welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. the headlines... a report finds us president joe biden �*wilfully retained' classified files, but he won't face criminal charges... the us supreme court hears arguments in a case that could determine whether donald trump can be kicked off the 2024 presidential ballot. president putin has insisted that russia has no interest in invading poland, latvia or other nato countries — in an interview with the former fox news anchor, tucker carlson. in pakistan's elections, local media are reporting that independent candidates linked to jailed former prime minister, imran khan, were leading the early count. and millions on the move as locals head home to their families to celebrate lunar new year. live from our studio in singapore — this is bbc news. it's newsday.

thank you for being with us. president biden�*s memory has been called into question after an investigation by a us prosecutor in to how he handled classified documents after serving as vice president in 2017. the report found that mr biden had willfully retained and disclosed material — but said he will not face criminial charges. the report says it would be difficult to convict him as he comes across as an "elderly man with a poor memory". our north america correspondent john sudworth is in washington. in legal terms at least, this is a vindication for president biden. the report by a former trumpjustice department

official finds there is insufficient grounds to charge him for his mishandling of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency under president obama. and it says that unlock president donald trump's alleged behaviour in a similar classified documents case, president biden has cooperated in full and in his reaction today, the president seemed to suggest that as far as he was concerned, this is case closed. the special counsel released their findings today about their look into my handling of classified documents. i was pleased to see they reached the conclusion. i believe they knew all along they would, that there are no charges that should be brought in this case. but that's where the good news ends, because there is a serious political sting in the tail. the report goes on to say that even were they to bring charges against president biden in this documents case, a jury would be unlikely to convict

because of serious lapses in his memory and the most damning passages it suggests he couldn't remember when his vice presidency begun, when it ended, or even the year that his son beau died. now, in a document appended to this report, mr biden�*s lawyers say that the kind of memory lapses described are the sort that anybody could suffer under long interrogation. but, you know, they say here in washington, if you are explaining, you are losing and you can almost hear the whir of typewriters as the political attack ads are being written. let's stay in the us because the supreme court has heard arguments in a case — that could decide whether or not donald trump is eligible to run for president. it's considering a ruling by colorado's top court, which said mr trump could not run in that state's primary because it considered his actions during the assault on the capitol on january—the—sixth, 2021 insurrection. speaking to the press

after the hearing, mr trump argued that striking him from the ballot would result in chaos across america. this is very concerning. president biden is 81 and he has a long and distinguished career in public service, including a quite successful four year presidency and a lot of americans are debating that. in this report increases the concern. with respect to some basic facts, having to do with classified documents and other things. it is very concerning, i don't believe that he committed a crime that would merit criminal charges, it's a very distinguishable case from the donald trump classified documents case but, still, the description the state of mind and memory is concerning when we consider anotherfour and memory is concerning when we consider another four years in the white house. find

we consider another four years in the white house.— in the white house. and of course. — in the white house. and of course, donald _ in the white house. and of course, donald trump - in the white house. and of course, donald trump has| in the white house. and of - course, donald trump has artie been using that report to attack the president, biden. meanwhile, what is your reaction to what is had in quite about mrtrump reaction to what is had in quite about mr trump or whether he can run for presidency in 2024. ,, . he can run for presidency in 2024. ,, , ., he can run for presidency in 2024. , ., ., ~ 2024. space i should remark that the president _ 2024. space i should remark that the president trump - 2024. space i should remark| that the president trump and the clip he played isn't even talking about that case. so i don't know what is going on with his memory. he is talking about a different case that will soon go to the supreme court about where the president of the united states has immunity from criminal prosecuting for crimes he commits in office and says yes presidents should be remain —— any and as if you were the king i think supreme court was absolutely not. he can be disqualified from public office because he participated in or it gave aid or comfort to an insurrection against the united

