i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship, but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it with fears the release could spread the virus. a police hunt is under way in germany for gunmen who shot dead eight people. we'll be bringing you the latest. i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. also in the programme: ready for his close—up — multi—billionaire michael bloomberg is to make his big tv debut in the race for the us presidency. and harry and meghan announce they'll be stepping back from their royal duties at the end of march.

live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's nine am in singapore, one am in london, and ten am in yokohama, japan where another 79 people on board the diamond princess cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus. that brings the total number of cases on board to 621. despite that, hundreds of passengers who were given the all clear have left the ship and were not put into further quarantine. it's prompted fierce international criticism of the way japanese authorities handled the outbreak on board, as rupert wingfield—hayes reports. as the news choppers hovered

overhead, the first passengers released from the diamond princess began their long walk to freedom. waving goodbye to friends still stuck on board. yesterday, these people were virtual prisoners. today, the first 500 who have tested negative were literally walking onto the street and getting onto buses. every time i heard that the number of infections had gone up, this man says, i felt really scared. even as some former passengers were getting into taxis and going home, the number of infections continues to rise. japan today announced another 79 positive cases on the ship. the japanese government says the incident on board the diamond princess is now effectively over. the virus is contained. there is nothing to worry about. but there has been a strong suspicion here, for some days, that the containment on board the ship has not been working, that the virus has continued to spread during the quarantine period, and now we have a whistle—blower, a japanese

expert who has been onboard the ship and has described conditions there as chaotic, ineffective and frightening. kentaro iwata is a professor of infectious diseases who has previously worked on the fight against ebola in africa. i felt much safer when i was in africa. because you know where the virus doesn't exist. and you know where the patient is. but inside the diamond princess, you have no idea where the virus is. we are seeing people disembarking from the ship and mixing with the general population. how concerned are you by that? very concerned. this is one reason why australia, canada, and now britain are now insisting their nationals must go through another 14 days' quarantine when they return home. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, yokohama. let's have some breaking news now. eight breaking news now. people have been killed

eight people have been killed in separate shooting incidents in the german town of hanau. it is 25 kilometres east of frankfurt. our correspondent joins us online now from berlin. according to german media, shots were first fired in a shisha are in town and that is where it seems the first people we re where it seems the first people were killed. after that eyewitnesses say that one or more gunmen escape the scene in a dark vehicle and drove to another shisha bar in another pa rt another shisha bar in another part of town where gunmen started shooting people inside. as you say police have now confirmed that eight people in total have been killed in both shooting incidents. it is thought that more people could possibly be injured. the initial reports from police have five people being injured but it is unclear if they are

included in the number of fatalities or not. so far police are yet to confirm if they have made any arrests but we have seen photos of a man being detained by police. what is happening right now is that there is a manhunt on for one oi’ there is a manhunt on for one or more perpetrators. police say they do not know who is behind the shooting nor what the motivation of the gunman or gunman was. so until we know what the reason for the shooting incident was, it is ha rd to shooting incident was, it is hard to say what will happen next because this could be an isolated incident. it could be something involving individual people or it could have a wider implication. that is unclear at this point in time. thank you damian, we shall be keeping an cross this stories. —— across this story. also making news today: it's been announced that the duke and duchess of sussex will step back as senior members

of the british royal family from the end of march. the change of role for prince harry and his wife, meghan, follows their decision to become financially independent, and their hope to avoid some of the intense media spotlight focused on them and their son, archie. here's our royal correspondentjonny diamond. well, one last burst of royal engagements in march and then as you say, at the end of march it is all over for their public royal role. we know that they will come back regularly, we are told, but when they do, they'll come back in a private capacity. they will not be working on behalf of the queen and that means their office here in buckingham palace will close. duke will hold onto the titles and the military ranks that he earned when he was in the forces but is honorary commands like the captain general see of the royal marines will be suspended. —— like captain generalcy of the royal marines that he held. they'll still be known as the duke and duchess of sussex, they'll still have the title of his and her royal highness but they won't use it. will they still be able to call themselves royal?

