welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm mariko oi. the headlines... sri lanka brings in new shoot—on—sight orders to try and quell protests calling for the president to step down. once again, russia targets the crucial port city of odesa, with missile strikes hitting a shopping centre. last night when we were here, it was difficult to see the full extent of the damage. but this morning, you can — the rocket has completely ripped into the back of the shopping centre here. you can see it's completely folded. pomp, pageantry — but no queen. the prince of wales stands in for his mother for the first time at the state opening of

parliament. and vardy versus rooney — but this time in the high court. the so—called wagatha christie trial gets under way. live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 7am in singapore, and 4.30am in sri lanka — where security forces have been ordered to shoot anyone seen looting or damaging public property, in the latest attempt to stop anti—government protests. since last month, the country has been rocked by demonstrations over soaring prices, power cuts, and a lack of medicines. demonstrators are calling for the resignation of president gotabaya rajapaksa. his brother, mahinda rajapaksa,

stepped down as prime minister on monday following violent street clashes. protesters have defied an island—wide curfew, and at least eight people have died and 200 have been injured — as our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan reports from colombo. a capital under curfew. troops told to shoot at sight at anyone who damages public property or threatens lives. the skeletons of a bustling city scorched by an economic crisis. reeling after a day of violence. yesterday, supporters of the prime minister attacked anti—government protesters, who until that point had been peacefully demonstrating. at the city's main hospital, more than 200 have been

wounded, many were beaten up. this man fractured his leg after a tear gas canister landed on it. war veterans yigit and assuncao are out of hospital. men who lost their legs in mines during sri lanka's civil war say they were beaten up by the very people they made sacrifices for. "they started punching me. i was left with only one crutch. they pushed me and i fell." "when we served in the army, people used to pray for us. now we're being attacked." with trust in the government shattered, the homes of at least two dozen politicians who backed the ruling party have been torched. this was one of the houses that was vandalised last night. it belonged to a supporter of the government, a local mayor. and this was the bedroom — it was set on fire. all you can see now is the metal that forms the coils of the mattress. and if we just move

into the living room, completely trashed — just look around. tonight, a resort belonging to the son of sri lanka's former prime minister mahinda rajapaksa, who quit yesterday, was set alight. and clashes broke out in the city of negombo. protesters want the president gotabaya rajapaksa to resign — as long as he stays, tensions on this island will be inflamed. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, sri lanka. joining us now from sydney is dr niro kandasamy, an expert in migration from sri lanka and conflict at the university of sydney. thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. firstly, the prime minister's resignation hasn't calm the situation. if anything, resignation hasn't calm the situation. ifanything, it seems to have worsened it. but is it as simple as the president stepping down? m0.

president stepping down? no, it's not, because _ president stepping down? no, it's not, because i _ president stepping down? iirr, it's not, because i think the widespread protests across to my car across the island show the people are beyond frustrated with the sri reflection on the systematic problems within the government itself. economists have long observed and warned that consecutive governments have been mismanaging the national economy. so the current economic crisis we are seeing — the worse we are seeing since sri lanka gained independence from the british in 1948 — was entirely predicable and people are really frustrated at the government. figs are really frustrated at the government.— are really frustrated at the government. are really frustrated at the covernment. ~ , , ., government. as you say, it is a deel government. as you say, it is a deeply rooted economic - government. as you say, it is a deeply rooted economic crisis, | deeply rooted economic crisis, but how long will it take to sort that out? especially the likes of the imf may not offer a financial assistance if the political situation is unstable?— political situation is unstable? �*, m ., unstable? it's difficult to sa , as unstable? it's difficult to say. as you _ unstable? it's difficult to say, as you said - unstable? it's difficult to say, as you said earlier, | say, as you said earlier, president gotabaya rajapaksa president gota baya rajapa ksa has president gotabaya rajapaksa has refused to resign from his position. and as the imf said,

