this is bbc news. our top stories: the us and chinese presidents are to talk on the phone as bejing warns washington it will bear the consequences if house speaker nancy pelosi visits taiwan. the united states says it's offered russia a deal aimed at freeing the american basketball player, brittney griner. trying to avert a globalfood crisis — the first ships carrying crucial grain supplies prepare to leave ports in ukraine. he's credited with inspiring the global green movement — tributes are paid to the environmentalist, james lovelock, who has died at the age of 103.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. a potential visit to taiwan by the us house speaker, nancy pelosi, is stirring alarm in presidentjoe biden�*s administration. officials are concerned the trip may cross red lines for china and fears there's no potential exit path. beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island, has already issued harsh warnings, even suggesting a possible military response. against this backdrop, president biden is expected to call president xi on thursday, for the first time in months. gareth barlow reports. this is taiwan. to beijing it

is the breakaway province that must become part of the country, if need be by force. to washington it is of the territory of the us has pledged to defend, if it ever comes under attack. an island nation of 23 million, at the centre of a struggle between two global superpowers and it is a potential visit to taiwan by nancy pelosi, second in light of the us presidency, we will be the host ranking politician to travel there 25 years, that is close to a crisis. translation: ~ ., , ., , translation: we have repeatedly stated our solemn _ translation: we have repeatedly stated our solemn position - translation: we have repeatedly stated our solemn position that - stated our solemn position that we are firmly opposed to speaker nancy pelosi's visit to taiwan. if the us pushes ahead and challenges china's not online, it will inevitably face firm counter actions and the us will bear the consequences. even dr biden administration

has tried to dissuade the staunch china critic to go on the visit. in administration fearful of the potential political fallout, fearful of the potential politicalfallout, despite publicly pledging support to the country. i publicly pledging support to the country-— publicly pledging support to the country. i think she feels stronal the country. i think she feels strongly about _ the country. i think she feels strongly about supporting i strongly about supporting democracy in taiwan. she is not the only member of congress to feel that way and also the administration, whether under donald trump orjoe biden, there is growing support for taiwan and its democracy but there are some questions about whether this is the right time for nancy pelosi to go or whether she should go at all. later on thursday, president biden and president xi are to hold a phone call. amid an ever more frosty relationship. the call could drastically improve

the relationship as domestically neither side can appear weak. the us bolstering its ability to combat chinese dominance on computer chips, with china making ever more stern france and taiwan carrying out military drills, economically, politically, peacefully, a lot is on the line. gareth barlow, bbc news. the united states says it's offered russia a deal aimed at freeing the american basketball star, brittney griner, and a former us marine, paul whelan. secretary of state antony blinken says he plans to discuss the matter in a phone call with his russian counterpart, sergei lavrov. it would be the first such contact since russia's invasion of ukraine. barbara plett—usher reports. hostage diplomacy is intruding on america's basketball courts. players in the washington mystics know brittney griner, they have competed against her, they respect her. they are shaken by her arrest.

really sad and a bit scared because it felt like it could be any of us. i play overseas and the vast majority of wnba players play overseas, so seeing her in that type of position where she is kind of helpless was really unfortunate. griner pled guilty to a drug—related charge but says she didn't intend to break the law. the us claim she has been wrongfully detained which russia denies. but now in a rare move the state department has gone public about an offer to win her release, and that of another american, paul whelan. we have conveyed this on a number of occasions, and directly to russian officials, and my hope would be that in speaking to foreign minister lavrov, i can advance the efforts to bring them home. he wouldn't give details, but the administration did

recently agree to a prisoner swap with the kremlin for this former us marine. that increased pressure from the families of other detainees. earlier, the president's point man for hostages told me campaign was effective. i think the importance of the families coming up with their narrative to address what they are going through is actually very powerfulfor them and i think it is actually good in creating situational awareness and at times holding the us government accountable. brittany griner�*s case has helped shine a spotlight on an issue that is usually in the shadows. this mural, recetly unveiled, highlights how many americans are in this fix, how many stories there are, such as matthew heath. he has been held in venezuela for nearly two years. matthew has been beaten over there so many times that both of his hands have been broken. he tried to take his own life and has been moved to a military hospital. my son is not going to survive if our government does not get him home. i don't know how much more he can endure.

