welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm mariko oi. the headlines... there are reports ukraine is set to replace its defence minister with the chief of its military spy agency. it follows pressure over a corruption scandal at the defence ministry. iranian state television says the country's supreme leader has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including many who'd taken part in recent anti—government demonstrations. union leaders in the uk urge the prime minister to intervene in the dispute about healthcare pay. the biggest week of strikes in the history of the national health service is due to start on monday. new cctv pictures of missing lancashire woman nicola bulley have been shared by one of her friends. the images show the 45—year—old in the hours before she went missing

next to the river wyre, nine days ago. and who'll claim the major prizes at this year's grammy awards? all you need to know about music's biggest night. it's 7am in the morning in singapore, and 1am in kyiv where reports say the country's defence minister oleksii reznikov will be dismissed and replaced with the head of military intelligence. it is suspected reznikov, a loyal ally of president zelensky, will be moved to a different ministerial position — with ministry ofjustice named as a possible direction. in recent weeks, ukraine's

defence ministry has been embroiled in a corruption scandal over an army food contract, with one of deputy ministers fired and named a suspect, and another resigning voluntarily. reznikov became defence minister several months before the invasion. during the war, he fostered relationships with western defence officials and helped oversee the receipt of billions of dollars of military assistance. with us now isjonathan marcus, a defence analyst and former bbc defence and diplomatic correspondent. thank correspondent. you so much forjoining us on newsday. thank you so much forjoining us on newsday. a change of defence minister in the middle of the war seems rather unusual, does this come as a surprise? i seems rather unusual, does this come as a surprise?— as a surprise? i don't think it does. as a surprise? i don't think it does- the — as a surprise? i don't think it does. the whiff _ as a surprise? i don't think it does. the whiff of _ as a surprise? i don't think it does. the whiff of scandal i as a surprise? i don't think it. does. the whiff of scandal has as a surprise? i don't think it - does. the whiff of scandal has been surrounding the defence ministry for a few weeks now, obviously due to this procurement scandal where food was being charged, rations were

being charged at two or three times the normal price. there is no suggestion that mr reznikov himself was dishonest but i think as head of that ministry and given the fact that ministry and given the fact that the ukrainian president is so eager to set a new face on ukraine's government, one that tackles corruption and so on, and it was probably only a matter of time until he was shifted, it looks as though he was shifted, it looks as though he is likely to take on the role of minister for strategic industries, that would be logical because as defence minister, he has played such a key role in coordinating with nato countries about arms supplies and so on going to ukraine. what countries about arms supplies and so on going to ukraine.— on going to ukraine. what difference could this change _ on going to ukraine. what difference could this change make, _ on going to ukraine. what difference could this change make, coming - on going to ukraine. what difference could this change make, coming at l could this change make, coming at such a critical moment? in a strange wa , it is such a critical moment? in a strange way. it is less _ such a critical moment? in a strange way, it is less the _ such a critical moment? in a strange way, it is less the head _ such a critical moment? in a strange way, it is less the head of— such a critical moment? in a strange way, it is less the head of the - way, it is less the head of the ministry, mr reznikov, that is key

here, he is continuing to have some related role. ithink here, he is continuing to have some related role. i think of more interest is the fact that the head of the intelligence chief, he is going to replace mr reznikov as defence minister. you might argue that having a key intelligence figure moving in the middle of a war, notjust in the bill of but perhaps on the eve of a major new set of russian offensives is a far more significant step, and there is no indication as yet, i am sure he will have many able people around him, but there is no indication as yet as to who will take on that crucial intelligence role. you talked about _ crucial intelligence role. you talked about president zelensky wanting to clean the image after the corruption scandal but even before the war, corruption wasn't exactly uncommon in ukraine, was it? ida. uncommon in ukraine, was it? no, ukraine was _ uncommon in ukraine, was it? no, ukraine was a _ uncommon in ukraine, was it? iifr, ukraine was a reasonably corrupt country, i think it doubly still is.

