welcome to newsday. i'm kasia madera, in london. the headlines: the two contenders to be british prime minister face each other in a head—to—head debate, clashing over brexit and trump. protestors in hong kong threaten more mass rallies, saying a new concession on the extradition bill doesn't go far enough. i'm rico hizon, in singapore. also in the programme: no let up in the diplomatic row between the us and uk as donald trump calls the british ambassador to washington "a very stupid guy". welcome to the bbc. i am erica... and meet the robot who could be bringing you the news

in the not too distant future. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday. hello and a warm welcome to the programme. it's 8:00am in singapore and it's 1:00am in london where the two men vying to be britain's next prime minister, boris johnson and jeremy hunt, have taken part in a live televised debate. the leadership hopefuls clashed over brexit, economic policies, donald trump, and the qualities needed to lead the country. mrjohnson said it was crucial that britain leaves the european union on the 31st of october with or without a deal. mr hunt accused him of peddling optimism. the 160,000 conservative party members have already begun voting. here's a little of that

clash about brexit. jeering out in front in the race, and first in the door tonight. then next, the man in second vying to take charge. all: we demand a people's vote. at a time when conflict and controversy follows politicians everywhere. first, with the familiar introductions, the ‘brexiteer—in—chief‘. we can either continue with the same old failed can kicking approach, destroying trust in politics, sapping business confidence, or else we can change, get back on our mojo. mr hunt suggested a wider appeal. in poll after poll, i'm the public's preferred choice for prime minister, because i appeal not just of those who already vote conservative but those who we need to win. and to those watching at home, i'll be your prime minister

whoever you vote for. no surprise, the hardest question first. i voted conservative much of my life, but now i support the brexit party and i'd like to see nigel farage in number 10. can you promise me that we will definitely leave the eu on october the sist? i think it's absolutely vital that we come out on october the 31st, tony, otherwise we will continue to haemorrhage trust, not just in the conservative party, or indeed the labour party, but politics generally. if you don't get us out of the eu by the 315t of october, will you resign? we are going to come out on october the 31st, and i think anybody who goes into the negotiations proposing yet again to kick the can down the road will i think run the risk of forfeiting trust with the electorate. i think it's in no, and what we've got is someone who says it is do—or—die for the country... i'm sorry, i think what we have with my opponent is somebody... iasked if you'd resign, boris,

and you didn't answer the question. will you resign if you don't deliver it, yes or no? my opponent is clearly not committed to coming out of the eu on october the 31st. no, i asked if you'd resign if you don't do it. they faced questions on the risk they say they would take leaving without a deal, but joined battle over who's in the real world. being prime minister is about telling people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. and the difference between you and me is you are peddling optimism, and i'm saying we can make a tremendous... i think the country needs a bit of optimism frankly! applause i think only a defeatist, someone who was on the other side of the argument for so long and didn't wish to come out, would take that line. raise your hand if you feel confident telling the british people that we will have left the eu by the 315t of october. that's the spirit, jeremy! there we are! applause i'm the one to do it! i'll make it happen! you could've fooled me. yet two weeks today,

one of them will be our next prime minister. the shouting tonight is over, the decision not yet done. our political editor, laura kuennsberg reporting. a little later here on newsday we'll speak to the broadcaster, john kampfner, who watched the debate, for more analysis. let's take a look at some of the day's other news: the diplomatic row between britain and the united states over leaked emails from the uk ambassador to washington has intensified. president trump branded the ambassador, sir kim darrak, as "a very stupid guy". but britain's foreign secretary jeremy hunt tweeted in response that mr trump's latest outburst was disrespectful and wrong. also making news today: president trump says he will look at how the labour secretary alexander acosta handled the case of the financierjeffrey epstein while he was a prosecutor in florida. mr epstein was offered a plea deal by acosta in 2008,

after pleading guilty to prostitution charges. on monday in a new york court, epstein pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges. ross perot, the texas billionaire who shook up american politics in the 1990s, has died at the age of 89. he was diagnosed with leukaemia earlier this year. ross perot received nearly a fifth of the popular vote when he first ran for president in 1992, the election in which bill clinton defeated george bush senior. china has urged the united states to revoke a planned arms sale to taiwan, describing it as a serious violation of international law. the chinese foreign ministry said the $2.2 billion weapons deal, including tanks and missiles, was a crude interference in china's internal affairs. british politicians have voted to legalise same sex marriage

and liberalise abortion in northern ireland, unless the province's devolved government in stormont is restored by mid october. unlike the rest of the uk, same—sex marriage is not permitted in northern ireland, and abortion is only allowed in very limited circumstances. and queen elizabeth has brushed off suggestions that, at 93, she may need assistance in carrying out one of her duties. a polite inquiry was met with the response, "no, no, i'm still perfectly capable of planting a tree." she made the remarks while on a visit to the national institute of agricultural botany in england. let's return to the race to become the next uk prime minister. the two candidates have taken part in a televised debate. earlier the broadcaster john kampfner told me who he thought was the winner in the debate.

