welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: ajury orders conspiracy theorist alexjones to pay more than $900 million to the families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. urgent action is required to reverse biodiversity destruction — the stark warning from the world wide fund for nature after wildlife populations decline by almost 70% in 50 years. have you wrecked the economy, prime minister? time for

another u—turn? the british prime minister insists she won't cut public spending, to pay for her multibillion—pound package of tax cuts. and the us leads western countries in promising more weapons for ukraine, including air defence systems. we will do everything we can as fast as we can to help the ukrainian forces get the capability they need to protect the ukrainian people. and scientists in australia teach lab—grown brain cells to play an iconic video game. we find out how and why. live from our studio in singapore. hello and welcome to the programme. ajury in the us has ordered the conspiracy theorist alexjones to pay $965 million in damages to the families of victims of the sandy hook massacre. mrjones falsely claimed

for years that the mass shooting had been staged by the government to try to introduce tighter gun controls. the school principal was among the 26 people killed in the attack in 2012. a little earlier our correspondent, gary o'donoghue told me why alexjones has been held accountable. really been held accountable. from when it actually happened really from when it actually happened alex jones really from when it actually happened alexjones on his info wars channels which are syndicated across america reaching millions and millions of people, suggested that the sandy hook massacre, 20 dead, small elementary children, was a hoax and that the parents of those children who died were crisis actors as he put it and it was all done in the name of protecting or rather attacking rights. some of his followers took up this mantra and they persecuted the parents of those children who died. they send

them death threats they published information online. some were forced to move home. and this went on for years and years. eventually some families decided to sue alexjones. this is the second defamation trial he has faced. he has pleaded guilty and has since said he retracted the claim about the hoax that he has not retracted his polemic and his language about the people who brought the case and on his show today while the jury was reading out his verdict he said it was delusional leftist and then he used an expletive to describe the outcome. it is a colossal sum and one that will probably bang from tim in the long run, or put him out of business. whether or not the families will see anything like this amount of money and reality is amount of money and reality is a different matter because there will be appeals and he will simply say he does not have the money because he has already said that. you spoke

through the reaction from jones. have we heard from the of those who died?— of those who died? there was some reaction _ of those who died? there was some reaction outside - of those who died? there was some reaction outside the - of those who died? there was i some reaction outside the court afterwards. as the jury members and their decisions were being read out in court and the amounts of money draw dropping amounts of money draw dropping amounts of money draw dropping amounts of money, the families in the gallery were crying a little, they were touching one another, there were fist bumps and then afterwards one father of a six—year—old, emily parker, who was killed in the massacre, robbie parker stood outside court and said that justice had taken a long time but it was worth it. and then lawyers in fact said it is all about, in a sense, telling america that you cannot spread these kinds of malicious lies without there being consequences because, of course, what conspiracy theorists like alexjones say

is that freedom of speech means he can say what he likes and the courts have really come down and said that is not true. a new report that's just been released by the world wide fund for nature has shown that on average, monitored wildlife populations have declined by a staggering 69% since 1970. it says governments, businesses and the public must take what it called �*transformative action�* to reverse the destruction of biodiversity. i spoke earlier to the deputy conservation director for wwf international and asked her for the main causes of the shocking decline. this is ourflagship publication that we publish every two years and there is a 69% of this year of populations that include mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles fish. it is a trend heading in the wrong direction. there is no doubt we

have a crisis and, unfortunately, this is a man—made crisis. however, it can be solved. we have a broken relationship with nature and we cannot foster economic development at the expense of the natural world. environmental destruction and climate change. things like deforestation and conversion of habitats, mangoes, wetlands, unsustainable hunting and poaching, overfishing of the oceans, logging, mining, unsustainable infrastructure. there are multiple causes of the way we produce and consume in our economic model that we need to change because we depend on nature you know? this is notjust depend on nature you know? this is not just for the depend on nature you know? this is notjust for the sake of the beauty of it, because it is beautiful, but everything we have, food, water, the clothes we wear, we depend on nature. it is important to understand

