welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: president biden signs into law the biggest ever investment to tackle climate change. this bill is the biggest step forward on climate, ever — ever — and it is going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meeting all of my climate goals. a series of explosions rocks russian occupied crimea. for the second time in a week, a military base is targeted. one of the last remaining countries to avoid an outbreak of covid—19, the marshall islands, is seeing a surge in infections, after community transmission was found a week ago.

we hear from the secretary of health on how the islands are coping. also in the programme: a battle for the future of the us republican party is under way in the cowboy state, wyoming, as a prominent critic of donald trump tries to fight off a primary challenge. i've never agreed with one thing liz cheney has ever said but i respected how she fought for democracy. she is standing for principal and she is saying, i don't care if i lose myjob, i'm going to do the right thing. # give me a sign # hit me baby one more time and tributes to the former uk pop idol contestant and theatre star, darius danesh, who has died at the age of 41.

live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news — it's newsday. hello and welcome to the the programme. we start in the united states where president biden has signed into law the biggest ever investment to fight climate change in the us. the bill, known as the inflation reduction act, includes more than $400 billion of new spending. it's being seen as a major victory for the biden administration, and also contains reforms to the price of prescription drugs and tax rises on corporations. mr biden said it was one of the most significant laws in america's history. ahead of signing the bill, this is what he had to say on its importance for tackling climate change. this bill is the biggest step forward on climate, ever — ever — and it is going to allow us to boldly take

additional steps toward meeting all of my climate goals, the ones we set out when we ran. it includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fenceline communities that have been smothered, smothered by the legacy of pollution and fight environmental injustice that has been going on for so long. the bill has been one year in the making and considerably less than what the democrats originally wanted — a point i put to our north america correspondent peter bowes. it is significantly less than the nore than $2 trillion they put together as a package by the president and the democrats that did not see the light of day. there was a lot of concern within his own party amongst

democrats, a couple of senators who are concerned that this would not tackle inflation and that it would add to inflation during these difficult times that the us is currently going through but it is much better than nothing and a few weeks ago, it looked as if nothing is what the president would get because of that opposition. so, he has this major achievement in at least getting the bill through and it's interesting that you should highlight the climate change initiative and the fact that this can make it easierfor him to meet his climate goals. i think on the international stage, that is going to benefit the presidents usually because they'll be some concern expressed overseas that america might be back at the table as far as climate change is concerned. but the rest of the world was not seeing the us make any significant changes. that's on the international stage, peter. what do you think about the timing of this in terms of the domestic front, given that a lot of

the conversation us media has been dominated by what's been happening with president trump. do you think this is an attempt in terms of the timing to move the attention away from that back to the main policies for the democrats? i think the timing is purely coincidental and i think president biden would've welcome the passage of this bill anytime over the last year. and if you say, we are seeing a lot of action on the sidelines, a lot of drama in the world of donald trump and that is happening now but it doesn't have any bearing on the passage of this bill which as far asjoe biden is concerned, is much bigger than a lot of the drama that is going on and i think what it does is in terms of pure domestic politics is give mr biden something to campaign on over the next less than three months before the midterm elections and is planning to travel the country and campaign somebody�*s trying to get done with this bill.

and he can also say look, i kept my promise i wanted to make these changes and make it easier to get the cost of prescription drugs down to make it easier for americans to get electric cars and promote solar energy. that is what he has done. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines: african leaders have congratulated the kenyan politician, william ruto, for winning his country's presidential election, despite the result having been rejected by the opposition leader, raila odinga. the leaders of uganda and ethiopia said they looked forward to working closely with mr ruto's government. the high court in london has heard how british ministers who supported sending asylum seekers to rwanda were told that its government tortures and kills political opponents. an independent adviser made the warning weeks before the uk tried — and failed — to send a flight carrying migrants to rwanda. the british government has

insisted rwanda is safe. in portugal over a thousand firefighters writing a blaze which has been burning for ten days, it was brought under control on sunday before reigniting again. smoke has travelled 400 kilometres to madrid, blanketing the sky of the spanish capital. campaigning is officially underway ahead of 0ctober�*s presidential elections in brazil that will see the right—wing incumbent, jair bolsonaro, take on the left—wing former leader, luiz inacio lula da silva. mr bolsonaro addressed supporters at a rally injuiz de fora, where he was stabbed in the run—up to the 2018 vote. to the war in ukraine now and russia is blaming what it calls "sabotage" for a series of explosions at an arms store and another military facility

in occupied crimea. the blasts, which also hit a power station and damaged a railway, came a week after a string of explosions destroyed russian warplanes at a black sea base on the crimean coast. ukraine has hinted that it was behind the latest incident, describing it as "demilitarisation in action". this is what a russian—appointed local governor in crimea had to say about the explosions: translation: as of now, l the information that we have is that two people were injured. one man was hit by a shrapnel fragment and the other wounded person was buried under a wall. i've ordered a 5km zone to be closed off. evacuation of all civilians from within this 5km zone is under way. the united nations chief, antonio guterres, is to travel

