welcome to newsday — reporting live from singapore — i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines. the bbc finds evidence of russian troops using ukrainian civilians as human shields in villages just north of kyiv. and they put them in that school, and they held them as human shields. thousands remain trapped in the city of mariupol — as the ukrainian government urges people in the east to flee. another record high for covid infections in china — as the shanghai lockdown starts to bite. and — we'll tell you about the dinosaurs that had a very bad day 66 million years ago.

it's eight in the morning in singapore, and 3am in ukraine — where the bbc has found evidence of russian troops using civilians as human shields. some families have been telling us — they were forced to leave basements where they were hiding — and rounded up at gunpoint. our correspondent, jeremy bowen has this report , and i want to warn you — it contains details you may find distressing. deep in the forest, towards the border with belarus, ukrainian forces were securing the territory the russians have left. large areas are hard to reach as bridges are down and roads blocked by mines. on the the edge of the exclusion zone around the site of the chernobyl nuclear disaster is a village. really swampy ground.

everyone wanted to talk about the russians. bogdan showed a place where russian soldiers made him dig a shallow grave to bury a man they'd killed. and they had to sleep under these rags? he said that with four other young men, he was held as a prisoner for 15 days in the open, often bound and blindfolded, threatened with fake executions, then one shot him in the leg. translation: he put me - on the bench, aimed his machine a gun at me and shot my knee. it's because my younger brother was in the army. they found his military cap in photos. ukrainian soldiers and others said the russians had used civilians as human shields in the next village. it's a small place on a lake.

the russians tried unsuccessfully to blow up the dam before they left. the people of the village are still traumatised by the russian occupation and by the 2a hours when they were held as human shields at the village school. ivan said it was chaos. children were crying, everyone was crying. how would you describe the experience? "vandals, fascists. i don't want to think about the russians. they're not people." what happened that day? "they were getting bombarded, that's what," said ludmilla. she said at night the russians forced them out of cellars where they'd been sheltering pointing their machine guns. they broke open the doors if people didn't answer them. on the 14th of march, there was heavy fighting in the area. the ukrainians were on the attack. the russians were losing men.

that night, the russians went door—to—door in the streets around here and at gunpoint marched, estimates vary, 100—150 people of all ages — old people, children as well — and they put them in that school and they held them as human shields. maria said she survived the second world war. "they were like the germans except they spoke russian, so i knew what they were saying." we were invited into the house. maria, the great—grandmother, was left behind, terrified about the rest of the family, who were held in the freezing cold school gymnasium. marina said her daughter still shows signs of anxiety. translation: i was afraid we would all be shot in that gym. | i was scared for my daughter. i don't have the words.

i'm still frightened. machine guns, a two—year—old girl should not see this. i'm sorry. i'm going to cry. slowly this part of ukraine is being reconnected to the rest of the country. a temporary crossing has replaced a bridge the russians blew up as they retreated. many families were using the chance to get out of the war zone. this woman was desperate. "we've been in a cellar for more than a month. my daughter has a new baby. they stole everything. i cut my hair so i wouldn't get raped." further down the road is a village destroyed in the fighting. the only person left is this man. he used to have a neighbour. he took us to his home.

he died on his own three weeks ago while the village was in russian hands. animals have eaten the flesh from his head. he had basic medications, but it's not clear how he died. it is clear that the occupiers didn't help him. where ukrainian forces are back, evidence is accumulating that russian troops repeatedly broke the laws of war. the question is how the russians are treating civilians in the places which they still occupy. jeremy bowen, bbc news, ivankiv. the ukrainian government has urged people in the east of the country to flee while they still can, as russian forces continue to shell towns and cities there. meanwhile an estimated 130 thousand people remain trapped in the southern port city.