where we are heading and what the solutions are. find where we are heading and what the solutions are.— the solutions are. and 'ust to sa , we the solutions are. and 'ust to say. we fl the solutions are. and 'ust to say, we are looking h the solutions are. and 'ust to say, we are looking at h the solutions are. and just to say, we are looking at somel the solutions are. and just to l say, we are looking at some of the images of the animals, the species that are endangered and names that i think will be very familiar to those of you watching at home. the orangutan, the australian sea lion, koalas, river dolphins, their population according to your report is down by some 65% in the last decade or so. you outlined why it is so important to save the biodiversity but what is the single cause to think behind it?— what is the single cause to think behind it? there is not one single — think behind it? there is not one single cause, _ think behind it? there is not one single cause, you - think behind it? there is not| one single cause, you know? think behind it? there is not l one single cause, you know? i think it is that really we have a very lack of understanding of the value of nature and how we need to foster a nature positive economic model. we need to make sure that whatever and however we produce and how we relate with our environment

has a positive effect and not a negative effect. if you see the per capita gdp in the last 14 years is going up while at the same trend you see the living planet index is going down so it is really about a nonsustainable model and we need to foster systemic change. as he was saying it is notjust for government orfor as he was saying it is notjust for government or for business. it is the entire system. businesses need to have food systems or food value chains that are not destroying or converting habitat or causing deforestation. as individuals we need to make choices in our diets in the way we consume, in reducing food waste. almost 30% of the food is lost or wasted. that is a lot.— that is a lot. just to say, is there any _ that is a lot. just to say, is there any hope _ that is a lot. just to say, is there any hope out - that is a lot. just to say, is there any hope out there, l there any hope out there,

though in terms of, you know, the countries that are possibly getting it right or governance that are getting it right, where we see the numbers of animals possibly go up?- animals possibly go up? yes. there are- — animals possibly go up? yes. there are. we _ animals possibly go up? yes. there are. we know - animals possibly go up? yes. there are. we know the - animals possibly go up? yes there are. we know the causes and there for we have the tools to turn things around, you know? there are very interesting technologies that we are able to monitor because we are able to monitor because we know where it is happening in real time for satellites and there for we can predict the areas that are more important to consider. there are models. in two months are having the un biodiversity in montreal. policymakers there will gather to discuss a biodiversity framework for the world and we need to have an agreement that is ambitious and that can drive action immediately. we have no time to waste and there are solutions. we know the solutions, we need to have the

will because it is not an easy decision. it is about transforming the way we live to having systemic changes in our systems and our economies. mige systems and our economies. wise words there _ systems and our economies. wise words there from _ systems and our economies. wise words there from the _ systems and our economies. wise words there from the deputy global conservation director for wwf international who spoke to us earlier on the programme. to the uk now, where the government is battling fresh economic uncertainty. prime minister liz truss has told mps her strategy of cutting tax will not change. but she's also said she won't cut spending either — suggesting the government will have to borrow more. that's raised concern even among her own mps as our political editor chris mason reports. reporter: have you wrecked | the economy, prime minister? there are plenty of questions for liz truss at the moment, but that one gets to the crux of things. spiralling prices, interest rates climbing, the markets wobbling, and her backbenches, too. quite the backdrop for her second outing

at prime minister's question time. given the government's central challenge right now is proving the numbers add up, it was this exchange today that stood out. during her leadership contest, the prime minister said, and i quote her exactly, "i'm very clear. "i'm not planning public spending reductions." is she going to stick to that? prime minister. absolutely, absolutely. we are spending almost £1 trillion of public spending.| we were spending £700 billion back in 2010. - what we will make sure is that over the medium term, - the debt is falling. but we will do that, _ not by cutting public spending, but by making sure we spend public money well. _ so, let's try to work out what that means. some have said that ministers either have to junk those tax cuts

announced a few weeks ago or have to announce massive spending cuts to be seen to be credible. the government says it's going to not do either and isn't explaining how that is possible. one way may be that they include the big extra help being offered for energy bills as part of government spending and still make cuts elsewhere. we've taken decisive action to make sure that people are not facing energy bills of £6,000 for two years. labour wanted to return to liz truss's tax cuts. who voted for this? not even most of the mps behind her, who know you can't pay for tax cuts on the never, never. does she think the public will ever forgive the conservative party if they keep on defending this madness? and this senior conservative backbencher who backed rishi sunakfor prime minister is sceptical, too. there are many,

myself included, who believe that it is quite possible that he will simply have to come forward with a further rowing back on the tax announcements. and, remember, the reason the government says it's doing all of this is to turbo—charge the economy, but one economic group told mps that's not going to happen any time soon. we're not going to hit medium term 2.5% growth in this economy at the moment. this is something that's going to have to be nurtured, as i've said to this committee a number of times, over decades. tonight, liz truss saw the king for the prime minister's usual weekly chat, or audience. take a listen to their pleasantries. your majesty. back again. lovely to see you again. dear, oh, dear. it is a great pleasure. now, i never know how... chris mason reporting there from westminster — the british chancellor of the exchequer, kwasi kwarteng is in washington for an important finance ministers meeting. he is likely to come under fire over recent uk government policies that caused

