welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm mariko oi. the headlines... alleged violations by russian troops near kyiv — the un human rights council orders an urgent inquiry and bbc sees evidence first hand of unarmed civilians shot dead as they walk away. the us passes one million covid—related deaths. joe biden says each death is "an irreplaceable loss". this pandemic isn't over. today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the united states. police in the uk issue dozens more fines for downing street staff who broke covid rules. but the british prime minister isn't among them.

after days of violent unrest in sri lanka, a veteran politician is sworn in as the new prime minister. the first—ever image of the monster black hole at the centre of our galaxy. and a trifle has triumphed in the search for the ultimate pudding to mark the queen's platinumjubilee. live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello, and welcome to the programme. the kremlin has accused western countries of using the un human rights council to demonise russia, after the body voted to investigate alleged war crimes in ukraine. the inquiry will examine accusations that moscow's forces carried out atrocities

north of kyiv at the start of the war. in shocking images caught on cctv, the bbc has found clear evidence of war crimes alleged against russian soldiers near ukraine's capital — two unarmed civilians are shot in cold blood. our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford sent this report, it contains flashing images and some parts which you may find disturbing. these are russian soldiers on their way to loot and to kill. but their every move is caught on multiple cameras. and so is leonid, the security guard, as he approaches them. the men talk, even smoke, and then the soldiers leave. but suddenly two turn back. they shoot leonid and a second man multiple times in their backs. leonid somehow survives. his boss dead, the guard staggers back to his hut and starts phoning for help.

the russians drove a stolen van daubed with their v symbol and the words "russian tank special forces". and this is the man we saw shooting, now helping himself to a drink. he has no idea he's being filmed. no—one does until it's too late. and all this time, leonid is hiding in here, bleeding heavily. weeks later, we found his clothes and mattress bundled up outside. he died before help could reach him. i met the men who'd tried to save leonid, sasha and kostya, who sold air conditioning before the war. translation: we tried to calm him down. - we said, "it's all 0k, we're coming, you'll live." maybe it helped him — maybe. they show me how the nearby road looked in those days, with russian tanks rolling

past their positions. it's notjust the burnt—out buildings and businesses along this road that you see, but things like this. two russian tanks just lodged in the forest. and you can see the vs painted on the front. and it's a really stark reminder ofjust how fierce the fighting was all along these roads into kyiv, and how terrified leonid must have been as he was lying there bleeding and calling for help. leonid's daughter shared this image of her dad as she'd like him remembered. yulia is abroad now. she tells me she wants her father's killers to face justice. translation: they| killed a 65-year-old. what for? i'm not so much furious as full of grief and fear. these damn russians are so out of control that i'm afraid of what they might do next.

leonid never returned to his home or his pets. another life stolen by russian troops, now notorious for their brutality. sarah rainsford, bbc news, kyiv. finland's president and prime minister have said nato�*s secretary—general says finland will be warmly welcomed after the president said they would apply without delay. russia has warmed of retaliation. our europe editor katya adler is in helsinki with more. there's no doubt about it here — there's been an absolute about—turn in political and public opinion since russia invaded ukraine. so, as much as vladimir putin may rail against nato, it's really a bit of an own goal — it's really ironic that it's his actions in ukraine that have driven the people of finland to go from about 20% support in public opinion

polls forjoining nato, suddenly to 76%, according to the last opinion poll. speaking to finland's foreign minister this morning, he told me that the finns were practical people and were just looking to defend themselves better. we have had security mechanisms in europe like the osc which are meant to avoid war and military conflicts. and now we have seen that this security order does not function in europe — russia did not trust this mechanism, we refuses mechanism — instead that planned war against ukraine, of course, this is something that we cannot accept. and we are currently in this kind of limbo for european security structures. there's no structure to prevent in wars europe at the moment. so, as we heard there from finland's foreign minister, the post—cold war security order was really turned upside down across europe,

but nowhere more so than here in the east. and what we've been hearing from finland's leading politicians today also is that they feel it's notjust in their interest if theyjoin the military alliance, nato, but they feel they have a lot to offer. for years, finland has been operating alongside, if not inside nato, it has a very sophisticated, well—equipped military — and, absolutely first and foremost for nato, if finland and sweden, as well, join, that would really bolster its presence in the east, including in the baltic sea — exactly what vladimir putin wanted to avoid. the white house has announced that the us has passed, more than one million deaths from covid—19. it's the highest official total in the world — although the world health organisation believes the true number may be higher in other countries. in a statement, president biden described it as a tragic

