welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm monica miller. the headlines.... china experiences a surge of covid cases — a week after relaxing the country's strict rules on quarantines and lockdowns. the top gear presenter freddie�* flintoff is air—lifted to hospital — after a high speed car crash, while filming the bbc motoring show. us president, joe biden, signs into law, a bill giving federal protection to same—sex and inter—racial marriages. locking in their place in the world cup final — goals from messi and alvarez see argentina crush croatia's hopes with a three —

nil win in qatar. and a judge in the bahamas denies bill to the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange ftx — sam bankman live from our studio in singapore — this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme: china's hospital system is coming under a huge strain as covid—19 spreads quickly again. it follows the government's decision to abandon its zero—covid approach. the situation has become so bad y7hat doctors and nurses who have contracted the virus are being told to turn—up for work because of staff shortages. stephen mcdonell reports from beijing. long lines have been forming outside beijing's clinics after an explosion

of infections triggered by an end to china's zero—covid approach. hospitals have increased their fever ward capacity, expecting a huge influx of patients. people in this country have been used to going to hospital to treat any illness at all, but now they're putting massive pressure on the system. so doctors have taken to social media to try to explain that with mild cases of the virus, recovery at home is recommended — a new concept for most here. going to hospital can also be potentially dangerous at the moment, according to one specialist, who says patients could be catching covid from doctors and nurses. from my conversations with friends in china who serve as the hospital directors or medical workers, people being infected had been required to work in hospital, which creates a transmission environment there. it's notjust hospitals

that are under pressure. panic buying at pharmacies has meant certain medicines are now hard to come by. this sign says, "no cold and flu tablets, no thermometers and no home testing kits." just weeks ago, chinese officials were saying lockdowns and isolation centres were necessary. now, after a major u—turn, the message is that the latest covid types aren't dangerous, and many younger people are welcoming the chance to isolate at home. translation: the information circulating before about covid l was completely at odds with my experience of the virus. i caught it, was a bit uncomfortable, but it hasn't been nearly as scary as i thought it would be. she does however worry about her sister, who has children, and her grandmother. in other countries, reopening led to bustling streets, as communities

again came together. beijing feels like a ghost town. most are either recovering at home or afraid to go out, lest they too become infected. companies in these tower blocks are imploring staff to return to work, but they are having a difficult time convincing employees to reenter crowded offices. it looks like china is in for a tough few months before life returns to anything like normal. amongst those being overloaded are home delivery drivers, and many of them are also catching covid. so orders are piling up, with not enough drivers to handle them. "zero—covid" may be effectively over, but this virus continues to wreak havoc in china. stephen mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. police in the democratic

republic of congo say at least 100 people have died in the capital kinshasa after heavy rains caused floods and landslides. there are reports of homes collapsing with major roads underwater. many houses are built on slopes — prone to flooding — and the city suffers from inadequate drainage and sewerage. the iranian judiciary says 400 anti—government protestors in tehran have been given prison sentences of up to ten years. the city's prosecutor general said nearly half of what he described as "the rioters" were jailed for between five to ten years, most others for two years or less. scientists say a new type of personalised vaccine to treat cancer has produced promising results during trials. the experimental therapy is based on the same mrna technology that was first used in a covid—i9 vaccine. moderna said the results suggested a 44% reduction in the risk of dying of cancer or having cancer cases worsen.

a french court has found guilty all eight suspects accused of helping a tunisian man carry out a deadly truck attack in nice six years ago. 86 people were killed and hundreds injured when the vehicle tore through crowds celebrating bastille day. top gear presenter and former england cricketer, freddie flintoff, has been involved in a crash while filming. he's been taken to hospital, but his condition isn't thought to be life—threatening. our reporter, mark lobel has been following this story and hejoins me now from london. what more can you tell us mark? on tuesday morning, we understand there was an accident in surrey, the official top gear test track, so something has been driven and for many, many years and there are medics standing by at all times, and when freddie,

the former england cricketer and top—tier presenter was injured in an accident crew medics were on the scene immediately. the bbc has released acidic date next statement saying that he has been taken to hospital for further treatment, and we will confirm our details in due course. now, we do understand that he was not travelling at high speed at the time and that his injuries are not life—threatening. he has had a scrape before in 2019 at the elkington airfield when he was also filming for top—tier. freddie was driving a trike, a motorised three wheeled bicycle, and hejust ran out motorised three wheeled bicycle, and he just ran out of runway, but he walked away unharmed from that. at the same sites, there was a famous accident with a former top—tier presenter, richard hammond, in 2006, where he was on a dragster that spun out of control and 288 mph. he was seriously injured from that but has since recovered. there are