there was potentially a notional winner, jeremy hunt i think landed more punches but in many ways, it was exciting and it was fun in some places, if that's your idea of fun, but it's going through the motions. viewers may not know that the weirdness of the electoral system... i mean, it's a tiny fraction, 0.25% of the british electorate is voting in this, these are signed—up conservative party members, between 100,000 and 160,000 predominantly elderly members who are selecting their leader. and many of them have already voted. it was one of borisjohnson‘s tactics to delay the two debates — one on itv, the independent broadcaster tonight, and bbc coming up — but to delay it until after most

of the conservative voters have voted because he's not a details man. he's very much a mini—me of donald trump and he goes on emotions, bluster and this swagger and optimism. and he goes on emotions, bluster and this swagger and optimism. he's not shirked the media. of course, he disappeared a little bit and then he did full throttle and he was everywhere. he's done a lot of hustings as well. he did a lot of hustings because he was required to, but he hasn't done a lot of media but in a way, it's academic because he would have won anyway. there's so much speculation about what will happen next in britain when the next prime minister takes office in two weeks. but the one question that absolutely does not apply is will borisjohnson win? it's an absolute slamdunk that he's going to win. the question then is — what will he do next? is he going to get this deal, which is really a political version of getting a rabbit out of hat, because the eu aren't going to negotiate on anything

substantive, so they say. will he dress up one or two cosmetic changes as a great new deal and will parliamentarians allow him to do so? so will he get a deal? if he doesn't get a deal, will the uk crashed out, as he says it will, come what may, on the 31st of october? will there be an election? will there be a second referendum? so many questions in play. so many questions unanswered even after an hour's worth of televised debate. john kampfner, absolute pleasure to get your analysis. lovely to be here. leaders of the protest movement in hong kong have called new rallies against the controversial extradition law. that's despite a further concession by hong kong's leader carrie lam. she said the legislation was now "dead" notjust suspended — although she stopped short of announcing a complete withdrawal. that's been criticised by the last british governor

of hong kong chris patten, who told the bbc he doesn't think ms lam has gone far enough. here's james ra nsley. if carrie lam had hoped her latest extradition bill concession would shift the mood on the streets of hong kong, the public are leaving her in little doubt. translation: if the government doesn't withdraw the extradition bill, basically, i think the marches willjust continue. translation: if you look at what the public has been asking for, there are a lot of demands that the government has not given a proper answer to. the government wants to avoid scenes like these — where hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest over the bill, in what were largely peaceful demonstrations. under pressure, carrie lam has made what appears to be a new concession. the bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to china now isn't just suspended. there are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity, or worries about whether the government will restart

the process in a legislative council, so i reiterate here that there is no such plan. the bill is dead. she stopped short, however, of using the word "withdrawn", as protesters had demanded, and pro—democracy lawmakers want carrie lam gone. we urge her to step down, to pay her political price and penalty. she should step down instead of asking, urging, hong kong people to give her a second chance. while the chinese government officially backs carrie lam, it appears some mainland chinese are alarmed by the images they've been seeing. what they've only seen are hand—picked images and videos of violence outside the legislative council and attacks on the police, and what they think is hooliganism in hong kong. hong kong's former governor is backing calls for carrie lam to set up an independent enquiry into police brutality during the protests.

she's talked about having a rather narrower enquiry. i think she should go the whole hog, and i think in those circumstances it would be sensible for people to try to look for an accommodation and try to bring some calm to hong kong, which badly needs it. for now, the threat of further demonstrations appears to be very much present. james ransley, bbc news. abe denmark is director of the asia program for at the wilson centre think tank. he told me why he thinks beijing is playing a significant role in how the proposed law is being handled. we haven't seen the specific orders, but it's pretty clear that there's close communication going on, between the hong kong executive branch and beijing. the declaration that the extradition bill is dead is certainly something we've been hearing for a while, but it actually requires a pretty significant legal process to actually officially kill a bill,

