welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines... the world's richest man, elon musk, buys twitter for $41; billion, but what does he plan to do with it? the war in ukraine enters its third month. we report from the east where people are forced to live underground, desperate for the war to end. translation: my brain hurts. two idiots are fighting, two old men. all of them are guilty, all of them. in russia, there are two huge explosions at an oil depot, not farfrom the border with ukraine. vladimir putin has harsh words for the west. translation: senior diplomats in europe and the us _ are ordering their state ukraine to do everything

possible to achieve victory on the battlefield. this is impossible, so now they plan to destroy russia from within. we'll have more on that from our russia editor, steve rosenberg, who has travelled to the region. also on the programme, beijing expands its mass covid testing to more districts as fears of a lockdown promote panic buying across the chinese capital. for the first time, black women artists from britain and the united states win awards at the prestigious venice biennale. of course it's an enormous accolade, but i also think, | why has it taken so long? it should've _ happened before now. live from our studio in singapore... this is bbc news. it's newsday.

hello and welcome to the programme. elon musk, the world's richest man, has bought twitter in a deal worth $41; billion. in a joint statement, the two sides said they wanted to make the social media platform better than ever. elon musk said "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning he went on to say... shortly before the announcement, he tweeted... let's get more from our north america correspondent, david willis, in los angeles. great to have you as always on the programme, david. ijust

want to start by asking why did elon musk want to buy twitter in the first place? in elon musk want to buy twitter in the first place?— in the first place? in a word or a coume _ in the first place? in a word or a couple of— in the first place? in a word or a couple of words, - in the first place? in a word| or a couple of words, power in the first place? in a word - or a couple of words, power and influence. i think he is the richest person in the world, and this gives him considerable influence. it would also potentially give him a lot of headaches going forward. regulatory headaches. what sort of content moderation will be put in place? elon musk has made plain in the passed he is not a fan of content moderation and says twitter should be a centre for free—speech, but that comes at some cost, as we've seen at the past with the rise of qanon and conspiracy theory groups. the big question now — will donald trump, who is banned for life on twitter and other platforms following the insurrection at the us capitol building last year, be allowed

to return? he had 90 million followers orjust to return? he had 90 million followers or just about when he was kicked off twitter, and of course, it would be very, very important of him —— to him if he decides to launch another run to president to have that platform. it would seem to be contradictory to the remarks that he's made in the past, elon musk, for donald trump to remain banned. we have to wait and see. . ., and see. indeed. so much that still is unknown _ and see. indeed. so much that still is unknown about - and see. indeed. so much that still is unknown about what - and see. indeed. so much that| still is unknown about what the future is for twitter. as much as we still don't know, what elon musk plans to do with the platform. any since there? well, it remains to be seen. he's the latest and a long line of billionaires to to acquire a platform such as this. we've seen rupert murdoch acquiring the new york post, the wall

streetjournal. jeff bezos, the street journal. jeff bezos, the washington streetjournal. jeff bezos, the washington post. this is a huge deal compared to both of those. jeff bezos paid $250 million for the post. this is $41; billion. it remains to be seen who elon musk put in charge of twitter. does he keep the present line—up of officials or miss it all up a bit? what will be the reaction of tesla share folders, who may feel with tesla and speak sex that elon musk is somewhat divided —— spacex. what this may mean for the development of the first electric car, for example. such an interesting _ electric car, for example. such an interesting point. _ electric car, for example. such an interesting point. i- electric car, for example. such an interesting point. i also - an interesting point. i also wonder what you think of what impact this decision will have on users. it's been criticised,

twitter, for being somewhat of an unpleasant place in comparison to other social media platforms. with elon musk at the top of the structure now, do you think users will stay on or migrate somewhere else? ., , stay on or migrate somewhere else? . , ., ., , else? that is a really good question. _ else? that is a really good question, and _ else? that is a really good question, and let's - else? that is a really good question, and let's go - else? that is a really good | question, and let's go back else? that is a really good i question, and let's go back to donald trump for a second because he's said he won't be coming back to twitter and it remains to be seen whether he changes his mind. he and elon musk have had a friendly relationship in the past, but donald trump has been promoting this platform of his own truth. but it's a real shadow of twitter. a couple of it is executives resigned earlier this week. donald trump himself has used the app apparently very little at all. twitter is the big show, the main show in town. could you drive people away when you get more hate speech? i suppose the question could also be asked if you do