that's still up for discussion — we'll hear later in the year, but i suspect it's not going to happen. also making news today: britain's government has announced proposals for a new immigration system that will make it much more difficult for low—paid workers to come into the uk. under the scheme, applicants will receive a score based on specific skills, qualifications, salaries or professions. critics are already predicting problems recruiting care workers and seasonal farm workers. the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has threatened to launch a new military offensive in north—western syria. he wants to stop the syrian government's advance — which has displaced nearly a million people. mr erdogan's latest warning came as talks between turkey and russia — which backs the syrian government — failed to reach agreement on how to calm the situation in idlib. it's been claimed that president trump offered the wikilea ks founder julian assange a pardon if he agreed to say russia was not involved in leaking democratic party e—mails. the claim comes from mr assange's lawyer, who's fighting attempts to get him extradited

to the us. the white house has denied the reports. manchester city's chief executive ferran soriano says the team's alleged breaches of uefa's financial fair play regulations are "simply not true". the club says it will appeal against its two year ban from european club competitions and a $30 million fine. now listen to this. this haunting music comes from an operation theatre at king's college hospital in london. the patient is playing her violin while surgeons operate on her brain to remove a tumour. it was done to ensure parts of the brain which control delicate hand movements weren't damaged during the surgery.

the ninth us democratic debate will start in about nine hours time. it is the later stage in a long process to decide who will be the nominee to take on donald trump in november's residential election. 0ur correspondent in las vegas says there will be something new for voters in this debate. just when they may have been starting to get weary we have a new contender. article bloomberg has been on the sidelines of this race for the past few months with millions of americans seeing his face every day. he has pumped hundreds of millions of pounds into an advertising campaign to ensure that. tonight is the first time we will see him take centre stage, on live television, alongside five other main contenders tonight. of course they have been in this way since the beginning. for nine months they have

watched the poles go up and down, they have defended themselves in the press and campaigned in the bitter cold in places like iowa and new hampshire and now suddenly halfway through in swans a multibillionaire to assume a position as second in the national polls. you can imagine why that may smart and tonight iimagine the why that may smart and tonight i imagine the knives will be out. there will be many blows coming michael bloomberg's way. that is interesting because normally you would expect the knives to be out for the front runner, bernie sanders. bernie sanders goes into this debate is the front runner. they have already had an exchange, a pre— debate exchange, where he accused bloomberg of trying to purchase the nomination. the things we may see him accused of tonight, they will probably bring a recent press articles that talk about his past sexist avr, an allegation he denies and his campaign says he simply does not tolerate any kind of intolerance. 0r discrimination.

he does not bowl well at the moment with african—american voters, and much of that is due to his time as new york mayor when he employed a stop and frisk policy, what we call stop—and—search in the uk, but he has answered that as well and says his intention at the time was to reduce gun violence and he now understands that that caused pain for african—american families. we may also see some questions about his censorship of the press. he owns one of the biggest media companies in the world and his journalists are ordered to not report on him nor his personal wealth was so there is a lot of ammunition there is a lot of ammunition there waiting to be heard and we will see who delivers the main blows. that could be bernie sanders butjoe biden also has a lot to win and to lose tonight. he had been lagging in the poles and he will want to make an impact ahead of caucuses on saturday in nevada. let's get more on our top story — passengers are continuing to leave the diamond princess cruise ship injapan, amid criticism of the japanese authorities handling

of the coronavirus quarantine. matthew smith is an american passenger still onboard the ship. he hasn't been allowed to leave because he is waiting to find out if he's clear of the virus. he explains how he's feeling after spending so long in quarantine. well, as you can imagine, it's grown wearying to have been confined to a small space, basically a bedroom and a living area. we've taken... it's been easierfor us because we know that we have it much better than passengers in smaller cabins, particularly the interior cabins with no access to sun or fresh air. we have a balcony so we have both of those things. even in the largest cabins on the ship, two weeks in that space is mentally wearying. mentally werying, you say. and, of course, the diamond princess being described as something of a ghost

ship, because so few passengers are left. now, you and your wife are among the last passengers on board. tell us, how does that feel and what have you seen so far of the evacuation from where you are? well, we've watched pretty much all of it. and, yeah, you do get a sense even though you're not in contact with the rest of the ship, you do get a sense that it's emptying out. we noted the people across the hall had their luggage out yesterday for the first of the disembarkations. we watch the american evacuation and last night also the australian, new zealand, and then the hong kong evacuations. so you know, even if you don't see it, that a lot of people have left the ship. and it is just sort of strange. yeah, and, matthew, speaking of the american evacuation, you were offered that flight, along with your wife, but you refused to take it because of fears you might catch the virus. how does it feel now that you've found out that people on board the flight have

