welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: the uk records its highest ever temperatures with the heatwave sparking dozens of fires around london. notjust europe: china has been facing an extreme heatwave, with more hot weather forecast. sri lanka's parliament is set to vote on wednesday for a president to replace gotabaya rajapaksa. max 17 democratic members of congress are arrested after a protest over abortion rights. and netflix loses a million subscribers,

but the figures aren't quite the horror show many feared. it's 8:00 in the morning here in singapore, and 1am in london where the uk has recorded temperatures of more than a0 degrees celsius for the first time. the heatwave has caused widespread disruption, and a major incident has been declared in london, where the mayor sadiq khan said fire crews were struggling to cope. the un's climate chief has warned heatwaves like the one gripping western europe are becoming more frequent. our first report is from our climate editorjustin rowlatt. with today's searing heat came fires, and lots of them. huge plumes of smoke rose above london as grassfires engulfed homes on the outskirts of the capital. the london fire brigade

declared a major incident. a number of the calls that we've been dealing with today have been wildfires or grassfires, where the ground has been tinder box dry result of the weather over the last week, but in particular, the last two days. temperature records were tumbling before midday today. the 39.1 degrees recorded at charlwood near gatwick airport was a warning of what was to come. within an hour, another record had been set at another airport — 40.2 celsius at heathrow. by mid—afternoon, we got a new provisional heat record for the uk when coningsby in lincolnshire reached 40.3 celsius. and here was a new provisional record for scotland, too, incinerating the previous record. we've been beating records by 1.5, two degrees, and really quite an extensive region of over 35 degrees, and this is really unusual.

these are high temperatures over a broad area in england, so quite surprising. just look how today's temperatures compared to previous records. in 1976, it peaked just shy of 36 degrees. it was 27 years before that record was broken. 16 years after that, it hit 38.7 celsius. just three years later, and we've got today's new record. who would have thought over a0 degrees in the uk? and it isn'tjust getting hotter. years ago, temperatures would only reach peaks like this in the far south. but look how these high temperatures are moving north and west across the country. the heat is getting more intense and it is spreading, and, say climate scientists, we need to prepare for more in the coming years. the first thing organisations can do is make sure their heatwave plans are suitable, fit for purpose and they're going to work when the next heatwave kicks in. as individuals, we can

recognise that heat waves are not fun things to enjoy. they can be damaging and really affect our health. it was certainly too hot for most tourists in cambridge today. those brave enough to take to the river brought their own shelter, and they needed it. the only sensible place to be was in the shade, and that says something important about our changing world. this really ought to be a critical warning for everyone in this country, but especially our policymakers, that climate change is not something to be ignored. it's a really critical issue that we have to address as a country and as a world. some people did find ways to cool down. but the message from scientists is clear — if we want to stop britain and the world getting even hotter, we need to start cutting emissions, and quickly. justin rowlatt,

bbc news, cambridge. so that's the situation in the uk. let's take you to the rest of europe now, and start with france where fire crews in the south west of the country are battling to control wildfires spreading along the atlantic coast. tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. our correspondent lucy williamson was at the scene and sent this report from one of the affected areas. in teste—de—buch, we drove towards the fire, following fire crews as they disappeared into the smoke. all around us, the forest still smouldered, waiting for a chance to reignite. you can really taste and smell the smoke in the air here. fire crews have been battling these fires for a week now, and while they're contained in parts, they're still not under control despite the drop in temperatures. you can see some of them still working over here.

the key concern now is preventing any fresh fires from taking hold. they talk about an apocalypse here. last week, it was paradise. these campsites carry evidence of both. holiday memories spat out by the flames. the guests evacuated last week. translation: it�*s heartbreaking for the locals, for the tourists who come here, it's upsetting. and of course, us firemen feel the same way, but itjust makes us more determined to finish thejob. a short drive away, rachel has been packed for days, her husband's old camper van stashed with water. and then, we've got a couple of baskets... anything irreplaceable, packed into a bag. you could actually taste the smoke in your mouth. it was really disconcerting, this acrid taste. and there was ash falling from the sky. this situation is really scary.