to lviv, in western ukraine on thursday to meet both president zelensky and the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. he'll then travel on to ukraine's black sea port of 0desa. mr guterres last visited ukraine in april, when he witnessed some of the destruction in towns previously occupied by russian forces. i spoke to drjenny mathers, who is a senior lecturer in international politics at aberystwyth university in wales. as we have been reporting, russia has been calling sabotage and there is some suggestion from the ukranians — that this may not be completely accidental. dr mathers explained what could be going on. i think it is important to realise that ukrainians have been very good at maintaining operational secrecy. keeping close control over key bits of information that may reveal too much to the russians about the capabilities and the deployment of their forces and so on. so ukrainians want to be a bit cagey and leave the russians guessing about what happened and who is responsible and how they did this by the same time, they're giving pretty strong hints that, yes, they were indeed responsible for these

really spectacular attacks, well behind the front lines in russia and crimea. with these conflicting narratives, is it impossible to say at this point who is gaining ground in the conflict? i think we have to, rather than take a snapshot, i think we have to look at the trends in the way that things are moving. russia has had a very considerable advantage in terms of the sheer amounts of material that he can throw at ukraine, the amount of weapons, the amount of ammunition and so on and really overwhelming force. what ukrainians take advantage of is strategy and stealth and they've been very careful at deploying the forces that they have to try and cut off russia's supply line and also to try and attack their command centres and so, russian forces have been steadily degraded

by these ukrainian attacks as well as some of their own mistakes and being trained by the western gaining very valuable experience in strategy and so on. so, the russians of overwhelming force, but their abilities to wage the war in the way that they have recently is being degraded. what you make of the word of the russians are using, saying that this is "sabotage". what is this allowed them to effectively do in this case? sabotage suggests that there may be random people around that they could round up and arrest and accuse of this crime and it makes it sound quite casual and perhaps, a bit unprofessional. whereas if we were to call them ukrainian paramilitary forces or special forces or intelligent forces, it makes them sound a lot more

professional and worrying. it's a way the russians can downgrade what is happening but also imply that the solutions are within russian control in the sense that they can go out and arrest some people and deal with the problem. one of the last remaining countries to avoid an outbreak of covid—i9 is now seeing a surge in infections, after community transmission was found just over a week ago. the marshall islands closed their borders at the start of the pandemic, implementing strict quarantine measures to keep the virus out. but a new outbreak in the pacific nation has forced restrictions to be implemented with a state of health disaster declared. a little earlier i asked jack niedenthal, secretary of health and human services for the marshall islands how they'd managed to keep the virus at bay for so long. i think people need to

understand we have lived in a state of emergency sees august 2010 because of an outbreak of dengue figure and that went into january 2020 when we saw what was happening on china and wejust decided we what was happening on china and we just decided we did not want to have — to be fighting to different viruses at once. a lot of people thought we were crazy when we closed bodice but it turns out a lot of pacific countries saw what we did and they also close their borders. it was very dramatic. do not have a very healthy people, we have a very healthy people, we have high diabetes and cancer rates per capita and we felt we had to protect our public and we had very strict protocols, quarantine, people coming in from the us and when they get here they were also under strict quarantine orders so we managed to do it for over two years without a single community case of covid—19. we

had a few border cases but that was it. ,, . ., , was it. secretary, given the restrictions _ was it. secretary, given the restrictions you _ was it. secretary, given the restrictions you have - was it. secretary, given the restrictions you have just i restrictions you have just described, how do you think is community transmission has now unfortunately ta ken community transmission has now unfortunately taken place? well, it unfolded very quickly. this 0micron variant is very contagious, almost on par with measles. it swept through the community. i was the 11th person on the very first day. i went home and did a test and i had it. i recovered pretty much. we were prepared for this. we spent the last two years preparing. we have new covid boards, ventilators, vaccines, the ability to test and we have a lot of information and therapeutics that we have been handing out them to vulnerable people. we have six alternative sites. we

have six alternative sites. we have kept covid relatively free from our hospitals. 0ur response has been fabulous in marshall islands. we have had six deaths. well over 4000 cases now so that is pretty good i think and very unfortunate for all of us because it is a small island community. we have around 30,000 people where the outbreak is so we know all these people when they die. it is not like other places. every death is very hard for us. i am sure that _ death is very hard for us. i am sure that it — death is very hard for us. i am sure that it is, _ death is very hard for us. i am sure that it is, secretary, - death is very hard for us. i am sure that it is, secretary, and| sure that it is, secretary, and i'm sorry hear that. but this is happening as the rest of the world have sought of moved on from covid, learning to live with the virus. is that the strategy going forward? there is not a lot _ strategy going forward? there is not a lot of— strategy going forward? there is not a lot of choices - strategy going forward? there is not a lot of choices here. i is not a lot of choices here. it is something we're going to have to live with but, again,