indeed caught the virus? i feel bad for everyone concerned with that and people who didn't have a choice, practical choice not to take but, frankly, for myself and my wife, we are just very thankful that we did make that decision and, in fact, late last night we did finally get our notice that we will be disembarking today. so it's all the more, just thankful that we decided what we did. all right, well, congratulations that you finally get to get off that cruise ship. finally, the japanese authorities, we know, have been criticised for the handling of this crisis. do you think it's justified the way they've handled it? i think it was. i think there's a lot of, what we would say in america, monday morning quarterbacks who, without full knowledge the situation, without considering the whole course of this, are criticising it when, essentially,

japan had a ship full of 3700 potentially infected people arrive on its shore and it seems to me the most practical thing to do and may be the only practical thing to do is what they did, which was keep us on here. and that was matthew smith, one of the last passengers onboard that ship. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: eerie streets and empty metro stations. we pay a visit to beijing — deserted because of the coronavirus. also on the programme: pictures of a fantasy wedding. a fantasy, because it's a gay wedding in singapore — where homosexuality is illegal. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops

were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morale of the people. i am terrified of the repercussions on the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir, the russian for peace. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. and i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. our top stories: more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it, with fears the release could spread the virus. police in germany say at least eight people have been killed after two shootings in the town of hanau. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world, which are once again dominated by the coronavirus. the international edition of the straits times leads with 20 new cases of the coronavirus in south korea. that brings the total number of cases to 51. the paper reports 1h of the new cases all attend the same church, raising fears about a so—called

super—spreader there. and the times of india reports on the death of two people in iran from the coronavirus. it says the country had confirmed its first two cases of the virus just hours earlier. reports suggest they were both iranian nationals. and in the business news, the business standard reports that hopes of an imminent us—india trade pact have been dashed. president trump will visit india for the first time next week. but the paper quotes him as saying he doesn't know if a trade deal will be done before the election. that brings you up—to—date with some of the papers. now, lewis, what stories are sparking discussions online? yes, let's looks at what is trending right now. tributes to the rapper pop smoke are pouring in across social media after he was shot dead in his home during an apparent armed robbery. 20—year—old pop smoke, whose

real name was basharjackson, was a rising star from new york and this week got his first us top 10 album. let's return again to our main story, the outbreak of coronavirus in china. in the last few hours, health authorities in hubei province — the epicentre — have reported a big drop in the number of new cases on wednesday, compared to the day before. it's not immediately clear what has caused it. there was also a slight reduction in the number of deaths. but the effects of the outbreak are being felt across china. 0ur correspondent has been out and about in beijing. this is what's keeping china going at the moment, these delivery guys, because even though the coronavirus fears are everywhere, they are keeping everybody fed, still delivering stuff to people's houses. they're parked here, you can't go into the compound.

you've got to show your id here. the other guy, he showed his id. this is a delivery, the guys at the gate are even hanging onto people's food. so someone's has come with the delivery. beijing's underground train system. it normally has to deal with millions of commuters. no problem getting a seat today though, i think.

look at this. the heart of beijing. anyone who's been to beijing and has had a look around this area of the city would not recognise this intersection. there is nobody here.

you can imagine that the close confines of a bus is the type of place people would be worried in terms of coming into contact with somebody who has the coronavirus with hands—on services and the like. everybody coming in has their temperature checked. and most people we talked to, they don't seem to mind to this. they know that it's part of trying to control this emergency. and, they are cutting the government quite a bit of slack. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonell there on the streets of beijing. we can bring some live pictures from reuters news

agency, this shows hundreds of hong kong residents who are arriving at the hong kong international airport. that is after being evacuated from the cruise ship diamond princess thatis cruise ship diamond princess that is docked off japan's yokohama coast that we have been telling you about. the passengers repatriated to hong kong will spend another 1a days in quarantine and of course all of this column —— comes along criticism of how the japanese have handled that with 600 people becoming infected with the coronavirus. in a different story... photographer lenne chai's latest new york exhibition features herfantasy wedding — but it wouldn't be allowed in her native singapore. that's because it's a gay wedding, and homosexuality is illegal in the city state. the photographs may depict a retro marriage banquet, with all the fun and celebration of a typical singaporean wedding —

