welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... alarm injapan — is home success at the tokyo olympics fuelling the continuing rise of covid cases? there is between the rise of infection and the rise of the seriously ill patients inundating the hospitals and leading to the collapse of the medical system. leading to the collapse of the medical system. president biden tells millions of federal workers to get vaccinated or face regular testing — but there is a cash incentive. i know the pain of people who -ot i know the pain of people who got in — i know the pain of people who got in vaccinated mice and unfair_ got in vaccinated mice and unfair to— got in vaccinated mice and unfair to people who have

gotten _ unfair to people who have gotten vaccinated already. here's _ gotten vaccinated already. here's the deal, if incentives help— here's the deal, if incentives help us— here's the deal, if incentives help us beat this virus i believe _ help us beat this virus i believe we should use them. an inquiry into the murder of a maltese anti—corruption journalist says the state must bear responsibility for her death. i'm sarah mulkerrins live in tokyo on day 7 of the olympics — where the focus will start to shift to the track where the world's fastest women are in action in the 100m heats. and re—living past glories — former asian olympians tell us what it feels like to taste sporting success. it's seven in the morning in singapore and in tokyo — where there's increasing concern that enthusiasm for the olympics has

contributed to a spike in coronavirus cases. for the first time, since the pandemic began, the number of new daily infections there has passed ten thousand. the japanese authorities say the dramatic rise will not affect the olympics, but experts are warning if something isn't done to control the spread, the city's healthcare system could soon be overwhelmed. from tokyo, rupert wingfield—hayes reports. this is tokyo in the middle of a state of emergency, in the middle of a pandemic. these bars are not supposed to be serving alcohol and should be closed by 8pm, but no one is taking any notice. "i'm not worried at all, this young man says. "i want to go drinking. "i want to go out drinking." "lots of people want to stay at home", his girlfriend said, "but we all have our limits".

the japanese government says this behaviour has nothing to do with the games, but even its own advisers disagree. what we really need to have is the leadership by the governors or even the prime minister, and those people may have kind of mixed messages. now we have the olympics, so the people may not really be cautious to covid—i9. cheering. critics call this the olympic effect. we saw it last week on the streets around the olympic stadium during the opening ceremony, and it's all happening in a country where most people under the age of 50 remain completely unvaccinated. to tell people that it's dangerous, you have to stay home and watch your behaviour isjust not credible. it says if we have heavy smoking parents are telling the children smoking is dangerous. the japanese government is now telling young people to go out and get vaccinated as soon as possible, so how do you do that?

first of all, this is all the paperwork you need. this is actually for my son. and then you go on one of the government websites and make a booking. now, most of the places that i've tried to make a booking today have been offering slots in mid—september, although i have managed to find one place which is offering a slot in mid—august, which means he could be fully vaccinated by the beginning of october. but others here say the olympics is going much better than expected and, despite record infections, there were just eight covid deaths in the whole of japan yesterday. is the threat being exaggerated? the mood must have been quite jolly before the titanic sank. there is a time lag between the hole in the ship and the actual sinking taking place. there is a time lag between the rise of infection and the rise of the seriously ill patients, inundating the hospitals and leading to the collapse of the medical system.

at the current rate of increase, tokyo's covid wards could be full before the olympic closing ceremony happens at the end of next week. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. i'm joined now by mariko oi who is in tokyo for us. there who is in tokyo for us. was always going to be a criticism there was always going to be a criticism that the olympics for a super spreader event. how much criticism is a japanese prime minister coming under now and how is he defending himself?— and how is he defending himself? ., , , and how is he defending himself? . , , ., himself? there has been quite a lot of criticism. _ himself? there has been quite a lot of criticism. it _ himself? there has been quite a lot of criticism. it does - himself? there has been quite a lot of criticism. it does feel - lot of criticism. it does feel a little unfair that there is not enough jab to go around. and yet young people are encouraged to get vaccinated. that's primarily the reaction i'm sitting here. young people have also somewhat been blamed for not listening to the request to stay at home and going out. we've been reporting every day outside and it's not just young people it's every

age group that we've noticed. that's because of what we've been discussing, this is the fourth state of emergency, people are fed up, people got used to it, there's no sense of urgency and the very fact that the olympics are taking place in the city that is just sending the wrong message. also i've noticed the prime minister tweeting to congratulate every japanese athlete who won a gold medal. which is a nice thing to do but he has not tweeted once about the most recent surge in covid—i9 cases. that's been criticised because if he wants to reach young people, we all know they don't watch as much television. i vividly remember the interview with the countries top medical adviser and a popular singer and went the singer told him that some young people don't even know that the city is under the state of emergency, the shock that he had on his face. that's the reality. if they want to reach on people that they have to change the way they communicate. whether or not a