it's something that is so out of our control and heatwaves are happening more and more. we are surrounded by forest and it's really something that's made us ask the question, are we going to go back to england, perhaps, because of it? it's frightening. across the border in spain, angel was caught on camera yesterday heading out in his bulldozer to dig a firebreak. now you see him, now you don't. it's the closest escape imaginable. this is what the apocalypse looks like up close. and this is what it looks like to survive it. lucy williamson, bbc news, teste—de—buch. it's notjust europe feeling the heat, more than a0 million people in the united states are under heat alerts. there have been small wildfires in texas and the use of power there and in other central

states is expected to break all—time highs in coming days as people turn up air conditioners. president biden is expected to outline his next steps to tackle climate change on wednesday. and here in asia, china has also been facing an extreme heatwave, with more hot weather forecast for the coming weeks. temperatures could soon reach nearly 42 degrees in parts of southern china according to the state weather forecaster. earlier i spoke to professor faith chan, an environmental reaercher from the uk's university of nottingham, currently based in ningbo. he told me dozens of cities have been hit with red weather alerts. it is definitely quite hot, and also it has been hot for two weeks now and many cities have been over a0 degrees like shanghai, the east coast and also central try like wuhan as

well. so, the situation is almost the same as the uk and europe. almost the same as the uk and euroe. ., ,,., almost the same as the uk and euroe. ., , , europe. professor, every summer we sort of— europe. professor, every summer we sort of see — europe. professor, every summer we sort of see these _ europe. professor, every summer we sort of see these high - we sort of see these high temperatures in china, don't we? but in your experience, have they ever reached these temperatures, and is it getting worse and becoming more frequent in terms of what you have seen in your work? labour actually, i think the heatwaves sometimes come a swell — it is notjust sometimes come a swell — it is not just this year. sometimes come a swell — it is notjust this year. it sometimes come a swell - it is not just this year.— not just this year. it is happening many - not just this year. it isj happening many years notjust this year. it 3 happening many years before. the situation may get more frequent because of climate change. on this occasion, actually, it is because of two impacts — one is from the persian gulf and the other is from the north pacific and it comes together and creates a

heatwave in china. it is not a situation, but i think my real point in the future — it may be getting more frequent because of the climate change, and also because of urbanisation, a lot of landscape has been changed from green areas to structures and the solemnisation is trapped in the structures to chapter heat in the city and i think that is why it is happening. —— trap the heat. we happening. -- trap the heat. we are seeing _ happening. —— trap the heat. we are seeing the situation in europe and the uk, how people are struggling to cope with the wildfires breaking out. what is it like in china? the people used to this? are they able to cope? used to this? are they able to co e? , , ~ cope? definitely, ithink, in such hot— cope? definitely, ithink, in such hot weather, - cope? definitely, ithink, in such hot weather, i- cope? definitely, ithink, in such hot weather, i think. such hot weather, i think everybody is actually the same it because of the humidity in

the east coast and also central part of china is quite high. so, i think in this part of the world it is not happening, the wildfires likely situation is the same in southern europe, but it is very difficult for people to cope in such hot — elderly people, especially, those aged over 65, and a lot of areas that people just cannot live with air—conditioning, and also power generation and also a lot of people rely on electricity at the moment. so, i think it is a very high pressure on the electricity supply, but it is definitely very hard, especially for elderly people. indeed, professor. iam glad you brought up the issue of

electricity supply because of course that is such a major concern in china for the government there. what are some of the solutions that have been thought of in terms of environmental policies to prevent thought of in terms of environmental policies to prevent this thought of in terms of environmental policies to prevent this sort thought of in terms of environmental policies to prevent this sort of thought of in terms of environmental policies to prevent this sort of thing happening in the future? definitely, i think, happening in the future? definitely, ithink, china's government is really concerned about climate change, and also committed to work on their electricity and climate neutrality and also to embrace the carbon targets. china's government is promoting urban greenery, to promote cities to include a green area, and also try to change the transport system to enforce the electric buses. now this is happening in a lot of major cities. so, i think china is doing a lot to

take action to cut the carbon emission in cities and also in the rural area, trying to promote more green areas, and thatis promote more green areas, and that is the way forward in china. . . , that is the way forward in china. ., ., , ., that is the way forward in china. ., ., ., china. that was faith chan, associate — china. that was faith chan, associate professor - china. that was faith chan, associate professor at - china. that was faith chan, associate professor at the l associate professor at the university of nottingham speaking to us from china. (dirty pc adlib)lots more on our website for you on this what's more on our website for you on that story. and i want to just point you to this story — where you can take a look at what life is like at a0 degrees celsius for folks in other cities — including abuja, delhi, madrid and sydney. there's information there on how to stay cool and safe when dealing with these soaring temperatures — and also how countries that have dealt with super high temperatures and extreme weather have prepared that's on bbc.com/news

or simply download the bbc news app — that is of course if you haven't already. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. steve bannon, the anti—establishment outsider who helped bring donald trump to the white house, is now on trial for refusing to testify about the january 6th assault on the us capitol. bannon has pleaded not guilty to the contempt charges. a judge in the us state of delaware has ruled that the dispute between the tech billionaire, elon musk, and the social media company twitter, should go to trial in october. mr musk had tried to buy twitterfor $aa billion, but subsequently argued it misled him and the regulator. china has warned it would take forceful measures if nancy pelosi, the speaker of the us house of representatives, visited taiwan. this comes after the financial times reported about plans for ms pelosi to go to taiwan next month. taiwan's foreign ministry said it has not received relevant information about any visit.