the point here is that mr zelensky is fighting on a number of fronts, there is obviously the military struggle against russia but crucial to fighting that struggle is maintaining the support of his allies in the west. he also wants to be on a journey towards ultimate membership of the european union, however distant that may be, some european leaders are rather sceptical that that can come anytime soon, so this dossier dealing with corruption is absolutely crucial for president zelensky, not least to try and buttress support in the west, if it becomes clear that ukraine is a remarkably corrupt country then, that its government is not tackling the problem and so on, then clearly that could potentially lead to a wariness amongst some of ukraine allies and an unwillingness to huge quantities of money and huge

quantities of money and huge quantities of money and huge quantities of weaponry in the weeks and months going ahead.— and months going ahead. jonathan marcus, thank _ and months going ahead. jonathan marcus, thank you _ and months going ahead. jonathan marcus, thank you so _ and months going ahead. jonathan marcus, thank you so much - and months going ahead. jonathan marcus, thank you so much for - marcus, thank you so much for joining us with your insights on newsday. to iran now — where its supreme leader is pardoning a large number of prisoners, including some of those arrested during the past months of protests. the pardon by ayatollah khamenei comes on the eve of the anniversary of the islamic revolution in 1979 — a date on which an amnesty is often given to prisoners. though the country's state media says the pardons exclude people facing charges of spying for foreign agencies, murder or the destrusction this of state property. taraneh stone, from the bbc�*s persian service, says those freed have several conditions attached to their release. the supreme leader has agreed to pardon and commute sentences of tens of people who are in prison or who are waiting for sentences. the letter from the judiciary said

that a considerable number of people who were arrested and imprisoned in relation to the recent protests are among these people. but there is a long list of conditions for these people to be pardoned. one of those conditions is they shouldn't be linked to any spying activity, they shouldn't be facing any charges of corruption on earth or waging war against god. as you can see, these are quite ambiguous charges as well and people have been charged with these accusations for setting fire to bins in the street or merely protesting. so these are quite ambiguous charges. also one of the conditions is these people have to show remorse and also they have to provide a written promise that they will not participate in the protests or take similar actions again.

that's what has raised some concerns among social media users and people who have been listening to the news today and said that this can potentially be problematic and can potentially be a long process. it may even be impossible for some people to be pardoned or released. to the uk now, where the biggest nhs strike to date is set to take place on monday. the government and health unions remain at loggerheads, with no resolution in sight. the business secretary grant shapps accused ambulance unions of putting lives at risk — a claim denied by the union unite. they called on the prime minister to step in, saying no—one at any level in the government was currently involved in talks on pay. our political correspondent jonathan blake has more. they chant. a week of walk—outs by nhs staff in england. nurses, ambulance workers,

physiotherapists and others are due to strike in the coming days. as industrial action continues by unions demanding higher pay, they're trying to put pressure on the government to negotiate. i can categorically say to you we are in no talks at any level whatsoever with the government about pay in the nhs. that is a real abdication of responsibility. why is rishi sunak not coming to the table? car toots. in wales, some unions have suspended strikes to consider a new offer from the labour—run welsh government. but uk government ministers responsible for setting pay in england are showing no sign of giving ground. i don't think we need to be having these strikes at all. the reality is, as i said, actually, over a million nhs workers got a pay rise last year when there wasn't one on offer. there's a pay rise on the table this year. and just to clarify one point, the government has actually, the system is —

agreed by the unions, asked for by the unions — that there is an independent pay review body that accepts evidence from the unions, from the management, and then they recommend a figure to the government. some conservatives have joined calls for the prime minister to look again at public sector pay. but rishi sunak has made reducing inflation his number one political priority and argued that giving nhs staff and others higher wages would make that problem worse. so he's unlikely to undermine his own argument and negotiate, even if the strikes and the disruption they cause continue. labour hasn't said how it would fund higher pay for nhs staff in england or what its offer would be, but insists the government should at least engage. it is the government's responsibility. they can sort this. you know, the unions have said even before this started at christmas, "if you meet us to discuss pay, we'll call this strike off." nhs staff, determined to secure higher pay. a government adamant