states government when he sought to overturn the 2020 election and the events leading up election and the events leading up to the insurrection, that january six, 2021 insurrection. it does not appear that the court will they may or may not whether he is qualified for office, but that is an entirely separate question on the other case. i've whether he can be criminally charged and convicted for the crimes for which he has been charged in connection with the january six insurrection in the united states court of appeals for the dc circuit has held that there is no presidential immunity. a president cannot commit crimes while in office. i believe that most americans including this up most americans including this up in court will agree with that. �* , , ., that. briefly, before we let ou no, that. briefly, before we let you go. a _ that. briefly, before we let you go, a hearing - that. briefly, before we let you go, a hearing like - that. briefly, before we let you go, a hearing like this| that. briefly, before we let. you go, a hearing like this is unprecedented, isn't it? when can we expect the supreme court to make a ruling? this can we expect the supreme court to make a ruling?— to make a ruling? this decision should come — to make a ruling? this decision should come down _ to make a ruling? this decision should come down very - to make a ruling? this decision should come down very soon i should come down very soon

particularly if the question is whether donald trump is on the ballot because we have a lot of primaries in early march and he has one major contender in the republican party, and republican party, and republican voters deserve to know where the candidates they vote for are qualified for office or not what steps i would hope the supreme court would hope the supreme court would rule on this case. i don't expect them to strike donald trump from the ballot. i expect them to remain on the ballot. we clearly saw that from the tenor of today's oral argument in fact means that voters could vote for him in march and in april in the primaries and then we will have the criminal trial in the district of columbia where he would be tried for the charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the election and the riots of january six. i believe that is the order in which these matters will be resolved. speaking there to richard painter. he was the chief white house ——

ethics lawyer in the george w bush administration, richard painter. president putin has insisted that russia has no interest in invading poland, latvia or other nato countries, calling such a scenario "absolutely out of the question". the comments came during a lengthy interview that was conducted in the kremlin with former fox news host , tucker carlson. the interview was broadcast on the tucker carlson network. mr putin accused nato member states of trying to intimidate people with what he called an imaginary russian threat. he said however that the atlantic alliance must accept moscow's territorial gains in ukraine which he invaded in 2022. he again claimed it was an artificial country. he also said that russian defeat in ukraine was impossible. 0n evan gershkovich, the wall streetjournal reporter detained in russia, mr putin said an "agreement" could be reached for his freeing.

the election commission in pakistan has issued a late—night warning to polling officers to publicise the election results, after a delay in the announcement of the tellers. local media are reporting that independent candidates linked to jailed former prime minister imran khan were leading the early count. thursday's vote has been marred by intimidation and militant attacks. the authorities suspended all mobile services as the vote began, citing security concerns but prompting outrage from opposition parties and civic groups. carrie davies is in lahore, and sent this report. this vote was already overshadowed by questions of whether it's credible. then, as the polls opened, the internet shut down. pretty much on the dot of eight o'clock, all of our phones stopped working. we don't have internet,

we can't call anybody. the authorities said this was for security, others called it deliberate disruption. some voters told us they struggled to find out where they were meant to vote and candidates had issues, too. we had created whatsapp groups, for them to be able to inform us centrally of what they see there. those groups are obviously not working. akram raja is one of imran khan's lawyers and is backed by his party. mr khan is in prison on three long jail sentences. he couldn't run in this election. his party say they've been targeted. gatherings like this last month broken up with tier gas. supporters arrested and intimidated. the authorities justified their reaction, saying the gatherings didn't have permission and called the wider claims absurd. the reality of covering an election day when there is no internet is that it's difficult for us to communicate with people, too. so we have just spotted a convoy of cars that looks like it's a senior person from the pmln and we are following to see where they're going.