the return of any detainee would bring hope to others, but not dispel their desperate, agonising uncertainty. barbara plett—usher, bbc news, washington. earlier i spoke to evelyn farkas, who served in the obama administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, and eurasia, and is currently executive director of the mccain institute. i asked her why she thought the united states had decided to negotiate this deal so publicly. it sounds, david, like they didn't actually announce it right away but some time has passed and so they may be getting uncertain and a little bit nervous about what the russian move is going to be, whether the russians will accept this swap or not. if i had to predict

i think that the russians if i had to predict i think that the russians will because they have been almost desperate to get viktor bout back into russia, frankly because they think he is a russian operative who was trained by the russian intelligence services, served in the russian military, i believe. everything he was doing was very likely on the behest of the russian government and if not on the behest it was with the knowledge of the russian government when he was doing it. you mentioned there viktor bout, he is known as the merchant of death, a convicted arms trafficker. it is hardly a fair deal exchanging him for brittany griner. objectively none of this is fair, brittany griner and paul whelan shouldn't be held like hostages in russia which purports to be a member of the g20, a member of the security council and yet acts like north korea and iran in seizing americans without due process and holding them without due process and rightful cause, so it is a problem from the get go but of course the swap is in and of itself not

an equivalent situation because viktor bout was found guilty in a us court, he was extradited from thailand after he was on the run for some time. having said that he has served a heavy chunk of his time that he was sentenced and in fact the judge who sentenced him in new york, she made a statement saying she could live with the consequences of the swap because in her estimation because he had served such a large portion of his time already, that in essence, he had givenjustice it's fair due, more or less. antony blinken and sergei lavrov haven't spoken since before the start of the invasion of ukraine as far as i am aware how surprised are you that the deal is taking place at all? again i am surprised because the russians very much want this individual. i am a little bit surprised that the secretary of state is getting personally involved

but as your reporter pointed out, there is a lot of pressure on the white house, on president biden because of the prisoner swap that occurred recently to free the former marine who was of course sick so they said it was a little different situation, but the pressure is there and so the us government is getting involved at the highest levels of. it doesn't change the fact that russia is an aggressive human rights smashing, killing machine right now in ukraine and elsewhere, frankly, and it doesn't change the dynamic between the united states and russia but our interests here are aligned so a swap should be possible. a new coordination centre has begun work in turkey, part of a complex deal to re—start blockaded grain exports from ukraine. it's an effort to ease a global food crisis that is affecting millions of people around the world. more than 20 million tonnes of grain is waiting at ukrainian docks. the aim is to export five

million tonnes a month, matching pre—war levels. richard galpin reports. from the start of the war, back in february, russian forces have been blockading ukraine's black sea ports, preventing exports of ukrainian wheat and other grains vital for the food supplies of many countries around the world. according to officials, there are around 20 million tonnes of grain in ukraine. with fears growing of global food shortages, it seems there may now have been a breakthrough with a deal agreed by the two sides. it is hoped it will be possible for ships to be inspected near turkey, and then guided past ukrainian sea mines, before being loaded with grains and fertiliser. the first shipments are due in the coming days. all this, after turkey's defence minister hulusi akar unveiled a coordination centre

in istanbul to oversee the export of ukrainian grains. translation: currently, i the preparation is that ships laden with grain that will leave ukrainian ports. the work done by the joint coordination centre will contribute to overcoming the food crisis affecting the whole world. the un, ukraine and russia have all said they expect exports to begin in a few days. but russia's deputy foreign minister andrei rudenko has warned the deal could collapse if the obstacles to russia's agricultural exports are not promptly removed. richard galpin, bbc news. the fighting continues in ukraine. rocket strikes by the ukrainian army have forced russia to close a key bridge, which is a crucial supply line for russian forces. the antonovsky bridge connects the occupied city

of kherson, to the east bank of the dnipro river. it's closure leaves thousands of russian troops at risk of being cut off. western officials say a ukrainian counter—offensive to re—take kherson, the first major city of significance to fall to the russians, is gathering pace. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: birmingham prepares for the commonwealth games, with athletes and celebrities showing off the english city's heritage. 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 own, in a private house, - not doing any harm to anyone, i don't really see why . all these people should wander in and say, _ "you're doing something wrong". six rare white lion cubs on the prowl at a worcestershire wildlife park, and have already been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they are lovely and sweet, yeah, they're cute. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: the us and chinese presidents are to talk on the phone as bejing warns washington it will bear the consequences if house speaker nancy pelosi visits taiwan.

the united states says it has offered russia a deal aimed at freeing the american basketballer brittney griner. firefighters have finally started to control the wildfires in california after thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. officials said the fire had behaved unlike any other they had seen. the bbc�*s james clayton returned with one family — to find out what was left. this was the martinez family's favourite place in the world. they called it shangri—la. their home has now been obliterated. aaron has returned to assess the damage. this was my house. this is where i felt the safest. this is where my office was, my television, my computer, books, and binders.

