>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglecteneeds, and purepoint nancial. >> how do we shape ourtomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its ideal form in our mind, and then we begin toel ch we strip away everything that stands in the way to reveal newt possibs. at purepoint financial, oe have design modern approach to

banking around you -- your plans, your goals, yourms dr your tomorrow is now. purepoint financial. >> and now, "bbc world news." rajini: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. hurricane florences pounding the coast with devastating rain. we are on the scene with the latest. laura: the hurricane has claimed at least four lives. here in north carolina, the flooding is the greatest risk as the water levels rise. rajini: meanwhile, in the northern philippines, residents are being evacuated as the super typhoon mangkhut mes landfall. more than 5 miion people are in the storm's path. and donald trump's formerer campaign managaul manafort makes a plea deal to avoid a. second tri it includes cooperating with special prosecutor robert

mueller. welcome t our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. hurricane florence has arrived in full force. the storm is currently battering the state of north carolina come with torrential rainfall and powerful winds. rescue efforts are underway in communities that have been completely shut off. waterways have not even reached their peak. the bbc's laura trevelyan is irt wilmington, carolina, has been out in the elements all day. laura: well, rajini, it was a dramatic scene here after 7:00 a.m. this morning where the eyewall of the hurricane land here in wilmington, north carolina, and there was an eerie green light that denotes the cent of the eyewall, i've

never seen anything like it. the weather is still dramatic. a mother and her infant were killed in wilmington after a tree fell on their home. the greatest threat is from flooding as the storm swells off the coast of the carolinas and downs rainfall for at least two days.ol here is myague chris buckler. chris: the carolinas knew what was coming, but they could never fully prepare for the force of florence. along the coastline, houses found themselves on the front line for a fierce incoming storm, and a surge of water th arooded streets. despite the many wngs, there we people caught out and families who needed to be scued from their homes. pool water. there you go.

chris: in new bern in north carolina, the emergency services had to move in as people became cut off. er been so terrified in my entire life. it was horrifying. just wondering what was going on and where the water is going to go and how high it's going to h go a we are going to get out. chris: in the town of wilmington, street after street was littered with debris from the st nm. huge treesmatch for the power of the wind. t evugh this hurricane had weakened before it reached land. this morning, people gathereto see what was left of the neighborhood. >> they kept telling us how bad it would be, and we thought we were prepared, but nothg to do when a tree falls. chris: this storm has proved to be deadly. a fallen tree near here was responsible for killing a mother and her child. >> hurricane flonce is powerful, slow, and relentless.

it is an uninvited brute who doesn't want to leave. chris: while florence is here, some families are heading to >> what are you worried about? >> not having a place to go home to or a job. chris: all those practical concerns are shared as florence continues to hover over the carolinas. >> she is wheelchair-bound and it is really rough. i say to jesus christ rd, would you please protect our home and everyone else's homes? -- everyone else in wilmington? chris: evacuation warnings remain in place as families steel themselvesor another night of wind, rain, and damage here on cape fear. , the winds were not as fierce as predicted, but the rain is causing a huge problem judging by where you

are. what is happening in wilmington? ,e ra: that's right, rajini hurricorence has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but that is misleading in the see that she still poses a huge threat because she is so huge and sprawling, as wide as e carolinas, and so slocum ongoing and practically a walking pace at five miles an utur, dumping this rainfall over north carolina, carolina, aeating a threat that go the way from virginia potentially to georgia. i'm talking to you next to the cape fear river, which h broken its banks. we are told it won't even the river until tuesday. there is a risk of catastrophic flooding to people's homes well intoext week, rajini. report: we saw in chris' some of the rescue efforts across the state. how challenging are the rains to people trying to rescue others? laur well, it is

challenging, and the cajun navy has come here. they made their name in hurricane katrina, volunteers who bring their own boats and turn out to rescue people. there is already in operation alongside the state level effort. yes, these are immensely challenging conditions for the mother nature has produced this monster of a storm. the fact that the rain will continue for the next few days does not make anything any easier at all. thstorm which potentially could cause billions of dollars worth of damage is now heading towards south carolina, and the fear that it will do it's worst there, too. rajini: you say it is going to be anotherf few dayse storm. what are the knock on effects in the next days and weeks? laura: the worry is that inland flooding will become worse, rajini. the storm came ashore

