welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: a day of mourning declared in nepal as at least 68 people die in a plane crashjust a mile short of the airport. everybody is confused because this pilot is one of the most experienced of nepal. ukraine suffers its worst day of russian shelling in weeks, as nato promises they will soon receive more weapons from western europe. a major disaster is declared in california, which has been hit by a succession of severe storms. chat gpt, the ai app that has educators up in arms. we speak to a cyber

security expert. and the australian open tennis tournament gets underway with novak djokovic back and chasing a tenth title a year after he was deported for breaching covid rules. hello and welcome. we begin in nepal where a day of mourning will be observed after officials say at least 68 people have died in a plane crash in the central part of the country. there were 72 people on board the aircraft, which came down just a mile from its destination. the plane was operated by yeti airlines, and was flying from kathmandu airport to the tourist town of pokhara. it came down in the gorge of seti, a mile from the runway

at pokhara airport. from kathmandu, our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan sent this report. footage thought to show the final moments of yeti airlines flight 691. first, you see the plane veer off course. then you hear it. thunderous roar a raging inferno. the twin engine plane crashed into a gorge, close to the tourist town of pokhara, minutes before it was due to land at the recently opened airport there. translation: we heard a loud, thunderous crash and raised our| heads to see what had happened. we saw a lot of smoke and realised it was a plane crash and we rushed to the site. chaos and confusion, as some sprayed water to douse the flames. but efforts to save the 72 on board were in vain. as the day drew on, a grim sight... bodies pulled from below in red

and black plastic bags, then carried to higher ground. translation: security agencies have - to accept this challenge. we are actively working to retrieve and identify the bodies as soon as possible and hand them over to the families. tonight, some of the victims have been identified. the plane's co—pilot, anju khatiawada, and journalist tribhuvan paudel. his brother told the bbc he felt airlines in nepal don't take safety issues seriously. the plane took off from here at kathmandu airport earlier this morning. tomorrow, the bodies of some of the victims are expected to return back here. monday's also been declared a national day of mourning in nepal. it's unclear still what caused the crash, but this himalayan nation has a tragic history of fatal airline accidents.

as a nation mourns, some are asking if enough is being done to ensure the country's skies are safe. in the last few decades, hundreds have died in air crashes in nepal. as families grieve, they also want answers. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, kathmandu. aviation safety expert ron bartsch told me his preliminary thoughts. in terms of footage that i've seen, it would appear that the aircraft has entered into what's known as an aerodynamic stall, and at such low level, it would be impossible to recover from a stall. i know, as you point out, very difficult to really ascertain what we know at this point, so much information still coming through, but perhaps you can talk us through the safety record of this particular type of aircraft? look, the atr 72 is an incredibly reliable aircraft. it's used extensively

throughout the world and, indeed, here in australia and throughout the southeast asia region, so you wouldn't expect that, mechanically, unless there was an engine failure, perhaps, that it would be a mechanicalfault, but if there had been something causing the aircraft to stall and it's obviously not keeping enough airspeed, it could be very much related to the fact that the pilot may have misidentified the runway and then tried to turn quickly, and because of the strong winds that are in the area of nepal, it could be a factor that may be one of the contributing factors to this awful accident. yeah, ron, on that, what about the conditions in nepal in terms of flying? you know, what's known about that and what's that like for pilots? look, yes, in those regions

i've seen some of the airports are incredibly challenging in terms of the slope and also very short distance. also, a lot of the airports are at a very high elevation — this particular elevation is going 800 metres — but you've got to remember that this aircraft was fully laden with 72 passengers, which is the maximum for that aircraft, so that also has an impact on the stalling speed of the aircraft. so as the weight of the aircraft increases, so too does the stalling speed. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. several communities in latvia are on high alert as a mass of ice threatens to flood a dam built to protect homes. the daugava river usually freezes over in winter, but this year has stayed moving with an icy mass on top,