reports that freddie in this latest accident was taken away by an airambulance latest accident was taken away by an air ambulance to a hospital. now, we don't know which hospital he was taken to jail or if he is indeed still in hospital, so there are more details on this trade to come. thank you very much for the update. president biden has signed into law a bill which gives federal protection to same sex and interracial marriages in the united states. he hailed the legislation "as a vital step towards equality, for liberty and justice." democrats secured the passage of the legislation weeks before surrendering control of the house of representatives to their republican opponents. the democrats were concerned that the conservative—led supreme court might overturn a 2015 ruling which protected equal marriage rights — as it did with abortion earlier this year. here's a little of what the us president had to say. today is a good day! a day america takes a vital step towards equality.

toward liberty and justice, notjust for some, but for everyone! everyone! toward creating a nation where decency, dignity and love are recognised, honoured and protected. next year, the island nation of timor—leste, or east timor, in south—east asia will formally become a member of asean, the political and economic union of member states in the region. the country occupies the northern half the island of timor. it struggled for independence from portugal in 1975 and then indonesia in 20—02, 27 years after it was invaded and then indonesia in 2002, 27 years after it was invaded by the indonesian military. the country's president, jose ramos—horta, spoke exclusively to the bbc�*s karishma vaswani. she put it to him that perhaps concerns over timor—leste being too close to china is why it took so long for his country to be accepted into asean.

we are not too close to china. if any accusation we should be level against that we are too close to indonesia in the sense not only geography but diplomatically, politically, culturally, economically, the other one, we should be as being too close to australia. and we have at navy unit for the past ten years, maybe engineers, in some ways it is good, i don't mind navy engineers, in some ways it is good, i don't mind when they say we are too close to china, because that way the australians and americans keep paying attention stop certainly you have been quoted as saying that you want this area to maintain an equal distance from all major powers.

i think that was an a recent interview of yours. is it possible to not take sides in a world that is getting increasingly divided by the superpowers? we get along exceptionally well with our immediate neighbours, australia, and indonesia, singapore, the other countries, new zealand. we have an exceptional communication with the united states, the european union and china. but we are one of the few countries in the world that has zero loans from china. we have not asked for loans. and most of our debt, which is very low anyway, one of the lowest in the world is particularly with the ifc international financial cooperation, it is a lending arm, we do have plenty of trade, thousands of small and big chinese trade areas.

this country that was born in the global stage, everyone remembers that moment. how do you feel about its trajectory and what are your hopes for its future? i am very pleased, very proud of our leadership, collective leadership, but also particularly but the people in that we could have fallen apart after independence. we have been able to normalise relations within indonesia and today we have the best possible relationship in two countries can have. that was our exclusive interview. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... goals from messi and alvarez see argentina crush croatia — to secure a place in

sunday's world cup final. saddam hussein is finished, because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to three and a half years of conflict, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border- was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world i to prevent the details - of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. on trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair means bill clinton is guaranteed

a place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm monical miller in singapore. our headlines... china has experienced a surge of covid cases — a week after relaxing the country's strict rules on quarantines and lockdowns. the top gear presenter, freddie' flintoff has been air—lifted to hospital — after a high speed car crash, while filming the bbc motoring show. ajudge in the bahamas has denied bill to the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, ftx, who's been accused of one of the biggest financialfrauds in us history. thejudge said sam bankman—fried should be remanded in custody until the case for

extradition could be heard on february the eighth. damian williams is the us attorney for the south district of new york. it's fair to say that this is one of the biggest financial frauds in american history. this investigation is very much ongoing, let's get more background now from our cyber reporter, joe tidy. sam bankman—fried was the front man of his $32 billion ftx empire. nicknamed the king of crypto, he was one of the industry's biggest personalities. but since his empire collapsed leaving more than a million customers out of pocket, he has faced numerous accusations of misusing customer funds. now in custody in the bahamas, the us accuses him of, in their words, building a house of cards on a foundation of deception. in multiple interviews, most recently with the bbc last week, he admitted to mismanaging ftx. were you incompetent or were you fraudulent? i didn't knowingly commit fraud, i don't think i committed fraud. i didn't want any

of this to happen. i was certainly not nearly as competent as i thought i was. ftx was the second—largest crypto exchange in the world. it allowed people to exchange their normal money — pounds or dollars — into bitcoin or any of the many other digital coins on offer. $10 billion was traded through ftx every day. but ftx had a sister company, also owned by mr bankman—fried, a hedge fund called alameda research. his companies both simultaneously collapsed when it was revealed that their finances were unstable. the us securities and exchange commission has now charged him with multiple financial crimes, including fraudulently using ftx customer money to keep alameda research afloat. the 30—year—old entrepreneur had promised to build a silicon valley of crypto here, attracted by favourable crypto regulations. bahamian police were already conducting their own investigation into the collapse, but it seems that the us has moved first. authorities here say

