welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm marika oi. the headlines was this lab in china the source of the covid outbreak after all? the fbi claims the facility in wuhan was the most likely origin of the virus. over a0 people dead after a passenger train and a freight train collide head on , in what has been described as the worst rail disaster greece has ever seen. the israeli prime minister has condemned nationwide protests against his plan for an overhaul of the judicial system.

and the singer ed sheeran opens up about using music to cope with depression. in the us, the head of the fbi has claimed it is �*most likely�* that covid—i9 originated from a leak from a chinese government—controlled lab in wuhan. china has accused the fbi of politicising the investigation into the origins of coronavirus, and says there has been no new scientific evidence to support the theory.

other us agencies believe the virus developed naturally. our north america correspondent john sudworth reports. suspicions have long swirled around wuhan�*s laboratories. now, three years after the start of the pandemic, they've burst into the open once again. the fbi has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in wuhan. here you're talking about a potential leak from a chinese government controlled lab that killed millions of americans. from the start, many scientists believed that covid had passed naturally from animals to humans. some of the first cases were centred around this wuhan market known to sell wildlife. but with wuhan�*s laboratories known to have been collecting samples from bats and experimenting on coronaviruses there's an alternative possibility — that a researcher became accidentally infected with the virus they were working on.

it comes from china, that's why. it comes from china — i want to be accurate. but the theory�*s close association with donald trump made it, for many, one more piece of disinformation and it was widely dismissed. for the past three years in china, in europe and now in america, i've been investigating the question of covid's origin. some scientists claim that the lab leak theory has been convincingly debunked. but others say that in the absence of better evidence to rule it out, they want the possibility to remain firmly on the table. the world health organization team that travelled to wuhan in 2021 concluded that it was extremely unlikely that the virus leaked from a lab. but there were concerns about china's political management of the inquiry, something one member of that team acknowledged in an interview for our upcoming podcast series. it's difficult to know where the science ends and where the politics starts.

so, you can have heated debate about a lot of different details and you don't know if there is political influence. well, the lab leak theory is dismissed... china, it's clear, neverwant journalists asking questions about the origin of covid, and there appears to be very little hope of any further cooperation, with international efforts to look for answers. but in america, there's renewed interest. the biden administration has given the lab leak theory fresh impetus, and a new republican—controlled congress has willingly picked up the baton. the select committee will come to order. this is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st—century. despite the fbi's public comments, the us intelligence agencies remain divided. with little hard evidence, many fear that one of the biggest questions of our time — where did covid come from — may never be convincingly answered. john sudworth,

bbc news, new york. i spoke with william a short while ago. i started by asking him what he made of the fpi directors claims. well, to be perfectly frank, it's quite mystifying why he's saying that right now, because it's true that there is no new evidence to that effect that has been made publicly available. and as you just heard, this is a view that the agency has had for some time. so that has nothing has changed. why he's saying it now is somewhat mystifying, at least from a scientific point of view. it may well have something more to do with politics. indeed. but as someone who works in epidemiology, how likely is it that the viruses could escape from a controlled condition? is it a possibility? it's certainly a possibility, but being a possibility does not mean that it's

what happened here necessarily. we know that large outbreaks and indeed pandemics can potentially result from both lab accidents and from spill—overs from natural animal hosts of the sort that most scientists now think the most recent pandemic came from. both are possible, and it may well be a mistake to focus on one to the exclusion of the other. indeed. and of course, the chinese foreign ministry has dismissed the claims. do you think this could be all part of the tensions between the us and china? of course you mention politics, especially after the spy balloon saga and all the allegations over tiktok and so on. certainly there's a substantial tension between the us and china at the moment. and it's also true to say that china has not exactly been transparent over the course of the pandemic. there are many things that china could have been

done, could have done, which would have been transformative to our understanding of the pandemic and enormously helpful. and they did not do it. unfortunately, these tensions are not going to encourage them to be any more transparent than they have been. so in that case, do you think we will everfind out how this virus got out? i think that it's going to be very difficult to find any kind of evidence that would convince strong partisans on either side. the scientific community, people like me who are interested in the emergence of new viruses, have generally been moving in the direction of an origin within the market. you can find it in environmental samples from the market close to where live animals were being sold. having said that, there's very difficult to imagine any evidence that would convince somebody who was absolutely sold on the lab leak theory or indeed on the market theory. we begin in greece where at least 43 people are dead and dozens injured after two trains collided head on last night, in one of the country's worst—ever rail disasters. the passenger service heading to thessaloniki — with 350 people on board — collided with a freight service in the town of tempi