its offer is fair. and for now, no sign of an end to the stand—off. jonathan blake, bbc news. in other news out of the uk — new pictures of nicola bulley, who went missing while walking next to the river wyre in lancashire, have been released showing her on the morning of her disappearance. police have said their assumption is that she fell into the river — and today many members of the local communityjoined the search to find her. a key witness, who was pushing a pram near where ms bulley disappeared nine days ago has come forward. here's danny savage. this is nicola bulley leaving home on the day she vanished. in the pictures first obtained by the bbc, she can be seen setting off on the school run, putting her spaniel, willow, in the boot. her family released these pictures to show exactly what she was wearing. for days, police have been searching for any trace of the mother of two young girls.

today was no different. what did seem very obvious was the large number of other people out, too. this is the bench where nicky's mobile phone was found a week last friday. today is dry and sunny and the number of people out along here is extraordinary. there are dozens and dozens of people along this stretch, along the other stretches as well, all walking the riverside paths to try and assist in the search. i mean, if she went missing in the same way, i would be expecting people to go looking. do you understand what i mean? i would really want there to be a search party. if it was myself or my eldest, we both takes the dogs out on our own. if it was one of us that was in that situation, i'd hope the community would do the same thing for us as well. ijust feel like everybody should be doing their part. she disappeared without trace. police believe she accidentally fell in the river wyre, but it's the not knowing for sure which is keeping people looking. danny savage, bbc news,

st michael's on wyre. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... beijing expresses strong dissatisfaction after the us shoots down a chinese observation balloon off the coast of south carolina. there's mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man taking his first steps into the new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he has passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president baby doc duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure

box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning, elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi in singapore. beijing says president biden's decision to shoot down a chinese observation balloon that flew across the united states was an attack on a civilian unmanned airship and an obvious over—reaction. washington believes the device was spying on sensitive sites in the us and sent fighterjets to destroy it yesterday. warships have now been deployed to recover the debris.

barbara plett usher reports from beijing. for days, this solitary object floated serenely through us airspace, putting a diplomatic crisis onto television screens in real time. was it a harmless weather balloon, as the chinese claimed, or a spy in the sky? moments after it arrived over the atlantic, the us brought an explosive end to the drama. that trail of white vapour you see on the left of the screen is an american fighterjet heading for the balloon. the second vapour trail is from a heat—seeking missile fired from the jet, easily finding its target. whoa! did you hear that? shortly after impact, the sound of the explosion was heard by people watching on the ground. then, what was left of the balloon came down in the sea off the coast of south carolina. suddenly we saw something take off from the jet and we knew that was a missile, and you could see the explosion. gosh, it was almost like a moving cloud coming down.

it's scary. it's a different way of spying on us, let's put it that way. i the us navy is now recovering debris spread over seven miles in relatively shallow water. down to earth, the us shoots down a suspected chinese spy balloon monitoring us military sites... this was how america woke up to the news on sunday morning. late yesterday, an air force f—22 fighterjet fired a single air—to—air missile into the balloon, bringing it down. president biden was criticised by republicans for not acting sooner, but he chose his own time. i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided... without doing damage to anyone on the ground. they decided the best time to do that was over water, within a i2—mile limit. china's foreign ministry accused the us of overreacting. the statement said... china expresses strong

dissatisfaction and protests against the use of force by the united states. and that it would reserve the right to make further necessary responses. the incident has blown up a chance to ease tensions between the world's two great powers, with the us secretary of state antony blinken postponing a planned trip to beijing. here in beijing, the foreign ministry in china had been expecting to welcome antony blinken today to talk about stabilising the relationship in carefully planned, carefully choreographed meetings. instead, suddenly, relations have taken a sharp turn for the worse. the visit could still very well take place later in the year. butjust getting here is now part of the problem. barbara plett usher, news, beijing. and we will bring you some breaking news from the uk now. the head of one of the uk's most prestigious private schools has been found dead along with her husband and seven—year—old