they are planning to fully comply with any us extradition request. joe tidy, bbc news. argentina have reached the final of the world cup in qatar after beating croatia three—nil. lionel messi scored the first goal in the 34th minute. our sports presenter olly foster is in doha with all the details. the smile on lionel messi's face at the stadium was as wide as the doha stadium behind me. yet again, the argentina captain instrumental in everything that they did here. carrying his country through to a sixth world cup final. it was julian alvarez, his strike partner, who was fouled just after the half—hour mark against croatia and it was lionel messi who stepped up

to square the penalty. that was his 11th world cup goal for argentina overtaking the old mark. he is now up to five year in qatar and he is the level in the race for the golden boot alongside mbappe he ran at the heart of the croatia defence before half—time, got the luck of the bounce, hit the second from close range. 2—0 at half—time and it was lionel messi who weaved his magic on the right with about 20 minutes left to play, turning one croatian defender and another inside and out to before finding alvarez for their third. the croatian fans knew that it just wasn't to be their day they weren't going to reach back to back finals. they were runners—up four years ago in russia, but there was a standing ovation for hit the captain luca modric, substituted towards the end. that is almost certainly going to be his final world cup. maybe it will be lionel

messi's, but what a way to go out on sunday and the final. it was his 25th world cup appearance against the croatians, and that equals the record of mattias. he is going to break that if he is fit and surely he will be on sunday. well we can speak tojournalist veronica smink who joins us from buenos aires. tell us what the atmosphere is like there? well, i think the sounds behind me speakfor well, i think the sounds behind me speak for themselves. more than three hours since the match finished, and these celebrations, people are ecstatic. and also believed. we did have a very hard to start. we lost the first game, so people have been suffering through every match. i think this is the first time that you go into the middle of the game inking, 0k, we are pretty much

ahead i think we've got this one. but it is the first time, so people are ecstatic, as he can hear. so people are ecstatic, as he can hear-— so people are ecstatic, as he can hear. ~ 5: , ., can hear. well, 34 minutes into it before there _ can hear. well, 34 minutes into it before there was _ can hear. well, 34 minutes into it before there was even - can hear. well, 34 minutes into it before there was even a - it before there was even a goal, messi is even more popular now than he used to be. how are people feeling in terms of the country? what does this mean for those feeling patriotic?— mean for those feeling patriotic? mean for those feeling atriotic? , ., ~ patriotic? every day you walk around, kids, _ patriotic? every day you walk around, kids, all— patriotic? every day you walk around, kids, all of— patriotic? every day you walk around, kids, all of them, i around, kids, all of them, wearing a number ten t—shirt. people here and supporting the team 100%. there's never been in all the years i lived, i was 11 years old when we won in 86, and since then i've never felt so much support for the team, even messi, that people many years ago felt that he didn't haveitin years ago felt that he didn't have it in him. he wasn't like a with the passion. he didn't sing the national anthem at the beginning of the matches, and this has changed in the last few years. now it's converted 180 degrees. peoplejust adore him. i think argentinians don't

want tojust win him. i think argentinians don't want to just win another world cup. they want messi to win over outcomes, finally. d0 cup. they want messi to win over outcomes, finally. do you think that _ over outcomes, finally. do you think that he — over outcomes, finally. do you think that he will _ over outcomes, finally. do you think that he will be _ think that he will be remembered like americana, the hand of god, are we reaching that for messi?— that for messi? well, this is the whole — that for messi? well, this is the whole point. _ that for messi? well, this is the whole point. i— that for messi? well, this is the whole point. i think - that for messi? well, this is the whole point. i think if i that for messi? well, this is| the whole point. i think if he wins a world cup, then he finally will. i think he's been standing in the shadows of mayor donna because of this very reason. he does have... he has broken most records that even exist, but this is the one thing he does not have. and for argentinians, this will be such a happy time, there is almost 100% inflation. people are having an incredibly hard time economically. so this isjust such a happy time, such a relief. ., ~' , ., such a happy time, such a relief. . ~ , ., ., , relief. thank you for staying u i relief. thank you for staying u- late relief. thank you for staying up late for— relief. thank you for staying up late for us, _ relief. thank you for staying up late for us, although - relief. thank you for staying up late for us, although i i up late for us, although i think you might have been up anyway. scientists in the united states announced they've overcome a major barrier in their bid to produce an almost limitelss

source of clean energy — with what's called nuclear fusion. it could have huge possibilities for the planet snd for generations to come. the us energy secretary announced the news. last week at the national laboratory in california scientists at the national ignition facility achieved fusion ignition and that is creating more energy from fusion reactions than the energy used to start the process. it is the first time it has ever been done in a laboratory. anywhere in the world. simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century. earlier i spoke to melanie windridge — chief executive of fusion energy insights and she explained exactly what fusion is.

