor and showed me his military document, but said that that was all he had.

he had no time to collect his belongings or his passport. and also he described that at some point he was surrounded by a lot of azerbaijanis, but he said they were fine with him. they didn't insult him or didn'tabuse him. and then the russian peacekeepers helped to withdraw him from that place. but now he doesn't know where to go next. he says he can choose which area in armenia to travel to. and i think these kind of stories are still quite often to be heard here in goris. there is an assessment of the humanitarian needs from the united nations coming up. what are you hearing about the humanitarian situation there? estimates suggest that perhaps there are not that many ethnic armenians left. azerbaijan has agreed to allow a un humanitarian mission into the regional capital, stepanakert. but people here are saying, look, it's coming too little, too late,

because what is there to assess now that people are gone? but nevertheless, it is going to be important. and this mission, as we understand, is coming this weekend. but they will be travelling from baku. gabriel gavin is an expert on the region and a reporter for politico magazine. he is in the armenian capital where protests have been taking place. i'm standing just in front of the republic square, where this evening hundreds of protesters met to express their discontent of armenia's government. they've been hoping the organisers for a much larger presence. but at the moment, it's very unclear that actually people are in a position to turn out. people are volunteering down in goris where rayhan is, where i've just been for the past week. they're handing out sandwiches, they're collecting food and clothes. and at the moment, the question is, has not yet turned to politics. people are focused on the humanitarian situation. but as you say, for the past week, 100,000 people have come across that mountain checkpoint.

and now that flow of thousands of cars and buses and open—top trucks has ground to a halt, with local leaders saying that only a few hundred people are left. and those i speak to, even the ones who initially said "i'm going to stay, i'm not going to leave, this is my land," every time i've tried to contact them now they've told me they're actually across the bridge, they're inside armenia and they're uncertain about what comes next. do you think that azerbaijan will be facing any consequences as a result of what we're witnessing? well, we put out a storyjust this week looking at the growing calls in washington and brussels for azerbaijan to face sanctions or punishment for its role in this emerging humanitarian crisis. but everyone we've spoken to, certainly at high levels in both brussels and washington, say that at the moment none of those things are on the table. azerbaijan insists that its actions were inside its sovereign territory, that it had the right to take back the land that it says was occupied for 30 years by a separatist regime and doesn't expect to see any repercussions for finally moving to end that conflict.

in reality, we know that american and european and indeed british lawmakers are concerned about the state of affairs. they are concerned that this mass exodus represents something very, very serious for the region and for the world. i mean, if we think about what's happening in serbia and kosovo right now, the precedents that are being set in terms of support for breakaway unrecognised states, these are very serious questions. and i think as policymakers meet over the course of the next few days, we might see some movement on this. but the reality is azerbaijan is going to continue to be an extremely important strategic partner for the uk, for the eu and indeed for the us. gabriel, you said that there were protesters behind you in front of that building. what exactly are they upset about? well, just after azerbaijan launched its offensive on tuesday last week, i went down and interviewed half a dozen a dozen people who turned out to protest. every single one of them told me

what should happen next is the prime minister, liberal, pro—western reformer nikol pashinyan, should resign, but not a single one, even an opposition mp interviewed, could tell me who should want to replace him or what they should do next. at the moment, people are furious and angry with the situation and nobody has any alternative solutions. but they certainly do hold the prime minister, hold the government, indeed hold the west, responsible for the crisis. here in the uk — prime minister rishi sunak, has arrived in manchester ahead of the conservative party conference. but it will be a mixed reception for him, as more than 30 of his own mps have said they won't support any policies that lead to higher overall taxes. the group — including the former prime minister, liz truss — have signed a pledge to their constituents. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is in manchester. he told us more.

a warning that there is flash photography. the prime minister has arrived here in manchester. so what he's going to spend the next few days doing is using this conference as a bit of a launch pad to get really stuck into the politics that he's going to try and sell to the electorate in the general election next year. he's going to try and persuade us all that he's prepared to take difficult, long term decisions for the good of the country. he's going to try and persuade us all that he has a vision to get the economy back on track. but it's going to be easier said than done. and when you ask ministers about what some of that might look like, they're still tight lipped at the moment. there are still big questions to be answered. for example, here in manchester is supposed to be where the new high speed two rail line ends. ministers have been asked again today if that's going to happen. they've stonewalled those questions. rishi sunak is facing calls from theresa may, his predecessor, borisjohnson, another predecessor, to go ahead with the project in full. then there's tax, as you were just discussing, anotherformer prime minister, liz truss, saying that