daughter in a property on school grounds. emma pattinson was the headteacher at epsom college. police said they were confident it was an isolated incident "with no third—party involvement". we'll bring you all the latest developments as we get them. the former military ruler of pakistan, general pervez musharraf, has died in hospital in dubai. he was 79. general musharraf took power in a coup in 1999 and ruled for nine years. following 9/ii he supported the us in its war on terror. his loss of power and popularity saw him spend most of his remaining time in exile. our islamabad correspondent caroline davies looks back at this life. as his troops clambered over the fences of pakistani state tv, general pervez musharraf announced pakistan needed the army, not politicians, to be in control. your armed forces have never and shall never let

you down, inshallah. musharraf portrayed himself as a liberal, disliking the term military dictator. when 9/ii happened and the war on terror began, he publicly declared he was with the west, although later he said america gave him little choice. it was a high wire act, balancing us demands with increasingly anti—american islamist sections of pakistan. musharraf ordered the siege of a mosque in islamabad whose religious leaders and students had condemned his pro—western policy. the outrage at what happened led to the rise of the pakistani taliban. when former prime minister benazir bhutto was killed there were questions about whether the nation was safe in his hands. he lost the 2008 election, resigned before he could be impeached and went into exile. when he returned to try and stand again in 2013 he was arrested.

allowed to go to dubai for medical treatment, he was convicted in his absence of treason, which was later overturned. he stayed in dubai until his death. some today praised a man, saying he put his country first. others see the seeds of pakistan's current turmoil planted and growing under his rule. a british family are to travel to grenada later this month to apologise publicly for their ancestors' ownership of more than 1,000 african slaves. the trevelyans owned six sugar plantations on the caribbean island in the 19th century. the family includes the bbc�*s new york correspondent, laura trevelyan, who says she is paying reparations by donating a £100,000 fund. azadeh moshiri reports.

how do you make up for centuries of oppression? that is a question countries like britain and the united states are still trying to answer. bbc presenter laura trevelyan is confronting her ancestors' own role in the slave trade. across the caribbean, there are calls for reparations. after she learned her family was listed on a database of slave owners, ms trevelyan visited grenada to face her ancestors' painful legacy. when i went to grenada and i saw for myself the plantations where slaves were punished, when i saw the instruments of torture that were used to restrain them, when i looked at the neck braces, at the manacles, at this system of dehumanisation that my family had profited from as absentee slave owners of the sugar plantations, i felt ashamed. the trevelyan family has decided to apologise. in a public letter, they write...

"slavery was and is unacceptable and repugnant. its damaging effects continue to the present day. we repudiate our ancestors' involvement in it." they go on... "through a donation by laura trevelyan, we have been able to contribute to the setting up of the reparations research fund at the university of the west indies to look into the economic impacts of enslavement." five times great—grandfather... ms trevelyan explained the impact her family's actions still have today. poverty is rife. there's a lot of obesity, of hypertension, of ill—health, which is linked to slavery, health experts, feel, because of decades of poor diet, stress. and so some people could see what you are doing and argue, you know what, this is a drop in the bucket. yes, i completely understand that this can seem like a very

inadequate gesture, that our family received the equivalent of about £3 million in compensation when slavery was abolished. we got that money in 183a. so for me to be giving £100,000, almost 200 years later, for a fund that is going to look at economic development in grenade —— for a fund that is going to look at economic development in grenada and the eastern caribbean, may be that seems like it is really inadequate, but i hope that we are setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did. her family is doing the right thing, and they are doing in the right way because not only are they apologising, being willing to make a reparations gesture, but they are doing it in collaboration with the reparations commission. also, very important, they are calling on both the british government and the british royal family to do likewise. later this month, the trevelyans

