welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... russia says more than 1,000 ukrainian marines have surrendered in mariupol. kyiv says it still holds the key port city. more evidence russia has carried out alleged warcrimes in ukraine. we report from bucha, where investigators are collecting details. the challenge for prosecutors will be to establish a line of command, from the grave to the top of the russian state. to show that crimes were not just committed, but ordered. also coming up on newsdsay... a desperate search for survivors in south africa, as the president calls the flooding there a catastrophe of enormous proportions.

police in new york arrest the suspected gunman behind tuesday's subway shooting, bringing to an end a 24—hour manhunt. in the uk, a government minister quits after borisjohnson becomes the first sitting prime ministerfound to have broken the law. live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 7am in singapore, and 2am in mariupol — where russia is claiming more than 1,000 ukrainian troops have surrendered. but kyiv says the beseiged southern port city is still in its control. gaining full control of mariupol would be a major win for moscow, creating a land bridge between crimea — which russia illegally annexed in 2014 — and areas held by

russian—led separatists in the donbas region. it would enable thousands of troops to be deployed to the east for a new offensive planned there. but caught in the middle is mariupol. its mayor says around 21,000 civilians have been killed, and 120,000 remain trapped. 0ur correspondent tom bateman reports now from the city of zaporizhzhia, where some people displaced from mariupol have ended up. i want to warn you — his report contains upsetting images. this is a city reduced to darkness and death. russia's troops now occupy the theatre that was bombed as hundreds sheltered. their six—week siege of mariupol has brought it to the brink of falling. state tv in moscow showed these unverified pictures claiming they are ukrainian soldiers surrendering. but the city's defenders posted their own videos, holed up in the port and a factory, still

fighting, but their position seems desperate. "we won't give up," says this marine, "but we're encircled with no resupply of ammunition or food." 100 miles north, just over the russian line, europe's 21st—century war is fought amid mud and rage in the trenches. mariupol�*s capture could see a push north, here. if mariupol falls, what will happen here? translation: well, we won't let this place turn into mariupol. - they're holding on. vitali shows me their soviet—era launchers. they also have brand—new western weapons but they want more, with the war about to move to a decisive phase. they're completely dug in here, as you can see. and the russians are that way.

about 11—5 miles from here, within artillery range. and you can see they're ready for a long and grinding fight. they've been entrenched for 45 days. translation: we are on our own soil. - we expect them, to bury as many of them as possible. the more troops they send our way, the more fertile our land gets. russia's siege has killed thousands of civilians in mariupol and unleashed an appalling struggle for survival for the residents that remain. and these are the children of president putin's war. this hospital, north of the front line, is taking patients from mariupol and, like those in this ward, from elsewhere in the south and east. the doctors tell me they're treating children with injuries

they usually see in soldiers, straight from the battlefield. for mariupol�*s survivors, whole lives are packed into a few bags. and they carry the fresh horrors of this war. lena and timothy are homeless. their apartment block obliterated in an air strike. ukraine's leaders call mariupol the "heart of their war effort," but they fear soon it could stop beating. tom bateman, bbc news, zaporizhzhia, in south—east ukraine. meanwhile, president biden says the evidence appears to suggest, that russia is committing genocide in ukraine. he says it's becoming "clearer and clearer" that vladimir putin wants to "wipe out the idea of even being ukrainian." over the past two weeks, russian forces have been withdrawing from the north around the capital, after failing to enter kyiv. their retreat from the areas, shown here in purple, has allowed a clearer picture

to emerge, of the terrible damage and destruction left in their wake. 0ur correspondent mark lowen has visited the towns of bucha and borodianka, travelling with those trying to document evidence of war crimes committed by russian troops. his report contains upsetting details. ten more. the numbers, the mass graves, the contempt for life. some so badly charred, they're just the pieces for ukraine to pick up. the man and the inhuman. what happened here in bucha and elsewhere are not just sins, says ukraine, but war crimes. french investigators and other international teams are helping prepare a lawsuit against russia. ukraine's prosecutor general says they've already opened more than 6,000 cases. a lot of people speak about genocide of ukrainian

people, and actually, they have all grounds to speak about genocide. vladimir putin himself, he is president of aggressor. do you believe you will ever see him judged in an international war crimes court? it is very important, actually. it's very important to the whole world to stop dictators. the challenge for prosecutors will be to establish a line of command from the grave to the top of the russian state, to show that crimes are notjust committed, but ordered. perhaps that will help give ukrainians a sense of accountability, and that from such suffering can comejustice. the long road to that goal, past a landscape of horror, is led notjust by the state, but by volunteer investigators, a grassroots army fighting for the truth. they come to borodyanka, gutted from the air in a relentless assault tearing out its heart.