our correspondent, tom bateman, reports now from the city and he's been speaking to some of those who've managed to escape the fighting. some of the people arriving here didn't know if their country still existed. these are the survivors of europe's biggest humanitarian crisis in a generation. they've had no contact with the outside world for weeks. and they faced the choice of a journey through the front line. air raid siren sounds. ..or starvation and siege at home. "the russians claim they came to liberate us," anna tells me. "mariupol has become a graveyard, and all the neighbourhoods are covered with the graves of civilians." "the air strikes were

the scariest," nina tells me. "they are constantly shelling. one of their strikes killed seven people, two of them children. the craters in the ground were seven metres deep. it was terrifying," she says. yulia, with her two girls, survived in a basement for five weeks. their grandmother, tatyana, tried to ration the only food they had and says they drank dirty water from a well. translation: people - are having mental breakdowns. there's a woman we know who hanged herself. people are being buried in the streets. shallow graves, half—a—metre deep at best, with some earth on top, dead bodies all over the city. for every person on these buses, as they arrive, there are thousands more still under russian siege, under bombardment, cut off from the outside world. ukraine has said at least 5000 dead have been counted in mariupol.

today, local officials said the true number could be more than double that. but these are the pictures moscow wants the world to see, filmed by reporters whose access is tightly controlled. russian aid is being handed out. survivors from elsewhere in the south are living two families per room. ludmar�*s children say the tanks and artillery arrived next to their home. they tell me they hid in the basement. what did you feel like? was it frightening? "yes," they say. as the war moves to the east, ukrainians don't know how long their lines will keep holding, and they want more heavy weapons. they fear today's reunions could be short—lived. tom bateman, bbc news, zaporizhzhia, in eastern ukraine.

in response to the alleged atrocities in ukraine the us has introduced a new round of sanctions. but in his latest video address, the ukrainian president said they did not go far enough. volodymyr zelensky added that moscow was making so much money from oil exports that it did not need to take peace talks seriously. if there is not overly painful package of sanctions against russia and if we don't get the supply of weapons that we really need that we have asked for many times it will be considered by russia's permission. considered by russia's ermission. , , ., ., considered by russia's ermission. ,, ., ., ., permission. permission to go further. permission - permission. permission to go further. permission to - permission. permission to go| further. permission to attack. permission to start a new bloody wave in the donbas. our north america correspondent, david willis is following the story and hejoins me now from los angeles. great to get you in the programme again. just listening to what president zelensky said there and looking at the sanctions that we have now seen

from the us, in terms of who they target and how effective they target and how effective they are, take as do the details and does present zelensky have a point? element present biden was very emotional today as he talked about the latest atrocities committed by russians in ukraine. he said they amounted to nothing less than war crimes and he said that they must, there must be an immediate and severe price paid by russia for what he called it a sickening brutality, hence these new sanctions which have been directly linked to those latest reports. over the weekend, from they include a ban on russia's two biggest banks, on dealings by vladimir putin's two daughters and also targeting the russian foreign minister's wife and daughter and various

other russian oligarchs and diplomats. and present biden is also intending to sign an executive order which would ban any new investment from the united states in russia. now, this was all hammered out between the uk and the us. the eu has yet to come on board, of course, because it has been talking about other things, whether it can afford, for example, to ban imports of russian coal, about 40% of natural gas to europe comes from russia. 33% of all wheel comes from russia so the eu are heavily dependent on that not likely to go as far as the us has gone in that particular regard, any time soon, i think. david, just briefly, the us secretary of state anthony blinken is in brussels to drum up blinken is in brussels to drum up support for all of this, what are we expecting to be on the agenda? he what are we expecting to be on

the agenda?— the agenda? he met with the nato secretary-general- the agenda? he met with the. nato secretary-general today. nato secretary—general today. there is a two—day meeting which begins tomorrow and the nato foreign ministers are due to discuss perhaps further sanctions against russia and the possibility of additional supplies of military aid but it is thought that while mr blinking is in europe, he will also be looking to make sure that evidence is preserved for possible future war crimes trials against members of the kremlin in regards to the photographs we have seen from that in recent days.— that in recent days. always . reat that in recent days. always treat to that in recent days. always great to get _ that in recent days. always great to get you _ that in recent days. always great to get you on - that in recent days. always great to get you on the - great to get you on the programme. we turn next to china, which has reported its highest daily total of covid—i9 cases since the pandemic began — with more than 20 thousand new infections. those figures come as the country's largest city, shanghai, begins a new round of mass testing on its population of 25 million people. our china correspondent, steven mcdonell, has more. there's been another round of mass testing started

