welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: protests in the united states after a leaked document suggests the supreme court is about to overturn the law protecting the right to abortion. the draft�*s release has caused a wave of reaction from both sides. the us senate majority leader says he'll hold a symbolic vote to put the right to an abortion into federal law. also on the programme — rescued after more than 60 days trapped underground in ukraine. more than 100 civilians, including children, who've spent weeks living beneath the besieged steel plant in mariupol

finally reach safety. in shanghai, the bbc uncovers evidence of people as old as 100 who've been moved out of their homes after testing positive for covid—19 as millions endure a strict lockdown. it's shanghai's most vulnerable who have suffered the most. almost all the official dead are elderly and unvaccinated. china's leaders insist that still chasing zero covid is the right thing. and one of ukraine's biggest bands, antytila, team up with ed sheeran, releasing a new song to help their country while serving in the war against russia. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday.

hello and welcome to the programme. president biden has vowed to protect abortion rights in the united states after a leaked document suggested the supreme court is poised to overturn the ruling which legalised the procedure nationwide. the draft opinion, written byjustice samuel alito, says the 1973 decision — roe vs wade — was wrong from the start. officials have confirmed that the document is genuine, and have launched an investigation into the leak. mr biden said a woman's right to choose was "fundamental". 0ur north america editor sarah smith, reports from washington. 0ur north america editor sarah smith, reports from washington. abortion is violence! 0utnumbered but vocal, outside the supreme court, anti—abortion activists scent victory, after nearly 50 years of fighting the constitutional guarantee of abortion rights, that's known as roe v wade. with overturning roe it's going back to the states

and the states are going to come up with these great programmes, a network of support to give women the choice, because right now a lot of women feels like abortion is their only choice. we want them to have real choice. you can stay in school and have a baby. you can have a job and have a baby. pro—choice campaigners aghast that more than half the states in america could ban or severely restrict abortion in the next few months, according to a leaked document from the supreme court. what did you think when you heard the decision what did you think when you read the decision last night? i thought, this is devastating. the courts are undermining the american people. and we have a long road ahead, but we are not letting this fight slip through our fingers. we are going to keep going. ninejustices sit on the supreme court, five of them, according to the leaked report, will vote to overturn abortion rights, with justice samuel alito writing that the decades—old decision to guarantee abortion was egregiously wrong. the impact will be sudden. there are 13 us states that have so—called trigger laws in place which would lead to an immediate ban on abortion. another 13 would move quickly to ban or severely limit

access, says the guttmacher institute, a pro—choice group. it estimates 36 million women of reproductive age will live in states without abortion access. this is what the republicans have been working towards, for decades. they have been out there plotting, carefully cultivating these supreme courtjustices so they could have a majority on the bench who would accomplish something that the majority of americans do not want. all: abortion is violence! donald trump deliberately appointed three of the conservative supreme courtjustices, hoping to overturn the ban on abortion. a move welcomed by republicans around the country. i think i've been clear, i'm pro—life and i've made that very clear from the moment i announced my candidacy and i believe that what we found during the campaign and even through today is that there is a lot of common ground on this topic. we want fewer abortions

in virginia, not more. president biden says he believes a woman's right to choose is fundamental. he wants to pass a law through congress guaranteeing access to abortion. everyone knew a ruling on abortion rights was coming from the supreme court, but such a dramatic change in the law has still come as a seismic shock. the passions ignited by one of the most divisive issues in america will not be silenced when the court delivers its official ruling. as sarah was this is a hugely divisive issue in america. in a moment, we will hear from a pro—choice campaigner but first this is carol tobias, the campaigns against abortion rights in the united states. 0bviously rights in the united states. obviously the judges could change their mind but i hope it is the way the court is going to go and we can again start to

protect unborn children in our country. protect unborn children in our count . ., ., , ., country. carol, “ust to say that some _ country. carol, just to say that some recent - that some recent statistics show, i'm thinking of the pugh research centre in 2021, that six in ten americans are in favour of legalising abortion so doesn't this leaked draft go against what many in america believe they would like to see? what happened in 1973 is the supreme court took the decision out of the states, out of the hands of the people and just set a national law. if the court does indeed overturn roe .v wade, that will mean that the 50 states once again, with elected officials, elected by the people, will get to make their laws. congress may also have a part in this, that they may be doing something on a federal level but it takes the decision out of the courts and puts it into the hands of

