this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name's mike embley: the body that oversees us presidential debates says it'll take steps to ensure there is no repeat of wednesday's chaotic and angry contest. the un secretary—general calls on richer countries to help out — so everyone can get access to a potential covid vaccine. everybody will only be protected when the countries in the developing world will also be able to vaccinate their citizens. protests in india as the body of a young woman who was gang—raped is cremated without her family's permission. the first person to ever be

curative hiv, timothy ray brown, has died of cancer. —— cured of hiv. and — fresh wildfires cause chaos and destruction in california — thousands are forced to flee their homes. hello to you. the us commission on presidential debates says it'll announce new measures to ensure a more orderly and structured discussion in the two remaining debates between donald trump and joe biden. the statement followed tuesday's ill—tempered encounter, laced with insults. after the contest biden, called trump's conduct in the debate a "national embarrassment" and condemned him for not clearly denouncing a white supremacist group, the proud boys. mr trump now says he didn't know who the proud boys were, but that right—wing militias like them should stand down and let the police do their work. our north america editor jon sopel reports.

applause coming out on stage and not hitting each other was more or less of the most dignified thing about last night. biden: how you doing, man? this was an exercise in ugliness, with donald trump determined to trip his opponent, joe biden, up by repeatedly interrupting him. number one... joe, you agreed with bernie sanders's far left on the manifesto, we call it, and that gives you socialised medicine. look, hey... i'm not going to listen to him. are you saying you didn't agree? and then, as the moderator tried to regain control... hey, let me ask my question. well, i'll askjoe. i—no! picking fights with the umpire. i guess i'm debating you, not him, but that's ok. lagging behind in the polls, the president was clearly going for a knockout blow, something that would turn this election around. but biden didn't go down. instead, he grew exasperated. the radical left... will you shut up, man? who is your — listen, on your list, joe? this is so... don't ever use the word "smart" with me. don't ever use that word. 0h, give me a break. because you know what? because you are a president screwing things up. you are a senator... you are the worst president america has ever had.

come on. biden's clear strategy was not to get too embroiled and keep speaking to the american people. this is not about my family or his family, it's about your family, the american people. trump's best moment came when he talked about law and order and how the police and sheriffs were backing him. name one group that supports you, name one group that came out and supported you. go ahead. we have time. we don't have time to do anything... no, no, think about it. but then the president was asked to condemn the white supremacist militias that have appeared on the streets. he wouldn't. what you want to call them? give me a name, give me a name. white supremacists... who do you want me to condemn? proud boys? stand back and stand by. the white supremacist proud boys group have welcomed the president's comments and said they have had many new recruits as a result of the debate. at this trump watch party, they liked what they had seen from their man, but biden had done better than they had expected. he actually surprised me a little bit but it wasn't enough to impress me

either way. he lasted the whole night. i'm surprised. his dementia didn't show. his dementia didn't show up. i say trump has done a hell of a job considering what he was dealt with, but i would have liked to have seen a stronger performance tonight by trump. the clear strategy donald trump is to be aggressive, to interrupt as much as possible, to destabilisejoe biden. with this audience, it's going down well, but what about independents? the disaffected republicans, people in the suburbs? that will be the acid test of this debate. at the end, the two wives came onto stage to congratulate their partners, with varying degrees of warmth. this was a victory for heat rather than light. the next five weeks aren't going to be edifying. jon sopel, bbc news, cleveland, ohio. well, president trump is in minnesota for a fundraiser and a campaign

rally. before leaving the white house he offered some clarification on why he didn't condemn the neo—fascist group, the proud boys. i don't know who the proud boys are. i mean, you'll have to give me a definition. because i really don't know who they are. i can only say they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work. law enforcement will do the work more and more as people see how bad this radical, liberal, democrat movement is, and how weak... the law enforcement‘s gonna come back stronger and stronger. but, again, i don't know who proud boys are, but whoever they are, they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work. if you don't know the proud boys, this is a group that was founded in 2016. it's far—right, anti—immigrant, all—male. there are strict membership protocols. to join, members have to declare they are "a western chauvinist who refuses to apologise for creating the modern world". they've become notorious for violent confrontations and have frequently faced off against opposition groups. facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube have

