welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm steve lai. the headlines.. jamaica has been declared a disaster zone as hurricane beryl brings devastating winds, rains, and storm surges to the island. the white house insists president biden will stay in the race despite mounting questions about whether he should continue the president is clear eyed and he is staying in the race. in the uk the leaders of all the main parties have been making their final appeal for support, as the curtain draws to a close on campaigning. and.... a 51,000—year—old rock painting is discovered in indonesia, thought to be the oldest cave art in the world.

welcome to bbc news — it's 7am in singapore and 6pm injamaica where hurricane beryl has hit, with winds recorded of nearly 150 miles an hour. the vast category four storm has left a trail of devastation as it barrels its way through the caribbean. on one island, union, 90 pecent of homes have been on one island, union, 90% of homes have been destroyed or damaged. nick davis has just sent this report from the jamaican capital, kingston. waiting for a hurricane is a slow build, but when it arrives, the wind, the rain, the sheer destructive power of these powerful storms is something nobody wants to go through. rain has flooded roads and damaged critical infrastructure as winds approaching 150 miles an hour tore into the island, but it's people's homes that have taken the brunt of the damage. the prime minister explained the gravity of the situation facing his nation. jamaica must take this hurricane seriously. i am now declaring the whole of jamaica to be a disaster area.

people injamaica have been watching its deadly and destructive progress across the region over the last few days, and today was their turn to face a storm that's now on record as the earliest ever category five hurricane that's formed in the caribbean. these events normally occur later in the season when the oceans are warmer, but this year, beryl has been moving over waters two to three centigrade higher than normal. scientists are linking that to climate change. we're getting reports already. social media is obviously very active at the moment with people who are doing the emergency services, sending videos of areas which are already been inundated. the area near the airport is pretty much been... there's big rocks, big boulders which are used as coastal protection. water's already going over that, so technically, kingston harbour is now also part of the caribbean sea. on its path through the caribbean, beryl has already left a trail of destruction. this is the island of union, where 90% of the homes have either been destroyed or seriously damaged. a similar story can be told

on many other places on the storm's track. there are reports of several deaths, and the death toll may rise. after the assessments are made here, preparations will begin in the cayman islands and then mexico, also on this storm's deadly track. nick davis, bbc news, kingston, jamaica. andra garner is assistant professor at the rowan andra garner is a meteorologist and climate scientist at rowan university. she explained the key thing to understand about hurricane beryl. i think with hurricane beryl, the thing to think about it is that it's really a climate story, perhaps more than a weather story. we're seeing this hurricane, you know, as was mentioned, setting all kinds of records, being the earliest category four and then category five storm that we've seen form at this time of the year. and that's only possible because of those warm ocean waters that human activity has contributed to. and is this a sign then, that this year is going to be particularly bad for hurricanes in the atlantic? i think it's certainly

a warning sign for us for this year and potentially future years. this year in particular, you know, we've had those very warm ocean waters for quite some time now. we know that we're transitioning to a la nina event in the pacific, which is actually more favourable for hurricanes in the atlantic. and all of those things have contributed to a lot of different groups forecasting this to be a very busy hurricane season, and i think seeing beryl and seeing beryl form so early in the year and be so strong kind of confirms that that's what we're likely looking at. and from here, do you think beryl will gain in strength perhaps, or will it start to dissipate as it covers more distance over land? so i know that beryl right now has been encountering some wind shear, which tends to kind of tear hurricanes apart. um, so that is, you know, it has weakened to a category four, which is still very dangerous, very strong hurricane. ithink, you know, as it gets over land,

it does lose that fuel source of the warm ocean waters to some extent, so it may weaken some. but certainly all the coastlines in its path should be aware and paying attention to any warnings that come out. is there anything that can be done to mitigate or to, you know, to mitigate hurricanes such as this nature? you call it a climate, sort of. uh, the impact of climate is playing a big part on this, and it makes it very difficult to think how these can be sort of stopped. yeah. i think one of the key things from that viewpoint is that we really do need to be limiting our emissions as a global community and working towards net zero, because we do have the technology to enable us to do that. and it's only by doing that that we're going to kind of change the storyline and perhaps limit additional warming, limit how much worse these impacts might become. and do you think enough of people or enough people in power, in political power, are connecting the dots