amidst the ruins, banned cluster bombs. the destroyed ground is fertile for the team building their case. we're trying to tell the world the truth, and we are trying not to let russia formulate their lying narratives about the war in ukraine. we are trying to show to people that those war crimes which russian troops are committing became, like, a pattern of their behaviour. among the shattered sea of victims are 0xana and her husband, nikola. they escaped — their apartment didn't. with the need to tell this story comes the duty to collect it. translation: our home was our cosy nest. - we were planning our.

children's birthday here. my mother got outjust before the strike. - it's hard to - describe our terror. it's more like hate. it's very important to say - what happened because these are notjust war crimes. russia will not stop until it destroys our country. - freedom and safety, what ukrainians held dear, has been destroyed. their solace now would be punishment for those who have broken this country. mark lowen, bbc news, borodyanka. i want to turn now to south africa, which has been hit by a catastrophe of enormous proportions — they're the words of south african president cyril ramaphosa, after he visited some of the most badly—hit flood areas of kwazulu—natal. more than 300 people are known to have died and dozens more remain missing in the heaviest rains to hit the country in more than 60 years. shinga nyoka reports from durban.

the aftermath of days of torrential rain. a month's worth of rain fell in some parts of kwazulu—natal. floods and mudslides destroyed key infrastructure. communities are in disbelief. some were lucky to escape with their lives, but the flood walkers took everything else. i've got nowhere to go now. i've got no house, i've got no nothing. these are my family's now, my neighbours. we try to give them a place to sleep last night. we never sleep last night. the situation is very, very bad. floods are fairly common here, but rescuers say these are some of the worst they've ever witnessed. they have already retrieved the bodies of three people from a single family, and there is a desperate search for a fourth — a ten—year—old child. more than 300 people have died and it is expected that number will rise. rescue teams are overwhelmed and still trying to locate those who are missing.

everything was a mess. we don't have food, clothes, even my id was damaged. we survived. but unfortunately, my child... did not survive. today, south africa's president, cyril ramaphosa, toured to the affected areas to comfort the grieving and displaced and to see for himself the areas destroyed, left without water or power. the president blamed climate change for the scale of the devastation. locals have said poor drainage is also to blame. the floods are subsiding and some communities recovering, but with more rain is forecast over the

weekend, the province remains on high alert. shingai nyoka, bbc news. police in new york have arrested a man after a shooting at a subway station in brooklyn on tuesday. ten people were injured when a gunman fired 33 rounds from a semi—automatic handgun. an fbi official said the suspect, frankjames, could face a federal charge for a terrorist attack on mass transit. here's our correspondent nada tawfik with the latest. less than 30 hours after this massive manhunt by federal and new york officials, they have now arrested the suspect — 62—year—old frankjames. and it comes after they really urged the public to phone in with any footage that they may have captured on their phones from the scene, with any tips of the man's whereabouts. and that's exactly how they were able to locate him. a new yorker called in,

gave a tip that he was at a mcdonald's in lower manhattan. when patrol officers went to the scene, he wasn't there, but they kept driving around — and lo and behold, they found him just walking new york city streets. and officials say that the officers arrested him without incident. and, you know, it's really a fascinating situation because they have already now pieced together so much evidence from surrounding businesses, and they've put together this complaint already in federal court. frankjames will appear thursday for an initial appearance on charges of committing a terrorist attack on mass transit. they say he is someone who is known to the authorities, he was born and raised in the bronx, in new york, but then lived in other states. but here in new york, he'd been arrested nine times on crimes ranging from burglary to sex acts. and in this criminal

complaint, they outline all the evidence they have — a search of a rented u—haul truck that he used to get to the scene, a search of a storage facility he has. and they haven't really given an exact motive at the moment, but they've certainly posted the many videos he's posted on social media commenting about the mayor directly, and about the state of the subway system. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: and buckets of water at the ready. thailand's traditional new year buddhist festival gets under way — covid restrictions permitting. pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers, is reported to have died of natural causes. he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated

1.7 million cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia, where playboy has gone on sale for the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust. the magazine's offices have been attacked, and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's only contest was with the clock. and, as for a sporting legacy, paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing her new world—best time for years to come. quite quietly, but quicker and quicker, she seemedj just to slide away under i the surface and disappear. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines...

