hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. the disgraced american financierjeffrey epstein, who once counted donald trump and prince andrew among his friends, has been found dead in his cell while awaiting trial for child sex offences. it appears he managed to take his own life at a prison in new york, considered one of the most secure in the us, despite having made a previous suicide attempt there last month. with the latest from new york, here's nedda tawfik. the body ofjeffrey epstein is taken

away from a new york hospital this evening. the multimillionaire sex offender was found dead in his prison cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking. once, epstein‘s extravagant lifestyle had seen him party with donald trump. the president had called him a terrific guy. he has since distanced himself from the convicted sex offender. originally a math teacher in manhattan, the financier mysteriously accumulated a fortune that gained him entrance into high society and royal circles. he was close friends with prince andrew. seen here as recently as 2015 in new york. but his social status and opulent parties, his accusers say, masked lured crimes at his many palatial estates. for more than a decade, epstein faced allegations he sexually assaulted dozens of young girls, recruited to give him and other wealthy men massages. one alleged victim, virginia roberts, said jeffrey epstein instructed her to have sex with at least half

a dozen prominent men, beginning when she was 16 years old. she was photographed with prince andrew and in 2015, she alleged she was forced to have a sexual relationship with him. buckingham palace has said those allegations are categorically untrue. in 2008, epstein pleaded guilty to lesser prostitution charges. that widely criticised plea deal is now under investigation by the department ofjustice. after 13 months in prison, he continued to live a life of luxury, but he was arrested again last month and charged with sex trafficking. epstein was found unresponsive on the floor of his prison cell, here in manhattan. many are now questioning how he could have apparently taken his own life and why greater precautions weren't put in place after he was found semiconscious with neck injuries just two weeks ago. his victims say they would have preferred he lived to face justice. neda tawfik, bbc news, new york. a powerful typhoon that struck the coast of china near shanghai is now known to have killed at least 22 people.

more than a million have been forced from their homes, as lekima, the region's worst storm in five years, makes its way through the south—eastern province of zhejiang. freya cole reports. a young girl is hauled to safety as rapid floodwaters sweep through wenzhou city. she is just one of more than a million people forced to flee as strong currents inundate their homes. with huge force, typhoon lekima made landfall on saturday morning. it hit the east coast of china, tore through zhejiang province, and is headed towards shanghai. it's been downgraded to a tropical storm but not before causing widespread devastation. one of the worst hit areas, wenzhou, where torrential rain caused a deadly landslide. entire homes have been pulled apart.

leaving rescuers with piles of rubble to search for survivors. for those who got away in time, sought safety in evacuation centres. in shanghai alone more than 250,000 people were in need of shelter. translation: in this shelter we provided the essential items like bedding, and mosquito repellent so they can try to get through the typhoon in peace. authorities say the worst might be over but the danger is not. it will take several days for floodwaters to subside and many months for people to rebuild. freya cole, bbc news. let's look at some other stories in brief. the saudi—led coalition fighting houthi rebels in yemen has called for an immediate ceasefire. it follows separatists seizing control of key military positions and the presidential palace in aden — the seat of the internationally recognised government of yemen. a man has been arrested in norway after a shooting inside a mosque

left one person injured. it happened on the outskirts of oslo. later a woman was found dead at the house of the suspect. police say they are increasing security around mosques on sunday. the main warring parties in libya have agreed to a truce during the muslim eid al—adha holiday. the ceasefire had been proposed by the united nations mission in libya. the announcement comes amid reports that a car bomb killed two un staff in benghazi on saturday. national grid says it will "learn the lessons", after nearly a million people across england and wales, were affected by friday's power cut. the regulator, ofgem, has demanded an urgent report into what went wrong. the supply failure left thousands of train passengers stranded, homes up and down the country without electricity, and ipswich hospital lost power when back up generators failed. here's ben ando.