between climate change and emissions that we're and do you think enough of people or enough people in power, in political power, are connecting the dots between climate change and emissions that we're producing around the globe. i think that that's probably our biggest hurdle to really limiting those future emissions is the political will to do so. again, we have the technology to do it. so getting that political will is another challenge. and it's something that, you know, as a climate scientist, ijust can really hope that, you know, those that have the power to make those decisions are willing to listen to the science. president biden has insisted he's not pulling out of the race for the us presidency. in a phone call to democratic campaign staff, he's reported to have told them that no one would push him out. biden has been under growing pressure to quit following his faltering performance last week in a televised debate with donald trump. a new opinion polljust released by the new york times, has shown trump's lead over the president widen following the debate. on wednesday the white house denied a report in the new york times that biden has told a key ally he is weighing up whether to continue in the race.

biden�*s spokeswoman, karine jean—pierre, told reporters the president is "moving forward" with his re—election campaign. the president is clear eyed and he is staying in the race. i don't have anything else beyond that. he is staying in the race. that is what the president has promised to do, that is what he wants to continue to work on the successes he has had, his record, his unprecedented record, and that is what the president is focused on, continuing to deliver for the american people, and he looks forward to doing that. our north america editor sarah smith is in washington. it is a measure of the panic inside the democratic party that the president is taking part in these meetings to reassure allies. on a call to his campaign staff, he said, "let me say this as clearly as possible, i am the democratic nominee,

no one is pushing me out, i am not leaving," that was his quote, but the pressure is ramping up. there are now two elected democrats in congress who have openly said that he should stand aside, and there are dozens more ready to come out and say that publicly if over the next few days he cannot reassure people he is up to the job. there is polling that suggests nearly three quarters of american voters think he is not fit to be president, and there is another significant development happening. there are really senior party figures who have not come out and said they wantjoe biden to stand aside, but they are openly talking about what should happen if he does. and what they believe should happen is that the party should coalesce around a vice president kamala harris as their candidate, not have a messy nomination battle for who should fight the presidential election for the democrats, so you can see, the party is clearly preparing for the possibility thatjoe biden might not be their candidate in november. i've been speaking with peter hamby, american politicaljournalist and host of the �*good luck america' podcast on snapchat.

the next week or so is going to be decisive here. president biden, if he steps aside, is not going to step aside tomorrow on the 4th ofjuly here in the united states. he's still going to take the weekend. there are three things that i believe the white house and the biden campaign are looking at. one of those, maybe the most important, is public polling and private polling. we've seen new york times come out with a poll today showing biden losing by six points to trump. that lead for trump has widened since the debate. similar poll came out today from the wall streetjournal. i obtained for puck news, where i also write, uh, a internal poll, uh, some data from the firm open labs, which works with biden superpac. they work with the democratic national committee. they're polling internally, uh, shows biden losing two or three points in all of the critical battleground states. and that's what's most important. if the biden campaign starts to see slippage in places like pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, arizona, uh, they're

going to start to worry. and then the other two things that are related to that are democratic panic in congress, are members of congress in his own party. are more than just two going to come out and say, "biden should not be our nominee" if they see more, uh, high quality polling come out over the next few days? and then there's another big test, the last big hurdle, i think, for biden over the next week. he has a big sit down interview on friday here with abc news and george stephanopoulos, their senior political anchor. that's going to be a very tough interview for biden. and he's had two or three public appearances here since the debate. they've been fine. um, but, you know, he doesn't look, uh, you know, any better than he did necessarily in the debate. he had one big rally in north carolina the night after the debate. he looked energetic. there was a big crowd, but he's going to get some tough questions about his health and his age in that interview. and if democratic lawmakers out there think this isn't going well, i think they'll