the pmln is the party thought to be favoured in this election by pakistan's powerful military. pmln's leader nawaz sharif has been prime minister three times. last election, he was seen as out of the military�*s favour, in prison when khan won. their fortunes have changed. mr sharif, are these elections free and fair? the elections are free and fair. and the elections have been always free and fair. except many years ago, but now, today, i think it's absolutely fair. mr sharif, have you made a deal with the military? there's no need for a deal. actually, i have never any problems with the military. the polls have closed. pakistan awaits. has the election brought some faith in democracy or broken it? caroline davies, bbc news, lahore. tamanna salikuddin is the director of south asia

programmes at the us institute of peace, and i asked her if it was unusual to not yet have the election results. it's not absolutely unusual not to have the full results. i monitored elections several times in pakistan, and often it was a day or two before you had the full final results. but this level of uncertainty is unprecedented to have so few official results out and the ecp is not continuing to release data. i think that is unusual. it is a big surprise to people, i think, who are watching these elections. as your commentator said before, most people thought that these were a done deal and that prime minister nawaz sharif, former prime minister nawaz sharif and his party would have a pretty clear path to victory with the unofficial results that news news is reporting. pakistani press is reporting it's much more unsure. and so we will probably have to wait till tomorrow at least to see the final results. indeed, a lot of speculation

and allegations made about made about this delay. but i want to pick up where caroline left off in that report. has this election restored faith in democracy or has it broken it? i think that's a great question. i think the pakistani public has accepted some form of a hybrid regime. the military has offered, is respected in pakistan and was seen as an institution that provided some sort of stability. but there have been cycles of friction with civilian elected governments. i think the the friction between imran khan and his very popular party, pti, really came to a head. people were hoping that this election, if it didn't restore democracy, would at least restore some sort of stability in what is a particularly polarized political moment in pakistan. unfortunately, the results that have come in so far don't pretend any sort of political stability. if we have, you know, imran khan is in prison. his party is not out and out

running in the election per se. if independents that are really from his party, when can they even form a government and what does that look like? because it continue friction. however, if imran if nawaz sharif by tomorrow is able to cobble together some sort of coalition government, does that, how long lived is that and does the populous then accept it as a credible government? and briefly, before we let you go, aside from this delay, the another controversial thing was the authorities suspending mobile phone calls and data. what did you make of that? i mean, obviously, there are security concerns inside pakistan. we saw attacks both in balochistan and khyber—pakhtunkhwa before and during elections. but i think the suspension of cell phones and internet across the country, almost every political party condemned this. we didn't see any politicians who found this a welcome move. we've seen some move by the sindhi court to even say

that you shouldn't do this. it really makes it harder for people to coordinate not just citizens who are voting, but also poll workers and others to really get to their polling sites. so we will see what the real impact is, though. i don't think it's you know, you had a wonderful turnout despite all of these problems. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. bbc news analysis reveals that cancer waiting times in england last year were the worst on record. only 64% of patients started treatment within 62 days of cancer being suspected, meaning nearly 100,000 people waited longer for life—saving care than they should have. the waiting periods have worsened every year for the past 11 years. the co—op retail chain is urging mps to make

assaulting or abusing a shop worker a specific criminal offence in england and wales. the company said there'd been a 44% increase in incidents of shoplifting and violence in its stores within the past year. it's already a criminal offence in scotland. the scottish government plans to increase the minimum price at which alcohol can be sold by 30%. this means shops in scotland would not be able to sell a bottle of wine for less than 6—pounds and 9 pence. you're live with bbc news. ukraine's top military commander has been removed from his post. the commander in chief of the armed forces, has overseen kyiv�*s military response throughout russia's invasion. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford is in kyiv.