near the central city of larissa, causing carriages to fly off the tracks and catch fire. police have charged a local stationmaster with manslaughter by negligence. our europe corrrespondent, nick beake, is at the scene, and sent this report. the mangled remnants of a train bringing hundreds of students back from their holidays. down the track, their now grieving families, who had waved them off. greece's worst railway crash. it should never have happened. earlier, they had worked through the night, recovering dozens of victims. identification has been hard. the fire that broke out was intense. survivors described the moment, just before midnight, their intercity service hit the freight train head on. translation: we heard a big bang, then it was ten - nightmarish seconds. we were turning over in the carriage. we fell on our sides and then it stopped, and there was panic. cables everywhere and fire.

the fire was immediate. as it quickly became clear no—one else would be found alive, news arrived that a signal master at the nearest city had been charged with manslaughter by negligence. he has blamed a possible technicalfailure. greece's prime minister visiting this carnage vowed to find out what had gone so catastrophically wrong. translation: our thoughts are with the victims' relatives. - our duty is to treat the injured and then to identify the bodies. i can guarantee only one thing — we will find out what caused this tragedy, and we will do whatever we can to avoid anything similar in the future. this evening, greece's transport minister resigned, saying his efforts to improve the railway hadn't been enough to prevent such an accident. but who is to blame is not a straightforward question. many feel though this was a disaster waiting to happen.

that report by nick beake. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... more than a hundred girls have been hospitalised in iran with symptoms of poisoning after another spate of suspected gas attacks on girls' schools there. nearly 700 girls have been poisoned by toxic gas since november. many believe it's a deliberate attempt to force their schools to shut. no one has died, but dozens have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue nigeria's opposition labour party says it will mount a legal challenge against the presidential election victory of bola tinubu of the governing apc. mr tinubu won the presidential elections with 37% of votes. but the polls, billed as the most competitive since the country transitioned to democracy, have been marred in controversy. the opposition has disputed the results and called for a re—election.

in the uk, sussex police have confirmed that the remains of a baby have been found by officers searching for the missing infant of constance marten and mark gordon. the couple were arrested on monday after a seven week search for them when their car was found on fire by the side of a motorway. police announcing the find this said it was news they knew the public did not want to hear. constance marten and mark gordon are being held on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. here's our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford. this morning, at locations from newhaven to brighton, the search for the missing baby was in full flow. officers from the metropolitan police and sussex police were joined by volunteer experts in search and rescue. there was concern for the welfare of the infant, but there was also still hope. but tonight, that hope may have evaporated when the man leading the investigation made the announcement that he'd been dreading. it is my very sad duty to update this afternoon, police officers searching

a wooded area close to where constance and mark gordon were arrested, discovered the remains of a baby. a postmortem examination will be held in due course. a crime scene is in place, and work at the location is expected to continue for some time. this is an outcome that myself and that many officers who have been part of this search had hoped would not happen. constance marten and mark gordon, the one walking slowly with a stick, had emerged from the woods on monday night to visit the local shops. they returned along the same suburban street 45 minutes later. but they'd been spotted by a member of the public who'd called 999, and moments after this cctv footage was recorded, they were arrested. constance marten comes from a hugely wealthy family, growing up in this country house in dorset. she became estranged from herfamily in 2016 when she met mark gordon.

he was convicted of rape in the united states aged just 14 and served 20 years in prison before being deported back to the uk. the two of them left their home in london in september when her pregnancy started to show and stayed in a series of airbnbs — apparently trying to avoid being found. police believe their baby was born in the car but when the car caught fire on the m61 near bolton onjanuary 5th, the police started to investigate. cctv showed them visiting harwich, then london, where they bought a tent, and eventually newhaven. their baby was definitely alive at this stage, as the taxi driver who drove them there heard it. but at that point, they disappeared, only to re—emerge six weeks later in brighton when they were arrested. tonight, in the woods, just a few hundred metres away, police officers now gaurd a crime scene where an infant's body was found. though only forensic tests will confirm if it is the missing baby.