of everybody in that city. the problem is if you test positive, it means you must go to a centralised isolation facility, even if you have no symptoms. now, these facilities are at times squalid, and so many residents are saying why can't we just stay at home and isolate? well, at the moment, they're not being allowed to do that. a big part of the problem, too, has been that children are getting separated from their parents. even small babies are being taken away from their parents if they test positive. overall, this is a massive challenge for china's zero—covid approach because it's notjust the locked down cities where we're seeing cases, there are cases all over the country now. how many more times can china keep locking down cities, keep shutting off big portions of its economy? and they could be even making it worse for themselves by continuing to just lock down

and refusing to even slightly adjust this zero—covid approach at the moment. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme. ed sheeran wins a legal battle over claims part of his track — �*shape of you' — was copied from a song by another artist. there's been another round of mass testing started

today is about the promise of a bright future, a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's i works were beautiful, they were intelligent, and it's a sad loss - to everybody who loves art. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our main headline. the bbc finds evidence of russian troops using ukrainian civilians as human shields in villages just north of kyiv. sri lanka's president will not be resigning, his government's whip has told parliament. crowds have protested for weeks

over shortages of basics like food and fuel and power black outs lasting many hours. dr chulanee attanayake is from singapore's institute of south asian studies — she is sri lankan and is in the central city of kandy visiting family for the first time in two years. i began by asking her how much the country had changed. i came to sri lanka for a vacation and this trip is after closer to two years, so what i saw is totally different country than i left in 2020 december. so, what i saw was a huge queue awaiting me at the fuel stations to get fuel come along hours of power cuts and i knew that this has been going on for a long period of time. and but it was completely different to experience it first—hand than listening to it over the phone or seeing it on media calls.

so, what i see is that it has completely disrupted the life of the general public, and this has been going on for a long period of time. odyssey that has led to the frustration. but also right now the protests are adding to this. doctor, on those protests, i think we are seeing some images of them now. they are becoming increasingly more widespread. how frustrated are sri lankans with politicians and the political situation there? i think they are quite frustrated. they are angry at the rajapaksa family for they believe being the cause of the issue. i think when you centralise the power and then you try to do it on your own, you also have to take the fall on your own. but this is an issue that has been brewing for a long period of time in my opinion because this is an economic crisis that is turning

to a political crisis. but this, crisis has been brewing for a long period of time because the mismanaged policies, misplaced policies of successive governments over a long period of time. right. so in the situation where there have been because of the president to step down and he is refusing, where does this go from here? well, that is a major concern because like what we see that slogans like go home are demanding, but i also think that they are targeting politicians in general. i think the message is very clearfor every politician that they are frustrated with the current system. they want a complete change. the concern is that it is possible that this will continue and build up and until the president resigns what it is also possible that the general public might think it but we cannot say anything at the moment because the situation is evolving quite

fast and apace you cannot imagine. but the challenge i think is if this creates a power vacuum, where does this take sri lanka what will happen the future? like, who is going to take the leadership from their because we see a divided future as well. i see. indeed, uncertain times there that you singer ed sheeran has won his legal battle over claims that he'd copied part of his song shape of you from another artist. he'd been accused of ripping off part of a track by the grime artist sami chokri. here's our music correspondent, mark savage. # i'm in love with the shape of you # we push and pull like a magnet do.# this is ed sheeran�*s shape of you. #oh|,oh|,oh|,oh|

# i'm in love with your body.# and here's the song he was accused of stealing it from. # oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh # why do i put myself through this?# in an unusual step, ed sheeran took the artist behind that song, sami chokri, to the high court to have his copyright claim dismissed. today, he won and called it a victory for songwriters everywhere. i feel claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no base for the claim. it's really damaging to the songwriting industry. there's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. coincidence is bound to happen. # the club isn't the best place to find a lover # so the bar is where i go.# the court heard how shape of you was written in under an hour in october 2016. lawyers for mr chokri said that speed proved ed sheeran had copied the melody.

sheeran�*s team said it just proved his genius. in his ruling, thejudge said that although there were similarities between the two songs, they were not big enough to constitute copyright infringement. he also accepted ed sheeran�*s testimony that he had never heard sami chokri's song before he wrote shape of you. millions of pounds in royalties have been frozen since the case began. today's decision means ed sheeran gets to keep his share of that money. mark savage, bbc news. the theory that dinosaurs were wiped out by a huge asteroid colliding with earth over 66 million years ago could soon be proved. for the first time scientists may have found direct evidence of a dinosaur that died in the immediate aftermath. our science editor rebecca morelle has more. it was most cataclysmic day in our planet's history.