volodymyr zelensky is talking about a reset. he's talking about renewal. he's presenting this as a positive decision for ukraine and posting pictures of him and general zaluzhny standing side by side. there is a general sense, though, that this comes at a very precarious time here in ukraine when the front line is pretty static, when western military aid is in question. ukraine really struggling to get the aid it needs. and also when enthusiasm for fighting this war is really waning here amongst soldiers, it's getting hard to recruit people to go to the front lines. the spirit has changed now. a while back, general zaluzhny talked about the situation on the front line as a stalemate, and that did not go down well at all with his political bosses. so i think the impression i get is that what volodymyr zelensky is looking for is a far more positive approach. he wants talk and he wants progress on the battlefield. he doesn't want a commander in chief who is talking about bedding in and digging in, in the trenches,

holding the lines and rearming on those lines. he wants somebody who's talking about pushing forward. president zelensky wants to make gains on the battlefield. that's important to him politically as well, of course, as militarily. now, there is a big question, though, whether or not there is politics in all of this. there's a lot of rumours about a big rift between generals zaluzhny and volodymyr zelensky. his office would deny that. i think he would say he puts winning this war above any kind of political rivalry. but whether or not the new man in thejob can actually make any difference militarily on the ground, given that he has been involved in the military effort right from the very beginning of the full scale invasion, i think that is a very open question. but certainly volodymyr zelensky hopes that the answer is yes. the world 5 third largest democracy goes to the polls next week. more than 200 million indonesians are eligible to vote in an election which will choose a successor to presidentjoko widodo. he is still hugely popular but has reached the limit of two terms in office.

all three rival candidates to replace him are promising to continue his development— and infrastructure—focused policies. but the frontrunner, prabowo subianto, is a controversialfigure. 0ur south east asia correspondentjonathan head reports from jakarta. long after the end of dictatorship here, some things still aren't settled. families of those who died or disappeared in the last months of the suharto regime have been protesting outside the presidential palace every thursday for 17 years, demanding answers. this man is one of the disappeared, presumed kidnapped by special forces. "every week we campaign to stop human rights abusers being elected," he said. and he showed me the words printed on his t—shirt. "bring back those who disappeared. don't let him rule

the country." by "him" he means prabowo subianto, the former special forces commander and son in law of suharto. this is him 26 years ago, just before he was dismissed from the army, accused of ordering the kidnapping of activists... ...and of masterminding this — the chaos and rioting which preceded suharto's resignation. today, he's the front runner in the election. the transformation of prabowo's image from feared military heart man to cuddly, avuncular candidate is the most remarkable aspect of this campaign. younger indonesians with no memory of his past have been flocking to him, thanks to some slick social media messaging. but the real key to prabowo's success has been the unexpected alliance with his one time adversary and today,

the most popular political figure in indonesia outgoing presidentjoko widodo. through a controversial court ruling, he's made the president's son his running mate, bringing a decidedly dynastic flavour to this election. presidentjokowi's poll ratings remain astonishingly high for a leader who's been in power ten years. but he's now being accused of misusing that popularity and the power and resources of the presidency to extend his influence beyond his constitutional term limit. in these last days of the campaign, there's been a flurry of online debates highlighting the dangers of a jokowi prabowo axis. do you seejokowi as a threat to democracy? yes. the word may be big, strong, but, yes. even though he's so popular, he's got such a great reputation. democracy has nothing to do

with the popularity. rival parties have been struggling to match the momentum of the prabowo campaign that indonesia has such a lively and well—regarded democracy after only 25 years is an impressive achievement. but no one is quite sure which way it will go after this election. jonathan head, bbc news, jakarta. uk 0pposition leader sir keir starmer has confirmed that labour is ditching a pledge to spend 28 billion pounds a year on environmental projects if it wins the general election. sir keir said he had no choice — claiming the policy was no longer affordable because the conservative party had crashed the economy. enviromental groups have criticised the move as "short sighted". prime minister rishi sunak said the labour leader "has confirmed he doesn't have a plan for britain". sir keirsaid all the green plans announced

so far by labour — including money for battery factories and "clean steel" production — would remain in place. millions of people around the world are celebrating the lunar new year. in china, people are on the move as they head to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. 0ur china correspondent, laura bicker, has been speaking to people in beijing about their hopes ahead. some new year wishes need spiritual intervention. many young people in beijing come to the lama temple to pray for a job. a slowing economy means millions of graduates are out of work. this dragon year, they're clinging to the hope that will change, as well as dressing up for the occasion. translation: the economy has been sluggish. _ you need to have good ideas and back yourself, but praying to the buddha and the burning incense, that will also help.

