welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines — president biden visits uvalde to meet the families of those killed in america's latest school shooting. parents there prepare to bury their children. president zelensky visits the frontline in eastern ukraine for the first time since russia invaded as intense fighting continues in the region. translation: i'm greatly honoured to be here. - i want to thank each one of you for your great service, for risking your life for our sake, for the sake of our country. glory to ukraine. north korea says its covid—19 outbreak is stabalising as pandemic restrictions apparently ease in the capital, pyongyang. and the british government says

it's "very concerned" about french police firing tear gas and pepper spray at liverpool fans during saturday night's champions league final in paris. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 7am in the morning in singapore and 6pm in texas, where the usjustice department is to investigate the police response to the mass shooting at a school in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. public anger has grown after it emerged that officers waited in the hallway as children remained trapped with the teenage gunman in a classroom. the announcement comes as president biden visited the town and met with the families of those killed. our north america correspondent barbara plett usher reports.

this is the hardest visit a president has to make, especially when the victims are so young. mr biden and his wife, jill, joined the mourning of a devastated community, pausing to recognise each of those murdered at this school, 19 children and two teachers. the president draws on his personal history in these moments of public grief because he's lost two children of his own. a bouquet of flowers added to the mound of remembrance that seeks to dampen the horror by honouring the dead. the rampage began when the teenage gunman entered the school through a back door, armed with a high—power rifle. children as young as eight were trapped with him for an hour before security forces finally stormed in. the justice department announced today it would review the police response. mr biden went on to meet privately with the families of victims. he also attended a church service. as he left, the crowd

outside called for action. but this is a difficult political environment. there's a fierce debate about how to stop such attacks. the president wants to tighten gun laws and faces strong partisan opposition. especially in texas. this is, after all, gun country. there are mixed feelings about mr biden�*s visit. i don't know if it can make any difference, actually. i think that as a nation, we'rejust very divided. but i think, you know, that in a time of crisis, it's great for leaders to show unity. we just need to grieve. just come here and give us hope for tomorrow. but don't tell us politically what we need to do. most of all, the families did not want their pain to be drawn into the political disputes. patricia castanon is lost in a fog of grief at the death of her niece, annabelle. she was a happy, smiley...

this is how she was with me. there's no words for me to say. she wasjust a good person. you know the president is coming to visit. do you think that will help? no. why do you say that? because he can't bring her back. i he can't bring her back. he can't bring none of them back. - and nobody can. he can't bring them back, and he's struggling to protect others. his biggest obstacle is how to prevent this happening again. earlier, i spoke tojohn woodrow cox, a washington post reporter and author of children under fire, which looks at the effects of gun violence on children. i asked him how survivors and others affected by the tragedy can recover from this type of trauma. these people will never be who they were. i mean, who they were is gone. that doesn't mean they can't live fulfilling lives and happy lives, but,

especially for children... you know, there's a term we often hear called "children are resilient". and that's only true when adults intervene, when these kids have access to support and therapy and a lot of adults in their lives who love them and understanding that this can take years or even decades to recover from. and the trauma that kids deal with in these situations sometimes doesn't appear for a decade or two after it occurs. so, you know, it's something that is going to take a very long time and requires a lot of patience from the people around them. and that's notjust the children, it's the adults, the teachers, the family members, there are thousands of victims from a shooting like this. john, i know that from your research over the years, you �*ve spoken to survivors of columbine, where... they were children back then, they're now in their 405. from what you've spoken

to them about, does that trauma ever go away? it hasn't for them. you know, i've interviewed school shooting survivors that go back even a0 years in this country, and way before columbine, and they're still dealing with trauma. i mean, one woman in particular just turned a0 and is a columbine survivor, she couldn't even bear to read the headlines. she couldn't process any of it because... what it does is it takes them right back to their moment on the floor when they lost their friend, when they were hiding in a classroom and hearing people shot to death down the hallway. john, you know, it's so difficult we talk about situations like this because ultimately these are little kids, right, who've gone through this situation, and it strikes me that when we talk about gun shootings in the united states, people around the world when they talk to their families about this can legitimately say this won't happen here, don't worry, you'll be all right.