it was the biggest and most disruptive power failure for over a decade. major stations in chaos, passengers stranded or trapped, traffic controls inactive and a large nhs hospital without power. one of the many caught on electric trains that went dead was lily winin. the power cut off and i was sat in a carriage by myself and the storm had started outside, so all of the rain was coming onto the windows and it was pitch black. we all started to sit together to try and piece together what was going on, because no one could really understand and the announcements were failing because of the lack of power. and then we all had to walk to the very end of the carriage in the pitch black, going through a tunnel. after four hours, lily and her fellow passengers were led along the tracks to the nearest station. at ipswich hospital, the main power cut was followed by a failure in emergency back—up generators, but hospital managers say essential equipment was able to keep working on batteries. so, what went wrong?

two generator plans, one a gas—fired power station in cambridgeshire, the other a large wind farm in the north sea, failed almost simultaneously. to protect the rest of the network, power was cut to certain areas. a double failure has happened before, in 2008, but with far less impact. so, why so much worse this time? the energy regulator has asked for an urgent report. we need to do a detailed technical examination of the event and we will be sending that report through to ofgem and we will build that analysis over the coming days and weeks as we review it. and then, off that, i'm sure we will learn lessons and want to review how this works to avoid some of those significant impacts in future. there are also concerned that although the power came back quite quickly, the railways were in chaos for hours. questions are being asked about the performance of some of the new trains now in use. they are electric, the air conditioning wouldn't work and it became hot and stuffy very quickly because windows can't be opened.

also, even when power was restored, they couldn't be restarted by the drivers who had to wait for engineers to come along. that massively added to the delays. national grid could now face a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover. but some argue that years of underinvestment by successive governments is partly to blame, leaving the uk with a power network that works fine, most of the time, but is exposed when the unexpected happens. ben ando, bbc news. well, meanwhile, there has been more disruption for travellers today after heavy rain and strong winds led to the temporary closure of the west coast mainline between england and scotland and the cancellation of several ferry services. alison freeman reports. dramatic scenes in london as the predicted high winds hit the city.

in russell square, falling trees ripped an iron fence from the ground and crushed a car. in ruislip in west london, the wind took another casualty, knocking out a phone line. across the south and wales, the roads and railways were disrupted by fallen trees, the high winds also causing speed restrictions for trains and routes to be shut to high—sided vehicles. the welsh coastline was battered like here at porthcawl. the strongest gust of wind, 61mph, was recorded nearby at mumbles head. strong winds also saw all racing cancelled on the first day of the oldest and largest sailing regatta. organisers of cowes week on the isle of wight said gusts of up to 45 knots, or 52mph, miles were unsafe. it's not unusual for us to lose day in the week, usually in august, because there's not enough wind, but this year... and it's not unheard of for us to lose it because it's too windy. probably once every two or three years we end up losing a day because it's too windy. but in the north, it was the heavy rain that was causing most problem.

in hawes north yorkshire, this road became a river. passengers on five trains on the west coast main line were left stranded at one point as flooding between penrith in cumbria and lockerbie in scotland closed the route. it's been really hard. i got on from liverpool and got a train to wigan, got on at wigan to preston, we got on the train at preston and then got kicked off and there was no—one there to tell us where we needed to go and then there was a bus replacement that wasn't there and then some man shouted, "there's a train going to carlisle!" so we got on there but we need to get back to liverpool tonight and we've been told we need to get back on a train now to go to liverpool. we came from walton—on—thames in surrey, south, just before 8 o'clock and it's now whatever time it is, 4:15, and we've only got as far as carlisle. it's been a big problems for everybody because the trains all ended at preston so everybody sitting on the trains going north was just asked to leave the train and there wasn't a great deal of information given out at time. the line has since reopened but delays are expected for the rest

of the day. a yellow weather warning will remain in place for most of england and scotland until midnight with more heavy rain forecast overnight. alison freeman, bbc news. dozens of russian opposition supporters have been detained at a rally which brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of moscow. police and national guards seized people who tried to make their way to president putin's offices. the protest was part of an ongoing campaign to demand free and fair local elections. our moscow correspondent, sarah rainsford, followed the day's developments. it was moscow's biggest protest in years. tens of thousands shouting their anger in the pouring rain. this wave of protest was sparked by a block on opposition candidates from local elections. but the chants now have a new focus. they are demanding the release of people like this student. facing eight years behind bars for rioting. though almost all the violence of these protests has come