start to speak up probably more into next week. if he doesn't pull out, though, what is he happening in the lead up and in november? i mean, i've talked to many members of the democratic national committee about this, and some of the delegates who would go to chicago. they're holding firm so far. a few of them are saying biden should step aside. and just to make make clearfor your audience, this is a group of a few thousand party activists who are going to go to the convention in chicago and have a series of roll call votes and nominate joe biden as their nominee, just as the republicans are going to do with donald trump. they're waiting to see whatjoe biden does. ifjoe biden doesn't drop out of the race, most of these are pretty establishment leaning folks. they're going to stick with him. but they did say that what biden needs to do is really, it's very difficult, butjust keep putting points on the board. he has to show energy. he has to do more events, more campaign events than just a few times a week. russian president vladimir

putin and china's xi jinping have held talks in kazakhstan for a meeting of the shanghai cooperation organisation, pitching themselves as a force for global stability to counter western influence. the eurasian security club was founded in 2001 with russia, china and central asian nations as the original members. it's since expanded to include india, pakistan and iran. belarus is attending the summit for the first time as a full member of the sco — while india's prime minister, narendra modi, decided not to attend. for more on this let's cross to sydney and join bates gill who — a senior fellow at the national bureau of asian research. thank you for your time today. firstly, president putin and president xijinping have already met, what you think was discussed and what you make of their increase in the close relationship was to mark yet another meeting between these leaders. ., ., leaders. yet another meeting between these _ leaders. yet another meeting between these leaders - leaders. yet another meeting between these leaders that i between these leaders that would mean more for vladimir putin than with any other leader by far, the second time that met this year, so

unimportant meeting an important relationship between the two, and coming out out of that meeting, we will be seeing lots of high—flying rhetoric, especially from china and russia, and how it represents a sort of alternative or new vision for eurasian solidarity and pointedly in a counterbalance to the united states and the west.- counterbalance to the united states and the west. they have described himself _ states and the west. they have described himself as _ states and the west. they have described himself as having - states and the west. they have described himself as having a i described himself as having a friendship without limits. do you think russia would be concerned about china's greater influence in the region considering it is in moscow's back yard?— considering it is in moscow's back ard? �* , ., ., back yard? apparently not, at least so far, _ back yard? apparently not, at least so far, because - back yard? apparently not, at least so far, because china i back yard? apparently not, at| least so far, because china has made significant inroads in the region, notjust through the great belt treated in road initiative, but with security terms. last year, for the first time, the china central asian summit was held, i note china

has established a secretary for central asia, has established a secretary for centralasia, i it has established a secretary for central asia, i it allows them to come and get directly with the central asian states in a form that does not include russia, but that being said, russia, but that being said, russia remains by and large the most important security player in the region so china has to tread carefully.— tread carefully. they have a new member, _ tread carefully. they have a new member, belarus, - tread carefully. they have a| new member, belarus, what tread carefully. they have a - new member, belarus, what do you make of that news? overall, i don't think— you make of that news? overall, i don't think it's _ you make of that news? overall, i don't think it's because - i don't think it's because much benefit for the organisation for a few reasons. one, it would only reinforce in the west, in europe, in united states and among countries that this organisation is being put together in a way with countries that are mostly, or many of the key players are adversaries of the united states, iran, belarus, russia, china etc but also at this further dilutes the organisation. he began as a organisation. he began as a organisation focus on a central

asia, with india, pakistan, iran and no better was, it clearly would not be about central asia primarily, and will as i think, dilute the effectiveness —— effectiveness of the organisation, so my take on this it is probably not a great decision, but i'm sure there are internal reasons for going forward. there are internal reasons for going forward-— going forward. thank you for our going forward. thank you for your time — going forward. thank you for your time today, _ going forward. thank you for your time today, bates - going forward. thank you for your time today, bates gill, | going forward. thank you for| your time today, bates gill, a senior fellow. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

it's a big day in the uk, where injust a few hours from now, polling stations will open and people will be able to have their say about who runs the country. all the political parties have spent a final day out on the campaign trail, pushing for votes. our political editor chris mason reports six weeks ago, it was a bit damp. so this is it — a general election is on. if you want change,