all banned the group. they do still use private social media channels such as telegram and parler — where they are celebrating what they describe as a "historic endorsement" by the president. let's get more on this from alexandra minna stern, professor of american culture at the university of michigan. professor, you are the author of a book about the proud boys. it's very good to talk to you. thank you for your time. i guess it will leave a very bad taste for many people that we give more coverage to these people, but then, i guess, we need to know. why do they matter? well, i agree that we don't want to amplify their message. on the other hand, we do need to know who they are. and as you said, they are a group that was founded in 2016 at the height of the last election cycle that very much supported trumpet. and they are back and emboldened by his shout out last night and by the circumstances we have seen in

the last six months or so in the last six months or so in the united states and earlier across the world. and on social media they are using the words historic, and endorsement. whatever the president says he knew or knows now or didn't know or doesn't know now, they have taken as a signal to be ready for trouble? indeed. one of the first things they did was they took that and kind of red coined their motto with their insignia, which they wear on shirt lapels to say stand back and stand by, and stand by indicating they are ready to step into the fray, they are ready for armed confrontation if called upon, and they are ready to go back into the streets as they have in portland and louisville and in other parts of the us. it is difficult when they tend to use private social media, but do we have a sense of scale, just how big the group is? it is really ha rd to big the group is? it is really hard to tell, both because when they are out in the streets

they are out in the streets they are out in the streets they are often co— mingling with other right—wing groups such as patriot prayer or oathkeepers, and because they have been the platform that it is hard to keep a good count. but they have active chapters in places such as seattle or portland or other parts of the countries where the numbers, the number in the dozens, if not hundreds of members. so, what kind of activity would you expect in your experience to see from them or other extreme right groups leading up to polling day and the polls themselves? i would say definitely more recruitment, this has given them a huge recruitment boost. they are going to spill into more accepted media forms, expect more of them on twitter, more of them on facebook, more of them on youtube. and as well, we are more likely to see more of them in the streets. these goals from trump for law

enforcement and law and order, thatis enforcement and law and order, that is a kind of nod and wink to vigil ante milicic is as well, which we have seen increasingly turn out, especially in the context of the black lives matter movement, in opposition to that. in this context, when the president said i am calling on my people to go into the polls to keep an eye on things, i think that red to a lot of people in this context as an instruction to intimidate voters. i think you are right. i think it is a nod and a wink and a pretty strong nod and wink towards calling for voter intimidation and potentially disruption at polling places from november three. on november three. let's get some of the day's other news. the spanish government says it's reached an agreement on imposing partial lockdown on the parts of the country that are worst affected by the resurgence of covid—19. that includes the capital, madrid, where residents will be

barred from leaving the city except on essential trips, but the local authorities say the decision isn't legally valid. the renowned japanese chef taku sekine has died in an apparent suicide. he was famous for his award—winning restaurant in paris. his death followed sexual assault claims earlier this year. players from the rugby team coached by matt ratana have laid a wreath at the police station where he was killed. the new zealand—born police sergeant was shot in south london last friday. the man suspected of murdering him remains in hospital after apparently shooting himself. we don't yet have a globally available vaccine for covid—19, but the wealthiest countries have been striking deals to ensure that when we do, they have access to it. it is a scramble and it could leave limited supplies in the coming yearfor low—and—middle—income countries. un secretary general, antonio guterres, appealed to the advanced nations, to donate money from their own

national responses to the pandemic. it will be very important to have the commitment of all countries. some of the countries have already announced that they will have made available their own vaccines also to developing countries, and this is part of this process. and we believe that there will be an effective coordination of the covax, the facility that was put in place. with those countries that will not only produce for their own citizens but are ready to produce also to citizens of developing countries. and we strongly appeal to those that will be able to develop their own vaccines to be part of these efforts. i'm not asking for countries not to protect their own citizens, of course, it is the duty of these countries to protect their own citizens, but everybody will only be protected when the countries in the developing world will also be able to vaccinate their citizens. protests erupted in several parts of india after the authorities had the body of a gang—rape victim cremated