elected representatives. to me, thatis elected representatives. to me, that is the best way that the american people can speak up and have their voices heard. truly there are some people that want to keep abortion legal there are a lot of that want to protect unborn children so we got probably a couple of years of ongoing battles in a couple of places before any of this really gets settled. how much would _ this really gets settled. how much would you _ this really gets settled. how much would you say, - this really gets settled. how much would you say, carol, | this really gets settled. how much would you say, carol, that this is a sort of religious issue in the united states, given how divided people appeared to be of this —— about this? appeared to be of this -- about this? , ., , ., this? the base of the pro-life movement — this? the base of the pro-life movement is _ this? the base of the pro-life movement is strong - this? the base of the pro-life movement is strong in - this? the base of the pro-life movement is strong in their l movement is strong in their face ——in theirfaith but movement is strong in their face ——in their faith but we have a broad segment of society that will also come forward and say they are secularists, atheists, agnostics, this is a civil rights issue, and religion comes into play for some people but not for others. 0ne some people but not for others. one thing i do want to point

out in the united states, abortion is legal for all out in the united states, abortion is legalfor all nine months of pregnancy. we are only one of seven countries that have that kind of radical position. when people say they support roe .v wade, they don't support roe .v wade, they don't support what it does so is going to take some education on our part to make sure they understand thatjust understand that just overturning roe understand thatjust overturning roe .v wade, first of all, isn't going to make abortion illegal everywhere that most of the people are going to actually accept what the court is doing because they do not support the current situation under roe. earlier, iasked kristin ford, vice president of communications and research at naral pro—choice america, a group that campaigns for access to abortion care, what she made of this. we were certainly surprised to see an opinion leak

from the supreme court. it is unprecedented in modern history but we were not surprised by the substance of this, every signal we had gotten up to this point was ominous in terms of the fate of roe v wade in the right to abortions right to abortions in the united states. we are preparing for this and it's abundantly clear that there's a tremendous amount at stake for abortion rights in the us. kristin, talk us through how the rights of lower income women who statistics suggest are affected by a lack of access to abortions, might be affected by this ruling if indeed it does go through. we already have a patchwork of access to abortion care in this country and different states have at an act different barriers and those barriers and restrictions fall hardest on communities who are already marginalised by our health care systems. that includes people with lower incomes, as well as communities of colour, immigrant communities, gay and lesbian communities and other constituencies who are rich

struggle to access the care they may need and if this decision is issued by the supreme court and it looks like they have the five votes necessary to overturn the landmark roe v wade case, they'll issue a state licensed to ban abortions and people have to travel and in some cases hundreds of thousands of miles to access the care they need and there are lots of resources necessary to make those kinds of trips to access care about the cost of the procedure and the medications as well as the cost for travel and lodging and the cost for childcare, majority of people who have an abortion already are a parent and there is a lot of roadblocks for people and this is only going to make it significantly worse. let's turn to ukraine —

where more than 100 people who were trapped beneath the rubble of a steelworks in mariupol have finally been brought to safety. the evacuees have spent weeks without seeing daylight — living in tunnels beneath the facility. but the ceasefire that allowed them to escape was brief. fierce fighting has now begun in mariupol again — and the red cross says there are still an unknown number of people trapped in the city. 0ur correspondent, laura bicker, watched as the first evacuees finally made it to safety in zaporizhzhia. theirjourney from hell is over. two months of horror ends in exhaustion and relief. katarina spent weeks hidden in the depths of the azovstal steel plant as russian bombs pounded the site. she tried to tell her children everything would be ok, even when she didn't believe it herself. translation: how we were living, to be honest, - it was horrible. from morning until night we were bombarded. artillery, rockets, air strikes, our children couldn't sleep.

they were crying, they were scared, and us as well. there were several times when we were losing hope we would ever get out. we are extremely glad to be in ukraine. for more than 60 days, these women and children were stuck in the darkness, living on rations handed down by ukrainian soldiers. it's been a difficult and complex operation to free them. translation: we lived in hope that every day would be - the last day in this hell, that we would go home to a peaceful mariupol, but now it is non—existent. this evacuation represents rare progress to ease the humanitarian cost of this war but hundreds more did not manage to make it on this bus. they are thought to still be trapped within the steel plant, including around a dozen children, and talks are still under way to free them. this footage from social media is said to show the azovstal steelworks this morning,

under heavy attack from russian forces. this once thriving industrial heartland is now a charred shell. later in the video, russian tanks are seen patrolling what remains of the streets and park areas surrounding the huge factory. there are thought to be nearly 100,000 people still living in mariupol. translation: idon't. know where to go at all. i am not alone. imagine, everything is destroyed and broken. where should the people go now? here, they are sitting with small kids, little ones. i've got have nowhere to go. for those who have made it out, finally they have fresh food and a little hope. lives have been saved today but many more hang in the balance. laura bicker, bbc news, zaporizhzhia. the ukrainian city