and that's a process that so far the chief executive has declined to go for, and that's what a lot of the protesters in hong kong are focusing on right now. abe, i'm sure hong kong and beijing don't want to set a precedent, but of course you have the protesters already saying they will continue these mass protests. but in your view, can they succeed in keeping this momentum going now that the bill is dead? this is really turning into something of a marathon between the protesters and their ability to sustain a presence and to sustain support amongst the hong kong people, and the government, which is going to try to wait them out and see if they can just let this die out over time and eventually get back to business as usual. but they have elections coming up later this year, and then next year, which i suspect the chief executive in hong kong

is going to be focusing on and wanting to have come out in their favour, so i suspect the objective now is to get things quiet, calm things down and get themselves in as good a position for those upcoming elections. carrie lam has been a failure, so do you think she still has a future as chief executive? could beijing replace her? well, there is certainly... i suspect there's disappointment with how she's handled this so far. but you mentioned precedent before, and i also expect folks in the hong kong chief executive office, and especially in beijing, would not want to set a precedent of popular protests leading to the resignation of the chief executive and a change in government. i suspect that while they may not be happy with how things are going with the current chief executive, i also don't expect they're

going to want to have these protests translate directly into a change in leadership. that's a precedent they would very much want to avoid. i think herjob is safe at least for the foreseeable future, but what comes next, how the protests evolve, i think is anyone's guess. you're watching newsday live on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the new face of newsreading? the ai robots that might one day be giving you the daily news. central london has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. police say there have been many casualties, and there is growing speculation that al-qaeda was responsible. germany will be the hosts of the 2006 football world cup, and they pipped the favourites, south africa, by a single vote.

in south africa, the possibility of losing hadn't even been contemplated, and celebration parties were cancelled. the man entered the palace through a downstairs window and made his way to the queen's private bedroom. then he asked her for a cigarette, and on the pretext of arranging for some to be brought, she summoned a footman on duty, who took the man away. one child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. education is the only solution. applause this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon, in singapore. i'm kasia madera, in london. our top stories:

the two contenders to be the uk's next prime minister clashed in a face—to—face televisied leadership debate — brexit and the diplomatic row with president trump drew the most heat. protest leaders in hong kong threaten new mass rallies, saying a concession on the controversial extradition bill doesn't go far enough. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post says the embattled chief executive made her strongest peace offering yet to protesters. but it also points out that carrie lam refused to use the word "withdraw" in her offer. the straits times reports that as the impasse continues, so too do the losses at the hong kong stock exchange. the paper says the hang seng index fell for a fourth day in a row. and the japan times analyses the us state department's decision to approve a possible sale to taiwan of weapons worth around 2.2 billion us dollars.

the paper says the move is mostly symbolic, since taiwan would still be a massive underdog in any war with china. under threat and in danger of disappearing. that's usually the message we get from scientists warning us about the future of australia's great barrier reef. so it's good to hear that there's one area bucking the trend. just off the coast of gladstone, in the southernmost part of the reef there's a place called one tree island. it was hit by a devastating cyclone in 2009. but researchers have discovered that the island's coral is recovering at a remarkable rate. earlier i spoke with kay davis from coffs harbour in australia. she is a research assistant at the national marine science centre at southern cross university. we went in 2017 and took water samples to determine the rates of coral growth and other activity. why

has this reef and its ecosystem done so has this reef and its ecosystem done so well? corals have been recovering for thousands of years. in 2009, after a cyclone, we saw a repressed coral growth. by 2017, we found that the coral growth rate were of that in the 1970s. is it because one tree island is off—limits to the public and that is why we are seeing these corals recovering? that could definitely be a factor. it is a permit zone only meaning only visiting scientists can come and do experiments or look at the coral health so that reduces accidental

harm by tourists, so a dark flow, so that could definitely be a reason. could robots solve staff shortages? well injapan, where the population is declining sharply, the government is hoping they may provide the answer. but some developers believe that instead of replacing us, robots could even get more people into work. the bbc‘s stephanie hegarty explains. welcome to the bbc. i'm erica... ifeel like i'm in a chat show here. i'm not sure who the presenter is. meet erica, the first robot news reader in the world. hi, i'm erica. nice to meet you. you too. where are you from? i am from ireland. i love you very much. this is erica's engineer.

today's news: buckingham palace is expected to announce... she has three modes — she can be operated remotely, preprogrammed with a script or she can work in al mode, where, in theory, she can carry out a spontaneous conversation. tofu. tofu! i like you. i like tofu. i can eat it. i'm not sure you can. i can eat it. ok, if you insist. ai mode still needs some work. are you confident that she'll be able to have a normal conversation one day?