run it properly, will some of the conservatives who would've gone over to social my clap but —— migrate back to twitter? indeed. david willis, the to get your thoughts and analysis —— great to get. if you want to get in touch with me about this story on twitter, you can find me. i'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. let's turn to the war in ukraine now. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, has again suggested there's a danger of the conflict leading to a third world war, but he said he expected it to end with a peace agreement. mr lavrov said nato was in effect engaging in a proxy war with russia, and that weapons delivered to ukraine from the west would be what he called legitimate targets. five train stations were struck by russian missiles in western ukraine on monday. the railways have become a key target for russian forces, as they're crucial for both bringing in supplies

and evacuating civilians. meanwhile, unrelenting russian attacks continue in the eastern donbas region. there's been fighting there since 2014 between ukrainian troops and separatists backed by moscow. russian artillery has been targeting towns and cities, where mainly civilians have been sheltering in basements, short of food and water. 0ur defence correspondent, jonathan beale, has travelled close to the front lines. birdsong. explosion. the first sounds of spring, now drowned out by heavy shelling. in eastern ukraine, their battered flag still flying. but signs of life are vanishing fast in the face of a renewed russian offensive. russia is making small gains but creating widespread chaos and devastation right across the region. most have already fled the

towns and cities of the donbas. it's the few, like valentina, who've stayed behind. we found her trying to find food during a lull in the fighting. translation: of course it's dangerous. _ everybody is scared. now we are even afraid of silence. you never know what will happen next. this is now her home. lysychansk has become an underground city. she shares a dark, dank shelter with another 50 people. they say they're running out of clean water and food, and some don't even care which side is winning. translation: my brain hurts. two idiots are fighting, two old men. all of them are guilty. all of them. distant bangs.

but there is no peace from the constant barrage of artillery. it's becoming yet another russian war of attrition. they're trying to break ukrainian forces along a front line that stretches for 300 miles. we have bomb attacks, i rocket attacks every day. every day, every time, every day, every house, all day. i if we lose, lose not only ukraine, lose all world. | and your countries, - and other countries, too. here, they're still relying on mostly old soviet weaponry. they proudly show off their one british—supplied anti—tank missile, the nlaw. they've already used the other one to destroy a russian tank. we need that weapon for ourfreedom, for a win, for that war. we need that weapon. and when we have more that

weapon, war is ending. do you have enough of them? that position? yeah. this position? no. ukrainian forces have been holding the line here since 2014 against russian—backed separatists. they're still holding the line, but this time against the russian army. and what has been sporadic fighting over the last eight years has now turned into a full blown war, and they are being pounded by russian artillery. this war is grinding down life in the donbas. deserted towns and cities slowly being destroyed as we travel through the region. from lysychansk to slovyansk, to lyman in the north. the only certainty — this will be costly and brutal for whoever wins this war.

jonathan beale, bbc news, eastern ukraine. in russia, there've been at least two huge explosions at an oil depot, around 95 miles from the border with ukraine. the cause is still being investigated, but it follows moscow's claims in recent weeks, that ukrainian attack helicopters have been hitting targets on russian soil. there's been no official comment from either side about the explosions, which happened not far from the border in the town of bryansk. from there, our russia editor, steve rosenberg, sent us this report. caught on cctv, the prelude to an inferno. the russian fuel depot was engulfed in a fireball. flames lit up the night sky over bryansk. then, over to the right, you can see a second explosion. the border with ukraine is less than 100 miles from here.

so, was this the result of a ukrainian strike to disrupt logistics for russia's military offensive? was it sabotage? neither moscow nor kyiv are saying. all day, plumes of thick, black smoke hung over the city, making bryansk feel like a war zone. "this never happened before," she says. "at 3am, we heard explosions. "we were amazed." "i don't know what this is," he says. "is it war here? "i suppose we're on the front line. "i wonder if ukraine did this." we've seen something similar early this month, in belgorod. russia claimed that ukrainian helicopter gunships had opened fire. kyiv wouldn't confirm it.