at a ceremony her family said took place without their permission. the 19—year—old victim from the dalit community — the lowest rung of india's ancient caste system — officially illegal but very much still in force — was attacked and raped in september near her home in hathras district, 100km from the capital, delhi. aru na iyengar reports. an outpouring of anger and protests in uttar pradesh and new delhi after the brutal rape of a 19—year—old. the victim was attacked in a field and died of her injuries. she came from the dalit community — the lowest rung in india's ancient caste system. many say women, particularly those from lower castes, have no protection from the law. translation: every crime is being concealed. dalits are being oppressed and there's no voice from the government side against systematic oppression. the administration is not taking action against that because they are helping to establish anarchy in estate. four men have been arrested in connection with the rape but there was further outrage when

it emerged that her family wasn't consulted when police cremated her body. translation: this is not right what is happening. what is happening is absolutely criminalisation of everything. local authorities deny this. uttar pradesh is ruled by my prime minister narendra modi's bharatiya janata party. it ranks as one of the most unsafe states for women in the country. the tragedy has sparked heated debate on social media with politicians, bollywood personalities, cricket stars and women's rights activists condemning the attack. the latest assault comes months after four men were hanged for the brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in delhi in 2012. the case that came to symbolise the nation's problem with sexual violence. aruna iyengar bbc news. stay with us on bbc news.

still to come: he went viral online, but now he's talking about a bigger issue — what it's like to be a black singer in the world of opera. in all russia's turmoil, it has never quite come to this. president yeltsin said the day would decide the nation's destiny. the nightmare that so many people have feared for so long is playing out its final act here. russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world, but his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. this man, israel's right—winger ariel sharon, visited the religious compound, and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites, an idea that is unthinkable to palestinians.

after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest and richest nation. welcome back, very glad to have you with us on bbc news. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the body that oversees us presidential debates says it will take steps to ensure there is no repeat of wednesday's chaotic and angry contest. a plea for help — the un secretary general calls on richer countries to help out so everyone can get access to a potential covid vaccine. the first person ever to be cured of hiv — timothy ray brown — has died of cancer. in 2007 mr brown — already diagnosed with hiv — was being treated

for leukaemia. the treatment destroyed his bone marrow and he was given a transplant from a naturally hiv resistant donor. this effectively cured him of the virus, as it was never detected in his body again. but his leukaemia returned earlier this year, and timothy's partner announced his passing on tuesday. joining me now isjeff taylor, founder of a hiv research group in palm springs who befriended timothy and his partner when they moved there. i know you have been involved in hiv adverse sexy for something like 30 years and you knew tim and his partner. —— advocacy. give us an idea of his impact. it's very important to say how important he was to the hiv cure initiative. cure was a word that could not be spoken for many years because nobody wanted to give false hope because we had so much false hope in the early years of the epidemic. timothy turned all of that around. thanks to him and certainly to his

oncologist in berlin who took a huge chance to do this and the gamble paid off. as a result, we now have cure research all over the world and we are making progress and hope to — no vaccine but a cure in 10 — 20 years as a result of he did. i've heard it said that it wasn't for him, there wouldn't be cure research. he gave proof of concept that a cure was possible. exactly. when you first met him, tell us that story, what were your impressions? i first met him in a conference and i don't remember which one was because they were so many over the yea rs they were so many over the years but i was really disarmed with his innocence. he really was very self—effacing, not looking for the limelight but realised how important his cure was and what it meant for the world and he was willing to step up and be a spokesperson for that and give the world hope. he did that for many,