of lviv has been hit by a number of missiles — the first strikes in the west of the country in more than a week. the city's mayor says three electricity substations have been damaged, parts of the city are without power and there are outages at some medicalfacilities. he said there's also serious damage to infrastructure and interruptions in the water supply. if you want to get in touch with me over any stories, including ukraine, iam @bbckarishma. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: ukrainian group antytila team up with ed sheeran, releasing a new song partly filmed and recorded while serving in the war against russia. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic

of south africa. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterrand. but the tunnel is still not yet ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and i islam struggled for supremacy. now, the pope's visit - symbolises their willingness to coexist. roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in underfour minutes. memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in the future of peace and freedom.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our top story today: president biden has called for the preservation of the ruling that legalised abortion across the us after a leaked document suggested it could be scrapped by the supreme court. well, that news about the leaked supreme court document on abortion rights comes as voters in ohio voters are choosing us senate nominees in a hotlycontested race — one that many political observrs say offers an early test of donaldtrump's influence over the party as he considers running for the presidency again in 202a. 0ur north america correspondent anthony zurcher is in cincinnati, ohio. greater to get you on the programme. —— great too. polls are closing, set the scene for us, what's at stake for both parties? what can you tell us about the latest? , , ., ., ,

latest? this will be an open seed for — latest? this will be an open seed for the _ latest? this will be an open seed for the ohio _ latest? this will be an open seed for the ohio senate i latest? this will be an open seed for the ohio senate orj latest? this will be an open - seed for the ohio senate or the united states senate representing 0hio, united states senate representing ohio, with a 50—50 senate control of the seat could decide who controls the senate in washington, dc. there is one democrat who is prominent running, who has already been declared the winner of his primary, tim ryan, was the congressman representing eastern 0hio, by the republican field is very crowded and the person who is campaign headquarters i am here at now, jd vance, received a donald trump's endorsement. there are four other candidates running, three other were also vying for donald trump's endorsement. butjd vance saw a boost in his standings and with early results coming in, he has a narrow lead. the people here at the election party behind me are cautiously optimistic that the candidate could prevail, even with only 20% of the vote.

how much has the leaked document from the supreme court on abortion rights become a part of the debate? well, obviously it broke very late in the race, some of them had already voted early in the rest were heading to the poles today. all of the prominent candidates released statements talking about, at least on the republican side, their hopes that abortion would be allowed to be banned in states like 0hio. to be banned in states like ohio. it to be banned in states like 0hio. it was something on voters people's minds. at this point it is pretty much baked into the cake. there are other senate primary coming up in places like pennsylvania and georgia, where i think that leaked abortion opinion could have a much larger impact, because, again, these are candidates for national office for the us congress which there will be efforts by democrats to pass legislation protecting abortion rights in congress, they don't have the votes are right now, but if they pick up

things like this one it might be easier. things like this one it might be easier-— things like this one it might be easier. �* , ., ., be easier. always great to get ou on be easier. always great to get you on the _ be easier. always great to get you on the programme - be easier. always great to get you on the programme with i be easier. always great to get i you on the programme with your thoughts. thank you forjoining us on newsday. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. president erdogan of turkey says he's organising the voluntary return to syria of a million refugees. he said 500,000 had already returned to turkish—controlled areas. the un secretary general, antonio guterres, who is visiting nigeria, has met former members of thejihadist group boko haram. the meeting took place at a deradicalisation camp. he also met families displaced by the insurgency. two people have died after a six—story building collapsed in south—east china on friday, according to state media. nine people have been rescued from the rubble, while dozens remain missing. the police have made several arrests, including the building owner, on suspicion of ignoring building codes or committing other violations. to china now, where

after more than a month of strict lockdown, authorities in shanghai are beginning to gradually ease covid restrictions. the number of new cases is falling, but thousands of people remain in government run quarantine facilities. the bbc has seen evidence of people in their 90s, some even 100 years old, who've been moved out of their homes after testing positive. robin brant reports from shanghai, where he's still in lockdown. it's taken more than a month, but now shanghai's leaders think this outbreak is contained. so, it's time for a mass clean—up. disinfection by an army of workers, thousands of them, before a gradual opening up. but the brutal war against covid has left a scarred city. people as old as 100 were among those tested positive and taken to quarantine centres. one man detailed what he saw first—hand on social media.