whatever the cause of today's fire, it sparked concern in this city. when the kremlin launched its so—called special military operation two months ago, for many here it was a case for many here, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind. this was a conflict playing out on tv screens. but that's changing, and, for many russians now, hostilities are starting to feel much closer to home. back in moscow, president putin accused the west of prolonging hostilities in ukraine. translation: to our surprise, senior diplomats in europe - and the us are ordering their client state ukraine to do everything possible to achieve victory on the battlefield. this is impossible, so now they plan to destroy russia from within. vladimir putin claims he sent his troops into ukraine to bring russians security, but there is little

sign of that. steve rosenberg, bbc news, bryansk. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. ajudge in new york has found donald trump in contempt of court for failing to provide documents demanded as part of an investigation into his business empire. the former us president has been ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 a day until he complies. his lawyer said mr trump was not being evasive, but simply did not have the documents being sought. a court in turkey has sentenced the businessman and civil rights campaigner osman kavala to life in prison on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. the ruling by a panel of three judges was met with boos from a packed courtroom. mr kavala has already spent more than four years behind bars without being convicted. in the us, wildfires in arizona, nebraska and new mexico have burned over

150,000 acres and killed at least one person. there have been nearly two dozen fires across the us southwest, raising concern over the intensity and duration of the fire season. the federal firefighters that are fighting the blazes say they are vastly understaffed and worry not enough help is coming soon enough. a capsule carrying three businessmen and a former nasa astronaut who took part in a landmark commercial space mission has splashed down off the coast of florida. during their trip to the international space station, the crew carried out a series of scientific experiments. each of them is thought to have paid more than $50 million for their trip. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme — the winning black artists at the centre of this year's venice art biannale.

nothing, it seemed, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting for for so long. it was 7.00 in the morning. on the day when power began to pass from the minority- to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. -

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines for you... elon musk has clinched a deal to buy twitter. in a joint statement, the two sides said they wanted to make the social media platform better than ever. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, says nato is in effect engaging in a proxy war with russia, and that weapons delivered to ukraine from the west would be what he called legitimate targets. the authorities in beijing have announced they're expanding a mass—covid testing campaign to another ten districts after a sharp rise in cases in china's capital. people have been stocking up on food, as fears grow that the city could be locked down. millions of residents in shanghai are still in the middle of a lockdown that's lasted for more than a month.

i'm joined by professor yanzhong huang, senior fellow for global health at the council on foreign relations. just how serious is the situation right now? if just how serious is the situation right now? if you 'ust situation right now? if you just look _ situation right now? if you just look at _ situation right now? if you just look at the _ situation right now? if you just look at the cases, - situation right now? if you just look at the cases, the j just look at the cases, the absolute number remains lower compared with number in the west, but if you look at the increase of the cases, it is clearly the largest outbreak since the wuhan lockdown. the number of cases are many times more that. in the meantime, the government consider the worst case scenario could happen if china choose to exist with the

virus. so it also... this is a very serious and grim situation given the rapid spread of the virus in the country. professor, what is the worst case situation, given the rising number of covid infections in china? can the government stop the spread of the 0micron virus given what we know about how contagious it is? ~ . , ., , is? well, what they define as worst case — is? well, what they define as worst case scenario - is? well, what they define as worst case scenario after - worst case scenario after opening of is that there's a rapid nationwide spread of the virus, a surge of cases, overwhelming the country's health care system. there will be fewer health care personnel available to treat the infected, given that many of them themselves will be infected, and there will be mass... more than1 million

deaths in china predicted. significant implications for social and political stability. the problem here is that the existing zero covid approach, resetting cases 20 or extremely low level, that is becoming increasingly impossible given the rapid spread of the new variant. ., ., variant. so, part of the world that have _ variant. so, part of the world that have managed _ variant. so, part of the world that have managed to - variant. so, part of the world that have managed to get - variant. so, part of the world - that have managed to get beyond covid have used vaccines to great effect to solve some of the problems you've just described. what's the situation in china with vaccines? 0verall, nationwide, they have an 88% vaccination rate in the country, so that is actually very high. 88% of the

population have been vaccinated with at least two doses, but the problem is that you have a large percentage of the elderly population, those who are aged over 60, that are not fully vaccinated. we're talking about 20% of the population, more than 50 million of the elderly who are not vaccinated fully and above half of that are aged over 80. we know this is the population that is very susceptible to the virus and more likely to develop severe cases. ., , ,., more likely to develop severe cases. ., ., ., cases. professor yanzhong huanu , cases. professor yanzhong huang, thank _ cases. professor yanzhong huang, thank you - cases. professor yanzhong huang, thank you for - cases. professor yanzhong i huang, thank you forjoining cases. professor yanzhong - huang, thank you forjoining us on the programme with your thoughts. on the programme with your thoughts-— the british artist sonia boyce has won the top prize, the golden lion at the venice art

bionnale. her work looks at the contribution of black british female musicians to british culture. katie razzall met sonia boyce in venice. the british pavilion at the venice art biennale has been transformed to the sound of five black female musicians. it's a hugely noisy, but hopefullyjoyously noisy, experience. sonia boyce's work here, called feeling her way, is the latest stage in a wider project that tells the stories of black women singers and musicians. you are the first black female artist to ever represent britain. i wonder what you feel about that. i mean, of course it's an enormous accolade. but i also think, why has it taken so long? i mean, there are so many brilliant british female black artists out there. it should have happened before now. it's her time in the sun now. with a golden lion for the show, she'sjoined the likes of other famous british names, bridget riley and henry moore amongst them, to the very top biennale prize.