don't worry, you'll be all right. but in the us, it's quite different, isn't it? i mean, it could happen in a classroom down the road or in their school. or in their church or in a mall or in a movie theatre. you know, i make this point all the time. the reason that we know it doesn't have to be this way is because it's not this way in every other developed country. everybody else, you all have solved this, right? it is unique to the united states, which means it does not have to be this way, which is often... that's sort of the message from conservative lawmakers is that, well, what can we do? maybe we need more guns. there's no evidence that that's true. the difference between this country and every other developed country are the number of guns that we have here and our inability to keep people who should not have them having them. i mean, that is the only difference. americans are not uniquely evil. we just have clearly a gun problem.

in other headlines today, ukraine's president zelensky has made a rare trip outside of the capital, kyiv, to visit his troops on the front line in eastern ukraine. he went to the kharkiv region, close to the russian border, an area once again under attack. president zelensky described the situation in some parts, particularly severodonetsk, as "indescribably difficult" for the ukrainian army. it's the first time since the start of the war that the president has ventured to the devastated eastern region, as our correspondent caroline hawley reports. he came to ukraine's second—largest city to be shown the damage inflicted by russian forces in some of the fiercest fighting of the war to talk of reconstruction and to reward the ukrainian soldiers who'd repelled the russians from kharkiv. translation: i'm greatly honoured to be here. - i want to thank each one of you for your great service,

for risking your life for our sake, for the sake of our country. glory to ukraine. this was a visit aimed at boosting morale as ukraine suffers losses in the donbas region further east. applause. president zelensky said the situation facing the army there was "indescribably difficult". with heavy artillery, russian forces are pounding ukrainian positions. all this firepower helping them advance in a war that's killing more and more people every day. nowhere has president putin's war been more devastating than in the southern port of mariupol. these pictures show it before the invasion, and this is what it looks like now. it fell to russian forces earlier this month, and moscow's emissary here has defended their conduct in the city. these are residential areas. these are not legitimate

military targets. we have a lot of registered i cases when ukrainian artillery was shelling residential areas. i do accept that mariupol is destroyed by fighting. | but you won't accept that it's the result of russian forces? no, it can be both- because this is a fight. as i have said, - russians are targeting military infrastructure. collateral damage is possible. the town of bucha has become synonymous with atrocities, but the ambassador dismissed allegations of war crimes here as a fabrication. and what of an incident caught on cctv in which these two soldiers are about to kill two unarmed ukrainians? these men, sir, are walking away from the soldiers. you can see it there. they are shot, and they are killed. is this how russia is conducting this war? i cannot tell whether they are russian soldiers. - you have showed me something,

probably a piece of a film - or a piece of a game i or a joke or whatever. it's a computer game, and telling me... - sir, it's cctv footage. let's see what it is. it's cctv footage... 0k, great. ..from a building, and it has been corroborated. whatever the kremlin says, the ukrainian people know to their cost what to expect from the invading forces. and so, here in the eastern town of sloviansk, they're preparing to flee as russia advances. caroline hawley, bbc news. as unrest continues in sri lanka, the new prime minister has said his government will be amending the constitution to ensure the president and his cabinet must be held accountable to parliament. the announcement came as there were more protests across the country. the police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators trying to break down barriers near the residence of the country's president. sri lanka is sufffering from the worst economic crisis in its history, which has caused shortages of food, oil and medicine.

now to a story that has dominated the headlines in football over the weekend. the french government has called an emergency meeting to be held on monday with football bodies and the police to examine what went wrong at saturday night's champions league final. there were chaotic scenes as liverpool fans accused police of brutal and intimidating tactics. the french authorities accused many liverpool fans of turning up with fake tickets. 0ur correspondent danjohnson reports from paris. this was like something from darker days in football, a scene that unnerves any fan and not what you'd expect at the biggest match in the european club game. this nine—year—old was caught by the effects of tear gas. liverpool fans say it was indiscriminate and heavy—handed policing after officers failed to manage the crowd and get everyone to their seats in time for kick—off. it was an experience which meant many went home to merseyside in shock as well as disappointment.