that report by daniel sandford. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come. in the us, lawmakers have voted to give presidentjoe biden the power to ban tiktok — so how do users feel? first, the plates slid gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly, the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards. it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier, and so my heart went bang, bang, bang! the constitutional - rights of these marches are their rights as citizens of the united states, -

and they should be protected, even in the right to test them | out so that they don'tl get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy — i know you don't want to say too much about it — but does it worry you that it's going to boil up? oh, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything'll be all right at the end of the day. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi in singapore. our headlines the fbi claims the facility in wuhan was the most likely origin of the virus. over a0 people dead after a passenger train and a freight train collide head on , in what has been described as the worst rail disaster greece has ever seen.

now to the middle east, where clashes broke out between police and people protesting against contentious judicial reforms in israel. protesters blocked roads and railways across the country in what they called a "day of disruption". they believe the sweeping changes being pushed through parliament will undermine judicial independence and threaten democracy. the israeli government says they will restore balance between the branches of government. our middle east correspondent yolande knell is injerusalem. with stun grenades and horses. israeli police try to drive protesters back. but here they break through the barricades. on the country's busiest motorway between tel aviv and jerusalem, traffic came grinding to a halt. demonstrators believe sweeping judicial changes will undermine the independence of the courts and threaten democracy. they will allow the government to overturn supreme court rulings.

but the prime minister and his new hardline government call the protesters anarchists. translation: the freedom of protest is not a license i to reduce the country, to anarchy, to chaos. a sovereign state cannot tolerate anarchy. today, amid rowdy scenes, a parliamentary committee pushed new legislation through an initial vote. supporters argue their plans restore balance between the branches of government. outside, another crowd began to gather. after weeks of protest you get a real sense of frustration from people here that their voices aren't being heard and they feel there's so much at stake. this issue is really exposing the deep divisions in the country. competing visions for israel. and some unexpected voices are speaking out. veterans of an elite military intelligence unit are among those now threatening to refuse

to perform their army reserve service in protest. it's completely unusual. we don't tend to use our position in the military background in order to gain an influence. we tend to remain impartial in those manners. but it's not a routine political debate. it's a dramatic change. polls suggest most israelis seek a compromise on judicial changes, and the president's calling for political dialogue. but the size of the latest protests and the authority's tough response showjust how split israel has become. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. the us house foreign affairs committee has voted to allow presidentjoe biden the power to ban tiktok — along with other apps believed to pose security risks. the chinese—owned social media app is currently used by more than 100 million americans. earlier this week the white house ordered government agencies to wipe tiktok off

federal devices within 30 days. this comes aftert the european parliament and canada banned the video—sharing app from staff phones — citing security reasons. for more on this i am spoke to by dr miah hammond—errey, director of the emerging technology programme at the united states studies centre at the university of sydney. my colleague and i published a piece last week exploring trust and distrust technology from china and the united states. it is available on our website and it is based on polling that we did the united states, australia and japan looking at trust in those two countries. we found that all three countries, responders largely discredited chinese technologies and in contrast trusted us technologies more. for a breakdown, japanese

respondents trusted us technology more trusting between trusted or trusted technology from the us. when we added questions about existing restrictions on chinese firms, 32% to 38% across all countries felt they should continue and an additional percentage but the restrictions should increase. this is actually quite new research which suggest that users have a strong distrust for technology and gifting the concern of unauthorised access to data or unjust for the systems and software. it is interesting to hear that you found a lot of people actually distrust technique chinese technologies and yet tiktok is very popular in the us and japan and so on as well.

outline for us, what kind of information that apps like tiktok can get from users and how can this information begins? it is such a good question and so relevant to all mobile devices. applications like tiktok owned by chinese companies have the ability to use very large bits of data. i outlined in the paper detailing that information. in short, the mobilen we use applicatios the size of the location, or contacts and other applications and data held on our devices. much of this data is able to be added to other data which is a comprehensive profile about who we are and where we go. some of that is factual like our the location and phone contacts and financial

spending. some things are inferred correctly or incorrectly make orfamily and friends for political and spiritual beliefs and values or even sexual orientation. companies like tiktok collect data on people who don't use the application. i think this excessive and aggressive data collection is significant national security concern. the singer ed sheeran has opened up about the the fear, depression and anxiety he experienced last year after a series of events. he says he �*spiralled' into depression after his wife was diagnosed with a tumour while pregnant, and his close friend the music entrepreneur jamal edwards died unexpectedly at the age of 31. ed sheeran says he used songwriting to �*make sense' of his feelings and get through those experiences. here's our music correspondent, mark savage. # i'm in love with

the shape of you.... # we push and pull like a magnet.... upbeat pop songs like bad habit and shape of you have made ed sheeran a global superstar, but earlier this year he released a one—off single that was filled with angst and despair. # therapy sessions, digging deep in depression. #i got a life full of blessings, but this just breaks my heart. f64 was a tribute to his friend and mentor, jamal edwards, who died suddenly last february. # we cried for nine nights in yourfamily home. # laid you to rest in the ground but without a stone. # you know it hits me most at moments, now when i'm alone. # every morning, i remember that you're really gone... now sheeran has revealed that the death coincided with a series of traumatic events in his personal life. in a handwritten letter, he told fans that his wife, cherry seaborn, got told she had a tumour with no route to treatment until after the birth. around the time, sheeran was at the centre of a copyright trial, and he wrote...