from the police. today's rally was authorised by city officials. well—known musicians turned out along with their fans. many too young to know any president but putin but fed up with his take on democracy. i think people are speaking out and i am here for the first time ever. i have never been to a protest in my life. why now? why did you join this one? the boiling point has been reached. that clearly worries the russian authorities. judging by the scale of their response. from the authorised protests on the outskirts of moscow, people have headed here to the city centre and they want to take their protest to the presidential administration just over there. but instead, they've been met by huge numbers of riot police to stop them getting anywhere near the centre of power here. translation: they don't care about anything. the riot police don't care. the court doesn't care. they don't care about

the constitution. but they've cleared the streets before and that hasn't stopped these protests. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow. as we've been hearing the saudi—led coalition fighting houthi rebels in yemen has called for an immediate ceasefire. it follows separatists seizing control of key military positions and the presidential palace in aden — the seat of the internationally recognised government of yemen. john mcmanus reports. since 2015, fighting between houthi rebels backed by iran and yemeni loyalists supported by a saudi arabian coalition has laid waste too much of yemen. now the region's fragile alliances have fractured once more. several days of fighting between southern separatist, who want to split from the north of yemen, and forces loyal to the internationally recognised government, have culminated in the southern forces taking control of the presidential palace and securing several military

barracks in aden as night fell. translation: today we achieved a big victory in aden, and ten battalions were defeated. and at night we took control of the presidential palace. both sides are fighting the houthi rebels, but while the loyalist forces are supported by saudi arabia, those soldiers who want to the south to be independent are backed by the united arab emirates. there's been growing tension between the supposed allies. southern forces have accused the loyalists of allowing islamists to penetrate their ranks. in return, forces loyal to the internationally backed government are unhappy with the push for southern independence, led by this man. fighting flared on wednesday at the funeral of several southern soldiers who were killed in a drone and missile attack, claimed by the houthis, but there were accusations that islamists loyal to the government forces were responsible, which led to clashes.

the international crisis group has called for a solution, saying "today's circumstances require robust diplomatic intervention from the un, saudi arabia and the uae to avoid the worst and help forge a durable solution". as the four—year war rumbles on, tens of thousands have been killed, and more than 3 million forced from their homes. the un says nearly all of the population now need humanitarian aid. this is bbc news. the headlines: an fbi investigation is under way, after the us financier jeffrey epstein was found dead in his new york prison cell — while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. a powerful typhoon has struck south—eastern china — killing 22 people, and forcing more than a million from their homes. our senior north america reporter,

anthony zurcher is at the iowa state fair in des moines which many of the democratic presidential candidates are visiting. he told me their reaction to mr epstein‘s death. the number of democrats have been asked about it at a gun violence forum that about 16 attended earlier today, the generally action was at the should be further investigation. the idea that someone who was on a suicide watch, 2a hour suicide watch who was able to commit suicide, is puzzling to them at the very least. they think this was a breakdown in the federal detention system. elizabeth warren, the surge of massachusetts was asked about it and she said, yes, she thought they should be at investigation and the new york mayor, he said he's going to be asking new york attorneys, new york state attorneys to look into

this as well. because there were new york laws that epstein was charged with violating, possibly, this happened on new york territory. the vice president, joe biden, he was asked about this. he is the centre should be an investigation but he said that thejob should be an investigation but he said that the job administration has mishandled this prosecution from the start of its administration as you'll remember, when donald trump ‘s secretaries was a prosecutor in miami, he was alleged of striking a sweet deal to give epstein from facing state charges. nowjoe biden did say that now that he is committed suicide, another epstein has committed suicide, that's it, the story should be over, no investigation, we should mourn for the families attacked —— to care of the families attacked —— to care of the victims. let's stay with our top story i spoke to criminal defence attorney steve greenberg. i asked him what his reaction was to the attorney general and the justice department who said that epstein‘s death raises serious