a big queue, you have kids getting crushed together and stuff. it was disgusting, really. a young lad who i know who's 12, his dad's posted a message they were gassed. he's 12. a few old people were getting tear—gassed. i we got tear—gassed. there was a few kids panicking. we got into the stadium, me and my daughter, but it was quite intimidating. but other people we knew didn't get in who had tickets to get in. we got there about two and a half hours before kick—off, and then going into one gate. we tried, what, 1000 of us tried to go through one gate that only had one turnstile open. so, it wasjust mayhem. they were squashed up against the fences, all down the side. i people were crying. kids. there was children - on parents' shoulders. we were in tears. just what we witnessed, it wasjust horrific. - liverpool fans have told us this was a narrow bottleneck created by the police which stopped them reaching this turnstiles even though they were here in good time, so the pressure was on here. there were some people

climbing the fence. it's not clear if they were actually liverpool fans. but uefa and the french authorities are sticking to their line that these problems were caused by thousands of liverpool supporters turning up here with fake tickets. even the friends and family of liverpool players had trouble getting into the stadium. it's been a shambles, really. you know, one of my mates who got a ticket off me got told he had a fake ticket, which i can assure you it definitely wasn't a fake ticket when you get them off the club and you're a player. to be honest, people were just making it up at times and obviously clearly panicking and things like that. tear gas getting thrown at people, which is unacceptable. today, fans gathered in celebration to mark their double cup—winning season despite missing out on the premier league and champions league titles. but the city's mayor, who was at last night's final, has echoed calls for an investigation. i i'm going to call on liz truss, | the foreign secretary, to write to the french president macron

and hold uefa to account. - the police behaviour. was absolutely brutal, and we need some answers. the culture secretary, nadine dorries, has made a similar demand, and uefa says there'll be a review into how this happened. the french ministry of sport called a meeting tomorrow morning, presumably aware that whatever was behind it, this is not the impression it wanted sports fans to take away from the city hosting next year's rugby world cup, then the olympics in 202a. danjohnson, bbc news, paris. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme, as the uk prepares to start four days of celebrations to mark the queen's platinum jubilee, we take a look back at the changes that have occured during the 70 years of her reign. the queen and her husband began their royal progress to westminster.

the moment of crowning, in accordance with the order of service, by a signal given — the great guns of the tower. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali, who's died at the age of 7a. 0utspoken, but rarely outfought, ali transcended the sport of boxing, of which he was three times world champion. he was a good fighter. yes. and he fought all the way to the end, even through his illness. yes, he did. uefa imposes an indefinite ban on english clubs playing in europe. today is the 20th anniversary of the release of the beatles' lp sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band, a record described as the album of the century. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines — president biden visits uvalde in texas, where a teenage gunman rampaged through a primary school with an assault rifle on tuesday. 19 children and two teachers were killed. ukraine's president zelensky has made his first visit to the north—east of the country since the russian invasion. after greeting front—line troops, he said the army was facing an "indescribably difficult" situation. let's turn to north korea now, which says its covid—19 outbreak is stabilising and the strict lockdown in the capital, pyongyang, has been lifted, according to "informed sources". leader kimjong—un met with top officals this week, where it was reported that the government had agreed the pandemic had "improved". it is worth saying however it is difficult to get accurate

information out of north korea given the fact the regime has effectively closed itself off to the rest of the world. i'm nowjoined by professor ben cowling, a leading epidemiologist at the university of hong kong. he has studied this extensively. great to get you back on the programme. let's just start with some of those assessments from state media in north korea and the north koreans themselves that three weeks after saying this was the gravest national emergency they'd ever seen, they are effectively apparently lifting pandemic restrictions. what do you make of that? is you make of that? is surprising. _ you make of that? is surprising. we know that about three weeks ago, they were rising case numbers and then north korea went into a locked out. whether or not that's been really able to stop transmission is unclear. we know in shanghai it's taken three months to get case numbers under control, so it's not clear what exactly has been happening in north korea. it is possible to get case numbers under control, so it's not clear what exactly has been happening in north korea. it is