translation: a lot of- the old people have underlying health problems, and the conditions inside quarantine centres are not good. we hope the elderlies can be sent to better hospitals. in the five weeks i've been locked down — you can't step outside the gates — it's shanghai's most vulnerable who've suffered the most. almost all the official dead are elderly and unvaccinated. china's leaders insist that still chasing zero covid is the right thing. the enforcement has been harsh at times. some people barricaded into their homes. 0r forced out of them. communities fenced off. but xijinping has made it clear there's no change. the man in charge of china's ruling communist party believes persistence is victory. this is now a test of china's way, of his credibility. one part of china has

changed tack, though. in hong kong, we never did a total lockdown. schools were closed, a lot of people were working from home, but it was by no means a lockdown. and my concern in shanghai would be how long can this go on because the case numbers are not going to come down to zero immediately. they're going to drop down slowly, but the whole thing could happen again in a month or two months or three months if there's another outbreak of 0micron. debate about living with it on the mainland has been shut down in public, though, and there's little room for dissent. this man was detained by police for simply showing his shopping, some pork donated by a neighbouring province. his crime — highlighting the food supply problems. the government said this small—scale, subtle protest, banging pots in parts of shanghai, was influenced by foreign forces. china's capital is now on guard against any spread. most of this country

has been virus—free now for almost two years. but as 0micron threatens, renewed anxiety is spreading. robin brant, bbc news, in shanghai. ukrainian group antytila have teamed up with ed sheeran, releasing a new song partly filmed and recorded while serving in the war against russia. antytila are one of the biggest musical acts in ukraine, but stopped working to join the military. proceeds from the song, which has so far been viewed around 1.5 million times on youtube, will go to help the people of ukraine. mark lobel reports. # cos we're living life at a different pace # stuck in a constant race # keep the pressure on, you're bound to break # something's got to change # we should just be cancelling all our plans # and not give a damn # if we're missing out

# on what the people think is right...# the heartbreaking collaboration as the war grinds on. a message of hope amid the despair. # and then we'll go all night # two—stepping with the woman i love...# ed sheeran adding his voice to ukraine's resistance with ukrainian band antytila, musicians turned front—line medics, picking up the tune. singing in ukrainian shot on location in besieged kharkiv to raise money for the people of ukraine. writing while fighting. the band says they found a way to record the agony of families separated by war despite their recording studio being under occupation at the time. singing in ukrainian their message for the world after this appeal in march.

the ukrainian superstars' tiktok video grabbing ed sheeran�*s attention ahead of a benefit concert for ukraine in which he performed, but they weren't allowed to, with organisers worried about associating with the military. nevertheless, their message got through. leading to this remix of a song the multi—award winner originally shot in kyiv before the invasion, in the hope his 2step with antytila can get the world in step with the determination of the ukrainian people through the power of music. mark lobel, bbc news. music is truly the universal

language for all of us, isn't it? that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. hello there. we've seen plenty of cloud over the past few days. wednesday brings the promise of brighter skies. but with more in the way of sunshine, we could trigger some heavy downpours with the odd rumble of thunder and some lightning mixed in as well. here's the set—up as we move into wednesday, then. we've got these weather fronts bringing and patchy outbreaks of rain pushing eastwards, so it does mean that we start the day on a generally cloudy note. there could be a bit of mist and murk and some patchy outbreaks of rain. that is all shifting its way eastwards, so it will brighten up from the west as we go through the day. sunny spells coming through with more in the way of sunshine, could trigger those heavy thundery downpours. parts of eastern scotland, north—east england and the midlands through to southern and central england seeing those heavy, thundery downpours. of course, not everyone catching one, but if you do see one, it could be heavy. and with more in the way

of sunshine, it's going to be warmer highs, around 17 celsius in the south and east. as we move overnight, we'll see those showers fading away. we'll see plenty of clear spells, but turning cloudier across the north and west with some patchy outbreaks of rain. the temperatures not falling too far at all, staying in the single figures. as we move into thursday, here's how the pressure chart looks. high pressure tending to dominate across england and wales. here, we see a good deal of dry and fine weather. we have those weather fronts just topping across the top in the north—west, bringing cloud and outbreaks of rain. we do drag in this milder air from the south—west, so thursday is looking like a warmer day. a good deal of sunshine across england and wales. cloudier skies, though, across the north and west with some patchy outbreaks of rain. so, for the north, we are looking at highs of around 13—16 c, 16—21, perhaps 22 celsius in the south. friday, we'll see this band of rain pushing its way south. there could be some heavy

bursts in there for parts of northern england and the midlands. drier and brighter behind it, and temperatures dropping off a touch here, but still warm in the south and east. highs of 20 degrees celsius. into the weekend, then, and high pressure dominates the weather, so it's looking like a settled picture. we'll see a good deal of dry, fine weather with light winds. so, if we take a quick look at those outlooks, we can see plenty of dry weather through the weekend. there'll be some patchy cloud and sunny spells and temperatures reaching a high of around 21 celsius. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories at the top of the hour straight after this programme.

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