conservatives shouldn't back anything that would lead to more tax rises. to be honest, there probably aren't any tax rises planned within the next few months, but that's designed as a warning shot to the prime minister. then you add into the mix the fact that this former conservative candidate or wannabe candidate, richard walker, has resigned from the party, saying he thinks it has drifted away from something that would work in an economic sense. that's a really tricky backdrop for rishi sunak as he tries to persuade us all he deserves more time in power. moving to pakistan, investigations are under way into two deadly explosions on friday which killed more than 60 people. the first explosion was near a mosque in the southwestern province of balochistan as people celebrated the birth of the prophet muhammad. police say at least 55 people were killed there, with another 50 injured. police suspect it was a suicide attack targeting the religious

gathering in mastung city. balochistan, pakistan's largest province, has suffered mutiple attacks from groups including the pakistani taliban and islamic state group. and in a separate explosion, at least five people are reported to have died at a blast at a mosque near the city of peshawar. many more were feared trapped under the collapsed building. saher baloch has this report from mastung in balochistan. family members are showing up at the blast site in mastung to look for the remains of their loved ones. this man named habibullah came here looking for his cousin. translation: he's my cousin. his name is fidel hussein. i was at home yesterday. he told me he was leaving for work, but he didn't go and came to this congregation with his friends instead. his number is switched off since

then and i can't connect with him. whereas he ran towards the site when he heard the blast. translation: up to this time, there have been no results - from the number of fact finding inquiries into the blasts. at least the findings should tell us who is responsible. nobody claims responsibility for these blasts. this man here is a former city administrator. he told me he lost four members of his family in friday's explosion. translation: i called my nephew 4 to 5 times, - but he did not pick up his phone. i called his brotherl and then his father. i knew they went to the annual celebrations of prophet's birth| anniversary every year and realised they were all dead. _ there should be an investigation on the role of those _

deployed for our security. the police officers that i spoke with over here, they are not taking any names any more because since the time they named pakistani taliban and they backed off from it and they said that they have nothing to do with this incident at all, the police has not said anything at all about who could be responsible for this. so for the time being, the people over here still have a lot of questions that need answering. bbc urdu's saher baloch reporting from mastung. provisional results in the second round of the presidential election in the maldives show a pro—china candidate, mohamed muizzu, extending his lead over the incumbent, mohamed solih. the vote has been seen as a referendum on whether the archipelago should rebuild relations with india, or seek closer ties with china.

it's significant because this brings the archipelago closer to two china and the mr muizzu, who has who is in the lead and sort of ran this campaign on the basis of in sort of you know, the india first was the campaign of mr solih. and mr modi came to power saying, "you are selling your soul to india, don't be a slave to india." and this india out campaign sort of propelled mr muizzu's campaign to the hearts of many maldivians who wanted to see a free and independent maldives, that maldivians believed that they are being increasingly in the under the political and economic clout of india. so that the campaign was used in terms of spheres of influence. why are the maldives important to both china and india? well, it sort of stands in the middle of the indian ocean, and the archipelago is also in the kind of east west shipping lane. and it became important, always has been important.

and when islam was brought to the archipelago in the 12th century, it became commercially connected to africa and asia. and as i havejust said, that it sits in the kind of busiest shipping lane and trade is important. and as we also know that between 2013 and 2018, a range of trade connections were signed and a free trade deal was also signed under china's belt and road initiative. so as you can see, this is a strategically very important place. and so india was always vying, you know, what comes out of this election, and india didn't want to lose its influence. rail passengers in parts of the uk are facing more disruption today as around 12,000 train drivers stage their latest one—day strike over pay and conditions. the fresh wave of action, by members of the aslef union, means fewer than half of trains

will be operating. and a number of hospitality businesses are calling for the festive season to be protected and for an urgent resolution to the ongoing rail dispute. our business correspondent, marc ashdown, reports. train strikes are bad news for pubs, bars and restaurants. some of the biggest names in hospitality have written an open letter calling for a deal to be done, or at least a festive truce. they estimate these past 16 months of railway strikes has cost their industry £3.5 billion in lost revenue. and look, all closed up again here today, a similar picture across much of the network. not many trains running, as around 12,000 drivers have walked out yet again. and the worry is if this drags on into the christmas period, many of these hospitality businesses might not survive. it's going to be a tough week all round for train passengers. after today's one—day strike, the union is also carrying out

an overtime ban from monday to friday, so services will be limited all week. drivers will also walk out for another 24—hour strike on wednesday. right now, there is no sign of a breakthrough. members of the conservative party have faced a struggle themselves to get to their conference in manchester. what aslef want with their political strike today, timed for the conservative party conference, is a large pay rise of no strings attached, no reform to make the rail system better for passengers, and that would be... caving into that would be a short—term decision, easy decision, but wrong for the future. the union, aslef, has so far rejected a pay offer of 4% for last year and the same for this year, and as it stands, there are no fresh negotiations planned. we have been saying all along we are willing to talk and find a way out of this, but it's not at all costs, and it's not in a fait accompli process. it has to be a deal that's acceptable to all people, and it has to be truly reasonable, not falsely claim to be reasonable