his support is depending on sound economic policies. and clearly the sri lankan government has refused to deliver on sound economic policies. so one of the more disastrous economic policies we've seen was the ban on chemical fertilisers, we've seen was the ban on chemicalfertilisers, which caused a shutdown on several plantations, it drastically reduced as a consequence the country's ability to feed itself. that triggered inflation — so that's one of the challenges the government has faced and is directly responsible for, so it's difficult to say what will happen. difficult to say what will happen-— difficult to say what will hauen. , ,., ,, ., happen. these protests have been taking _ happen. these protests have been taking place _ happen. these protests have been taking place for- happen. these protests have been taking place for weeksl happen. these protests have - been taking place for weeks now and were largely peaceful. in your view, what actually made them turn violent? so your view, what actually made them turn violent?— them turn violent? so i think there are _ them turn violent? so i think there are a — them turn violent? so i think there are a few— them turn violent? so i think there are a few reasons - - them turn violent? so i think there are a few reasons - i l there are a few reasons — i think the government has refused to listen to its people, the rajapaksa family remains in power so, despite

the resignation of mahinda rajapaksa, the president remains. the government is not effectively listening to the economic crisis. so there's still food shortages, fuel prices are still low, people are dying in cues waiting for fuel because of the heat. medical supplies are in shortage, as well. so people's immediate needs are not being addressed, and the government doesn't seem to be implementing adequate measures to address those needs.— adequate measures to address those needs. doctor, thanks so much forjoining _ those needs. doctor, thanks so much forjoining us _ those needs. doctor, thanks so much forjoining us on - those needs. doctor, thanks soj much forjoining us on newsday this morning. much forjoining us on newsday this morning-— let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... the head of the world health organisation has said china's zero tolerance policy against covid is not sustainable. the authorities in beijing have imposed lockdowns affecting tens of millions of people, lasting several weeks, to try to prevent any spread of the illness. but the who's director general said he had told chinese experts it was time

to change that approach. when we talk about the zero—covid strategy, we don't think that it's sustainable considering the behaviour of the virus now, and what we anticipate in the future. we have discussed about this issue with chinese experts, and we indicated that the approach, you know, would not be sustainable. in court in new york, the former president of honduras, juan orlando hernandez, pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges. mr hernandez, who governed from 2014 to january this year, was arrested in february. this is him being extradited from honduras to the us last month. he is accused of having accepted millions of dollars in bribes during his eight years as president, in exchange for protecting drug traffickers from investigation and arrest.

an international donors conference has raised more than $6.5 billion to help war—torn syria and its neighbours. the news was announced on the second day of a un—backed conference in brussels. earlier, the un's high commissioner for refugees, filippo grandi, warned that the humanitarian situation for syrians was catastrophic. russia has targeted the black sea port of odesa, using what the ukrainians say were hypersonic missiles, which fly at five times the speed of sound. one person is reported to have died. it comes as the united nations has estimated that the number of civilians killed in the conflict far exceeds the official figure ofjust over 3,000. from odesa, caroline davies reports. as russia celebrated victory day, odesa burned. this was one of the city's

shopping centres, shopping centres, incinerated, by a missile strike. the ukrainian authorities say seven missiles were launched at the city yesterday, killing one person and injuring five more. this morning, the smell of burning plastic still hung in the air. last night when we were here, it was difficult to see the full extent of the damage, but this morning you can. the rocket has completely ripped into the back of the shopping centre here. you can see it has completely folded. there are still fires that the fire brigade here are trying to put out and the electricity wires on this side have been ripped away. russia has been targeting the port city of odesa on ukraine's southern coast. it's strategically important. before the war, it was a key international port, taking ukrainian products to the world. president zelensky appealed again to end the war, so that the port can reopen. missile strikes don't only destroy infrastructure. they shake lives. this eight—year—old boy lives 300 metres from the strike. as we talk, he fiddles nervously with two pieces of

blackened metal that he found — shards of the missile. "i heard a loud explosion," he says, "i fell out of bed and started to cry. then i ran down the corridor to find my dog, max. mum tried to calm me down, but there were more explosions. we don't know what will happen next." the force of the blast smashed many of the windows in this block of flats. fortunately, most were unoccupied. katarina and her two—year—old daughter arina were on the other side of the courtyard. "we were about to go to bed when the air alert began," she tells me. "i heard a very loud explosion, and i grabbed two pillows and covered my daughter's ears with them. i didn't want her to hear the sound of the explosion and be frightened by it. the whole house was shaking." then she asks her daughter, "what do we do when we hear the air raid siren?" "we run," she says. "we run away." young minds already used to living with the constant threat of war.