havoc in the markets. 0ur economics editor faisal islam filed this report from the imf meeting. he is making his debut here at the imf in washington. the first meeting with fellow g7 finance ministers. something of a baptism of fire, even this morning, as he arrived with news from the uk that in august the uk economy went into reverse, contracting unexpectedly with those government effective borrowing costs, the yields, going up to levels we have not seen for 1h years. the bank of england saying that it was definitely and uncompromisingly going to withdraw emergency support that has been in place since the mini budget for the guild market this weekend and other arms of the bank of england, chief economist say that actually the biggest

consequence in economic terms of the energy shock will not be inflation but on the public finances. that passes the ball back to the government, the treasury to sort out what is seen as a problem notjust in the uk here as well. our understanding is that among the g7 there is some raised eyebrows over what is happening. they would rather talk about what is happening in ukraine with developing countries but they are wondering about the message it sends to world financial systems at this already fragile time, warning about unfunded tax cuts and threats to financial stability around the g7 table and asking privately why the uk doubled down on something that has caused this reaction in markets. and if you want to get in touch with me on any stories you have seen so far on newsday i am on

twitter. i'm looking forward to hearing from you. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we'll tell you how scientists in australia have taught lab—grown brain cells how to play an iconic video game.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm kasrishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines: ajury orders conspiracy theorist, alexjones, to pay over $900 million to the families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. the world wide fund for nature urges governments to take immediate action, to reverse biodiversity destruction, after wildlife populations decline by almost seventy per—cent in 50 years.

in other top stories for you today, the un general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn russia's attempts to annex four regions of ukraine. meanwhile, the us and its nato allies have reaffirmed their support for ukraine in the face of intensifying russian agression, promising to send military hardware to kyiv for as long as it takes. in as it takes. the past few days putin has given in the past few days putin has given us all another group review of the future when the appetites of aggressive autocrats outweigh the rights of peaceful states. we are going to do everything we can as fast as we can to help the ukrainian get the capability they need to protect the ukrainian people. the minister of defence in britain says he has authorised the supply of new air defence missiles to ukraine's military. ben wallace said the advanced medium—range air—to—air missile would be delivered in the coming weeks. the weapons are thought to be capable of shooting down the russian cruise missiles

which have hit urban areas across ukraine during a wave of strikes in recent days. the german government has said the first of its four iris—t air defence systems was delivered to ukraine on wednesday. for his part, vlaidimir putin has accused the west of stoking the global energy crisis, suggesting damage to the nord stream gas pipeline was the result of international terrorism. with mr putin under increasing pressure at home and abroad our russia editor steve rosenberg considers what his next move might be? what will vladimir putin do next in ukraine? what is he thinking? his special military operation has not gone according to plan. but u—turns? that's not his style. this is. at an event in moscow, classic putin — the kremlin leader painting russia as the victim and the authorities in kyiv as terrorists.

keep in mind, though, that it was russia that invaded ukraine. constantin's newspaper has criticised russian officials for nuclear sabre—rattling during the special operation. he says putin wants a new world order and don't expect de—escalation any time soon. he's authoritarian leader of a nuclear power. he's unchallenged leader in this country, and he has some strong beliefs and perceptions which drive him crazy, and he's started to believe that this is existential. would putin really go nuclear in ukraine? he's dropped unsubtle hints. days before the russian invasion, the president oversaw massive nuclear drills. he's since warned

the west he's not bluffing about the nuclear option. in putin's mind, for him, defeat is unimaginable. if you'd run a country for 22 years like vladimir putin has, and if you'd silenced all your critics and crushed the opposition like putin has, you may well feel like putin appears to feel — that you will always end up a winner. to acknowledge that any other outcome is possible means facing up to an unpalatable fact that you are not invincible. and in a country with no checks or balances, and where the leaders don't feel accountable to the public, there are few constraints on kremlin decision—making. the problem is that the system which was created in this 30 years didn't create the society. there is a lot of very nice people in russia.