possible the lockdown has had an effect and reduce infections but there is no what they are all the way back down to zero and that means when the lockdown is lifted and of the infections will start to rise again and they have to make the same kind of decisions again unfortunately.— same kind of decisions again unfortunately. professor, with our unfortunately. professor, with your experience _ unfortunately. professor, with your experience in _ unfortunately. professor, with your experience in tracking - unfortunately. professor, with| your experience in tracking the trajectory of how the pandemic and the virus spreads through the population and what we know about north korea in terms of the lack of vaccinations there in the population, how do you see this playing out? it’s in the population, how do you see this playing out?— see this playing out? it's very difficult to — see this playing out? it's very difficult to stop _ see this playing out? it's very difficult to stop omicron. - see this playing out? it's very difficult to stop omicron. i - difficult to stop omicron. i think north korea has been able to keep out the virus because it's been so closed to the rest of the world, but now the virus has gone into north korea, the omicron strain of covid is very difficult to stop. they can slow it down with distancing but they cannot stop it and i think the only reason that it would stop spreading is once maybe three quarters, maybe even 80% of the population had been infected and of course with the fertility rate of omicron in the absence of vaccination being something

like .5%, obviously much lower in the younger people, there is a risk of a very substantial number of severe cases occurring as part of a large epidemic. so the lockdown has to be postponed that happening and may be bought time for vaccines to be available, but unless they can start vaccinating population, they are still in for a very rough ride in the coming weeks. i ride in the coming weeks. i don't want to take away from the very real and urgent crisis that we are seeing in north korea but i want to get your thoughts on the concerns of this pandemic in north korea spilling out elsewhere. we have heard from the world health organization that warning new 0rganization that warning new variants could come from unvaccinated countries like north korea. i unvaccinated countries like north korea.— unvaccinated countries like north korea. ~ ., ., north korea. i think we have to be clear that _ north korea. i think we have to be clear that it's _ north korea. i think we have to be clear that it's also _ be clear that it's also possible that new variance can arrive from transmissions and infections in highly faceted populations. we know the infections can still occur in people who are vaccinated so i don't think it's a case of the unvaccinated populations are the only risk, but obviously

anytime the virus is given a chance to evolve, any time that there's a large number of infections, we see there is a risk of new variance emerging. i don't have that much concern about the epidemic in north korea because the country is so close, so close to the rest of the world. but certainly at present there is obviously a risk of a new variant coming from somewhere in the world to replace omicron.— replace omicron. indeed, professor. _ replace omicron. indeed, professor, thank - replace omicron. indeed, professor, thank you - replace omicron. indeed, professor, thank you so i replace omicron. indeed, - professor, thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. israeli police say 70,000 israelis have marched throutherusalem's old city, many taunting palestinians as they passed through the muslim quarter. the palestinian red cross said over 70 palestinians were injured in clashes. the annual flag march is organised byjewish nationalists to mark israel's capture in 1967 of eastjerusalem. it's seen as a provocation by palestinians. the polls have closed in colombia, where around 38 million voters have cast their ballots in the first round of presidential elections.

the front—runner is the former leftist rebel and ex—mayor of bogota gustavo petro. if mr petro wins, he'll be the first left—wing president in colombia's history. in brazil, at least 44 people have died and nearly 1000 are homeless after severe floods and mudslides in the north—east of the country. over 70% of the area's average monthly rainfall fell in one day, and more storms are forecast. this week will see the start of four days of celebrations in the uk to mark the queen's platinum jubilee after 70 years on the throne. during that time, fundamental aspects of life in the united kingdom have changed beyond recognition. our home editor mark easton has been looking at what we know of the queen's own reaction to the enormous changes she's seen. will you solemnly promise and swear... along with the crimson velvet mantle edged with ermine,

huge responsibility was placed upon the young queen's shoulders at her coronation in 1953. she was presented to the world as a new beginning for an impoverished kingdom and its crumbling empire. "some people have expressed the hope that my reign may mark a new elizabethan age," the queen said in her christmas day address later that year. it was from elizabeth i, who may well have pondered her own destiny in this room in hampton court, that elizabeth ii sought inspiration. i will call to your mind the words of the earlier elizabeth. "though god has raised me high, yet this i count the glory of my crown that i have reigned with your love. " so, how did she approach thejob? her answer — to guide this kingdom through changing times, a vital part of what she called "a trusted framework of stability and continuity to ease the process of change".