threatening the structural integity of the dam. officials have said the situation is stable, but dangerous. more than 120 stretches of road in peru remain blocked by protesters, despite a state of emergency in several regions. the unrest was triggered by the impeachment of president pedro castillo last month for alleged corruption. violent clashes in recent weeks have left dozens dead and scores injured. an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 has struck northern sumatra in indonesia. according to the us geological survey the quake was at a depth of 48 kilometres. indonesia's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said there was no threat of a tsunami, and the country's disaster agency said there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. police in london have announced that a 22—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, after four people were wounded in a drive—by shooting at a funeral.

a 7—year—old girl was seriously wounded and remains in a crtical condition. a man has been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence, after traces of uranium were found in a package at heathrow airport last month. counter—terrorism officers searched an address in cheshire on saturday. the man, who is in his 60s, has been released on bail until april. i want to turn to the war in ukraine now, and the mayor of dnipro has warned there may not be any more survivors after a missile strike on an apratment block at the weekend. at least 30 people were killed, more than a0 are still missing. meanwhile, the head of nato has promised that ukraine will soon receive more heavy weaponry from western countries. the uk has already confirmed it

would send 14 tanks, but germany has been reluctant to do so. our correspondent andrew harding reports on the efforts of ukrainian forces, on the frontline, and he starts with the latest attacks on dnipro. this was last night — yet another ukrainian apartment block devoured by a huge russian missile. this morning, rescue workers in the city of dnipro were still bringing out a few more survivors. a young woman, katerina, lifted carefully from the ruins and out into the freezing daylight. she and her neighbours are victims of a brutal and blundering russian campaign that shows no signs of easing. further east in the donbas today, we drove towards the front lines, through more towns and villages targeted daily by the kremlin�*s artillery. and yet, civilians still cling on here. "aren't you scared?" i ask. "sure, wouldn't you be?"

he replies. "how can we not be scared living in the donbas?" "it's terrifying" she adds, "especially for the children. "we've got used to it." but russia's military is struggling too. even closer to the front, in territory recently liberated by ukrainian forces, we come across acres of destroyed russian hardware. the russians have experienced so many losses in the past few months, and yet despite all this, they still have far more men, far more equipment than the ukrainians do — which is why the fate of this conflict still hangs very much in the balance. to tip that balance, ukraine needs more western weapons like this one. we've been given rare access to a powerful british supplied rocket launcher hidden in a forest. as we arrive, the unit is rushing to prepare for another mission.

they're getting ready to fire now for the third time this morning, attacking russian targets along the front line, just a few kilometres from here. these weapons, these foreign weapons, have made an extraordinary difference for ukraine in this conflict, but it's not enough any more. a hurried launch, then an even quicker departure before russian artillery tries to target our position. back in the forest, the commander — face hidden — talks of a catastrophic shortage of equipment, of tanks, weapons and more basic supplies. "western help has got us this far" he says, "but we can't liberate more territory without a lot more assistance." back in the rubble of dnipro, the search for survivors has continued. rescue workers shouting out, "is anyone there?"

yes, yes, yes! then "yes!", when a small voice is heard. and another woman is brought to safety, or what passes for safety here, after almost a year of war. andrew harding, bbc news, ukraine. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: novak djokovic, back in melbourne for the australian open, a year after he was deported from the country for breaching covid rules, and launching his bid for a tenth title on tuesday. donald trump is now the 45th president of the united states. he was sworn in before several hundred thousand people on the steps of capitol hill in washington. it's going to be only america first. america first.

demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they call him - the butcher of lyon. klaus altmann is being heldj on a fraud charge in bolivia. the west germans want to extradite i him for crimes committed in wartime france. - there, he was the gestapo chief, klaus barbie. - millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot. a tide of humanity that's believed by officials to have broken all records. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines: a day of mourning has been declared in nepal as at least