i think you met them. but there is no civil society. that's why russia can't resist. for now, resistance to the kremlin is coming from ukraine and the west. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. i want to tell you now about the fact that australian researchers have grown brain cells in a lab and taught them how to play the iconic early video game, pong. the team says the so—called "mini—brain", can sense and respond to its environment, calling it the first sentient lab grown brain. here's our science correspondent, pallab ghosh. these little white blobs are clumps of brain cells that have been grown in a lab. researchers connected cells similar to these to a computer. under the microscope, you can see the tiny wires that sent electrical impulses in and out. it learnt to play a 1970s

game called pong, in the rectangle on the screen. the lab—grown brain moves a white line to try and stop the dot getting past. right now, we have the chance for drug discovering, disease modelling, understanding intelligence. the next stage could open up options such as cybersecurity management, or more autonomous devices. finally, perhaps we could even lead to sentient and fully autonomous robots that can act and change in the real world. the researches grew a clump of 800,000 brain cells from a mixture of mouse neurons and human stem cells. the plan is to see if more of these mini—brains become worse at playing the game after they've been dosed with alcohol, just like a human player would. mini—brains are also being grown in a uk lab in order to study brain development. it's taken researchers six weeks to grow these mini—brains. you can see the electrical activity

of their neurons on this screen here. it's precisely because they behave similarly to human brains, even though it's at a very rudimentary level, that researchers here are taking great care in the way they develop the technology. there may be the potential, probably much further down the line, to simulate something like certainly intelligence and cognition, and we want to make sure that we know ahead of time where that boundary is, so that we don't accidentally stumble over it. the scientists are working with ethics experts to develop new rules to regulate the research. will these so—called mini—brains develop to the point where they can feel pleasure or pain? and how might we consider their moral status if they were conscious or sentient? and how should we regulate the use of this research in future technology? these are questions that we

haven't begun to consider. today's mini—brains are a very long way off from becoming self—aware, and many researchers believe that's unlikely to ever happen, but they agree that they do need to proceed with caution. pallab ghosh, bbc news. goodness, what will they think of next? and finally, the hollywood star jamie lee curtis has had her hands and feet cemented in concrete at a ceremony in los angeles. the tcl chinese theatre handprints—footprints tribute has been a prestigious hollywood honorfor the past 95 yea rs. the actress signed the date as october 31, halloween, rather than the day's actual date, 0ctober12, in homage to the film that launched her movie career. what a legend indeed, jamie lee curtis. that's all for now, stay

with bbc world news. hello there. 0ur weather story is becoming a little bit more unsettled as we head towards the weekend. no two days the same at the moment, not only in terms of weather, but also the feel of things, both by day and night. now, for thursday, many of us will see some sunny spells, but there will be blustery, squally showers developing in the far north—west. over the next few hours, we'll start to see this weather front easing away from channel coasts. it mightjust continue to bring a little bit of early—morning rain on thursday. look at the temperatures — double digits because of the cloud and the rain around. further north, though, it's going to be a chilly

start, with a touch of light frost in rural parts. but as we go through the day, there will be a good slice of dry and sunny weather to look out for for most of us. into the afternoon, however, the winds will strengthen, elsewhere, temperatures pretty similar to the last few days by the middle of the afternoon. we're looking at highs of 11—17 celsius — that's 63 fahrenheit. now, that weather front will continue to move its way steadily south and east, weakening all the time. it's going to be replaced by another one moving through scotland and northern ireland as well. at the same time, there's the potentialfor a little bit of showery rain once again, just clinging on to channel coasts first thing on friday. sandwiched in between the two, we should see some drier, brighter interludes, and behind, its going to be bright and breezy with showers. so, friday's a really messy story, a real autumnal picture of blustery showers. warm in the sunshine still, with 17 degrees the high. now, low pressure never too far away as we head into the weekend. plenty of isobars, particularly the further north you go. gusts of wind, 40—50 mph, and they're going to be driving weather fronts in around those areas of low pressure. so, saturday is going to be a case of sunny spells and squally showers, the showers most frequent

out towards the west, but some of those will start to push a little bit further inland as the day continues. favoured spots for the best of the drier weather, parts of aberdeenshire and perhaps through south—east england as well. and here, we'll see highs again of around 11—17 celsius. not much change as we go into sunday and monday. the winds stay blustery from a warm source, plenty of showers to dodge as well. take care.

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. hello. you 0k? what is your name? jade? in your own time, what has happened is obviously traumatic but can you tell me what happened. yes. um, i was at a friend's birthday party. i went back with a bunch of friends...

i rememberfalling asleep and then i remember waking up and knowing that something had penetrated me.