you have to vote for it. here they are. funny old business, following the prime minister on the campaign trail. are you changing many minds? well, look, chris, you can see we're having a conversation here. would you describe yourself as a socialist? look, yes, iwould. fireworks, smiles, promises, questions and one more day of persuasion. rishi sunak was at school in romsey, in hampshire, today. hi, girls, how are you? hello. how is he, i wonder, after hearing a cabinet colleague on radio 4 this morning pretty much concede defeat? where the polls are at the moment means that tomorrow is likely to see the largest labour landslide majority. the largest majority that this country has ever seen. what therefore matters now is what kind of opposition do we have? tonight, i want you to hear the final words the two men who want to govern for the next five years said

on the campaign trail. first, the prime minister. i say it again — we have 24 hours left. we do not surrender to labour. we will fight for every vote. we will fight for our values and we will fight for our vision of britain. his wife, then his mum and dad joined him on stage, a sense of a resigned pride in the air. keir starmer! the labour leader, was in east kilbride, south of glasgow, this afternoon. he'd been near whitland in carmarthenshire this morning. tonight, he flew to redditch in the west midlands. note the exuberance here as you listen to sir keir starmer�*s final pitch. imagine a britain moving forward together with a labour government. that is what we're fighting for. let's continue that fight. if you want change, you have to vote for it. vote labour tomorrow! cheering. the scottish national party leader, john swinney,

has been toasting a marshmallow next to a big plastic frog in castlemilk in glasgow today, and he had a fluorescent jacket moment too. the election is well- and truly over and done with south of the border, - and the issue for scotland is — who's going to protect scotland's interests i in the next westminster parliament? _ and people know they can rely on the snp to do exactly that. j well, my bus to work didn't get this welcome this morning, but sir ed davey�*s did from liberal democrat activists in harpenden in hertfordshire this afternoon. tomorrow, we have the chance to win the change our country desperately needs. yellow bus in, pink car out. zany capers over and out for the lib dems. nigel farage, from reform uk, has been at a boxing club and was asked how he thought his party would do. it's very tough to call what's going to happen. the thing we can't measure and the polls can't measure is the youth vote.

you know, are all these people online, the millions of them who've have been very supportive, are they actually going to go and vote? i don't know. the green party of england and wales is hoping it's heading towards gains. the level of support has been phenomenal. i've been stopped in the street repeatedly by people asking for a selfie or even for a hug. it's my pleasure to be here seeing you off. i and the leader of plaid cymru, which would like to see an independent wales, did a pep talk in a drizzly car park near ammanford. if it wasn't for plaid cymru - and those using the platforms that we have, there wouldn't. have been a mention of wales during this campaign - at all and people can see that. and here's a mention of northern ireland, too, where a panoply of parties contest seats in races that feel very different from elsewhere in the uk. so, this is it. it's over to you to sketch how this place will look, feel, sound and decide for the next five years to come and, ultimately, who will live here. chris mason, bbc

news, westminster. there will be comprehensive coverage of the uk elections across bbc platforms. the number of people killed in a crush at a religious gathering in the northern indian state of uttar pradesh has risen to 121, making it one of the deadliest such disasters in more than a decade. the incident happened as a crowd of thousands of people were trying to leave a hindu prayer meeting in the northern district of haatruss. the police chief said action would be taken against anyone found to be responsible for the crush. most of those killed were women. our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan is in aligarh in uttar pradesh. i'm now here in uttar pradesh, where this huge meeting of religious devotees of a self—styled guru was held. and behind me is the place where the guru was addressing tens of thousands of his supporters. and they were all sitting

along this open ground. and the police now, they say they have launched an investigation into how this incident happened. as the guru was leaving, people were following him, mostly women who were trying to get his blessings, and they crossed the road where there is a drain. and that's where people believe the crush really happened. so more than 100 people there have been killed, and more than 200 injured, and they are all in various hospitals around this place now. so questions are being asked. how come people were allowed to have such a huge gathering without going through a safety audit? even though permission was taken for this particular meeting, it was given only for 80,000 people, and some suspect that could be three times the amount they had already approved. and also, what kind of backup mechanisms they had, whether they had any emergency health systems to backup to help people