68 people have died in a plane crash, just a mile short of the airport. ukraine suffers its worst day of russian shelling in weeks, with more than 100 missiles fired into eastern ukraine. in the city of dnipro, 30 people are confirmed dead. to california now — a story we've been covering for a while now on newsday — and a major disaster has been declared there, where a series of severe storms has prompted president biden to send aid from the federal government. at least 19 people have died in the storms. our correspondent, sophie long, reports from the hills above santa barbara. frantic efforts to protect homes from further flooding. if we didn't get this done today, we would have lost our house. jeff bailey's wife and young children evacuated. he stayed to protect their home.

it's been hard. my wife has been bringing them over, up at the top of the hill, and i've been giving them hugs and kisses and telling them how much i love them. but, you know, we all have to process it. sorry, it's the first time i have become emotional. so, yeah, you know. we're safe, we're surviving and we'lljust keep going forward. across california, after three weeks of almost continuous catastrophic downpours, rain is the last thing people here need. and yet, it keeps coming. widespread flooding is getting worse, and roads are disintegrating. emergency services could only watch as this one collapses into the valley below. we joined the santa barbara bucket brigade, a local volunteer force formed after a mudslide killed 23 people here five years ago. what's happened here? just all came down off here.

this is the road. this is the road to my mom's house. she can't get home. you can see the impact of the heavy deluges here. this road has been completely cut off. people cannot access their homes. the rains have now started again after a brief period of respite, and there's concern that more is going to come down. they were west of us. the threat of mudslides means they need to move quickly. the next stop is steve's house. that was a pretty hairy drive by my standards. so this tree i planted, 26 years ago it was this tall, and it is the only tree to survive this. the whole thing just slid down. this is about 200 feet wide. you know, you kind of get overwhelmed with a series of emotional things, which go from hope to pride to fear to, you know, despair to all of that stuff. but at the end of the day, you know, we are a resilient lot up here, and we know

what to do, so this is what we're doing today. a saturated california can only wait to see what he the next storm brings. sophie long, bbc news, santa barbara. i want to tell you now about an ai—powered app that's changing the face of education. imagine having your college essay or cover letter written by artificial intelligence, with just a simple query in a search engine. creepy or cool? thejury is the jury is still out. well, that's essentially what chatgpt, an ai—powered app that was launched last november, can do. it has taken the internet by storm, but there has also been growing concern from some in the education sector of its potential impacts on assessments within both schools and universities. gerry chung is the risk advisory executive director of deloitte singapore. hejoined me here in the studio a short time ago and i asked him whether this kind of technology is a boon

for students or a hindrance for educators. this is one of the areas where technology is to really disrupt the old way of working and particularly in the education sector one of the key things is that these schools definitely need to revisit the way that there are assessing the students' knowledge, moving away from regurgitation is to one where it really tests the critical thinking and ability to apply the knowledge that has been there. technologies like this is going to really start changing it, and students, not just students, notjust changing it, and students, not just students, not just an education sector but we can really benefit from the use of such technologies to bring concepts and ideas very quickly to drafts in which we can then further refine it based on our ownjudgement. iii further refine it based on our own judgement.— ownjudgement. if used correctly- _ ownjudgement. if used correctly. indeed. - ownjudgement. if used correctly. indeed. do i own judgement. if used l correctly. indeed. do you own judgement. if used - correctly. indeed. do you think the education sector or all of us are able to catch up and keep up to pace with the sorts

of changes that are taking place on it comes to technology like this? ., place on it comes to technology like this? . ., , like this? that a very interesting _ like this? that a very interesting point. - like this? that a very i interesting point. that's like this? that a very - interesting point. that's one of the key concerns that policymakers are also having around the world, where it's really about the digital literacy and readiness of the society. if we look at models like this, they are still very much english based language models, and at a macro level there is a concern around what about countries who do not speak english natively? they will not be able to benefit from tools like this, so you have a digital divide that will widen and societies itself there is always focus around digital literacy of citizens to make sure that this does not unnecessarily advantage a certain privileged groups within the societies. indeed. some education _ within the societies. indeed. some education systems, i l some education systems, i understand, are already trying to regulate this, banning its use with students or finding ways to figure out whether it is being used, chatgpt and in