many years and was incredibly generous in his time. and certainly with his body, he was that it had to toe. later exa m ples of that it had to toe. later examples of every part of his body you could imagine over the yea rs body you could imagine over the years to body you could imagine over the yea rs to prove body you could imagine over the years to prove that he really was cured and to see how it really worked and how they could replicate that. u nfortu nately, could replicate that. unfortunately, thanks to that, there is now a london patient —— fortunately, there has been cured as well thanks to what timothy went for a. it seemed so important that he shed his anonymity as the so—called burlee and patient. and he took a huge risk doing so. but i think people realise that. he was under a microscope and he really understood how important was his stay negative. at one point, a very irresponsible researcher put in his blog that he was having unsafe sex and perhaps had reinfected himself because they had detected some fragments of hiv in his body. it turned out not to be true but it really had a chilling effect on those of us in the activist community and timothy was very strong with our

support. he stayed in the game and continue to be the face of the. and a we are all in a huge debt of gratitude to him as a result. i do it is a huge question but in a nutshell if you could, as a result of what he did and what he was, what are the prospects for people with hiv now? well, i think we can now look forward to a cure in our lifetimes which is something we never thought would happen. you know, for so many years we had effective therapy and we thought that was said and there wasn't much attention or resources devoted to the idea of a cure but because of what he and his oncologist accomplished, we now have that hope and people can look forward to a day where they can be free of hiv. jeff taylor, thank you very much for talking to us. thank you. the russian and french leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between azerbaijan and armenia, now in its fourth day. it's the heaviest fighting between the two sides, over an area of disputed territory, in more than a quarter of a century. azerbaijani forces have been facing armenian soldiers

in the enclave, which has been controlled by ethnic armenian separatists for decades. in northern california the authorities are struggling to contain wildfires burning through thousands of acres of land. the blazes have destroyed property and forced people to leave their homes. and they are only the latest in a series of wildfires that have caused chaos over the last few weeks. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. driving through yosemite national park, a convoy fleeing the flames. rangers leading the way as a number of tourists had to be evacuated. it looks like a fairly perilous trip. dark clouds above, burning trees never far away. this is clouds above, burning trees neverfar away. this isjust one of a series of fires burning through central and northern california. high temperatures, precious little rain, it is a dangerous combination. abomination is something that we don't try to guess so we are preparing for the worst—case scenario and are

hoping for the best. so our firefighters are going to be working around the clock securing those lines. the two latest wildfires colds zog and glass but they have only begun in the past few days i have been busy. burning through hundreds of square corners of land. on that wine country, freshening lives and livelihoods. i owned this vignette over here and with a bad year in fires and no power, i don't think we will pick the grapes or anything. tens of thousands of people have left their homes but some are waiting to see what will happen next. how long are you going to hang out? i don't know, will say. if i see flames i'm out of here but until then we will hang out and see what happens. this is been a record—breaking yearfor this is been a record—breaking year for wildfires in california, and with more hot weather on the way, the danger is still present. tim allman, bbc news.

emmanuel "onry" henry is one of the few black opera singers in the north—western united states. injune, he and portland state university student madisen hallberg went viral for their impromptu duet of the national anthem. it marked a moment of racial unity amid nationwide black lives matter protests. here's onry‘s story. one day towards the end of may, i left my house. i began to walk down the street, and i hear this vocalist. # 0 say, can you see. it's a friday in may. i had been singing in the park blocks for maybe 20 minutes, just the national anthem over and over again, getting different takes. out of the corner of my eye, i see this guy. he kind of passes and keeps going down the block.

# were so gallantly streaming. i thought to myself, "you know, it's been a really, really long time since you sang with somebody." and hejust asked. "would you mind if ijoin you?" and she said. "sure," because i'm always down for anything. when he first came in with his voice, i was like, "oh my gosh, his voice is incredible. " both: # and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air. at that moment, it was about playing life together. and the student about to graduate ready to sing, and then this. when i say i'm an opera singer, people often say, "but your frame is so small and you're not white. and i say, "exactly." singing opera.