-- the hurricanes are like bulldozers. they just pu water in land. cause this one is hanging around and lingering like the worst houseguest ever, what you are seeing is more and more -- what you will see is more and more inland floodin rivers and places where people don't expect their houses to flood. that is what they have aware of. rajini: laura trevelyan, thanks very much. you can get dry. in the pacific, another storm is wreaking havoc. typhoon mangkhutad has landfall in the northern philippines, forecast to bring powerful waves and torrential rain, causing flooding and landslides which could impact 5 million ople. the bbc's howard johnson has ter latest from howard: within the last few hours, typhoon mangkhut has made landfall. 5 million people are thought tth be in the f this potentially deadly storm. authorities had already urged

thousands of people e in land from vulnerable coastal eas. in nearby santa ana, l officials are not taking any chances. v thlage school has been turned into an emergency shelter. >> theres a tendency for landslides in this area in the past, so a village cil has advised them to get out early. howard: on the road out of the province, we passed farmers anxious to do what they can to salvage their harvest. the philippines endures about 20 typhoons and storms each year. mangkhut is the strongest storm of 2018 so far. ne is more than 500 miles in diameter with sustwinds of over 160 miles an hour. we are around 100 miles away from where this storm ut we are around 100 miles away where this storm is abo to hit hardest. already the winds are up and it has been raining heavily. as you can see, most people have heeded the warnings to stay inside and wntt for this polly devastating typhoon

to pass. howard johnson, bbc news, santiago. rajini: for more on both storms, i spoke a brietime ago with dr. marshall shepherd, a former nasa scientist w is now a meteorologist at the university of georgia. great to have you with us. we have seen the devastation in the carolinas. is the worst over now? marshall: i do not think the worst is over. i think the worst is over in terms of the wind.bu as i talked about on social media and have written about today, this is a phase a, phase b storm. we are now in phase b. we saw the wind,e are still seeing the storm surge, but then we are going to see the storm as it is stalling out produce right -- quite a bit of rainfall, and if we think back to 2017 with hurricane harvey, we are seeing almost a replay. the storm is sitting there, dumping rain, feet of rain -- 1, 2, 3 feet of rain in some parts o the carolinas. rajini: how doesch rain, rain worth many months, get dumped in a short number of

days? marshall: it is quite astounding how these systems can produce so much rainfall. one of the things we have known for decades in scientific literature, the deadliest part of the hurricane is always the water, whether we are talking about the storm surge of -- orn thnd flooding. we have seent time and time ain. this region has seen it with hurricane floyd and matthew. that is why it is important to deemphasize the category. i hear people say, oh, it went from category 4 to category 2, it's not so bad. that is not the case. this storm is huge. now that it is stalled, sitting there, it is a recipfor flooding disaster. rajini: some people are raising concerns about mudslides in the coming weeks a days. marshall: i think there are ags couple of thin we will see sustained rainfall that will lead to trees falling on power lines. i know therere half a million ut power inore wit that region already.

as the treesal you have power outages potentially lasting for days. as the storm moves further in land, unlike houston and harvey, north carolina and south carolina have mouninous terrain, so i could see mudslides, landslides, and even in some of the urban areas arnd the carolinas, flash flooding as well. this is a long-term, phase a, phase b event, and phase b is really just geing started. rajini: let's move to the pacific, typhoon in the philippines. i have covered a typho the philippines before and i have seen the devastation that can result what are we expecting when comes to thi typhoon? marshall: we're talking 160-plus mile-per-hour winds. if you have seen the satellite imagery of the typhoon, the eye of that storm is tremendous. we are keeping an eye on that part of the globe as well. the tropics are not just active in the atlantic, they are active across the globe, and we ar thinking and watching for

colleagues and friends and citizens over in the philippines. rajini thanks for joining us. let's take days other news. the pla series of gas ions has set fire to dozens of homes in the state of massachusetts. at least one person has n ed and more t have been injured. the blasts took place in three towns north of boston t d are thoughto have been caused bye pture of an over pressurized gas line. president trump has reportedly instructed his aides to proceedr with a thind of tariffs of abou$200 billion of chinese products. his decision comes despite the attempts by u.s. treasury secretary ste mnuchin to restartalks with china and trsolve the trade war. staying with donalp and his former campaign chairman paul manafort will cooperate probe.bert mller's -- probe into russian meddling during the 2016 election.