presidentjoe biden and his wife have welcomed the first lady of ukraine, 0lena zelenska, to the white house. the wife of president zelensky is in the us for a series of bilateral meetings with american officials and will address lawmakers on capitol hill on wednesday. just three candidates remain in the race to be britain's next prime minister. the penultimate round of voting by mps saw kemi badenoch eliminated. on wednesday rishi sunak, penny mordaunt and liz truss will face another vote by mps before the two leading candidates face a vote by conservative party members. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the program: netflix loses a million subscribers but the figures aren't quite the horror show many feared.

radio: i see you coming down the ladder now. i that's one small step for man... ..one giant leap for mankind. a catastrophic engine fire is being blamed tonight. for the first crash - in the 30—year history of concorde, the world's only supersonic airliner. _ it was one of the most vivid symbols of the violence and hatred that tore apart the state of yugoslavia but now, a decade later, it's been painstakingly rebuilt and opens again today. there's been a 50% decrease in sperm quantity and an increase in malfunctioning sperm unable to swim properly. seven, six, five... thousands of households across the country are suspiciously quiet this lunchtime as children bury their noses in the final instalment of harry potter.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines: the uk records its highest ever temperatures with the heatwave sparking dozens of fires around london. notjust europe. china has been facing an extreme heatwave, with more hot weather forecast. now to washington, where 17 democratic members of congress have been arrested at an abortion rights protest outside the supreme court. the group includes alexandria 0casio—cortez, a prominent member of the progressive wing of the democratic party. the congresswoman and her colleagues have been led away by police after blocking a nearby street as part of a civil disobedience rally.

i'm joined now by our north america correspondent peter bowes. he has been looking into the story. peter, in the first instance, this seems rather shocking to me. they were protesting what appears to be quite peacefully, they are allowed to do that, so why were they arrested? this was because you're absolutely right — a peaceful protest outside a very close to the steps of the supreme court, but during course of that demonstration a nearby road, a street was blocked for a period of time. what those protesters are accused of is obstruction of that particular highway. the police gave them three warnings to move away and to allow the normal traffic to pass through the area and they didn't move.

it was at that point that they were arrested. they were led away. they were ticketed. this is known as a misdemeanour offence, a relatively minor offence. they were taken away. they were not in hancox. they will likely have to pay a fine in the near future. will likely have to pay a fine in the nearfuture. the point of this it seems is to keep this story and this issue in the headlines. it has certainly been successful at doing that. yes, and as you point out, keeping this issue in the headlines — important for both parties to some extent, of course, given the fact that we are coming up to those crucial mid—term elections, and this has been such a key focus of controversy and debate for both parties. exactly, and there has been a lot of concern that within the democratic party the biden administration hasn't responded strongly enough to what the supreme court ruled. they would have liked to have seen action

that perhaps would have overturned what the court did, although in reality it seems almost impossible for something like that to happen. joe biden has said himself that the only thing that can really change what this court has done is at the ballot box if there more democrats in both houses, it would open the opportunity for the democrats to essentially pass a law allowing abortion across the country. that's what he is pursuing. some in his party are rather more impatient and want to fast action, but right now that is what the president is aiming for and it is crucialfor the president is aiming for and it is crucial for the democrats but also for the republicans as well because some in the republican party actually want to go further than the supreme court and essentially ban access to abortion right across the country and notjust leave it to the states.