russia says more than 1,000 ukrainian marines have surrendered in mariupol — but kyiv maintains it controls the key port city. the search for survivors continues in south africa as the president calls the flooding there a catastrophe of enormous proportions. in the uk, a minister has resigned from prime minister borisjohnson�*s government over the breaking of covid rules in downing street. lord wolfson, who was justice minister, resigned a day after the prime minister and the chancellor were both fined for breaking the lockdown laws. 0ur deputy political editor vicki young has more. he's broken the law, and his own strict covid rules. borisjohnson forced to apologise again and again for lockdown partying in downing street. i want to begin by repeating my apologies. mr speaker, i want to apologise. i once again offer a full apology. but is saying "sorry"

enough to save his job? for now, cabinet colleagues think so. it's not defensible, and he has paid that fixed— penalty notice. the question, i suppose, in my mind is, you know, as individuals, none of us are perfect, no—one does... you know, we all err, we're all human. the question in my mind therefore is, did he set out with malice to break the law? answer — no. but not everyone is brushing it off so lightly. tonight, justice minister lord david wolfson resigned over what he called the scale, context and nature of rule—breaking in downing street, and the official response to what took place. the blackmores say what went on amounts to hypocrisy. injune 2020, the uk was in lockdown — the month they lost their newborn daughter, just four days old. covid restrictions kept the family apart. to know that through that time, when we were literally only-

getting a section of time - with our baby girl and knowing she was going to die, - and there were people having parties, and who made the rules? _ they're the ones who put that in place. - we're not the only people that lost somebody. - conservative mps insist they understand the public anger, but say ousting the prime minister when there's a war in ukraine would be wrong. the liberal democrats said he wasn't a decent man, and the snp condemned a culture of entitlement in downing street. labour piled in, too. the idea that we can't change leadership now because of the war in ukraine or because of the economic crisis, i think it's actually the other way round, that actually we need fresh leadership and we need leaders who can concentrate on the job in hand, which is tackling russian aggression and supporting ukraine, and also here at home, tackling the cost—of—living crisis. very few conservatives are publicly criticising mrjohnson. one of his fiercest critics, the scottish leader douglas ross,

has retracted his call for him to go. but a colleague disagrees. i think that the prime minister should walk now because, one, he's been shown to have broken the laws of the land that he himself set. because he presided over a culture in number ten where there was persistent lawbreaking. and because he went and told both the parliament and the country that no laws had been broken when they clearly had been. and he knew that they had been. mrjohnson, safe in number ten for now — but the police investigation is far from over. vicki young reporting there. the man who murdered the british conservative mp sir david amess, because he'd voted for air strikes on syria, has been told he'll spend the rest of his life in prison. sir david was stabbed to death during a constituency surgery in essex last october. the judge said 26—year—old ali harbi ali's crime "struck at the heart of democracy". let's turn to china now, where authorities have warned people in shanghai

that they will be dealt with forcefully if they fail to comply with the city's strict coronavirus lockdown measures. while some of the city's 25 million residents are now able to go outside, many are still confined to their homes. here's our china correspondent stephen mcdonell. well, the latest numbers are unfortunately not good. yesterday, we reported a slight drop — so it was the first day since april that the official daily new cases had come down. well, they're back up again. so those that have to go to hospital, daily new cases today are over 1,000 — it was below 1,000 yesterday. those who are infected and their symptoms aren't that great — so they have to go to these centralised isolation facilities — yesterday, 22,000, today, 25,000 new infections. so the hope that things had peaked, well, it doesn't seem

to have happened yet, we will see what the numbers are tomorrow. some people say you've got to look at seven days in a row to get a good idea of it. the authorities, though, in shanghai are trying to ease people's concerns, and also try to ease the load on their system by saying that those who go to these isolation centres, the average time there is now only around a week, rather than two weeks. that'll come as good news to some people because they'd rather spend time at home, you know, if they're able to show that they don't have covid rather than these kind of packed isolation centres, which at times are pretty squalid, to tell the truth. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... at least 53 people have been killed in landslides and floods after tropical storm megi devastated the philippines. rescue crews were still looking for survivors in flooded villages on wednesday, digging through mud and wading through chest—high water. officials say the death toll from sunday's storm is only expected to go up.

a day after sri lanka suspended international debt repayments, its central bank has urged sri lankans overseas to send money home. the bank said foreign exchange was urgently needed to fund food and fuel. in delhi, people are sweltering under an early heatwave, with the temperature reaching 39 celsius on wednesday after breaking the 40—mark earlier in the week. india's meteorological department has issued heat warnings for several parts of northern india where temperatures were recorded at 6—10 celsius above normal. in thailand, the songkran festival is underway, marking the beginning of the traditional thai new year. it's thailand's most important buddhist holiday, and this year's festivities have extra significance — as celebrations have been cancelled for the last two years, thanks to covid. but with cases in thailand rising once again, there are still some restrictions in place.