but as she told me, there is a serious message behind them. so, basically this project was actually inspired by my own parents — their wedding photos. it's basically based on the 1980s, chinese, traditional chinese wedding banquet. the idea is that, i think a lot of the time when singaporeans talk about homosexuality, as you mentioned, it's criminalised in singapore, a lot of the time, we use very religious standpoints like whether it is morally right or wrong. but i wanted to approach it from a very personal viewpoint. hopefully, with a bit more empathy. and we're seeing some of the photos now and i must say they do look very colourful indeed. first off, we know that singapore is an incredibly conservative country. 0bviously, homosexuality is criminalised here and it is punishable by two years in prison. but how have attitudes changed? what was your reaction, for instance, to this exhibition when it was held in singapore late last year?

yes, actually we got a really great response. a lot of people, queer people in singapore, shared their stories. a lot of people who were curious about how we managed to show something that is so controversial back home. i think it also opened up a lot of conversations about civil rights pertaining to gay rights in singapore and also, just, how the difference of attitudes in young singaporeans as well. 0lder singaporeans, such as my parents, who are very staunch catholics for example. know, we know that a gay rally takes place here every year. it is called the pink dot and i remember covering it more than a decade ago in 2009 for the bbc. are attitudes changing towards homosexuality here? i think thanks to pink dot, there is a lot more visibility for the lgbtqia+ community in singapore. really interesting ideas behind that exhibition.

i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. and i'm sharanit leyl in singapore. stay with us. that is it for newsday. hello there. we have a number of severe flood warnings still in force across parts of the country and particularly in england and we have more rain in the forecast, which is going to exacerbate this issue. the met office has yellow warnings for rain in parts of wales, north—west england and south—west scotland. these areas seeing quite a lot of rain by the time we end thursday. this is the pressure chart. you can see this weather front responsible for bringing the rain to the north and the west of the country. a slow—moving feature but as we head through the course of thursday, it will start to move south—eastwards quite quickly. so skies will be brightening up across scotland and northern ireland during the morning. this band of rain will be pushing across england and wales and some of it

will be quite heavy. we could see a short—lived, very heavy spell of rain as it moves its way south—eastwards, accompanied by hail, very squally winds and some thunder and lightning as well. temperatures will be on the mild side but behind it as it moves through, the skies will brighten up, but temperatures will drop fairly dramatically. some sun shining behind this further north in the afternoon with lots of showers. these will be falling as snow on the mountains of scotland and maybe even down to the lower levels. and if you add on the strong and gusty winds, could see some blizzard conditions on the mountain tops. that rain clears the south—east on during thursday evening and during thursday night it's going to be a breezy one. windy in the north with showers or longer spells of rain but the snow levels will rise as temperatures rise here. further south and east, could be quite chilly for a time to start friday morning. this is the picture then for friday — another system moving in, lots of isobars on the charts.

but an even windier day and it will be quite wet across the north. it is looking like a north—south divide, tending to stay drier in the south with some sunshine albeit very windy. north wales, northern england and scotland and northern ireland will see outbreaks of rain, particularly across the western hills and quite a lot of rain at that too. a very windy day, widespread gales could cause issues to the east of the pennines there. very gusty indeed and stronger than that across north—west scotland. temperature—wise on the mild side with double—figure values across the board. for friday night, stays wet across the northern half of the country and tends to be drier in the south and remains windy. into saturday, stays u nsettled u nfortu nately. we got further very windy weather on saturday and some wintry showers in the north. this feature will move in for sunday will bring parts of england and wales for more prolonged periods of rain. an unsettled weekend to come. saturday, sunshine and showers. wintry in the north, very strong winds in the northern areas and some of us could see more prolonged rain on sunday.

i'm lewis vaughan jones with bbc news. our top story. more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship — but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it. there are fears the release could spread the virus. the us centers for disease control has described japan's quarantine procedures as inadequate. police have confirmed that eight people have been killed in shootings in the german town of hanau — near frankfurt. the suspect is said to still be at large. and this story is trending on bbc.com: tributes to the rapper pop smoke are pouring in across social media after he was shot dead in his home during an apparent armed robbery. the 20—year—old was a rising star from new york and this week got his first us top ten album. stay with bbc world news.