some assessments. is that they won't want to go or should that be let's try to work with this ai software approach? i be let's try to work with this ai software approach? i think the latter— ai software approach? i think the latter approach _ ai software approach? i think the latter approach where - ai software approach? i thinkl the latter approach where how do you up with technology like this? technologies like this are here to stay like search engines many years ago allowed us to really query information on the internet a lot easier, so technology like this allows us to move concepts to drafts much quicker. of course they, a risk particularly in education where the integrity of research done, the factual accuracy is very important. models like this are generally coherent but they do from time to time leave information which may not be accurate and that's why judgement needs to be put in to cure and fact checked information returned. fascinating stuff from gerry chng from deloitte singapore, speaking me to —— speaking to

me earlier about chatgpt. president biden has told americans to look towards martin luther king junior�*s life for lessons on repairing their divisions, as he become the first sitting us president to deliver a sermon at a sunday service in the civil rights leader's church in atlanta. the speech marked the national holiday that celebrates the civil rights activist�*s life and legacy. dr king, who was assassinated in 1968, would have been 94 on sunday. we have to choose a community over chaos. and we, the people, are going to choose love over hate. the battle for the soul of this nation is perennial. it's a constant struggle. it's a constant struggle between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice. against those who traffic in racism, extremism and insurrection. a battle fought on battlefields and bridges, from courthouses and ballot boxes to pulpits and protest. and at our best, the american

promise wins out. the australian open, the first grand slam of the tennis season, is under way in melbourne, and novak djokovic has been granted a visa to take part. he will launch his bid for a 10th aussie open title on tuesday, a year after he was deported from australia because he had not been vaccinated against covid—19. ben rothenberg from racquet magazine told me what we can expect from the next fortnight of tennis. and once again, it's all eyes on the serbian superstar. djokovic is the story of the australian open once again — in a very different way than he was last year when he was a subject of international attention and sort of a media circus around his deportation saga, which wound up with him getting ousted from australia before the tournament began. this time he's the story because he's the favourite to win the tournament once again. he's won the australian open nine times before and he seems to be in pretty good shape to do it again. he won the adelaide

warm—up tournament at the beginning of the month. he's been dealing with a bit of a hamstring issue that maybe could flare up, but it does seem like maybe not forgiven, but everything has been willing to be forgotten with djokovic. people seem ready to move on from the drama of last year and just focus on the tennis this time. yeah, in terms of the fans for rafael nadal, though, it seems a bit trickier, doesn't it? what's his draw looking like? yeah, rafa's got a tough draw. he opens againstjack draper, who is one of the fast—rising british talents in the tour. he has been someone who's been looked at as a young star, kind of gone under the radar a bit, even despite being british, which puts so much media attention on tennis players, because of the rise of emma raducanu on the women's side and her break—out major championship. draper's gone under the radar, but is a very talented, big, strong lefty and is not someone who nadal wants to play right now. nadal has struggled, actually. it's one of the worst stretches of his career in terms of not winning many matches since last year's us open, losing match after match. some decent matches, but really not in top form, so with the pressure a bit of defending a title, he'll be feeling it more than usual and maybe lower