arpiwach supateerawanitt is a writer for time out bangkok, and has written about what people can expect from this year's festival. it's wonderful to have you on the programme, and i suppose i don't _ the programme, and i suppose i don't know— the programme, and i suppose i don't kno— don't know what the convention is, but happy — don't know what the convention is, but happy songkran, - don't know what the convention is, but happy songkran, if- is, but happy songkran, if that's the correct thing to say. just talk us through what the preparations have been like for this year's festivities in comparison to, well, the last couple of years when you haven't been able to do this. yes, good morning. forthe past two years, it was tough for all of us, but this year all regulations have been more relaxed, and the government allows people to go out and have more fun in the city. but there are still some rules in place — like we can still splash water, which is one of the most well—known traditions

of songkran. the most well-known traditions of songkran-— of songkran. right, my understanding - of songkran. right, my understanding of - of songkran. right, my understanding of that l understanding of that significance of the splashing water, i'd love you to explain more of that, is that it's meant to wash away the bad luck. is that right? after the year you've just gone through, just to have better luck this year, is that the significance of that? , .,, ., year, is that the significance of that? , ., , of that? some people do believe that, but i _ of that? some people do believe that, but | think— of that? some people do believe that, but | think a _ of that? some people do believe that, but i think a more - that, but i think a more practical reason for the splashing water thing is just to help cool off the temperature during this time, because it's the peak of summer. and i think it's more fun to do this — but traditionally, it'sjust fun to do this — but traditionally, it's just a way for all the kids to pour some water on the adults hands and ask for blessings. that was the original tradition before it had been given into something

more fun for the people and tourists to enjoy the festival. indeed, that makes sense now that you've pointed that out. now how will it change this year, will you still be able to have those kinds of festivities?- have those kinds of festivities? , ,., , festivities? yes, so the past two years. _ festivities? yes, so the past two years. we _ festivities? yes, so the past two years, we were - festivities? yes, so the past two years, we were in - festivities? yes, so the past - two years, we were in lockdown and there wasn't much to do on the outside. but this year, if you go to all the shopping malls in bangkok, you can see that there are so many people enjoying all the events and shopping, and dining in restaurants. so i think it's a good sign to see that life in thailand is slowly coming back. that's a great note to end the interview and this programme on, thanks so much forjoining

us on this programme, and thank you forjoining us on the programme. that's it for us. hello there. apart from the odd shower, it does look like many places will stay dry for the run—up to easter. and for many of us, it'll stay quite warm, as well — particularly for england and wales, where we'll see the best of any sunshine throughout the day on thursday. we've got a weak area of high pressure tending to build in across the country — that should keep these weather fronts out at bay, which will tend to threaten parts of northern ireland and scotland through the day. however, they will tend to bring thicker cloud here through the day, some spots of rain around, particularly for western scotland. elsewhere, any low cloud, mist, and murk will tend to clear away, certainly inland, and allow for some good sunny spells to develop, though could stay quite murky around the coast. and there's just an outside chance of a shower across eastern england. again, another warm day to come for many, 15—19 celsius, we could see 20 celsius again somewhere in the southeast. there's a repeat performance as we head through thursday night.

showers die away, and we start to see more low cloud, mist, and murk rolling into southern and western areas in particular. i think eastern areas will see the lengthiest clear spells. and again, it's going to be another mild night. so for good friday, we start off mainly dry, sunshine from the word go across eastern areas, a bit more in the way of cloud across the north and the west — perhaps an odd shower for northern ireland, wales, the southwest of england. 0therwise most places dry, and it could be the warmest day of the week, good friday, we could see 21 celsius or so in the southeast, but even further north, the mid—to—high teens. now, as we head through the easter weekend, it does look like our area of high pressure could start to break down, and that may allow low pressure and weather fronts to sweep in to the north and the west through easter sunday and easter monday. so some areas in the north could be fairly wet. saturday itself doesn't look too bad — much of england and wales again dry with some good spells of sunshine. a bit more in the way of cloud across scotland, northern ireland, perhaps some irish sea coasts, the odd shower here. and temperatures again, mid—to—high teens for many, probably highs of 18—19 celsius

in the southeast. temperatures just coming down a little bit. easter sunday at this stage, it could be fairly wet across parts of the north and the west for a while. more active weather fronts try to work their way eastwards. but again, midlands, eastern england, southern england could stay dry with some good sunny spells and temperatures mid—to—high teens once again. so i think we're starting the easter weekend off on a largely fine, pretty warm note with some sunshine around — the best of it in the east, but there is an increasing chance of more unsettled weather trying to push in from the north and the west for part two of easter weekend.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues, straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. what will it take to end the waeradimir putin initiated in ukraine? in military terms, russia now seems intent on a grim campaign of attrition in the east and south, a strategy which is already taking a terrible human toll. could economic isolation inflict enough pain to force the kremlin to reconsider?

well, my guest is exiled russian economist