the one thing, the one point that we stressed, right from the beginning of this, that i do not think the rest of the world did, was that our goal was to let the side catch up with the virus and i really proud of everybody in this country, especially the people in the ministry of health, to get the politicians on board with that, the president and the cabinet were very supportive the entire time of what we wanted to do in the ministry of health. we have a military base, the us military has been fabulous, we have had a lot of partners like taiwan and australia and japan and new zealand, they have come in and really helped us quite a bit so we were ready.— really helped us quite a bit so we were ready. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: tributes for the scottish former uk pop idol contestant and theatre star darius

danesh, who's died at the age of 41. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, i in one of the worst days of violence _ between rival black groups. over the last 10 - days, 500 have died. crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! _ man: czechoslovakia must be free! - crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! _ russia is observing a national day of mourning _ for the 118 submariners - who died on board the kursk. we are all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," - chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope.

"so, you want mej to desert rome?" this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines: president biden signs into law the biggest ever investment to tackle climate change, which includes more than $400 billion of new spending. a series of explosions rocks russian—occupied crimea. for the second time in a week, a military base is targeted. let's return to the us now, where voters in the state of wyoming are going to the polls in a republican primary election, seen as a key test of donald trump's enduring popularity. this woman — liz cheney — is the incumbent. fiercely critical of the former president, she's facing a major challenge from harriet hageman, a political newcomer

and trump—backed candidate. so far, potential candidates — like those in south carolina, washington state and michigan — who've been openly critical of donald trump, have had huge trouble winning republican primary races. our north america correspondent, john sudworth, has been speaking with voters across the state of wyoming. at wyoming's junior rodeo finals... ..some children don't stay on for long. a fitting metaphor, perhaps, for the state's republican congresswoman liz cheney and her hard fall from grace. for the most part the state of wyoming is very big trump supporters. so when she goes against the masses it doesn't work good for us. for hours, donald trump chose not to answer the pleas from congress. liz cheney is one of only two republicans to have joined

the committee investigating donald trump's attempts to cling to power. the people of wyoming are going to tell her, "liz, you're fired, get out of here." cheering. "get out of here." and he is out for revenge, personally picking her challenger, harriet hageman, who is now way ahead in the race to become the official republican candidate. wyoming is a place of stunning beauty but the high rocky mountains loom over a landscape with deepening political fault lines, too. with 70% voting for trump here, truth is now in the minority. the widespread belief that the 2020 election was stolen from donald trump in wyoming is very concerning to me as a journalist. and all i can do is report people's beliefs and i report the truth. they are not bad people, it is just a heartfelt belief that they have. and other than that, they're just ordinary folks here in wyoming.

ordinary folks but extraordinary times. there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than donald trump. liz cheney's famous father, once a hate figure for the american left, now on common ground. and at the polling stations some democrats have been registering as republicans to try to keep liz cheney on the party ticket. i've never agreed with one thing liz cheney has ever said but i respected how she fought for democracy. election denialism is now a potent political force, notjust here, but in arizona, wisconsin, other key states. the process remains intact, the polling booths and ballot papers, but amid a torrent of misinformation and false, something seismic is shifting and the concern is the very essence of democracy is under threat. doorbell rings. good morning. we are just knocking on doors for liz cheney.

these republicans, rare voices of support for liz cheney, are from out of state. evan and his dog have driven 17 hours to be here, from austin, texas. when you have republicans, former republicans, independents, democrats, a socialist, knocking on doors for liz cheney, of all people, i think you have to look at why. and i think the reason is she is standing for principle and she is saying, "i don't care if i lose myjob, i'm going to do the right thing." all eyes are on the "cowboy state" and a test for party and country — just how much donald trump still calls the tune. john sudworth, bbc news, wyoming. the former uk pop idol contestant and theatre star darius danesh has died at the age of 41. # and #and i, i # and i, i must confess, i

still believe # still believe. he rose to fame when he gave this memorable audition singing baby one more time for the show popstars into thousand and one before finishing third in pop idol the following year. at? idol the following year. ii" nobody said you idol the following year. 32?" nobody said you would be so beautiful. after turning down the offer of a record deal with the entrepreneur and record executive simon cowell, his debut single colourblind went straight to the top of the charts — and he went on to forge a successful stage career performing in west end shows including chicago and guys and dolls. our reporter gareth barlow joins me now from our london newsroom. he has been looking into this story for us. as i understand it, tributes have been pouring in and there has been widespread shock at his death. what have people been saying? a lot of shock and sadness from fans online and many big names of the entertainment industry as well taking to twitter and social media. the record