fusion is what is happening in the sun and the stars. it's the way to stars make energy. scientists have been wanting to harness it here on earth has a clean energy source for a long time. ., , ., ., , time. now, in terms of how this could be done _ time. now, in terms of how this could be done on _ time. now, in terms of how this could be done on a _ time. now, in terms of how this could be done on a bigger - could be done on a bigger scale, what will that take to happen? do you have any sense of how many years? it’s of how many years? it's difficult _ of how many years? it's difficult to _ of how many years? it's difficult to predict - of how many years? it�*s difficult to predict the timescales because it depends on a lot of things, not only the science but also government support, the funding, private investment, all of these things. but this is a

scientific demonstration. it's a very exciting milestone on the path to commercial fusion because it shows that it is actually feasible. fusion, getting net energy gain output of a fusion experiment is possible in the context that could be scaled up to a power plant. but there are still now engineering challenges beyond the science. we've got to do the science. we've got to do the engineering side of things to make a power station that is suitable for creating electricity using this method. for all of us who may not completely understand how this works, how will this be a game changer in the energy industry? fusion is an energy source that could provide clean, sustainable and on—demand energy. so this is something that we really need for climate change and for our energy security. we have to remember that it security. we have to remember thatitis security. we have to remember that it is going to take a while for this to come online to roll—out, in fact, we haven't demonstrated electricity generation yet, we've only demonstrated more energy coming out of the central target fuel source. so there is a way to go before we are actually going to be seen fusion power plants. when it comes to things like climate change, we need a long term sustainable energy source, we don'tjust need to attain our net zero targets, we need to

maintain that net zero in the long term, in the face of rising populations and rising energy demands. fusion will be really important as a long—term sustainable energy solutions. that was melanie, the chief executive of fusion energy insights. before you go — we heard from the streaming giant netflix today. it says the first three episodes of prince harry and meghan�*s series — released last week — racked up more viewing time in its first week than any other documentary on the platform. more than 28 million households watched it. more episodes of the series are hitting netflix on thursday. you will find lots more on all the stories we're covering — including the situation in china where the hospital system is coming under a huge strain as covid—19 spreads quickly again. just head to bbc.com/news — or download the bbc news app. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news.

i met monica miller. thanks for watching. ——i'm monica miller. hello there. after the coldest night of the year on tuesday night, some parts struggled to get above freezing, for example, in glasgow, it was —5 celsius all day because of the fog, and it was barely much more than —2 celsius in edinburgh, well below the average. and that cold weather stays with us throughout the day on wednesday and thursday. there's just the hint, though, that by the time we get to the weekend, something milder may well come back in off the atlantic. but plenty of winter hazards between now and then. widespread harsh frost and ice risk, widespread snow showers, freezing fog once again to watch out for. and we've got this band of rain with inland sleet and snow in the south, and you can see that stretches across much of southern england. a blast of northerly winds

continues to bring snow showers in across the north and the east of scotland. one or two filtering down the north sea coast as well and into northern ireland, but bitterly cold, minus ten over the snowfields and, of course, clearly icy where we've had the showers, where the showers continue, see through the day in eastern areas. but blizzards in the north, gusts of 60—70 miles an hour for the far north of scotland, northern isles, those showers just keep coming. in the south, hopefully this area of rain, sleet and snow will pull away, but leaving things very treacherous and icy, and temperatures will do well to get, again, a couple of degrees above freezing. one or two snow showers for northern ireland, but plenty of sunshine here, add on that brisk wind, particularly in the north and east, and it will feel colder still, colder than those temperatures will suggest. then as we go through the night and into thursday, we pick up quite a lot of cloud in southern areas. we've still got those showers and low pressure moving down the north sea, enhancing those showers for northern and eastern areas. but, again, really cold overnight, possibly less fog on thursday morning, although there could be some in the south in particular because we've got

a stronger wind. but those ease off again, thursday sees the showers mostly in the north and in the east. we're watching out towards the atlantic for friday. so do stay tuned to the forecast. but some good spells of sunshine take temperatures marginally a little higher. but we could have a quite persistent spell of snow in the north on friday and something milder potentially into the weekend, as we've talked about, but with it, there'll be a transient spell of snow as well. so to keep up to date on the temperatures where you are, you can head to the app. the warnings are on the website, too.