as it is at the moment. with more strikes ahead and no deal on the cards, hospitality bosses fear they will be left counting the costs. mark ashdown, bbc news. the school coach driver who died after yesterday's crash on a motorway in the uk has been named. ao—year—old stephen shrimpton, and one of his passengers, 15—year—old jessica baker died after the bus overturned. four others were taken to hospital for treatment, including a 14—year—old boy whose injuries have been described as life—changing. 0livia richwald reports. the flowers and tributes left in memory ofjessica baker described a kind and caring friend. today, a steady stream of classmates and their parents have sought solace at the school that the 15—year—old attended on the wirral. she died when the school bus she was travelling in overturned on the m53 yesterday morning. the driver, ao—year—old stephen shrimpton, also lost his life in the crash. a fundraising post set up by stephen's family to pay for his funeral said he had medical issues at the wheel. police say postmortems will take place next week to establish the cause of death. in a tribute,

stephen's family say... he was a volunteer at a food bank in ellesmere port. he was lovely. and he will be missed so much by so many people. notjust our community here but by a lot of other people. all those children. he has been taking them to school for the last few weeks. he had a massive impact. and his wife and his children. more than 50 children from west kirby grammar and calday grange grammar were on the bus when it overturned. atjessica's school today we were asked not to film the pupils but the head teacher invited us in to see just how loved jessica was. all morning, pupils and their parents have been coming here next to the school field to leave flowers and messages in memory of their friend jess. so many of them describe her as kind and caring. 0ne says, "to my best friend,

life will never be the same, and i will always love you." anotherjust says, "thank you for making my life amazing." a 14—year—old boy is being treated for life changing injuries and remains in a stable condition in hospital. police have asked anyone who has any dashcam footage to contact them as they try to discover the cause of such a tragedy on the way to school. 0livia richwald reporting. stay with us here on bbc news. there is more on the bbc news and in the mean time, plenty on the website. hello. after the bright but chilly start to the day, the rain has moved in as we've gone through the afternoon, moved in across northern ireland, northern england, much of wales, moving its way across scotland. you can see that cloud

enveloping many areas, but in the south it's stayed mainly dry and in the north of scotland. but the north of scotland will catch that rain as we go through this evening. we will keep those pulses running across parts of northern england and wales, and actually, it stays mostly dry if a little misty and foggy in the south overnight. further north, once the rain clears, just a few showers. but look at the temperatures. it's very mild overnight. 14—16 celsius in the south is what we'd see during the day as we head into the start of october. and that's because we've got humid air moving into the south of that weather front. so it will be quite a muggy night as well and a murky morning, we could have some low level mist and fog, some fog over the hills as well underneath this band of rain. and we'll see further heavy pulses moving through. so for some parts of snowdonia and cumbria, we could see 30—110 millimetres of rain falling. very different day for scotland and northern ireland. it'll be bright with a scattering of showers around here. temperatures 17—19 celsius. as i say, it is humid air.

and if we do see the sunshine south of that weather front, 23—24 celsius for the start of october. then as we go through the evening and overnight into sunday, then we see that band of rain just creeping a little bit further south. but it never really gets really far south and clears the south east probably until tuesday. behind it, certainly a fresher night, but again, warm and muggy across the southern half of the uk. now the reason for that is because we're going to see another pulse of rain moving along that same weather front. so holding it up, slowing it from clearing away. but this time, because we've got so much muggy, humid air in train, there's more energy in the atmosphere, and we could see some really lively thunderstorms during the course of sunday night into monday, working their way across parts of england and wales. some real torrential downpours in places. to the north, another day of sunny spells and scattered showers. fairly fresh feeling here, but still quite warm and muggy and even underneath the showers and thunderstorms further south. now, that eventually clears out the way on tuesday. we'll see a dip in temperature

briefly with sunny spells and showers to the north. but then later in the week, temperatures build in the south. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines... armenia's government says more than 100,000 ethnic—armenians have now fled nagorno karabakh since azerbaijan seized the region. the united nations is sending a team

to assess humanitarian needs. the us government edges towards shutdown, after members of congress fail to reach an agreement on spending. government agencies will begin shutting down unless a deal ——both houses are sitting for special saturday sessions to try and reach a last minute deal. the uk prime minister rishi sunak arrived in manchester for the annual conservative party conference amid a row in party over taxes. it comes as railway unions stage strikes across the uk over pay and conditions. those are the headlines here on bbc news. plenty more coming up. now on bbc news, sportsday.