the best feeling in the world, the best feeling, is the euphoria around the first idea of writing a great song, like the first spark, where you go, this is special, we can't spoil this, this is amazing. that feeling has now turned into, oh, wait, let's stand back, have we touched anything? and you find yourself in a moment second guessing yourself. facing depression and anxiety, he turned to songwriting, scrapping more than 100 tracks he had written for his sixth album and starting again. announcing the record today, sheeran described it as opening the trapdoor to my soul. fans will get to hear the results in may. mark savage, bbc news. the royal television societyjournalism awards have been taking place

in central london this evening. the awards celebrate creativity and excellence in journalism, and the bbc was nominated in several categories. the news coverage international prize was awarded for its coverage of the war in ukraine which drug is described as a brave front line reporting and insightful coverage of the refugee problem. the network presenter _ refugee problem. the network presenter of — refugee problem. the network presenter of the _ refugee problem. the network presenter of the year - refugee problem. the network presenter of the year is - refugee problem. the network presenter of the year is clive l presenter of the year is clive larry. our very own clive myrie was named network presenter of the year. he was praised byjudges for his coverage of the war in ukraine and his "ability to bring empathy as well as authority" to his broadcasting while "under the most intense pressure". ourteam is our team is still in ukraine covering the war in ukraine. thank you to all reviewers who have been following our

coverage. this is it for this edition of newsday thank you for watching our coverage. hello there. we're starting off with the weather news that february was a very dry month across the whole of the uk, but particularly so in england. the driest in england for 30 years, and parts of essex only had 3.5 millimetres of rain for the whole month. now, this is the satellite picture from wednesday. you can see the extent of the cloud across the uk, but look closely, we've got some clearer skies set to head into north west scotland and some clearer skies over the continent that are set to break the cloud across east anglia, the south midlands and southern counties of england as well. whereas this thick cloud out in the north sea, that's going to continue to bring outbreaks of rain over the next few hours. light and patchy stuff across the south and east of scotland and northern england. so, certainly some pretty damp weather here, albeit the rain not particularly heavy. now where the skies do clear, we're looking at a widespread frost towards the southeast east. lowest temperatures about —2

and down to about “4 in the highlands of scotland in the coldest spots. now, we'll take a look at the charts then for thursday. remember, we've got that much thicker cloud across northern england, southern eastern scotland. still some patches of light rain to come through the morning, so quite a damp start to the day. best of the sunshine across southern england, the south midlands, southern wales and also north west scotland, and maybe some breaks in the cloud getting into northern ireland at times. temperatures not really changing much, in what we've seen over recent days, 8 to 10 degrees, but feeling cooler than that in the chilly northeasterly wind that we've still got. i think on friday, by and large, it should be a dry and bright day for most of us, with some sunny spells breaking through at times. temperatures not really changing a great deal, we're looking at highs again around 8 or 9 degrees celsius or so. now, there will be some changes in the weather pattern as we head into this weekend. what we're looking at on saturday is probably a bit more cloud coming back in from the north sea and sunday, the cloud thickens further to bring us some patchy outbreaks of light rain. and, so, probably a dry day

on saturday, bright conditions sunday, the chance of a few patches of rain from time to time, but nothing particularly heavy. beyond that, the weather gets a bit more interesting into next week. what happens is we get northerly winds bringing polar air southwards across the uk, and with that there'll be a significant drop in temperatures, we'll see a return of widespread night—time frost. will be a bit of sunshine around, but, also, for some of us, we're looking at a return of wintry weather with snow in the forecast for some of you. that's the latest.

in their welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. nicaragua's veteran autocratic leader daniel ortega has been locking up political dissidents for years now. he has a new tactic —— mass deportation and withdrawal of citizenship from those who dare to criticize him and his family. my guest today is felix maradiaga,

who was recently taken from his nicaraguan prison cell and flown to america.