caroline davies, bbc news, odesa. the queen's speech — which sets out the british government's legislative programme — is one of the great events of state in the uk. but the one which happened on tuesday was a little different because, for the first time in nearly 60 years, queen elizabeth was not there. her majesty had authorised the prince of wales and the duke of cambridge to open the new parliamentary session. prince charles delivered the speech on the queen's behalf, after buckingham palace explained that the queen was suffering from "episodic mobility problems". our royal correspondent nicholas witchell examines the significance of today's events. he's been waiting for his destiny for longer than any other heir to british throne. and, while no—one is suggesting that a major change is imminent, the inescapable fact is that a transition is under way. and this, today, was the most

tangible sign of it. as prince charles took his place on the consort�*s throne, the imperial state crown, the symbol of the monarch's authority, was placed on a table beside him. the prince studied it closely, and then, with lords and commons assembled, a prince who has never been short of his own opinions took on the discipline required of a monarch. reading out the words written by the government. the continued success and integrity of the whole of the united kingdom is of paramount importance to her majesty's government. it was this, the regency act of 1937 that the palace used to delegate the power to open parliament. yet nobody is suggesting a permanent transfer of the monarch's powers. the queen is still busy with her paper work and virtual audiences. changes are happening, but they are gradual. for the queen, it has always been very important to carry out all her public duties in public whenever she can.

she's famously said "to be seen is to be believed," and she believes the monarchy must be seen, but in future it is likely what we will see is other members of the royal family carrying out royal duties on her behalf. for seven decades, britain has had a highly visible head of state. those days are over, realities are having to be faced, the burden is shifting. nicholas witchell, bbc news. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: game over. why one of the most profitable computer franchise deals in history is about to come to an end. the pope was shot, the pope will live — that's the essence of the appalling news from rome this afternoon, that, as an italian television commentator put it, "terrorism had come to the vatican." the man they called the butcher

of lille, klaus barbie, went on trial today in the french town where he was the gestapo chief in the second world war. winnie mandela never looked like a woman just sentenced to six years injail. the judge told mrs mandela there was no indication she felt even the slightest remorse. the chinese government has called for an all—out - effort to help the victims i of the powerful earthquake. the worst to hit the | country in 30 years. the computer deep blue has tonight triumphed over the world chess champion, gary kasparov. it's the first time the machine has defeated a reigning world champion in a classical chess match. america's first legal same—sex marriages have been taking place in massachusetts. god bless america! cheering this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi in singapore. our headlines... anti—government protestors

defy a nationwide curfew in sri lanka, calling for the country's president to step down. once again, russia targets the crucial port city of odesa, with missile strikes hitting a shopping centre. just six months after the cop26 climate conference in glasgow, new analysis suggests the world is closer than ever to crossing a key global warming threshold. the uk met office and the world meteorological organisation say there's now around a 50—50 chance that it'll warm by more than 1.5 degrees celsius over the next five years. it was in 2015 that the world's average temperature first went one degree celsius above pre—industrial levels. that was also the year that leaders signed the paris climate agreement, where the 1.5 degrees target was set to prevent dangerous global warming. governments re—committed to keeping "1.5 degrees alive" at cop26 last november.