peter bowes, great to have your programme to talk to those details, and as peter was saying then, there was a prominent member of the progressive wing of the democratic party present. the streaming giant netflix has just reported its second quarter results. it lost nearly a million subscribers from april throuthune, fewer than than the two million customers the company had warned investors it would lose. our business reporter samira hussain gave an update earlier. this time they didn't lose as many subscribers as they thought. they were expecting someone into million. they had two consecutive quarters where they lost subscribers. they are actually expecting to gain some one that they look at future forecast. what we think is really interesting is that revenue is up 9% year over year, but the reasoning is it really has to do with a lot of the currency exchanges, and i think we are going to see this

a lot, multi—national american corporations mainly doing their business in us businesses elsewhere, they are going to see such a boost to their revenue because the us dollar is so strong in comparison to other currencies. i mean, take the euro for example, it reached parity for the first time. and we'll have more on those netlix results with our business reporter in just a few minutes. turning to another big story in asia today, sri lanka is facing a major vote in parliament on wednesday to decide the country's political direction. mps now have a list of three candidates to replace the ousted and widely hated gotabaya rajapaksa, but there's a problem — two of them are closely associated with the former president or his party. whoever takes charge of the country will have to deal with a deepening economic crisis. the country's lucrative tea industry, one of the largest in the world, has been severely affected. 0ur correspondent secunder

kermani reports from kandy. the tea leaves picked here end up in cups across the world. these lush fields are home to sri lanka's biggest export, but they've been badly hit by this unprecedented economic crisis. "0ur leaders aren't bothered about providing us "with the basic necessities," he says. "they're the ones who have put us in debt by stealing dollars "and spending them however they want. "right now, sri lanka is like a ship stranded at sea." across sri lanka, there are huge queues waiting forfuel, with much of the country grinding to a halt. gas cannisters explode anger on the streets has already led to the ousting

of the president. in factories, there's frustration. tea exports bring in dollars vital in keeping the economy afloat, but production has been falling. tea has been grown and produced in sri lanka for the past 150 years. the industry employs more than 2 million people and normally brings in more than $1 billion every year. right now, though, like the rest of the island, it's facing its biggest ever crisis. at this factory, like many others, they've cut back on operating times and are worried about what the future holds. without the fuel, we are finding very, very difficult. if this goes on, we might have to shut down all factories. normally, about 20 lorries are running for us. now we are running about eight lorries. and with the power cut, there are factories closed down.

working three days, four days a week. it's the poorest who are suffering the most right now. tea—pluckers struggle hard all day for little more than the minimum wage. but food prices are soaring. translation: we don't eat lunch any more. - we eat once at around ten in the morning and then again in the evening. for now, life looks likely to get even harder for sri lankans, whoever ends up leading their country. secunder kermani, bbc news, kandy. before we go, something a bit more cheerful. unless you are the jealous type, of course. a uk ticketholder has won the biggest national lottery prize of all time — a record euro millions jackpot of £195 million. it means the winner, whoever they are, is no richer

than the single adult who is worth a mere £150 million. lucky for some, i guess! thank you for watching. hello. it could be said that climate change really made its impact on the uk today. we saw temperature records exceeded by large numbers, by around two degrees first thing this morning, almost up to the daycare in the uk ever recorded, and of course after that very warm start became an exceptionally hot day. 0ver that very warm start became an exceptionally hot day. over 29 stations according to the met office exceeded their previous 0ffice exceeded their previous record of 38.7. a huge suede from south london through to saw a few spots reach a0 degrees. it is still hot out there at the moment. a humid and sticky note but not as bad as last day. showers and thunderstorms moved away from west to east, clearing the

north sea tonight. there could be some lively ones north—east north—east scotland, england, minor flooding. north—east scotland, england, minorflooding. and more suffering into the west later. the big story in the north and west is that it will feel fresher. still humid across eastern areas but not as bad as it was last night. morning, if you don't have a chance to open the windows at, this big picture showers the curl of the weather front. picture showers the curl of the weatherfront. we picture showers the curl of the weather front. we still have warm air tangled but to the west of the other is whether fresher air is, starting with scotland, northern ireland. sunshine and clouds. rain, abruzzo drizzle down to the west of england and wales. some will stay dry. as it nudges east, it interacts with a humid air. we see lively thunderstorms across parts of england, especially those that could cause minor flooding. sunny spells in between. hard but not as hot in the south—east corner. further north and west, temperatures closer to where we would normally be for this stage in july. there we go into wednesday evening, finishing

the day with showers and thunderstorms which will slowly ease as we go through wednesday night and into thursday. with northerly winds developing, more widely a fresh start to thursday. a lot will welcome it. warm in the sunshine across the south, plenty of it. more cloud elsewhere, one or two isolated showers and temperatures dropping a bit more, maybejust the high temperatures dropping a bit more, maybe just the high teens for scotland, england, parts of northern england, mid— 20s further south. 0ver northern england, mid— 20s further south. over the next few days, rain at times for the north and west. staying dry largely over the years. showers on friday. a burst of heat on the weekend, cool the next few days, rain at times for the north and west. staying dry largely over the years. showers on friday.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme.