welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm mariko oi. the headlines... russia claims to have thwarted another major offensive by ukrainian troops. president zelensky praises his forces for delivering the news kyiv has been expecting. translation: well done, soldiers. - we can see how hysterically russia greets every step we make there, every position we take. the enemy knows that ukraine will win. apple reveals its first augmented—reality headset — its first major hardware launch in a decade. and how mental health has become the most recent catastrophe to hit afghanistan. we have a special report. live from our studio in singapore.

this is bbc news. it's newsday. hi there, thank you for being with us. we start with the notable increase in military activity, in southern and eastern ukraine. the ukrainian armed forces say they've launched several attacks, but the russians insist those attacks have been repelled. russian officials are claiming that their troops have succeded in blocking attacks around donetsk, luhansk, and zaporizhzhia — the ukrainian attack on donetsk was said to be on a significant scale. but the eastern city of bakhmut is described as the "epicentre of hostilities", where ukraine's ground forces are said to be moving forward strongly against russian positions. in a moment, we'll have the latest from moscow — but first to kyiv, and our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse.

shh. in a war of words, a call for quiet from kyiv. when it comes to its anticipated counteroffensive, ukraine has certainly revelled in trying to confuse russia. this video came with the caption — plans love silence. but today words seem to have been followed by actions. in another produced video, with its own techno music, kyiv claims its troops are advancing close to the eastern city of bakhmut and says that's not all. troops are moving to offensive actions in the eastern front too, according to the country's deputy defence minister, hanna maliar. even russia's defence ministry reported three major counterattacks, which it says it repelled. it released this footage from near the city of donetsk. bbc verify has confirmed it was shot there, but we don't know when. "the enemy launched an unsuccessful attempt at a large—scale offensive in the south donetsk direction," said its

military spokesman. so, has ukraine's counteroffensive started? well, if you look at the heightened language from both sides, as well as the military movement, it certainly looks to be in the early stages, but what will take longer to answer is the question of whether it will be successful. any potential liberation will rely on continued political support, today coming in the form of the uk's foreign secretary, james cleverly, with an exchange of pleasantries with president zelensky. when we made the commitment publicly that we would continue backing you and your country until you are victorious in your self—defence, we meant it. when we said that we would do more and go further, we meant it. it's about opening the possibility for training missions for our pilots on fighterjets. kyiv has always managed

to straddle defending with diplomacy. you can be sure the talking won't stop. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. in russia, president putin didn't comment on the claims when he made a public appearance. so what's the view from moscow? our russia editor steve rosenberg sent this report. the claim by moscow is that ukraine's army launched a major attack in the donetsk region, which failed. these images from the russian defence ministry — and its claim to have inflicted heavy losses — have not been independently verified. but russia has been expecting a counteroffensive by kyiv for weeks now. in the russian capital, a stark contrast to the battlefield. in the cathedral of christ the saviour, a masterpiece returns. the holy trinity is one of russia's most precious icons, but its display

here has sparked controversy. for a century, the fragile 600—year—old painting had been kept in stable conditions in moscow's tretyakov gallery. but the kremlin ordered its transfer to the church. lev lifshits was part of a group of experts who'd advised against that, fearing major damage to a unique work of art. translation: this decision i was someone's personal whim. the gallery's restoration council was categorically against this. this is a political decision. those in power here are looking to the heavens and hoping for help from above. or at least for help from the church in continuing to justify russia's war in ukraine. translation: this icon returns to the church . at a time when our fatherland is confronting

massive enemy forces. it returns so that we can ask god to help our country and pray for our orthodox president, vladimir putin. these are uncertain times for russia. the war in ukraine has not gone according to plan — and now, all this talk of a possible ukrainian cou nteroffe nsive. and amid such instability, the kremlin relies increasingly on the orthodox church to sustain public support — both for the "special military operation" and for the president. more icons — this one, vladimir putin gave to his commanders fighting in ukraine. he is really a religious man, but this is not about christianity as such with real christian values, because cruelty is not christian values. in that sense, putin is a follower of a very specific kind of religion. in moscow, those queueing

to see the holy trinity icon were hoping for miracles. "it's difficult now with the special military operation", valentina says. "we pray for victory". "any sensible person will hope the conflict ends soon", says antonina. "i think god will help." russia's orthodox church paints the war in ukraine as a holy war, to make russians think that god is on their side. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. lots more on the latest developments in ukraine on the bbc news website and app — just search "bbc news". and you can download the bbc news app as well. to california now — where apple has been announcing its newest products and apps including a brand new product called apple vision pro.

take a look. with vision pro, you are no longer limited by a display. your surroundings become an infinite canvas. use your apps anywhere and make them any size you want. capture your photos and videos and relive your most important memories and an entirely new way. watch your movies, shows and sports and immerse yourself in games on a giant screen, surrounded by a spatial audio. connect with people as if you're sharing the same space. so in the same way that mac introduced us to personal computing and iphone introduced us to mobile computing, applevision pro will introduce us to spatial computing. that was tim cook. our technology editor zoe kleinman explained the difference

between augmented reality and virtual reality. virtual legality is this idea of a completely immersive experience where you are transported via headset to another world, if you like, augmented reality or mixed reality is much more about superimposing digital content on the real world. so for example, you're in your house, you can see your house around you and your lounge, but also in front of you is a giant screen of the movie you're watching or the photos you're looking at, or the video of your friends you're chatting with, and that is apple's vision. it's even got on this new device a little dial so you can dial up or down exactly how immersive you want the experience to be. i think vr, virtual reality, was the way the industry was going in the old days, and now it's looking much more more to integrate it with our reality rather than try to completely remove ourselves from it. behind me is apple park, which is apple's iconic

headquarters, and tim cook is releasing a new bit of tech from a firm that's not released anything staggeringly new in several years, and it's got the clout of disney behind it — bob iger rocked up on stage and said it would bring real life magic to people's lives. well, is there a drawback? one of those is the price, $3,500 at launch next year. and in terms of making this device, how many people will actually be able to afford it? zoe kleinman reporting there. the race for the republican nomination for president is getting even more crowded. donald trump still leads the field in the polls, with florida governor ron desantis trailing behind. but former vice president mike pence has formalised his bid. he'll launch his campaign at an event on wednesday in iowa. our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue has the latest.

so the much—anticipated moment when the former vice president enters the race for the republican nomination. mike pence has filed his papers with the federal election commission, and he will make his announcement formal on wednesday at an event in iowa. he enters the race really only in third place, and it's a pretty distant third place — he's polling at around 5—6% among republicans — that's 15 points behind the florida governor ron desantis, and a whopping 45 points behind his former boss, donald trump. now mike pence does have some advantages — he has a lot of administrative experience notjust being vice president, but before that in congress and as governor of indiana. he also has a lot of popularity among the evangelical vote — that'll be incredibly important for the republican nomination, and nationwide name recognition — he has that too. but he is the man who refused to overturn the election,

he's the man that wouldn't help donald trump to change the outcome of the 2020 election, and for a lot of republicans that makes him a bit of a traitor. it's a long, long road ahead to the nomination, but now we have another real big hitter in for the battle. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bbc news — bringing you different stories from across the uk. when you're flying around on the racecourse going so fast with 100 other people right on a knife edge of crashing or winning a race, it's really intense. if you make a small mistake, you really get overtaken by a lot of people. in the iqfoil event, they can get close to iiomph, and it's a winner—takes—all format used in the final. with only one place up for grabs in the great britain team, that all adds up to a lot of pressure. this year was the first time in my life where i ever... you know, it wasn't particularly a dream any more to go to the olympics, or to try and win a medal

for great britain. it was, like, becoming something that could be real. this winter was so difficult. i skipped christmas with my family. i skipped my 30th birthday. my uncle passed away and i couldn't make the funeral. i couldn't be with him in his last moments. and yeah, i certainly visualise a lot the sacrifice and i try and channel that and use that in performance. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. to australia — where a woman who had spent 20 years in prison has been pardoned. kathleen folbigg was once branded the country's worst female serial killer for allegedly killing her four children. but scientists now believe the children may have died of natural causes. callum tulley has more. kathleen folbigg was convicted of killing her four infant children back in 2003. now she was accused of smothering them at various

points between the years of 1989 and 1999, and we can see a picture of them here. now for patrick, here on the centreleft, for sarah, to his right, and for laura, to her right, kathleen was found guilty of murder. for caleb, on the very left here who died when he was just 19 days old, she was found guilty of manslaughter. so she ends up spending the best part of the next 20 years here in the high—security compound of the southwater prison, in sydney. now later on, much later, she ends up coming here to the clarence correctional facility about six—and—a—half hours away. this is where she ends up being released from — and that's because in march 2021, after a hard—fought campaign by herfriends, a group of around 90 scientists signed a petition calling for her release, saying that new scientific evidence had come to light that showed that her children had died of natural causes. now in the case of her two daughters, it became apparent that they both shared a genetic

mutation that caused sudden cardiac arrest. for her two sons, it became apparent that they shared a different genetic mutation that caused sudden onset epilepsy found in mice. and it's on this evidence that the governor of new south wales demanded the release of kathleen — and essentially, in doing so, acknowledged one of, if not the biggest miscarriages ofjustice in modern australian history. to afghanistan now, where doctors have told the bbc that there is a "catastrophic" mental health crisis, particularly among women and girls, and they report a sharp increase in cases of suicide. the united nations has also raised concerns about this latest trend. official numbers aren't available from the taliban regime — but the bbc�*s yogita limaye has travelled to different parts of afghanistan, with colleagues imogen anderson and sanjay ganguly to