in case of any accidents like this one? so there are lots of questions, and that is why the government here says that they are going to have a proper investigation and will come out with a report in the next 2a hours. in tennis, britain's emma raducanu and sonay kartal are both through to the third round of wimbledon. raducanu beat eleeza mertens in two sets — while kartal defeated clara burel from france in three sets — in the men's draw the defending champion carlos alcaraz knocked out aleksandar vukic in three sets. alcaraz said he expected a tough match against his next opponent, frances tiafoe from the us. scientists believe they have found the oldest example of representational art in a cave on the indonesian island of sulawesi. the researchers say the wall painting of a pig and three human—like figures is more than fifty—one—thousand human—like figures is more than 51,000 years old. they believe it's the oldest example of figurative cave art in the world. pallab ghosh has the story: nestled among the lush mountains of the indonesian island of sulawesi are caves that contain the earliest rock

art ever discovered. inside is a faded painting that transforms our ideas of when human creativity first emerged. and here it is. the darkened arch is a pig. and if you look closely at this enhanced picture, you can see three human—like figures, one in front and two either side. it was painted at least 51,000 years ago. it's older than anything else we've got at the moment from the rest of the world, and it raises questions about whether this art was developed specially in that region, orwhetherthis is part of a wider pattern that we don't yet have the data on, to show that it was something that was much more widespread. as homo sapiens spread around the world, did they take this kind of art with them? cave paintings have been found all across the world. the big question is whether the ability to produce art first emerged in africa, where modern humans evolved,

and spread when our species left the continent? or did it emerge independently in different places later, as there became a social need for recorded communication? pallab ghosh, bbc news. a nine—year—old chess prodigy is set to make history as the youngest person ever to represent england internationally in any sport. bodhana sivanandan, from london, willjoin the england women's team at the chess olympiad in hungary later this year. she is almost 15 years younger than the next—youngest team—mate. the manager of the england chess team says the schoolgirl is the most remarkable prodigy british chess has ever seen. we'll see you again soon, bye for now. hello there.

there'll be winners and losers when it comes to the weather forecast on thursday. for the far north and west, we will continue to see a rash of showers. it could be quite windy with it, as well. sunny spells elsewhere. the winds really quite a feature right across the country, but the strongest of the winds closest to this area of low pressure, driving in a rash of showers, maybe longer spells of rain at times. but elsewhere, particularly where we had quite a lot of cloud and it was drizzly from time to time on wednesday, will be a better story. more in the way of sunshine coming through. so, by the afternoon, expect this story. we will see these showers, and, as i say, some of them heavy, the brighter yellows and greens denoting that. and with the strength of the wind as well, well, those temperatures really struggling, 11—15 degrees. a few showers into northern ireland, not quite as many, and a few showers across northern england. but generally across england and wales, there'll be more in the way of sunshine, particularly across south—east england. temperatures peaking at 21 degrees, so that

means for wimbledon, it will be a better day. we'll have some sunny spells coming through. by friday, though, once again a change of fortunes, rain could have a part to play for the outer courts as we go through the day. and the reason being this frontal system that's going to slide in through the latter stages of thursday into friday, bringing more in the way of cloud and showery rain across south—west england during the early hours of friday morning, pushing towards sw19 for the early morning rush hour. but, generally speaking, those temperatures will hold up into double digits to start the day on friday. as we move into friday, then, there will be a good deal of dry, sunny weather really from the m4 corridor south. that's where we'll see the rain. a little more cloud, but generally across england and wales, a good slice of sunshine. a few isolated showers into north—west scotland, but generally those temperatures — not much change — ranging from 14—21 degrees if we're lucky. into the weekend, the unsettled theme is set to continue. very changeable, the weather story, at the moment. a ridge of high pressure

to start saturday, but there'll be more wet weather moving in on sunday. so, for england and wales, perhaps saturday the best day, but elsewhere, we'll see showers of longer spells of rain set to continue and those temperatures disappointing forjuly.

weak economic data in the us boosts hopes of a sooner—than—later interest rate cut, sending wall street to new highs. china looks to central asia to boost diplomatic and economic ties, amid a frosty relationship with the west. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. it was another record day on wall street. the s&p 500 set an all—time high for a second straight day this week, while the tech—heavy nasdaq beat its record set the day before. the rally comes after weaker economic data boosted hopes for interest rate cuts as the bbc�*s north america business correspondent michelle fleury reports. wall street's record—breaking rally, what drove it, investors

digested several reports pointing