the robot would be a perfect guest, not a news anchor! one of the most influential figures in japan's entertainment industry johnny kitagawa has died at the age of 87. for more than half a century, his agency created numerous boybands which became popular notjust injapan but across asia. my colleague mariko oi explained what impact he had. he is not exactly a household name outside japan but many he is not exactly a household name outsidejapan but many of our viewers, especially in this part of the world would recognise many of the world would recognise many of the boy bands he created over half a century. compared to the south korean entertainment industry, they did not market them as well in the

uk. but one of his popular by band came the popular ambassador to china when tensions were very high. johnny kitagawa himself was recognised three times by the guiness world records, responsible for 232 number one singles. that's fantastic! and this boy band smap is a very popular band internationally, and even made news when the pop band split up. butjohnny kitagawa was also a controversialfigure. that's right. he became almost too powerful. you talked about when smap split up, and there were rumours some of the members wanted to leave the agency, and they had to hold this televised press conference, which was broadcast across japan, and that raised some eyebrows because they all wore black dark suits, looking really serious and sombre, apologised to their fans for making them worry, but the apology was also addressed tojohnny kitagawa himself.

many fans were very upset and also the general public, many people saw the still similarities between the celebrities and japanese salarymen who couldn't really stand up against their bosses. despite the criticism we saw on social media, the japanese media shied away from criticising johnny kitagawa and his agency because they were scared if they upset them they would lose other boy band members, who were a critical part of their other programmes. mariko oi. you've been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. we'll find out why india's capital delhi has plans to make public transport free for all women. and if you haven't seen snowball the dancing cockatoo on social media yet, fear not. music: 'girls just wanna have

fun‘ by cyndi lauper this video is doing the rounds online of the sulphur—crested cockatoo, showing off some dance moves to girlsjust wanna have fun by cindi lauper. and that is rico doing the snowball! goodbye. the forecast brings us mixed fare across the uk in the next few days. sunny spells for almost all areas and i think, if anything, increasing warmth. lookout for hefty showers as well especially across the northern half of the uk. low pressure is driving the weather here and we will swing in some fronts as well which means more organised bands of rain. for wimbledon, with high pressure sitting to the south of the uk we are clinging on to a fine picture for wednesday, perhaps a risk of a shower later in the afternoon. you can see some of those showers target a little further south

you can see some of those showers to tuck a little further south at times through the day but southern england and south wales, very likely to stick with a dry picture although heavy showers across eastern england cannot be ruled out through the afternoon. scotland gets the wettest of the weather first thing, brighter through the afternoon, thunderstorms likely in the north—east later, and northern ireland this persistent rain arriving as we move into the latter part of the day. just light wind and that is a complication where you get heavy showers developing with nothing to dry them out so rainfall can mount up. clear evening into the south and east but the showers pile into south wales rolling through northern ireland and head to scotland. overnight lows take us into thursday, 12—14just about covers it. for thursday daytime we are still under the influence of high—pressure air, some of those more organised bands of showers and perhaps a greater risk of seeing some heavy showers across the eastern side of the uk on thursday particularly for eastern scotland where signs are that there could be some intense understands. again to the far south, things are looking clearer with less

and spells of sunshine. and then for the end of the week, things are starting to come down. a few showers possible for northern ireland, again the chance of heavy ones across eastern england, perhaps the easter scotland with a rumble of thunder. in the sunshine, temperatures start to lift, 23, 24. through the weekend that looks to be the case because the reason things are coming down on friday is that high—pressure is beginning to build from the west spreading across the uk to take us through the weekend. i cannot promise you faultless blue skies but i can promise you a much quieter couple of days with very, very few showers, perhaps a couple in the east on saturday and in the west on sunday. sunshine and temperatures into the mid—20s.

i'm kasia madera with bbc news.

our top story. the two contenders to be the next british prime minister clash in a head—to—head debate. brexit and the diplomatic row with the us were the hottest topics in the debate between borisjohnson and jeremy hunt. anti—government protesters in hong kong threaten more mass rallies over the controversial extradition bill. chief executive carrie lam has said the legislation is now ‘dead', though she stopped short of saying it would be withdrawn. the findings of a study here in the uk into the earnings of different ethnic groups is proving popular on our website. it shows that on average, workers of chinese and indian heritage make more money, than their white british counterparts. all other ethnic groups had lower wages than white british workers. that's all.