there's just nothing... it's a picture frame, it was a glass frame. i had family pictures in it. it's all the stuff that can't be replaced. it hurts. grandmother's writing, pictures... oh, god. even old answering machines that we saved that we stopped using just so that we could hear grandparents�* voices. it's all gone. meow, meow, meow! aaron's wife, heather, is trying to look for the family cats. i don't see anything. yeah, i'm trying to hear more than see. they had 15 of them, but none of them respond to the calls. it looked like it was one of the teenage ones, or like teenage to adult.

poor thing. her son austin finds one of the kittens. it didn't make it. i've never experienced anything like this, ever in my life, never. the grief is overwhelming for aaron. but the family knew living here was becoming increasingly risky. the climate here, you've lived here all your life. have you noticed it change? it has gotten a lot hotter. a lot hotter and a lot drier. a lot of people we talk to we're like, "should we try and rebuild, shall we stay?" and they say, "we're selling, we're getting out of here." the martinez family didn't have insurance. they didn'tjust lose memories — they lost everything. we're going to rebuild and we'll be stronger and smarter. but this loss hurts. it hurts a lot. what happened to the martinez family is a danger more and more californians are facing,

as it gets drier and drier. james clayton, bbc news, mariposa county, california. terrible scenes. let's get some of the day's other news. police fired teargas and used water cannons as hundreds of protesters breached a high—security zone in baghdad and broke into iraq's parliament building. supporters of the powerful cleric, muqtada al—sadr, demonstrated against the nomination of a rival candidate for prime minister. the current prime minister, mustafa al—khadimi, called on protesters to leave the green zone. the world health organization insists the current outbreak of monkeypox can be stopped if countries, communities and individuals take the necessary steps to prevent transmission. 18 thousand cases have now been reported from 78 countries, mostly in europe. there have been five deaths. the director—general of the who says most cases so far were among men who had sex with multiple male partners, and called on social

media platforms to help counter harmful and inaccurate information. a british scientist who helped to inspire the green movement — james lovelock — has died at the age of 103. he was best known for his gaia hypothesis, the idea that planet earth acts as an interconnected, self—regulating system. in later years, he warned that climate change could have a devastating impact on humanity. our environment analyst roger harrabin looks back on his life. the earth. forjames lovelock, a planet with not only creatures and plants on it but a complex, integrated system where even the rocks interact with living things to maintain conditions for life. lovelock called it the gaia theory, a revolutionary idea named after the greek mother goddess of the earth. the gaia idea, these

two processes, that is, is the evolution of life in the evolution of the planet are not two processes but one single, tightly coupled process. born in letchworth, he became a conscientious objector in the war, ever maverick, ever restless. later he worked out of a converted barn in his home in devon, first with research in medical science on the freezing of animal tissue and then in the �*60s on space science for nasa, looking for life on mars. file footage: there may be a kind of plant, an ice-eater,j with fine, root—like probes, searching not for liquid water but searching the permafrost, reaching down to get at that ice. the multitalented lovelock made the ultrasensitive instruments to gather evidence and invented the equipment to detect a man—made hole in the ozone layer over the antarctic. then you do believe in gaia? i do believe the earth goddess will defend herself against all dangers.

including man? man will always win against nature. lovelock�*s idea that the earth is a kind of single living organism made him a hero to the early green movement of the 1960s and �*70s. it was bound to be taken up as a kind of something almost spiritualfor the green age to hang onto. lovelock warned that damage to forests in particular was undermining the earth's capacity to regulate itself as carbon dioxide levels rise, but his support for nuclear power to combat climate change upset many of his own followers. the gaia theory was ridiculed by many scientists at the time. it is still contentious but it's starting to slip into the academic mainstream. james lovelock lived to be over 100, still predicting an apocalyptic future for mankind. the british scientist — james lovelock — who's died at the age of 103.