will return to grenada, and they will attend a public forum organised by its national reparations commission. that is where the island will continue to reflect on what it has lost after centuries of colonisation and enslavement. azadeh moshiri, bbc news. actress viola davis has become one of only a handful of performers to achieve �*egot�* status. that means, she's now won an emmy, grammy, oscar and tony award. on sunday, davis picked up the grammy award for best audiobook for the recording of her memoir finding me. meawhile, the main grammy awards ceremony gets under way later — with beyonce leading the nominations with nine and could break the record for the most wins in the history of the grammys. there are 91 categories this year — and among the contenders for album of the year, besides beyonce, are abba, adele, and coldplay.

jem aswad is the deputy music editor at variety. there's only one grammy awards. it is the absolute peak of achievement, public achievement, whatever, except for pulitzer or nobel prize or something like that, in the music world. there is absolutely nothing like it. brit awards are great, the american music awards are cool — there's nothing like a grammy. now, award shows in general have lost a lot of their lustre with the decline of network television — sorry! but to a musician, it's still the ultimate thing. even when people fight with the grammys, like ariana grande got in a spat with the former producer of the show a few years ago and just said, "forget it, i'm not appearing," but when she won her first grammy, she posted that night. she posted a video of herself dancing around her bedroom, so that shows what it means.

good luck to all of the contenders. that is it for this programme, thank you so much for watching newsday. hello. the weekend was a tale of two halves. we had a weather front with us and a lot of cloud on saturday and atlantic air sunday brought high pressure with us and clearer skies. now that high pressure stays with us for much of the week, but round the periphery of it, towards the north, as you can see, we'll see, well, cloudy skies at times of weather, windy weather as well, midweek. but for the most part, that high pressure keeps the weather fronts at bay, particularly in the south where temperatures are falling away. a little bit of mist and fog as we head towards morning and around for the rush hour. but with a bit more cloud creeping in across the west of scotland and northern ireland, more limited our frost here, not for eastern scotland and a much

colder start for england. wales minus three, minus four in rural areas and some ice to scrape off the cars. but the fog should lift fairly readily and it looks like we'll have less high cloud around compared with sunday. so bright blue skies, but more limited brightness and sunshine for northern ireland and western scotland. after the frosty start in the east, though, we could see some sunshine lifting till ten across parts of scotland, ten in belfast. that's a little bit above average for the south, about average. as we go through monday evening and overnight, this weather front starts to take shape across scotland and northern ireland. so again, limiting ourfrost here, but not in the south. again, a cold night, minus three out in the sticks across countryside areas for tuesday. therefore, probably more more fog in southern areas and a slower to clear. and it could stay grey and cold for much of the day in some parts. then we've got that weak weather front slipping down across northern ireland and northern england, but brightening skies follow across scotland. so i actually think more sunshine for the northwest of scotland compared with monday. then as we go into wednesday, those tightly packed isobars arrive our weather front as well. we could have a spell of severe gale force winds

towards the north later on wednesday, wednesday afternoon onwards, and it will bring with it then wednesday night in particular a spell of quite significant rain hill snow. but further south, hopefully a bit more breeze just to lift that fog, less issues around, but certainly the prospect of some more in southern areas where the winds are a little bit lighter and again, a frosty start. so as we move into the latter part of the week, we've got that chance of some rain in the north, but the high pressure ruling the roost for the south. so i think the main point about this week is that it's going to be largely dry away from scotland in particular, but there'll be some frost and fog in the mornings and chillierfor a time

good evening this is the sports news where we start with football and tottenham hotspur have boosted their hopes for a top four finish. they have also done their north london rivals arsenal a huge favour, by beating manchester city goal to nil. it means arsenal's lead. the night belonged to harry kane who is totten's all—time sports live score. when it comes to scoring goals, tottenham hotspur have been able to count on this man time after time. 15 minutes in, he had barely touched the ball, when pierre milloy buck intercepted and set up england captain to do what he does best. the

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