headline like yesterday where we sought more than 10,000 new cases, whether that changes peoples behaviour remains to be seen. if the prime minister was hoping that this gold rush by japanese athletes would change the public opinion, we not seen that. his popularity hasn't gone back up and he still has sold that election by this autumn. you just heard from mariko about the coronavirus case surge injapan. later on we will have a sporty action in tokyo with our sports presenter. a reminder that you can find much more about the tokyo olympics on our website including this day by day guide to all the key events. just go to all the key events. just go to bbc .com/ news or download the bbc news app. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... israel will become the first country in the world to offer a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

people over 60 can get the top—up starting on sunday. the us and the eu have yet to approve the booster shots. israel was one of the fastest countries in the world to vaccinate its population with the first two doses. tourists on turkey's aegean coast have been forced to flee from their hotels as the emergency services battled multiple wildfires for a second day. three people were confirmed dead in a forest fire. dozens of villages were evacuated. officials said more than sixty wildfires have now erupted along the aegean and mediterranean coasts. russia has upgraded its capabilities on the international space station after its new nauka module, intended to serve as a research laboratory, successfully docked with the iss. nauka — named after the russian word for �*science' — makes the iss seventy cubic metres bigger. the star of the marvel superhero film black widow, scarlettjohansson, is suing the walt disney company over its simultaneous release of the movie in cinemas

and on its streaming service. msjohannson alleges the action cost her millions of dollars. she said the way the film was distributed breached her contract. disney says the lawsuit has "no merit". still to come a bit later in the programme — a maltese inquiry finds the state responsible for the murder of the anti— corruption journalist. but first... president biden has ordered two million american government workers to get vaccinated or else face compulsory covid testing and restrictions. the administration is struggling with increasing infection rates, while around half the population is refusing a jab. and if the stick won't work, mr biden is also offering a carrot. today i'm calling on all states and local government to use funding they have received including from the american rescue plan to give $100 to anyone who gets fully vaccinated. i know the pain people who got

vaccinated, might sound unfair to folks who had gotten vaccinated already. here's the deal, if incentives help us beat this virus i believe we should use them. for more on that speech i spoke with our north america correspondent david willis. of course 60% or so of the american population has had at least one jab. but there is a sector of the population that has stubbornly refused to get vaccinated. in the last hour so president biden expresses frustration over that, he said this is not a party political matter it was a matter of life and death. and as regards this uptick in cases here covid—19 the president called it a pandemic of the unvaccinated. he announced a series of measures designed to incentivise and dis— incentivise those who are reluctant or willing or whatever.

these include putting pressure on federal government workers here to get a jab. also he is talking about cash incentives for some in areas where there are low vaccination rates. also calling on the us defence department to consider adding the coronavirus vaccine to the required vaccinations that it gives to members of the us military. but to directly answer your question, will it work? we willjust have to wait and see. if it doesn't then the president is going to have to come up with some perhaps stricter measures or incentives. paid time off, $100 for every vaccinated person, that's what the us treasury department is offering. and yet there is hesitation. what is behind this vaccine hesitancy? president biden said tuesday that one thing was this information, disinformation

of course on social media. there have been suggestions for example that people who are vaccinated, having to wear a mask indoors somehow suggest that the vaccine doesn't work. indeed, even republicans have railed against this different to eight disinformation on social media. the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said today that a lot of people in this country have been subject to bad advice, as he put it. indeed, president biden last week said that some of this disinformation was killing people. what can they do? the white house has set up a group to flag posts which put out disinformation on sites such as facebook. but it's very much a game of whack a mole. they don't want mandatory measures to be introduced here, they are reluctant to do that. but they may have to if these new measures don't bear fruit. if you want to get in touch with me, i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme, we'll have all the latest on the olympics, including the united states' newest gymnastics star, 18—year old sunisa lee. cheering. the us space agency, nasa, has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol in south armagh, once an everyday part of the soldier's lot, drudgery and danger. now no more, after almost four decades. if one is on one's owni in a private house, not

doing any harm to anyone, i don't see why all these i people should wander in and say you're doing something wrong. i six rare white lion cubs are on the prowl at worcestershire park and they've been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they are lovely and sweet, yeah, cute. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines — there's been a spike of new covid infections in tokyo, amid concern that the olympics could have contributed to the increase. there are warnings that the city's hospitals could soon be overwhelmed. president biden has told millions of american government workers to get vaccinated against coronavirus, or face compulsory testing and restrictions. a public inquiry into the murder of a maltese