final preparations are underway for the 2022 commonwealth games — held this year in the english city of birmingham. over 11 days, more than 5000 athletes from 72 nations and territories will compete across 19 different sports. this year's event is historic for a number of reasons. it'll feature the largest number of events for women and para—sport athletes. it's the first multi—sport event to award more medals to women than men and it's the first major multi—sport event that's carbon neutral. i've been speaking to peter beattie — the former premier of the australian state of queensland — who was chairman of the 2018 gold coast games. i asked him what england's second city could hope to get out of the event. an enormous amount of work has gone into it and birmingham

will be a big winner because it puts birmingham on the world stage and from what i've seen from afar, they have done a magnificentjob in preparing for the commonwealth games. the reality is, when we went through this in the gold coast in 2018, there was an enormous amount of pressure on us and that same pressure will be in birmingham because that time is always the usual debate about, "what is the future of the commonwealth games?" we proved that you can run the commonwealth games outside capital cities. we certainly did that on the gold coast. birmingham is doing that as well. of course, it's a major city, but the benefits are long—term. tourism, people want to invest, they want to see where the commonwealth games are so it is a lot of pressure but it's worth it. some notable firsts this year, we mentioned the largest number of women, the largest para—sport athlete congregation in the history of this event, it's going to be quite something, isn't it? it is, and what the

commonwealth games sought to do on the gold coast has continued in birmingham and that is to stamp itself as something different. it's not the olympics, it is more family friendly event, but it does allow opportunities for advancing women in sport. we had the previous record, birmingham has just beaten us in terms of the number of women participating, same with wheelchair events, we led the world in it. birmingham is beating that record, all of which is good because it shows something different about the commonwealth games. what the games had to do, under dame louise martin, who is brilliant by the way, but it had to do was establish itself a particular niche or special place in world events because there is a lot of competition for this. when i think back, i can see what dame louise martin was doing, she's continued it in birmingham because as you know, this event was originally going to be in south africa

and birmingham picked up the baton and they've done a magnificentjob so congratulations to birmingham. one thing you didn't have to cope with as it were was the coronavirus pandemic. this is taking place in a post pandemic world, making the excitement and anticipation all the greater. absolutely. it showed additional pressure that i'm sure birmingham didn't want but they've handled it really well and you've got to remember the eyes of the world are on birmingham. all the media looking at everything and with all due respect to your profession which is a very important one in a free society, they always look for the good and the mistakes and if anything goes wrong, of course that is where the pressure comes from so everyone in birmingham, from dame louise martin down, will be making certain that everything goes smoothly but the pandemic would have been a nightmare. the fact they've been able to handle it and handle it well is a real credit.

you can see more you can see more on you can see more on that story and other— you can see more on that story and other stories that have featured on our website. the weather story's looking pretty benign for the next few days. we'll have very little wind around to move the weather along. but one thing you will notice over the next few days is that it'll be warming up, particularly across england and wales. most places will be dry, but there will be some showers around — increasingly so across the north and the west of the country as we move into the weekend. so, we've got this weak area of high pressure just to the east of the uk, rather cloudy high, drawing up some warmer airfrom the near continent. but there is a lot of cloud trapped underneath it, so a rather grey day, i think on thursday. showery bursts of rain continuing to affect parts of northern ireland, northern england, southern scotland, certainly through the morning, it'll tend to ease down into the afternoon. could see a few showers developing across western areas, most places will be dry. despite the cloud amounts, it'll feel warmer —

22—24 celsius in the south. we could see 20 celsius or so in the central belt of scotland. so, it looks like it should be a dry affair for the commonwealth games�* opening ceremony in birmingham, temperatures at around 19—20 celsius, so feeling quite mild. now, as we head through thursday night, it looks like most places will hold onto the cloud — again, the cloud will be thickest across parts of northern england, southern scotland, where we could see some splashes of rain. but for most places, it will be dry, and a milder night to come, lows of 12—14 celsius. the breeze will be picking up here later in the day, but much of the uk will be under the influence of high pressure once again. so, we'll start off with quite a bit of cloud around friday morning across northern england, southern scotland. so, i think there's

a greater chance of seeing the sunshine on friday. the odd shower will develop again into the afternoon, but most places will be dry, 25—28 celsius across england and wales, the low 20s across the north — so feeling a lot warmer. saturday's another warm, muggy day, but we will have more cloud around outbreaks of rain affecting the north and the west of the country, as that weather front continues to push its way eastwards. very little getting into the southeast, the areas where we really do need the rainfall. again, it'll be another warm day — low 20s in the north, up to around 25—26 celsius across the southeast. it stays warm into sunday and monday. there's always the chance of rain in the north and the west, but tending to stay dry in the south and the east.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the us and chinese presidents are to speak on the phone, as tensions soar between the two countries. beijing has warned washington it will bear the consequences if house speaker nancy pelosi visits taiwan. the us says it has made an offer to russia to release basketballer brittney griner and former marine paul whelan. secretary of state antony blinken says he'll push his russian counterpart for a response in talks scheduled for the coming days. a new coordination centre has begun work in turkey, part of a complex deal to re—start blockaded grain exports from ukraine. it's an effort to ease

the global food crisis,