despite the influx of residents and the reputation of progressive behaviour, portland still remains to be one of the whitest cities in america. and although i've had success here in the city, i've had to deal with a lot of racism along the way. during the quarantine, i lost all of my gigs. about 25 gigs in a month—and—a—half. while singing in the streets, i was stopped by police, i was stopped by security guards and asked to stop singing in certain spaces because i wasn't allowed in those spaces, singing italian opera. i have this thing, and this thing has ability to heal a nation. that's the power of the human voice. that's the power of my voice. all we are conditioned to think right now is the divide. really, this is a time and a privilege to come together.

see, we do try to find some happy see, we do try to find some ha p py stuff. and finally, i want to show you the scene in athens just a few hours ago where people across the greek capital can now see the ancient acropolis in a whole new light, literally. the light which bathes the temples and monuments of the city's famous hill has been upgraded. this light show to mark the occasion was created by the same artist who lit the 2004 olympic opening and closing ceremonies there. let's bring you some live pictures now from minnesota where president trump is attending a fundraiser and a campaign rally. before leaving the white house he offered some clarification on why he didn't condemn the neo—fascist group — the proud boys. after the presidential debate joe biden, called trump's conduct in the debate a "national embarrassment" and condemned him for not clearly denouncing the white supremacist group. mr trump now says he didn't know who the proud boys were, and right—wing militias like them should stand down and let the police do their work. instead of, as he said in last night's debate, standing by. the organisation that oversees

presidential debates is planning to take steps to avoid a repeat of that chaotic and pretty ugly first debate between the two. that is it for now, thank you so much for watching. hello. thursday offers up the promise of a dryer day for the majority of the uk in comparison to wednesday. there should be some decent sunshine and the winds will be a little light as well. how are we managing that when our weather is dominated essentially by this massive area of low pressure for the coming days? one with actually seven centres — but we are getting quite close to a little hill in the isobars. that is a brief ridge of high pressure that we will sit in through thursday. it's not plain sailing though, there will still be some more persistent rain across northern and eastern scotland through the day and coming into the south—west through the afternoon, some sharper showers that will push into wales, some for northern ireland, perhaps some more generally across southern britain later on in the day. but in contrast to wednesday,

lighter winds, and the rain nowhere near as widespread — temperatures 111—15 degrees. we head through thursday evening, and we will start to notice something developing to the south of the uk. the rain towards the north pulls away, it becomes quite quiet here, skies clear, it's a largely dry night across scotland and northern ireland, and actually chilly in some rural spots. but to the south of the uk, we've basically got a hook that's formed, and this is a deep low pressure centre that is set to spin up across brittany, ploughing its way into france — the worst of the weather think on the way to france. the french met service have given it a name, it's storm alex, and it looks like it will also affect southern britain, so hence our concern for friday, particularly through the early part of the day for heavy rain across southern counties of england pushing into south wales, and very strong winds, may be gusting up to 70 mph.

even in land, though, 30—35 mph as that low centre spins away to the south of us and this weather from swings north. quite a contrast between the north and south on friday. england and wales, wet and windy. scotland and northern ireland, largely dry with some decent spells of sunshine. but for the weekend, we are still dominated by low pressure, and as such, it looks like further bands of rain will sweep around this larger low with its centre to the south. i think some wet weather for all areas through the weekend, some strong winds at times too. the detail on this low, somewhat complicated, so it's very hard for us to pinpoint exactly when your area will get wettest of the weather. but that trend, i'm afraid, is very clear.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the organisation that oversees presidential debates in the us is to take steps to avoid a repeat of the chaotic and ugly first debate between donald trump and joe biden. there are two more debates between them to come. the trump campaign has said the rules should not be changed in the middle of the game. joe biden has condemned the president for not clearly denouncing the white supremacist group known as the proud boys. mr trump has now said he doesn't know who the proud boys are, and suggested such right—wing groups should stand down and let the police do their work instead of, as he said in the debate, "standing by". the united nations' secretary—general has urged wealthier countries to start funding a global coronavirus vaccine plan using money from their own national programmes to help ensure there would be enough supplies of any vaccine for poorer countries. now on bbc news, wednesday in parliament.