producer and tv personality, simon cowell, said that the passing of darius was an absolute tragedy adding he was absolute tragedy adding he was a charismatic funny and great person to be with. meanwhile john barrowman said that darius was very talented, genuine and personable young man. darius's wife who he married in 2011 and was in a relationship with a couple of years, natasha henstridge posted a series of pictures of the pair together on instagram saying that there are no words, darius, only love, love, love. it are no words, darius, only love, love, love.— are no words, darius, only love, love, love. it is such a shock even _ love, love, love. it is such a shock even the _ love, love, love. it is such a shock even the fact - love, love, love. it is such a shock even the fact that - love, love, love. it is such a shock even the fact that he | love, love, love. it is such a i shock even the fact that he has had so many remarkable accomplishments in such a short span of time. we don't know yet what has happened, that is something we need to remind our viewers that if we could have a look at his legacy and the impact he had on millions of fans. what do you think he was best known for? he fans. what do you think he was best known for?—

fans. what do you think he was best known for? he had a varied career in the _ best known for? he had a varied career in the musical— best known for? he had a varied career in the musical tv - career in the musical tv reality shows, the first appearance on popstars back into thousand and one and that intriguing rendition of whitney spears's hit me baby one more time. thereafter that he came third in pop idol and that kick started his career as a musician. he also took to theatre and the west end, he was in guy's and dolls and in gone with the wind. he started in chicago and in 2010 he returned to reality tv in pop star to opera star. he won that and have production codes to his name as well. executive producer on the 2016 daniel radcliffe film.— producer on the 2016 daniel radcliffe film. gareth they're kee - in: radcliffe film. gareth they're keeping us — radcliffe film. gareth they're keeping us up _ radcliffe film. gareth they're keeping us up to _ radcliffe film. gareth they're keeping us up to date - radcliffe film. gareth they're keeping us up to date with i radcliffe film. gareth they're| keeping us up to date with all of the latest news on that story. thank you forjoining us on the programme. if you want to keep up with all the stories that we have been covering on newsday you can take a look at

the website, of course, where you can see the top story that of president biden signing that landmark bill into law. thank you forjoining us. hello there. a north—south divide across the country today. northern areas looked largely dry with plenty of sunshine, but again, across england and wales, closer to a thundery low than we're likely to see these thundery showers developing. again, they could be heavy enough to cause some localised flooding, especially from the midlands southwards. you can see that thundery low to the south, a ridge of high pressure building in across the north. this weather system will arrive across northern and western areas on thursday. so again, for large parts of england and wales, we'll see the clouds bubbling up, thunderstorms breaking out pretty much anywhere, but certainly across the midlands, in towards south, southeast england. further north, widespread sunshine around, light winds too. a very pleasant day, with temperatures reaching around 18 or 19 degrees, england and wales. little bit cooler, still quite humid in the southeast, top temperatures 20—23 degrees.

as we move through wednesday night, the showers and thunderstorms continue to rattle on across to east anglia and the southeast. and then eventually, they'll clear away and we start to see some wetter weather and breezier weather pushing into scotland and northern ireland, so temperatures recovering here. a few chilly spots under the clear skies, northern england, 11—15 across the south and east. here's thursday's pressure picture, then. this weather front bringing outbreaks of rain into scotland, northern ireland, perhaps western england and wales through the day. some heavy bursts mixed in there, quite a lot of cloud, generally. across the east and southeast of england, though, apart from the odd shower around, we should see some good spells of sunshine, so a quieter story here. a little bit warmer with more sunshine in the southeast, up to 25 degrees. around 20 or 21 as well across scotland and northern ireland. into friday, looks like that weather front eventually clears away from the southeast of england. we've got further sunshine and showers, scotland and northern ireland, northwest england, but quite a bit of sunshine, i think, across central, southern and eastern england. and again, quite warm — 25 degrees. around the high teens

in the north and the west, these sorts of values closer to the seasonal norm. we hold onto the run of westerly winds as we head into the weekend, this feature bringing an area of wet and windy weather across scotland. as we move through saturday night into sunday, though, we'll look at the next system, which will bring a spell of wet and windy weather across the whole of the uk during sunday. so for saturday, then, it looks like its northern areas which will see the showers. drier further south. sunday, though, looks unsettled across the whole of the uk, with outbreaks of heavy rain in places.

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. this week, we're getting in tune with nature. yeah, we're having a high—tech chat with our plants. i love that you're breaking it down to talking to plants because a lot of people do that in their own greenhouses. but what do you do when your grapes aren't happy? paul's looking at how vineyards are adapting to climate change. right, so shallwe...? shall we give it a taste? of course, yes. and forget fences. this is the new way to keep your cows from

moo—ving too far.