all: happy new year! even the very young have theirfuture in mind. "i want to get top marks in my exams every time," says this ten—year—old. at beijing train station, families are bundled up and loaded up for the long journey back to their hometowns, and with good reason. the sun may be shining in the capital, but heavy snow and ice brought some highways in the south of china to a standstill. thousands were stranded in their cars, dozens of trains were delayed or suspended, and passengers were stuck at wuhan railway station for hours. these ladies have a long journey north to see their 90—year—old mum, and they're doing all they can to ensure this year is lucky. translation: l was born | in the dragon year, so this year i've bought red clothes i and red pants for a prosperous and thriving new year.

translation: i hope everyonej has a safe new year and you all get money in your pockets. those left in beijing settle in to their celebrations. traditional costumes have become popular with young people, along with this one new year wish. "money, big money," she says. whatever their dreams for the future, this week is for food and for family. and for many, this will be theirfirst new year together since the start of the pandemic, and they're determined to savour it. laura bicker, bbc news, beijing. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. a wide range of temperatures on thursday with mild air towards the south, much colder feeling

airfurther north. there was some snow, particularly over the peak district and over the pennines too — here's hebden bridge in west yorkshire. most of the snow came over the high ground. but misty, mild conditions further south. plenty of heavy rain, too. you can see that on the radar picturejust piling into the south of england and south wales earlier on through the night. lots of flood alerts in place here. there's the snowfall further north, most of it over the high ground, but some of the snow towards the south just turning back to sleet and then to rain with that milder feeling air. but still the risk of some travel disruption as we head into friday with an ice risk from northern england northwards and still some falling snow over the very highest peaks as well. the snow riskjust transferring into central southern areas of scotland, too, and some brisk easterly winds. so perhaps some more problems over the high routes in particular with drifting snow. this is how we're starting off the day on friday. a range of temperatures — below freezing in scotland, but very mild in the south.

now as we head through friday, that warm front continues to push its way further northwards, just dragging in the milderfeeling air. still very brisk easterly winds blowing across eastern scotland, northeast england. this should be falling as rain. but across the grampians and the highlands, we're likely to see some accumulations of snow, even to low levels from the central belt northwards, but it will turn back to rain. some early wintriness too, perhaps across northern ireland. once more, quite a wide range of temperatures — between 4 and 13 degrees celsius as we go through the afternoon, and still maybe a bit of wintriness, particularly across caithness and sutherland and across shetland as we head through saturday. now, there will be a lot of dry weather on saturday, but low pressure is close by and there will be some showers, maybe some heavier rainfall across the far south—east of england a little later on three of the day. but coming back up into that milderfeeling air, so most of our temperatures will be between 6 and 11 degrees celsius. still double figures in the south. watch out for some heavy rain again across northeastern areas of scotland as we head through

sunday. but it will be falling as rain. the air now a lot milder, some scattered showers elsewhere, along with some spells of brightness. and by the time we get to the end of the weekend, those winds, brisk in the north, will have eased down somewhat, maybe turning more settled into the start of next week with high pressure building in.

the s&p—500 crosses the 5,000

mark for the first time. we look into the importance of this wall street milestone. plus... lunar new year travel picks up... booking—dot—com tells us where chinese travellers are headed during the festive season. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko 0i. we begin on wall street where a rally has continued overnight, with the s&p 500 briefly crossing the psychologically important 5,000 mark, before ending the session just below. investors brushed off comments from the chair of america's central bank, jerome powell, who's ruled out an interest rate cut next month. isaac poole, the global chief investment officer at 0reana financial services gave us his outlook on the interest rates and the markets earlier. what we're seeing is a market

continued to expect continuing