questions. it's shocking, a couple of weeks ago he tried to kill himself and don't know how he would be in a position of trying to it again. usually an inmate like this, who has made a suicide attempt is kept under suicide attempt is kept under suicide watch four months, kept under what they call the special housing unit or the shoe so they can observe them 2a hours a day. my speculation is that there was some complacency on the part of the guards at the facility where they we re guards at the facility where they werejust, this guy guards at the facility where they were just, this guy was to games, who are we to stop them? after all the things he's done, after all the terrible things he supposedly done. we don't know what happened but obviously there's going to be an investigation, but you're an experienced defence attorney, you're working on the r kelly case, having seen anything like this before? send this in high—profile people — i

could certainly see high—profile people kill themselves, not in a federal detention centre like this while awaiting betrayal stop paedophiles are usually the most common. you will see people who post bond on cases get released on cases and days before their trial, they will kill themselves. i don't understand why doesn't happen more often. because the prospect of spending your life in an eight x ten cell can't be appealing especially when you've lived a life of luxury. it does seem extraordinary that something like this could happen, given how many people were counting on this case continuing in the investigation continuing. that's why, and i know some people said this, watch and see, where were the guards going on? at what point in the night did he kill himself? i know in these special housing units, the cells are transparent all the way around, they typically have bars all the way around or some

kind of glass all the way around so inmates can be watched. someone was probably happy to see this happen. it's been another tense weekend of clashes between protesters and police in hong kong. the pro—democracy demonstrations are now in their 10th week. the movement began in opposition to a bill allowing extradition to mainland china, but it's now a call for greater democratic freedoms. our correspondent jonathan head reports. saturday evening in hong kong. another protest. but the tactics have changed. keeping one step ahead of the police, they have made an unannounced dash to block this busy intersection. the barricades go up with breathless efficiency. and then they wait.

the police arrive, as expected, at dusk. they are charging through a barrage of tear gas. but when they reach the barricades, there is no one left. save for a solitary woman shouting at the police through a speaker. the night's events are only starting. we have now come down to the commercial heart of kowloon. this is another location where the police have moved very quickly. they are blocking the road, there are protesters who have been surrounding the police station. all of this is happening very quickly. the police disperse them quickly but the protesters just move on. for the moment it looks as though they will pursue them down a side street. the tear gas warning goes up again. but the protesters have largely gone. in their place are regular bystanders in what is a busy shopping street — and they are angry. a young woman has

just been arrested. that only fuels more anger. here we are not seeing protesters but ordinary people on nathan road, who have lined up to watch the police trying to take control. you can hear them shouting abuse at the police. this has been going on for the last half hour. the police don't seem to know what to do. facing another furious crowd... ..the police eventually retreat. but even now, the saturday night drama here isn't over. this is proving to be a tenacious protest movement. it's far from spent. if the government's hope is to wait it out, that wait could be a long one.

jonathan head, bbc news, hong kong. the family of a 15—year—old british schoolgirl, who disappeared while on holiday in malaysia, have made a new appeal for information. a 200 strong search team is continuing to scour dense forest near the resort where nora kwarang, who has learning difficulties, was staying. from malaysia, howard johnson reports. it's been a week since their daughter went missing — a teenager with serious learning difficulties who disappeared while on holiday, suspected missing in the jungle. we are extremely impressed with the effort, your expertise, your dedication. and we hope that you find nora. the malaysian authorities have used drones, sniffer dogs and thermal scanning technology to try to find nora. the 15—year—old was born with a condition limiting the development of her brain —

it means she needs help with simple, everyday tasks. the family have stressed that given nora's learning difficulties, it is very unlikely she would have walked off alone. they believe she may have been abducted. but today, the police say they are continuing to treat nora's disappearance as a missing person's case. this is the seventh day of search and rescue efforts, and as you can see, some commandos here and other search and rescue workers are coming down into this area, around 30 of them exploring an area about a kilometre away from the dusan resort. they're looking in a riverbed to see if there are any signs of nora, any traces that might help with this investigation. this time last week, nora's family were arriving for a luxury break, but today they remain wracked with emotion, not knowing the fate of their much—loved daughter. howard johnson, bbc news, pantai, in malaysia. hollywood actor richard gere has urged the italian government to help