it is a dramatic turnaround. jon sopel joined me a brief time ago from the white house. s the significance of th plea deal to the wider investigation? jon: well, campaign manager in the months leading up to the election when the republican national committee changed its policy, towards russen there was that meeting that took place in trump tower between paul manafort, donald trump, jr., jared kushner, and a russian lawyer with close links to the kremlin promising dirt on hillary clinton. as pt of the plea deal that has been arranged today, paul manafort has agreed that he will give interviews any and all matters to w ch the government deems relevant. in other words, robert mller has got a wristband now which has access to all areas written on it. he can go wherever he likes in his questioning of paul manafort. that is a big change from thest 24 hours. rajini: paul manort isn't the

only former member of staff working for donald trump to now cooperate with robert mueller. what trouble could the president potentially be in? t n: well, when you have got now is that we don'ally know -- we haven't really known what robert mueller has been doing. he has been on the outer edges of the trump circle with people no one had ever heard of. but gradually he is moving closer and closer. not only has he got manafort, former campaign chairman, heing the mueller vestigation you have the , former personal lawyer michael cohen opening, you have the chief financial officer of the trump organization apparently helping in have the publisher of "the national enquirer," who had all sorts of information, helping the mueller investigation. on all sorts of levels, i would guess that the anxiety levels in the white house are increasing, and donald trump's mood darkening.ne rajinir a dull day in washington.

jon sopel, thanks very much for joining us. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, 1years after the lehman brothers crasfl we go to a orida suburb to see what the lasting impact has been of the financial crisis. --ni: the human envoy the human envoy to syria has been in meetings with officials as a major offensive is planned for the rebel stronghold of idlib. bemore from ut. reporter: actual defiance by rebels in i -- a show of defiance by rebels in idlib,g gettady for any events by syrian government troops and allies. with turkey stuffing up arms shipments to some opposition groups, it is a reminder of how many foreign players are volved here.

we are the national liberation front. we have increased preparation of our units and are training them on all scenarios the enemy might use. reporter: at the u.n. in genevae it has been of urgent meetings. the special envoy to syria speaking to international diplomats, and aid workersar giving fresh wngs about a humanitarian crisis in idlib. >> we have put together a plan, we are looking at the response for up to 900,000 people. reporter: o already, te thousands of syrians have been on the move, escaping towns recently targeted by government shelling of airstrikes. hat happened was total destruction -- bg ning, somethu can't describe. military plane's rockets, everything, they did not differentiate between civilians and others.

they want to target civilians. reporter: in damascus, confidence is growing, with most of syria back in regime hands. this international affair has covered his wanting to invest in onreconstructi with its special status with russia and iran. all sides know that the syrian civil war isn't yet over, but the signs are that it is heading towards a final conclusion. rajini: let's return to our coverage of rricane florence. we have obviously seen the impact on the ground, but a team of scientists is tasked with flying into the storm to gather tal information. it is a terrifying task, but the hta gives them a better idea of where the storm ding and how ferocious it will be. thbbc's nada tawfik weut with the hurricane hunters and sent this report. nada: another mission complete, but there is no time to waste for the next.

with millions vulnerable to the rce of florence, these hurricane hunters have beenyi around the clock right into the eye of the storm. the team of pilots and scientists from the u.s. airse force e will pass through florence five times during the exhaustive eight-hour mission, dropping senrs to collect the temperature, pressure, and wind speed of the storm. this cargo plane with its cutting edge technology is essentially a laboratory with wings. an hour after takeoff, we enter the storm.in we ag through hurricane florence now, and you can see that the is zero visibility. on top of that, we are hitting winds ofto u00 miles an hour. these pilots are experienced at flying in a dangerous situations. they know that information they collect will be critical to

determining the storm's next move. >> i will release one in the t eyewal eye, and the other eyewall on the way out as well. nada: sensors get dropped at specific points in the storm. >> he gave me the command, so i am launching it. nada: that was the op. the capsule being released. the information gets sent back nt the national hurricane every 10 minutes. it is used to constantly update the storm del and could improve forecasts by 20%. when we reached theye of the storm, it is clouded over. hurricane florence has been weakening, but it is no less destructive. >> boots on the ground, eyes on the scene. i have had storms i've gone tethrough where on ite it looks like a tropical storm, but when you got into the storm, it turned into a category two hurricane. nada: after a long day, they turned for home in dark.