investigative journalist, daphne ca ruana galizia, has found that the state bore responsibility for her death, by creating a "culture of impunity". she died four years ago in a car bomb attack near her home. her revelations helped to trigger an early election by publishing allegations linking the then prime minister, joseph muscat, to the panama papers scandal, which exposed the use of tax havens by the rich. here's our europe correspondent nick beake. for the last two years, this independent inquiry has been hearing from dozens of different witnesses and trying to piece together what happened in the moments before her death, and really, the finding today is that the maltese state bears responsibility for the death of caruana galizia. that is not to say there was direct evidence that the government or members of the government or associates were directly involved in the assassination, but it talks about the culture of impunity being created

on the island which allowed people who may be wanted her dead to be able to act and believe that they could simply get away with it, and it also paints a very devastating picture, really of corruption, and the tentacles that reached between the judiciary and the police and also parts of the government and potentially people involved in organised crime and corrupt network. so i think it is a pretty strong message today from this independent panel. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk... international charities say they're disappointed that a pledge by world leaders to provide five billion dollars to boost global education has come up short. britain and kenya, joint hosts of this week's education summit in london, say the figure is currently just over $4 billion. nobel prize winner malala yousaf—zai told the summit girls in particularfaced an "education crisis". a former roman catholic

cardinal in the united states has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in the 19705. theodore mccarrick, who's 91, is accused of abusing the boy on several occasions, including at a wedding reception near boston. amazon has predicted slower sales growth in the third quarter as a boost from the covid pandemic begins to subside. customers turned to amazon and other online platforms during the covid crisis, leading to record profits for the us retailer. but the company's breakneck growth is beginning to level as customers return to brick and mortar shops. now let's return to tokyo and get an update on the olympics — it's day 7 today and with the athletics events set to begin. china is on top of the medal table. they are tied with japan on 15 gold medals, but china has more medals overall with 31. on day 6 all eyes were on the womens gymnastics — and even without simone biles competing it was a new us star who got the gold.

18—year—old sunisa lee taking home the gold medal. a fifth straight win in the event for the us. and this is the moment her family knew she had won the gold — as they watched together back home in oakdale minnesota. i'm joined from tokyo by our sports presenter sarah mulkerrins. sunisa lee — what a victory — and winning while her team—mate simone biles was cheering her on and watching from the stands — sunisa broke herfoot in 2020 didn't she — that didn't appear to have affected her chances — what's the reaction there? i think everybody was watching that all around final last night by the women. it's all is the real a good event for gymnastics. particularly with the story about simone biles withdrawing for mental health reasons. she such a good team—mate to sunisa lee, she was supporting her. ed sunisa

lee said after which he had a conversation with simone biles because she was feeling the stress in the pressure of competing on their biggest stage and simone biles helped her be able to deal with that. what a great story for sunisa lee. she didn't think she had a chance of winning gold coming into this game such of the dominance of simone biles. however she found herself heading into the floor routine, the final and knowing that if she could pull off all of her moves she could potentially get gold. there is such american dominance in the sport in this event since 2000 and for, they have one old this event. a brilliant result for sunisa lee. you could see the tears afterwards. important to note for brazil's she came checking it silver in the she's really built up to these games with lots of injuries. she was delighted to get brazil's first olympic medal in the women's events. ~ . .

olympic medal in the women's events. . ., ., ., ., events. what an emotional moment — events. what an emotional moment for _ events. what an emotional moment for both _ events. what an emotional moment for both of - events. what an emotional moment for both of them. | events. what an emotional - moment for both of them. the ones he had learned about you and the time speaking with you in these olympics as you're a fan of swimming, rowing and surfing. but what about the upcoming day 7 events — particularly the start of the track and field events. how excited are you about these sports? this is where i will get really excited. i spent my childhood glued to the tv at home watching athletics. i was obsessed with it. we had a brilliant runner back in the day when i was younger called o sullivan. we watch are competing and she was competing at the very top level. it made it easier to follow it. it's also what everybody expects about the olympic games. we have the swimming to begin with and then you come to the athletics and that really brings everyone together. it will be really interesting, i think the women a really strong in the 100 metres. there is going to be all eyes on them over the coming couple of days. were going to have their heats a little bit later, people watching in great britain will be looking out for dena

asher—smith she's a brilliant runner, she had a silver medal in the world last year. although prize, there is so much history on the line for her. the jamaicans sprinter, he is old, she started twice before, she's one gold twice before, she's one gold twice before in this and she's bidding to become the first woman to win three olympic sprint gold medals. she set a blistering fast time recently in jamaica. blistering fast time recently injamaica. were going to see how she gets on in the heat a little bit later. just one gold medal up for grabs today as we just ease our way into the track and field events and asking to be in the men's 10,000 metres with uganda's form breiner in the longer distances. he will potentially be going for gold there. he's also can be going later in the beatin also can be going later in the beat in the 5000 metres. if he was to get those two gold medals in both those events he would becomejust medals in both those events he would become just the eight man in history to do that.

thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. we will have much more for olympics and it is worth reminding you how historic these olympics are. it's the first games to be postponed since 19114 and that was because of world war 2. it's also the first olympics taking place during a global pandemic. we caught up with some former olympians in asia, and we asked them what's the biggest challenge athletes will face in the competition this year. music. i think that actually they will have to prepare themselves on this one because it would be a really, really different atmosphere. this time, there would be no spectators on the stadium. mostly, it would feel

different, but i really believe that all the athletes are adjusting to it. as a competitor, of course it's not easy to play in this olympic games because, you know, during this pandemic, corona, everybody was very scared. we were married in 1997,

so almost ten years we had been dating. of course, now, we are very happy, and we've got three children and all of them can play badminton. when you enter into the athletes' village, it's a lot of people in there, and you can lose your focus. you always remind yourself to really focus and not, you know, do a lot of stuff during that time.

what a heart—warming tale. i've actually met those two backdating players they are from my hometown and they are just as charming in person as they were in that video. the star of the hit tv show, doctor who, jodie whittaker, is to leave the programme next year. seen here with some of the cast, she became the first woman to play the time—travelling doctor when shejoined the long—running show in 2017. when she was first cast in the role, it caused much online debate, but last year she was voted the show�*s second most popular doctor since the series started in 1963. her replacement hasn't been named. i want you to remind you of the top story here in our programme injapan since the pandemic began for the first time the number of new daily infections there has passed 10,000. authorities in japan there has passed 10,000. authorities injapan say there has passed 10,000. authorities in japan say the dramatic rise will not affect the olympics but experts are warning that if something is not done to control the spread

the cities health care system could be overwhelmed. thank you for watching. could be overwhelmed. thank you forwatching. i karishma for watching. i karishma vaswani. hello there. storm evert is bringing a quite exceptionally windy spell of weather for this time of year across the south of the uk, with a met office amber warning issued for a good part of cornwall and the isles of scilly. it's all because of this area of low pressure, quite a small low, but quite a powerful one tracking its way eastwards, with the strongest winds on the southern flank. you can see the amber warning area here across cornwall into the isles of scilly. those are the wind gusts in the black circles. but the winds also really quite brisk across a good part of devon, dorset, into hampshire, up the bristol channel and across the south coast of wales as well. so, some damage and disruption quite possible as we start the day, and with this curl

of wet weather as well, some heavy and potentially thundery bursts of rain at times. our storm tracks its way eastwards across england and wales through the day. for northern ireland and scotland, calmer weather, quite a lot of cloud and some showers, some of which could be heavy, but a few sunny spells breaking through as well. stays windy for a good part of the day down towards the south, but those winds will slowly be easing as we head towards the end of the afternoon. temperatures, well, a bit disappointing, really, for this time of year, 17—20 degrees. now, you can see our swirl of low pressure clearing away eastwards as we head through friday night. into the early hours of saturday, fairly large areas of cloud, one or two showers and some clear spells. temperatures between 12—15 degrees as we begin the weekend. so, the remnants of storm evert clearing away eastwards. high pressure trying to build in from the west, but not having much luck. stranded between low pressure and high pressure, we will have a northerly wind through the weekend, and that means it will, generally speaking, be rather cool for the time of year. we will see some spells of sunshine, but also some

showers, some of which could be quite heavy. quite a lot of cloud, i think, as we start saturday morning. some outbreaks of patchy rain here and there. some sunny spells developing, but some pretty sharp showers, especially down towards the south. could be the odd flash of lightning, the odd rumble of thunder. in the sunniest spots, up to 21—22 degrees. and then as we look ahead to sunday, again quite a lot of cloud, some showers or potentially longer spells of rain, the odd thunderstorm down towards the south later on. we will see some sunny spells, but temperatures quite disappointing, especially in northern scotland. here, just 111—15 degrees.

this is bbc news. the headlines and all the main new stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continue straight after hard talk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. inevitably, we associate artists with the times in which they emerge and the work which brings them widespread acclaim. so it is with my guest today, michael stipe, lead singer of the american band rem, who were pioneers of an indie rock sound which emerged from a georgia college campus

in the �*80s and won worldwide acclaim in the 1990s.