researchers also believe it's almost certain that one of the next five years will be the warmest ever recorded. on that, the bbc has spoken tojohn kerry, us special presidential envoy on climate. he said that countries need to "raise ambitions further" to reach their climate goals. people need to remember that 65% of global gdp, economic effort globally, committed to plans that are legitimate that could keep 1.5 degrees of warming at that level. that's incredible. the 35% that did not is the problem, and we have to bring those countries on board now. one of those countries is russia. and obviously, that remains a question mark. we don't know — nothing is possible right now, we will see what happens. but china, india, indonesia, south africa — there are a bunch of countries that need now, i think,

to raise ambition over the course of these next months. and all of us, the developed world particularly, has got to do a betterjob of breaking the mould, getting away from business as usual, which is dominating at this moment. what vladimir putin has done, by using gas energy as a weapon, is to convince europe that it has to move faster. so in fact, europe will try to move to deploy renewable energy — wind, solar, etc — much faster than they had originally planned. the key will be finding greater levels of finance on an international basis to accelerate the transition to those renewables so that investment begins to move there faster. we can still, according to the most recent ipcc scientific report — it makes it very clear that if we do the things that

are available to us, we can still avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. but people need to understand that's avoiding the worst consequences, not the crisis to some degree. we need to break the mould, we need to behave like the rhetoric suggests we should, which is we call this existential — but as a world, we are not behaving as if it is. we have to break the mould of the status quo. we cannot do business as usual. we have to begin to mobilise more money, we have to mobilise higher levels of investment, we have to do greater research and development, we have to deploy demonstration projects faster, we have to push the curve of technology — all of these things are doable. and already, we have the technology that we could deploy to do what we need to do over the next eight years. if we need a 45% reduction in emissions now for the next ten years, we can get thatjust by deploying current

technologies. after that, it becomes tougher to get the residual, the rest that you have to get to get net zero by 2050. but we will develop new methods of doing things as we are now. solar is ten times less expensive than it was 10—15 years ago. we have better solar coming online now, with new technologies that will improve the efficiency of solar. we have newer and better batteries that will come online — they could be game—changers because that addresses the question people are concerned about baseload where they may not be able to, you know, have... they think they may not be able to have a consistent, secure source of power — but they will and can, as these technologies are developed. you can find much more news about the climate on our website, including this special section looking at cop

26 — what it achieved, and how that is being transformed into reality. just log on to bbc.com/news, or download the bbc app. the high court in london has begun hearing a defamation trial brought by rebekah vardy, the wife of the former england footballerjamie vardy, against coleen rooney, who's married to the former england captain wayne rooney. the court heard that ms vardy felt she had to establish her innocence — after being accused of leaking personal information about mrs rooney to the media. colin paterson reports. coleen rooney arriving at the high court, accompanied by her husband, wayne rooney, for the start of a much—anticipated trial, which her legal team have summed up as being about betrayal. one minute later, rebekah vardy, who is suing her for libel, strode in. both women very used to cameras, but not the courtroom. inside, coleen rooney sat next to her husband at one

end of the front bench. no more than ten feet away was rebekah vardy. there was almost zero eye contact between the two former friends. at the 2016 euros, they had cheered on england together from the stands. but everything changed in october 2019, when coleen rooney did some online detective work to investigate who was leaking information about her to the press. she wrote three fictitious tales on her private instagram stories, including ones about returning to tv and their basement flooding to see if they would end up in the sun — and they did. only then did coleen reveal, after the use of ten dots to ramp up the tension, that the one account she'd allowed access to read them was rebekah vardy�*s. in court today, we heard the details of rebekah vardy�*s case, that she'd been left with no choice but to bring this libel claim to establish her innocence and validate her reputation. it was stressed that this legal battle was being reported as entertainment, but in fact had had a hugely damaging

impact on rebekah vardy�*s life. and then it was the turn of coleen rooney's legal team to set out her case. they claimed that rebekah vardy�*s agent had leaked the stories, and this was like hiring a hit man — although rebekah vardy hadn't pulled the trigger, she was still responsible. they also accused rebekah vardy�*s team of widespread and significant loss of evidence, including a phone being dropped into the north sea. towards the end of the day, rebekah vardy was questioned and denied being the leak before being accused of having a history of selling stories to newspapers for money. the trial may have kicked off, but there's a long way to go with wayne rooney himself expected to be called as a witness next week. colin paterson, bbc news, the high court. it's one of the most profitable gaming franchise deals in history, serving more than 150 million players around the world. for the best part of 30 years, electronic arts has enjoyed