-- in darkness. on the ground, the next team of hurricane hunters prepares their journey back into the storm. nada tawfik, bbc news, south carolina. isini: now that nada thankfully back on safe ground can we check in with hero see conditions in charleston, south carolina. watching you in that thing, i was terrified for you. what was it like? nada: i will tell you what, rajini, you appreciate all the work thagoes into forecasting the hurricanes. thethings that struck me -- weight of the storm when there was so visibility and we weren't yet in the clouds from seeing the strength ofw. the was be one of the meteorologists told me it may not look at it, but those waves are the size of houses. it was rough conditions out there.

when we hurricane florence's outer bands and through the eyewall, the fact that there was no visibility was quite nerve-racking. but then you realize that the pilots are trained for this and they know what they are doing, outfits,ct, on their they carry badges with the number of pennies they have, and that means penetrations into hurricanes. they have quite a few racked up, were in good hands. rajini: where you are is a rere contest to we spoke to laura trevelyan earlier. this charleston safe from the worst? nada: we are here on the battery, and the storm is approaching, and we will feel the effects over the next two days. speaking to people here who are walking up and down the promenade, thun say the low y is used to flooding, so even though we are expected to get four to six inches of rain over the next two days, they are used to flooding and they say it happens with a simple thunderstorm.

they are taking this in stride, and many here didn't listen to the mandatory evacuation. if y g dofurther in to the commercial downtown area, a lot of those sp.ps are boarded they really did he goes warningsg they are loslot of business. we heard from some who complaed that this was done a bit too early, but the governor warning that thisst is l a dangerous storm and you don't want to take lives for granted. areni: nada tawfik, youom braver than i am. i for joining us. all this week we have been lrking the 10 year anniversary of the collapse man brothers and the financial crisis the banking system peter, markets plunged, and jobs were lost. we go to fort myers and florida to see what the lasting impact was. ft. myers a florida was once the home of the american dream, but in 2008 it was dubbed ground zero of the

recession, affluent suburbs were more than 40% of properties were repossessed. thcannot eveg in the area was in foreclosure. nick: the state agent saw the misery of the crash, the cheers of people wh lost not only the homes but their faith in the -- tears of people who not only lost their homes but their faith in >> for me the american dream, that was in reality. the dream would have been i retired 10 years ago. nick: not so many americans own property anymore and the chance of earning more from their parents -- earning more than their parents have plunged. as this woman and her daughter will tell you, the children of the financial crisis a finding it harder to leave home. >> i have two jobs and an internship and i'm probably 6 hours ofout 4 to sleep. maybe three some nice. >> it dependswh o i get off of work. nick: you still cannot af?rd to

pay re >> no. >> it is not any longer that you can get a degree and automatically get a well-paying job. unnot how itanymore in our country. nick:hawe didn't anticipate 10 years ago is how the financial earthquake would of end of the american political landscape, help voters who lost to luxury homes would become donald trump's forgotten people. >> i had a really horrible eight years of trying to get back on ee feet, and a couple of years it was harder tomy children, to be honest with you. nick: and so you're feeling when donald trump came along? >> excitement. hope was instant from day one. everybody was lifted. nick: much of the u.s. economy has rebounded. unemployments at an 18-year low. even in the sunshine state, continues to cast long shadows, suburbs are nong

longer such a symbol of american upward mobility. nick bryant, bbc news, florida. rani: that is it for the program. can find the latest on t hurricane and a typhoon on our website. i am rajini vaidyanathan. thanks for watchamg "world news ica." >> with the bbc news app, our esrtical videos are designed to work around your ltyle, so you can swipe your way through the news of the day and stay up-to-date with the latest headlineyou can trust. download now from selected app stores. >> funding of this presentation is made poible by the freeman foundation, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and purepoint financial. how do we shape our tomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its ideal form in our, mindd then we begin to chisel. we strip away everything thate stands in thy to reveal new

possibilities. at purepoint financial, we have designed our modern approach to banking around you -- your plans, your goals, your dreams. your tomorrow is now. repoint financial. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles. io

cang sponsored by newshour productions, llc ev >> woodruff: gooing. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: hurricane florence lashes the carolinas with high winds, storm surges and heavy rains, we are t the ground with the lat the destructive flooding. then, president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort pleads guilty to charges of . conspiracy against the ud obstruction of justice. plus, it's friday, mark shields and david brooks alyze the controversy around the president's puerto rico tweets and the other political storms this week. and... >> all right! >> woodruff: rock star dave grohl discusses his musical life and the importance of creative independence. >> w