milestone and said as a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. this pandemic isn't over. today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the united states. one million covid deaths. one million empty chairs around the family dinner table. each irreplaceable. irreplaceable losses, each leaving behind a family, a community forever changed because of this pandemic. my heart goes out to all those who are struggling, asking themselves, "how do i go on without him? how do i go on without her? what will we do without them?" it's grief shared by people across all of our nations. earlier, i spoke to thomas bollyky. he is the director of the global health program at the council on foreign relations. i asked about his views on us government's handling of the crisis. it was a failure of the us government.

both administrations. and the story really is told in two parts in the us, why we've had such a high death toll relative to other high—income countries. the first has been about prevention. from the outset the pandemic until late 2021, the us had an extraordinarily high number of infections. as part of a lancet study we did, we looked at these infections and compared across countries — and the us had the second—highest rate of any high—income country in number of infections. the us didn't do as poorly on treatment, but without many infections you'll have a high death toll. after the omicron wave, the differences between countries and the number infections they've had was not as large, lots of countries caught that virus and it spread widely. the big difference in the us at that point is its very low rate compared to other

high—income countries in vaccinations. the chinese government has announced that it will restrict citizens from leaving the country for nonessential reasons. there'll also be limits placed on the issue of new passports. in the capital beijing, there were rumours online that a strict lockdown was about to be imposed prompting people to panic buy. but daily cases in beijing remain in the dozens, much less than in shanghai — where millions of people remain under lockdown. meanwhile in north korea, at least six people are confirmed to have died, a day after state media officially acknowledged some cases of covid—i9 for the first time. it also reported that almost 190,000 people are currently being treated in isolation for what's being called a "fever of unidentified origin". pyongyang has refused international help with vaccinations, relying instead on trying to keep its borders closed to prevent the virus taking hold. kim jong—un says the arrival

of the omicron variant means his country now faces a "serious emergency". much more about the pandemic on the special section of our website. just log on to bbc.com/news, or download the bbc app let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... south east asian leaders from the asean countries are in washington for a two—day summit with president biden. it's the first time the group has met at the white house. washington has promised support for clean energy and maritime security in the face of a rising china. it appears to be part of a campaign to show that the us still prioritises asia despite the focus on russia's invasion of ukraine. hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate from a swift—moving wildfire in southern california. it's burned down at least 20 mansions so far in orange county, south of los angeles.

fire officials say it's grown to 199 acres since it began on wednesday. new york's police watchdog has recommended disciplinary action against 145 officers, in connection with their conduct during the black lives matter protests in 2020. a review board said 88 of them should face formal charges. vets in the indian state of gujarat say thousands of dehydrated birds have been dropping out of the sky, as a heatwave dries out their sources of water. they say the number of animals that need rescuing has risen significantly this year. the extreme heat is also posing a danger to humans across the country. an indian court has rejected a petition to investigate the history of the taj mahal. an activist for the ruling hindu nationalist party had brought the case, citing claims of some hindu

groups that the mausoleum had once been an old shiva temple. he had demanded that 22 locked rooms inside the taj mahal be opened to check for hindu idols, but the allahabad high court dismissed his petition. in the uk, police have issued 50 more fines after parties at downing street, and other government buildings were found to have broken the rules on gatherings during the covid lockdown. neither prime minister boris johnson nor the chancellor rishi sunak were involved — although both have already been fined for other gatherings. the main oppositon party, labour, says there is evidence of partying at the heart of government on an industrial scale. here's our political editor chris mason. it's long been suspected. today, further confirmation — covid lawbreaking was happening, involving loads of people, for months on end, right at the heart

of the government led by boris johnson. the police offered few words, but they did have a big number — more than 100 fines. and they're not finished yet. the prime minister's been in staffordshire — happy to pose for pictures, less keen to talk about covid partying. look, as soon as i have any more to say on this subject, i will make sure that you, sam, are amongst the very first to know. but what we're doing here in stoke is making sure that we focus on the thing that i think matters most to the people of this country right now, and that is getting us through the post—covid after—shock. this is a list of the potential post—covid political after—shocks — the events in and around downing street now under investigation. a christmas do on 18 december, 2020 is thought to have led to a big chunk of this latest batch of fines.