# freedom, freedom # everywhere there must be freedom...# - the most immediate challenge was helping the country adapt to the end of empire during a time of post—war economic hardship. no longer an imperial power, we have been coming to terms with what this means for ourselves and for our relations with the rest of the world. it was also a time of change and tension as immigrants arrived from britain's colonies. elizabeth described the new commonwealth as an equal partnership of nations and races, pledging to give the institution her heart and soul every day of her life. the queen has often reflected on the enormous social and political change that has characterised her reign. in the swinging �*60s, she reflected on how good it was that women were beginning to play their full part in public life. in the strife of the �*70s, she spoke of hope and faith and above all the values

and principles she believed would see us through the toughest of times. the traditional values etched across our history equip us well for this age of change. to ease the process of change, queen elizabeth ii has sought to bring constancy to her role as monarch — dependable, unchanging, loyal and true. as the united kingdom celebrates her 70 years on the throne, she's become the keystone in the nation's architecture, the solid and immovable piece that holds the country's image of itself in place. change has become a constant. managing it has become an expanding discipline. the way we embrace it defines our future. if success to elizabeth was to have reigned with the love of her people, as elizabeth i inspired her to do, then success it has been. transcending ages, races and classes, elizabeth can be confident she enjoys the respect and affection of her kingdom.

mark easton, bbc news. that's all for now. hello. i'm sure it'll be all eyes on the weather forecast this week, with the platinum jubilee celebrations just around the corner. the week certainly begins with some heavy showers in the forecast, some spells of sunshine in between, but those showers driven by this area of low pressure wobbling its way westwards. and that will take up residence across the uk as we head through the next couple of days. it'll be quite a chilly start to the morning across some southern areas, but that's where we'll see the best of the morning sunshine. quite a lot of cloud to start off for scotland and northern ireland, with some patchy rain. and by the afternoon, we are essentially all in the same boat. we'll see some spells of sunshine developing, but there will also be some showers, some of which will be heavy and thundery. quite a few showers across parts of southern england, the midlands, east anglia, across this eastern side of england. maybe not as many showers

across parts of wales. northern ireland, turning brighter into the afternoon, sunny spells but still scattered showers and just 12 degrees for belfast. 11 at best in aberdeen, and these heavy showers across scotland will be quite slow—moving, given we will have very light winds. now, through monday night, some of the showers will continue. the area of low pressure just sits on top of us, and so the showers just continue to circulate around and we will see this band of cloud bringing some slightly more persistent rain, perhaps into the far west of scotland. bit of mist and murk across parts of scotland as well, quite a chilly start again on tuesday morning. it's another sunshine and showers day for most, but we will see this area of more persistent rain dropping its way southwards into parts of northern ireland. it may well be that across wales and the southwest, by the afternoon, there will be fewer showers and more in the way of sunshine. and temperatures will nudge upwards a little, 12—18 degrees. still some showers around on wednesday, but they will increasingly become confined to northern and eastern parts. further west, more in the way of dry weather,

some spells of sunshine, and again slightly warmer — 17 to maybe 20 degrees across parts of the southeast. now, as we head into the long weekend, this area of high pressure will try to settle things down, but this little weather front threatens to bring some showers in from the northwest. this low spinning to the south threatens to throw some showers across the channel islands and into southern counties of england, so certainly there is the chance of a few showers as we head through the weekend. it should often be dry, and where we see some sunshine, it will feel relatively warm.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk from washington. i'm stephen sackur. the received political wisdom here is that economic issues pretty much decide elections, and that may be true in this midterm election year because of a dramatic spike in the cost of living. and yet, there is a sense here that right now, values and culture are at the centre of the political argument.