migrants who've been stranded on a spanish charity vessel in the mediterranean for more than a week. the italian interior minister, matteo salvini, has repeatedly refused requests by migrant ships to dock. speaking at a news conference on the italian island of lampedusa, mr gere accused the minister and also us president donald trump of demonising migrants. ido i do think anyone is looking for confrontation about politics. they have no interest to this site at all. all this is is to help people who are in distress. and i've seen this all over the world, educated politicians i was trying to create conflict. taking away from the central point that it's about human beings. it's about us accepting that we are all brothers and sisters, this is one family. we kind district we can take care of each other. it's not that hard. itjust means saying

yes. the environment agency said it was carrying out tests on part of the river froom, in somerset after it was turned bright blue by a mystery substance. results are expected on monday but it is being treated as a pollution incident. currently, there are no reports of dead wildlife. plenty of high temperatures across europe so far this summer — but one austrian adventurer has found a way of keeping super cool — while setting a world record. james franey has the story. a box, lots of bags of ice, and swimming trunks. all you need to try to set a world record. meetjosef koeberl, an extreme sports man from austria determined to beat the existing time anybody has spent buried up to their shoulders in ice while wearing practically nothing. the target, more than two hours. the onlookers a little bit confused. translation: i don't think it matters whether this makes any

sense, it'sjust a mad idea to do it and put yourself in a box full of ice and try to set a world record. but it is fascinating. the clock ticks by. medics are on hand. but they are not needed. two hours, eight minutes and 47 seconds later, koeberl emerges, seemingly with little impact on his body. no wonder one austrian newspaper once said he had the genes of a polar bear. there was some pain, sometimes it was difficult. but i managed to get into the moment and concentrate. water also features in his future plans, with a project to swim the length of the nile. at least that might be a bit warmer. the officer doesn't feel the cold.

let's get the webinar. hello. the weather has thrown a lot of things at us so far this weekend. torrential rain, thunderstorms, and those very strong and in places damaging winds, here whipping up the sea at lyme regis in dorset. while it is an exposed spot, and 84mph gust at the needles on the isle of wight would be notable in october, let alone august. we have seen widespread gusts of 50—60 miles an hour well inland as well, all down to this steep area of low pressure which continues to pull away north and east overnight, slowly taking the strongest winds with it, but leaving in its wake this trail of fronts, which will bring quite a wet day to scotland and northern england. at least we begin sunday with somewhat lighter winds. still quite windy, particularly for eastern england and also northern scotland, and it's scotland and northern england that we're most concerned about through sunday. some heavy rain, we could well see 20—30 millimetres quite widely, maybe 40—50 millimetres in some places. it is really through the central belt, down into southern scotland and northern england, that we're going to see the heaviest of the rain. to the north, some spells of sunshine, plus northern and western scotland. northern ireland is not

having too bad a day. across a large swathe of england and wales, away from the far north, a mix of sunny spells and showers. still windy through sunday afternoon across the northern isles and the far north of scotland, but at least dry, with spells of sunshine tending across to the western isles. you can see this heavy rain in the central belt, down into southern scotland, just fringing the far north of england as well. mainly dry with spells of sunshine for northern ireland. a mixture of sunny spells and some heavy and in places thundery showers pushing their way from west to east across england and wales. some will manage to stay dry. where you have the sunshine, 22 or 23 celsius. where you have the persistent rain across parts of scotland, temperatures will struggle to get above 1a or 15. so quite a cool day here. that's the theme as we begin the new week. by the time we get to monday, those fronts are starting to slide away south and east, taking the persistent rain with them. so it's drying up across parts of southern scotland and northern england through monday morning. behind that rain, we will see some

spells of sunshine developing. it may take some time for the rain to finally disappear, but as the day wears on we have showers spreading across the country, perhaps pushing further east through the day, and really quite a cool feeling. i think most will struggle to get much above 18 or 19. little change, really, in the end. a mixture of sunny spells, showers, maybe some longer spells of rain on wednesday, turning a bit drier through thursday and friday.