there was a downing street christmas party on friday night. do you recognise those reports? i went home! it was a partyjoked about by downing street staff at the time in a mocked—up news conference, later leaked. this fictional party was a business meeting. and it was not socially distanced. labour's leader keir starmer and his deputy are under police investigation themselves over beer and curry in an mp's office just over a year ago — but the party's still calling for the prime minister to resign. he's in a position of senior leadership at ten downing street, he has already been fined. keir starmer, in contrast, has already said that if he were to be fined, he would of course resign from his position as leader of the opposition. there's simply no comparison with the industrial scale partying that's been happening at number ten. crucially, too, this is not yet over. of the 12 gatherings the police are investigating, just four or so, we think, have led to fines so far, so there's plenty of potential for more to come, including for the prime minister.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the pudding deemed fit to celebrate the queen's platinum jubilee. a lemon trifle wins the title beating thousands of other recipes. 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 victimsl of a 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 a 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... the un human rights council orders an investigation into possible war crimes committed by moscow's forces in ukraine. the white house has announced that the us has passed more than 1 that the us has passed more than1 million deaths that the us has passed more than 1 million deaths from covid—19. it's the highest official total in the world. after days of violent unrest,

sri lanka has sworn in a new prime minister. he's a veteran politician who's served as prime minister five times before. protestors forced out mahinda rajapaksa on monday, blaming him for the economic collapse of the country. they're also demanding that his brother, the president, also resigns. our south asia correspondent rajini vaidyanathan reports from colombo. returning to the top of sri lankan politics, but what will ranil wickremesinghe offer to this troubled nation? ranil wickremesinghe is no stranger to sri lankan politics. he's held the role of prime minister on five previous occasions. this might be his biggest challenge yet, lifting this island nation out of its worst economic crisis. sitting on the left of sri lankan politics, he's agreed to work with president gotabaya rajapaksa, a neutral choice for the president who is clinging onto power.

he replaces mahinda rajapaksa — seen on the left — who quit as pm on monday. chanting but many say ranil wickremesinghe isn't the face of change they've been chanting for. ranil has been in politics since i was a child. he's a one—member party, and we have a person who has just one member in his party becoming the prime minister of the country and trying to convince the general public here that he is our saviour and solution. he's not our saviour and solution. in the centre of colombo, they're lining up for hand—outs of bread. as desperation deepens, the task ahead for the new prime minister gets even tougher. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, sri lanka. it's been announced that the queen has approved the honour of a damehood for the cancer campaigner and podcaster deborahjames — known to millions as bowel—babe.

the ao—year—old mother of two who was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer in 2016, revealed this week that her treatment has stopped and she is now receiving hospice care at home. on monday, she launched a fund to help clinical research into bowel cancer, which has raised nearly £3.8 million so far. the prime minister said he hoped this recognition from the queen would provide some comfort to deborah and her family at this difficult time. for many years, scientists have known about the existence of a huge black hole at the centre of our galaxy. now, for the first time, they know exactly what it looks like. it's called sagittarius a — and it's four million times the mass of our own sun. but, because no light can escape from a black hole, capturing images of it has always been impossible. that is, until now — as pallab ghosh reports. for decades, astronomers have been on a quest, searching

the skies and into the very heart of our galaxy for a mysterious and elusive black hole. now they've found it and taken this picture. the black hole is at the centre of the image. it's revealed by swirling hot matter pulled in by powerful gravitational forces. it's dark, you're not meant to see a black hole, it traps light. and yet here we are, capturing something that's meant to be invisible, seeing at the literal edge of space and time. i think that's truly remarkable. a black hole is created by a dead star collapsing in on itself. more than half a million computer simulations have been run and compared to the actual image. scientists believe that this video reconstruction is the closest to what the black hole in our galaxy looks like. no single telescope can see the object, so several have been linked together to create a giant observatory on earth.