huge success with its fifa series of titles. but now, the company says it's splitting from fifa, football's governing body. our gaming reporter steffan powell explains why. since 1993, the fifa video game franchise has been made by one company, ea sport. the image has been changed on the screen and off it, becoming a cultural powerhouse played by 150 million people around the world. but ea sports has announced it is splitting from fifa — it didn't fancy playing the reported $1 billion price tag. it also sees the opportunity to broaden the title from beyond just gaming. instead, ea sports fc will launch.

the move might surprise some, but it makes sense to others. it's where we're seeing games go as a whole, really, bringing in other brands and entertainment products such as concerts and other live events into their games. the fifa president says he wants to assure players the fifa name will be the best one available for gamers. as it's the only global original title. they are working on new games. when it comes to ea sports fc, players might not notice a huge difference to the core game's offering, with likenesses staying the same. they will, though, see more brand partnerships and experiences beyond games. if the trend sticks, then this is a big moment notjust for the popular games studio, but potentially the industry. steffan powell, bbc news. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. thanks so much for watching, stay with bbc world news.

hello there. tuesday was a day of sunshine and showers — most of those showers were across scotland and northern ireland. and there was quite a lot of rainfall across parts of western scotland at times — some of these showers quite heavy, even some rumbles of thunder, too. for the next few days, it's going to remain breezy, rather unsettled, low pressure nearby, and we'll see showers or even longer spells of rain. now for wednesday, this feature could bring some significant rainfall to parts of england and wales throughout the day. now some of that rain really will be quite heavy across parts of wales, southwest england through wednesday morning. and then, that rain will push in towards the midlands, parts of eastern england into the afternoon — i think the northern extent of it being around the greater manchester area, not further north than that. but, as this rain band begins to move southeastwards in east anglia in the southeast, it will begin to fragment again. another windy day to come, particularly across southern britain with that rain band.

quite gusty, as well, across the north west of scotland, where we'll see sunshine and showers. and temperatures will range from around 14—17 celsius. pollen levels on wednesday, again, will be rather high, but maybe not quite as high across england and wales as we'll have that rain band. now, that rain will clear away from the southeast as we move through wednesday night, then skies will clear. winds will turn a little bit lighter, as well, but there'll be further showers across the north and the west of scotland in particular. now, with the clearer skies, a slightly cooler air mass — it'll be a fresher night to come for wednesday night, with temperatures down into single figures for most. the pressure chart for thursday, then, shows more weather fronts affecting northern parts of the uk — so again, it'll be quite breezy and showery here, a little bit drier further south. so, best of the sunshine for england and wales throughout thursday. after that fairly fresh start, temperatures will begin to rise. more cloud, though, for northern england, northern ireland, and scotland — there's the northwest of scotland, which will see most of the showers and also the strongest of the winds. after that cool start,

temperatures will reach highs of 14—19 celsius across the south. for friday, again, weather fronts bring more showers and blustery conditions across the north of the uk, but as we head into the weekend, this area of high pressure begins to build in. it turns sunnier and warmer, but we could see potential of some thundery showers across southern areas, especially on sunday. so, those temperatures will be building as we head on into the weekend, as that area of high pressure starts to establish itself. and there'll be increasing amounts of sunshine, but also some heavy showers in the south.

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 from washington. i'm stephen sackur. when vladimir putin made that momentous decision to invade ukraine, maybe he calculated that the us was too weak, too polarised to offer anything more than ritual condemnation. if so, he was wrong. american weapons are now flowing into ukraine. unprecedented sanctions have been imposed on moscow. my guest today is the senior democrat senator mark warner. is this ukraine war the wake—up call america needed?