on confidence than usual. but at the same time, betting against rafael nadal has never won much for anyone during his career. laughs that's well put. let's turn to the women now, because last year's champion, ash barty, shocked the tennis world, didn't she, when she retired? who's the favourite, do you think, now? so i think the favourite would iga swiatek, who was the woman who succeeded ash barty at number one and really took the baton that barty put down and ran with it, maybe even further distancing herself from the pack in a more dominant way than barty ever managed, winning two grand slams in paris and in new york last year. she doesn't love the conditions in melbourne, it's a bit fast for her. she likes a bit of a slower court where she can have more time, but she is the dominant player. she has almost, i think, twice as many ranking points as the player ranked number two right now and it's her tournament to lose. that said, there are some real contenders in the draw, particularly number three, jessica pegula, who beat swiatek pretty handily in the first week of the year. she could play her in the sami—finals potentially. so some roadblocks along the way, but i think swiatek is pretty much as clear

a favourite on the women's side as djokovic is for the men. and just briefly, the australian open is referred to as the happy slam, isn't it? what separates it from the other three slams? you know, i think everyone here in the northern hemisphere just looks at it and lusts for that sunshine they have during our coldest months here and knows what kind of happiness that brings, everything's dark up north. and it really is a place where the players enjoy being in the warmth. everyone is healthy and rested and at their peak fitness from the off season. the tennis season is pretty nonstop, so everyone comes to australia in a pretty good mood. a pretty good mood indeed. ben rothenberg. before we go, earlier we reported on the catastrophic flooding in california. but let's show you something a bit lighter. this is a bear which decided to take a dip in a swimming pool in monrovia during one of storms. the homeowners spotted the bear enjoying itself in the pool, and after a few lengths the bear casually climbed out of the water, shook itself off and wandered back to the woods. that's a great example of

making the best out of a bad situation. that's all for now. stay with bbc world news. hello there. the first half of the month was very wet. it was also very mild. but the weather this week is going to look very different. it's going to be cold and frosty, going to have some icy patches around, and the risk of some snow. predicting where the snow is going to fall is going to be quite difficult, mind you. these are the temperatures we start with on monday morning. coldest in the north, with clearer skies away from those snow showers. icy patches around in the morning. we've got this wet weather in the south—east. now it's mostly rain, but there could be some snow over the downs and the risk that we could see some snow to lower levels as well. it is going to pull away. cloudy for a while across eastern england with one 01’ two showers. otherwise, we see some sunshine coming through, but we'll keep some wintry showers coming in to northern parts of northern ireland, and most of the snow

in that chilly wind across the north of scotland. temperature—wise — well, struggling, typically around 3—5 degrees, a cold day. and those temperatures will fall quickly after dark. another frost in most places monday night into tuesday morning. the risk of snow in the far south—west has lessened. most of the wet weather looks like it's going to be in the channel. that allows more wintry showers to feed into northern ireland, over the irish sea into north west england and north wales. it doesn't look quite so wet in the north—west of scotland on tuesday, and many places will again have a dry day with sunshine, but temperatures only around three orfour degrees. we're still in cold air tuesday and into wednesday as well. that area of low pressure gets close to the north—east of scotland, bringing some stronger winds here and the threat of some snow. otherwise, the winds more northerly, so northern scotland in the firing line, northern ireland and around some of these irish sea coasts. many other areas likely to be dry and sunny, but another chilly day, perhaps not quite as cold, 4—6 degrees, but still a cold day with some sunshine. how long will the cold weather last? well, there are weather

fronts trying to push in from the atlantic, but they seem to be slowing down. and ahead of that, we've got a ridge of high pressure actually building in on thursday that will kill off most of the showers. many places will have a dry day with some sunshine again. we start to see some of that cloud coming into the far west, bringing some damp weather towards the south—west of england. but ahead of that, temperatures are still sitting at 4—6 degrees. so for the next few days, different sorts of hazards, really. it's cold, it's going to be frosty. there's signs of milder weather, though, coming in, but probably not until next weekend.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hours straight after this program: i'm michaela strachan, a wildlife presenter with a passion for conservation. for the past 35 years, my work has taken me all over the world. and in that time, i've seen huge changes, many due to climate change. in extreme conservation, we travel to different countries, meeting inspirational people... hello! ..with new ideas. this time, i'm in the maldives.