here, high in the mountains of southern spain, scientists have been part of that search. we're in the heart of a telescope that's a0 years old... inside is a man who came up with the idea of photographing a black hole when he was a student in the 1990s. it's a fulfillment of a dream and the beginning of a new chapter, actually. studying black holes in great detail. they�* re no longer fantasy. we can test all our understanding and our models. we can do precision astrophysics. how does it make you feel now that you've finally produced this image? it's... you know, it's wonderful. for researchers, this is just the beginning. theory has now become reality, and they can now kick on to find out how this black hole really works and even how our own galaxy came to be. pallab ghosh, bbc news. and finally, a lemon—swiss roll and amaretti trifle has won

the competition to be the queen's platinum jubilee pudding. it'll follow in the footsteps of the coronation chicken and the victoria sponge — now part of the british food story. the duchess of cornwall announced the winner on a special programme on the bbc. our royal correspondent daniela relph has been to meet the champion baker. gemma's lemon swiss roll and amaretti trifle. - it was a unanimous decision from the judges. and a popular choice among herfellow finalists. i hope peoplejust stick their spoon in it and eat it how they want to eat it. gemma's trifle is a twist on the traditional trifle — based on recipes passed down from her gran and her nan, and inspired by lemon posset, served at the queen's wedding. i cannot believe it. everything that i was up against was just the most beautiful desserts, puddings, with beautiful stories. that this quite humble trifle

has won is a bit surreal. this will hopefully go down in history, it's something i'm going to have to try and process for a few weeks, i think. almost 5,000 entries were cut down to just five. the all—female shortlist had to make their pudding for the queen of baking. very happy! fit for a queen, mary! quite right. the pudding will now be sold at fortnum & mason — all proceeds will go to charity. the flavours were incredible. from my point of view as a chef, she made every element, but you could also buy most of the elements, so that became accessible to everybody. and, you know, it's a trifle, but it's a beautiful, beautiful trifle, and it's sunshine in a bowl. a trifle to mark a moment in history. alongside victoria sponge and coronation chicken, we now have a queen elizabeth ii platinum pudding. daniela relph, bbc

news, central london. in cambodia, fishermen have landed a surprising catch which led to an impressive rescue. a giant stingray got stuck in the nets of these local fishermen. the animal was 13 feet long and weighed more than 400 pounds but, helped by a fish biologist they manouvered it onto a sheet and released it back into the river. the freshwater stingray is a significant finding in this threatened remote stretch of river in cambodia. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. a reminder of our main story this hour: the un is stepping up this hour: the un is stepping up and will investigation against allegations against russia for war crimes. the un's human rights council voted to examine accusations that

russian troops carried out a trust so —— carried out atrocities in kyiv. hello again. we're looking at a fairly windy day today across northern areas of the country, and there's a bit of rain around, as well. this is where the rain's been over recent hours, it's been quite wet in northern ireland. a few splashes from northern england, north wales, but the majority of the rain has been working its way across scotland. it will continue to move its way eastwards over the next few hours, the rain ending to become confined, really, to northwestern areas of scotland, where it will be quite heavy at times, quite windy, as well. these are kind of temperatures as we head into the first part of friday morning. so it is a mild start to the day, 9—11 celsius. then for many of us, it's a bright enough start, as well. some sunshine to come for england and wales, but a different story for scotland, where low pressure will be pushing this band of rain, particularly across northern and western areas. through the day, there

should be an improvement with a bit of sunshine coming through across eastern and southern scotland, but perhaps staying quite damp across northern areas, particularly for the northern isles. the rain reluctant to push away. in the sunshine across england and wales, the winds a little bit lighter to the south, and there will be a bit more of that sunshine, so warmer — temperatures reaching 22 celsius or so, but quite cool underneath those windier conditions in scotland with that rain, as well. well, into the weekend weather prospects, well, we have some thundery showers that we are watching to come up from the south. however, on saturday, should be a largely dry day with sunshine for the majority of the country, given those brighter skies are working in across scotland, and to a degree northern england and northern ireland, as well, we'll see those temperatures climbing a little bit here. 17 celsius or so for glasgow, 17—18 in parts of northern ireland. but it's in eastern england that we will see that day's highest temperatures — up to 22—23 celsius. saturday night time, there probably will be some thunderstorms coming up from the south. now, these are going to be

hit or miss in nature. the first batch of thundery showers probably not bringing a huge amount of rain, but could bring lots of lightning, but, as we get into sunday and then monday, as well, there is a greater chance of seeing some heavier downpours develop over time. still on sunday, there will be some places that stay dry with some hazy spells of sunshine. it will start to feel a little bit more humid in the south compared with recent days. 19 celsius in glasgow, still into the low 20s across parts of the south and east, but then monday, we've got rain or thundery showers that will break out a little bit more widely. some of the rain quite heavy.

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.