66 million years ago, an asteroid seven miles across slammed into the earth. the age of the dinosaurs was over. now a mass graveyard unearthed in north dakota could contain the first evidence of creatures killed on that day. wow! oh, my god, look at that. look, the scales are preserved. in the crumbling rock, animals, plants and trees are tangled together, frozen in time like a prehistoric pompeii. we've got so many details of this site that tell us what happened moment by moment. it's almost like watching it play out at the movies. we're able to see what happened within that first hour of so after impact, and that's the front—row seat to one of the most amazing events in the cretaceous. despite all of the dinosaurs discovered and displayed in museums, they don't tell the full story. the dinosaurs here were found all around the world, and they span their

entire 180 million year reign on the planet. it's widely accepted this domination came to an end when the asteroid struck. but there's a mystery. no—one's ever found direct evidence of a dinosaur killed by the impact or even a dinosaur that died within 1000 years of it. now, though, a discovery at tanis may have changed that. there's something here. that's hard. that's bone right next to the skin. this is the moment dinosaur�*s leg was discovered, captured by a bbc documentary crew. the fossil belongs to a small plant eating dinosaur called a thescelosaur. the team thinks it died in a huge flash flood set off by shockwaves from the asteroid strike. this looks like an animal whose leg has simply been ripped off really quickly. there's no evidence of disease, there are no obvious pathologies or traces of the leg being scavenged. this could be the first bit of dinosaur ever found that died as a direct result of being involved in the cataclysm that occurred

after the meteorite hit. tanis is 2000 miles away from where the asteroid struck, but what links the two are these tiny beads scattered amongst the fossils. it's thought they're remnants of molten rock thrown up by the impact which rained back down as glass droplets. inside one may be something even more remarkable, a fragment of the asteroid itself. we were able to identify the| composition of the material. all the evidence, all- the chemical data from that study, suggests strongly that we're looking - at a piece of the impactor, the asteroid that ended iti for the dinosaurs. these discoveries now need to be submitted to the scientific community for scrutiny, but the team says they've only scratched the surface and there's much more of this lost world waiting to be revealed. rebecca morelle, bbc news. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news.

hello. i think skies like this on thursday — large cumulus clouds — and over the high ground, certainly the possibility of some wintry showers. but wherever you are on thursday, there's a chance of catching a little bit of rain. but there'll be lengthy sunny spells, too, so it's not all bad. but the weather is unsettled, and you can see low pressures there moving off the atlantic in our direction. one such area of low pressure currently crossing the uk, giving a spell of some very windy weather from northern ireland through the irish sea, but particularly windy around the lancashire coastline around merseyside.

northern parts of wales, gusts of wind here approaching 60 mph for a time during the early morning, and also across the highlands of scotland, the cold northerly wind bringing a covering of snow across the hills there. now the temperatures early on thursday morning, three celsius in aberdeen, eight celsius in london. and then this is the picture through the day — the low pressure is out in the north sea by this stage, but on the backside of it, the winds are coming in from the north. so it's a cold wind, a really gusty wind, it really will feel very chilly. these are the gusts of wind approaching, 40—50 mph in places. so with temperatures of only around seven celsius, it really will feel very nippy on the north sea coast — only seven there in newcastle. and again, i said those showers could be wintry across the high ground. further south, i think the sunny spells will be most prolonged, so actually feeling pretty decent in the southwest. now this is the following night — so thursday night into friday

— the possibility of some rain grazing the south of the country. here temperatures will be four celsius, but for the rest of us the following night, it will be quite frosty. so a chilly start to friday morning, the possibility of some rain along the southern counties, and also the possibility of further wintry showers across scotland, mostly across the hills there. but i think, again, lots of sunny spells on the way, and disappointing temperatures between 8—12 celsius so below the average for the time of the year. here's the outlook, then, as we head over the next few days and into the weekend — it will calm down, i think saturday is actually not a bad day for most of us. sunday will become more unsettled once again. that's it from me, bye—bye.

the headlines will follow at the top of the hour, after this programme. judy, i love you! i love you! judy, guess what? i love you! last thing he said to me was, "love you, mum." and i said, "love you, adam". and that was the last time i heard his voice. tributes have been paid to a man who died after being

stabbed in prescot yesterday.