boyce have this message. boyce had this message. there's a longer arc of people that we need to keep saying, they're here. for more than a century, the world's most high profile art exhibition has centred around men. not this year. close to sonia boyce's pavilion, america's has a new temporary thatched roof, and an exhibition courtesy of simone leigh, the first black woman to represent the us here. they wanted to start this part of the show with this money mental artwork. simone leigh won the other golden lion prize for this 16 foot bronze sculpture at the central biennale show, curated by cecilia alemani. of the 213 artists featured in what's called the milk of dreams, between 80% and 90% are female. i wanted to give the stage and the platform to many amazing, wonderful artists who also happen to be women. and why has it taken so long, do you think?

because we still live in a very sexist society, and it's very, very hard to advance. advance is happening in scotland's exhibition. this tapestry looks at slavery and the stories we're told. the artist, alberta whittle, is the first black woman to represent scotland in venice. i think the world's i more ready to accept women artists, possibly. black women artists, i don't know. - i'd like it if people - weren't so scared to work with ideas of race or to kind - of open up these conversations. but change is afoot here, certainly when it comes certainly when it comes to whose art gets a place on the wall. katie razzall, bbc news, venice. stars of the popular british television series downton abbey have hit the red carpet for the the world premiere of the franchise's latest film, a new era. elizabeth mcgovern, hugh bonneville and imelda staunton were among the period—drama's stars to attend the event in london. the film, which is the second to be made from the series, follows the crawley family as they travel to the south

of france to visit a newly inherited villa. fans of that will really enjoy that. that's it from us. thanks for watching. hello. if it's rain you're after, you won't find any substantial amounts in this forecast. we were on monday teased by a few showers out there that only produced a few millimetres of rain here and there and they are not a sign of things to come. this weak weather front in scotland in northern england will screeds two squeeze out a little light and patchy rain on tuesday. but this is the main weather feature building and for the rest of the week and looks like the rest of the month to. high pressure right across us keeping things largely dry and settled. with the chance, though, on the cool side out there of the touch of frost over the next few mornings. tuesday mornings across parts of southern scotland, northern and eastern england. many starting the sunshine but some thicker cloud across parts of scotland

running down in northern england, will produce a little light and patchy rain, not amounting to very much. the far northeast of scotland brightens up a touch. northern ireland, wales, the midlands, east anglia and southern england, a lot of early sunshine, some cloud building, the chance of an isolated shower, that's all it's going to be. these areas seeing some of the highest temperatures, warmest near 17 degrees. getting quite cold through eastern scotland in northeast england, especially with this and northeast england,, especially with this onshore breeze. any showers that have developed along with cloud will melt away overnight and into wednesday morning, wednesday morning, we keep some cloud across eastern most parts here, the chance again of a frost looks to be on wednesday in parts of scotland and northern england. then on wednesday, it does look as if that area of high pressure moves right in to be a mainly dry day. where you start with cloud in the east, it may then in the east, it may thin and break in places, where you start elsewhere was sunshine, some called is going to build, but we'll continue to see some sunny spells.

and there'll be a range of temperatures from the cooler north sea coast, to something closer towards the mid—teens and the warm air spots elsewhere. by then on thursday morning, could be quite a bit of cloud to wales in much of england, although there's a hint of something sunnier towards england and south wales, although breezier there as well. just may lift the temperature a little bit higher here than it's been. a few sunny spells still around in scotland and northern ireland. that area of high pressure stays with us into the weekend. there is a chance on saturday, perhaps seeing a little patch of rain towards northern ireland and scotland. not set in stone. it is the exception to the otherwise largely dry theme. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we will 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. vladimir putin claims ukraine is a fake nation. he peddles a moscow centric version of history which draws on centuries of russian imperialism. his invasion of ukraine is about much more

than military supremacy, it's about culture, language,