investigate what's going on. translation: | just want| someone to hear my voice. iam in pain, and i'm not the only one. most of the girls in my class have had suicidal thoughts. we are all suffering from depression and anxiety. in her 20s, this afghan student told us why she tried to end her life. we're hiding her identity to protect her. going to university and meeting my friends was the only comfort and happiness i had in my life. and it was banned. i started spending a lot of time alone, at home, withjust one thought on my mind. that nothing was ever going to be ok again. one night i tried to take my own life. her words give an insight into a less visible yet urgent

crisis facing afghanistan. particularly its women. in a patriarchal society, especially one worn out by a long war, one in two people, most of them women, suffered from mental health issues, even before the taliban took over. now, experts tell us, the situation is worse than ever before. i am really sorry for your loss. can you tell us what happened? we spoke to the father of a girl who took her own life on the first day of the new school term this year. he is in a remote province. translation: until that day she had believed - that the schools would eventually reopen but when that didn't happen, she couldn't cope. she became extremely distressed and took her own life.

what impact has it had on you and your family? our life has been destroyed. nothing means anything to me or to my wife any more. we are at the lowest we have ever been. five other families also told us their daughters killed themselves for similar reasons. we started looking into this issue because we saw an increasing number of articles in the local news reporting suicides from different parts of the country. partly because of the stigma associated with it, and partly because the taliban are not recording numbers, official figures are not available. in the absence of that, we have been speaking to families in different provinces who have lost loved ones to suicide in recent months. we have spoken to people who have attempted to take their own lives, we have seen recent research that suggests two thirds of afghan adolescents, mostly female but also male, are suffering from depression in parts of the country

and we have asked numerous mental health professionals to give us their assessment of the scale of the crisis. we met this teenage girl in the presence of her psychologist, who has been treating her since she tried to take her own life. she sighs translation: the staying i at home without an education or a future, it feels ridiculous. i feel exhausted and indifferent to everything. education is the only hope we had and it has been taken away from us. there is nothing left for us now. hundreds of miles away, this is one of the psychologists we met. she receives seven to ten new calls for help each day.

we have a pandemic of suicidal thoughts, mental health issues in afghanistan. which rarely people think of, which rarely people talk about. it is like as you are slow poisoned, we are like this. she said the economic crisis is another major reason and men are also affected. the taliban did not respond to questions about a surge in suicides since they took power. for the first time in a0 years, no part of this country is at war. but its people are not at peace. yogita limaye, bbc news, kabul. if you've been unable to catch updated instalments of us tv shows, its because 11,000 hollywood writers have been on strike for the last few weeks,

and one of the reasons for their action is that writers are worried they'll be replaced by artificial intelligence. the writers guild of america has likened the use of ai screenwriting to plagiarism and said it was fighting to regulate the technology — so that's one example of ai possibly threatening ourjobs, and of course there have been many other concerns voiced by experts as well. here in the studio with me is alexandra van hofland, the dutch ministerfor digitalisation. thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. lots of excitement about the technology, but lots of warnings about al as well, so what is your view on this technology?— so what is your view on this technology? the view that in the government _ technology? the view that in the government have - technology? the view that in the government have is - technology? the view that in the government have is we i technology? the view that in . the government have is we need to make the internet, the digitisation something very safe, something that adheres values like no discrimination

and transparency. therefore we work on the things we not only see on digital platforms, but also look into this new form of ai, generative ai and how little affect our world. some ofthe little affect our world. some of the warnings _ little affect our world. some of the warnings have - little affect our world. some of the warnings have been i little affect our world. some - of the warnings have been quite stark, like it could actually lead to our extinction and so on. a lot of discussions about regulating this technology and how governments can work together to tackle this, is this something you are discussing while here in singapore? i discussing while here in singapore?— discussing while here in sina-aore? , singapore? i definitely hope so because basically _ singapore? i definitely hope so because basically what - singapore? i definitely hope so because basically what we - singapore? i definitely hope so because basically what we see | because basically what we see is people saying this will be paradise or the other way around, and i believe that we first need to look into what is already happening today. we've seen loads of data consuming, energy use and so forth, and loads of speculation about what it'll do the jobs. loads of speculation about what it'll do thejobs. i loads of speculation about what it'll do the jobs. i think it's good that we discuss it further and to figure out what this could mean to our societies, but also how we can ensure it'll be safe and adhering to

our values, and make sure that it won't steal away the jobs that we find important to keep, but basically also to look into issues of privacy and data sharing, and so on. it issues of privacy and data sharing, and so on.- sharing, and so on. it is a tricky balancing _ sharing, and so on. it is a tricky balancing act - sharing, and so on. it is a l tricky balancing act because you don't want to stifle innovation, but at the same time you want to regulate the industry. how do you think governments can address issues like misinformation, and also making sure that our children will actually have jobs in 20 years? it will actually have “obs in 20 ears? , ., will actually have “obs in 20 ears? , . . . will actually have “obs in 20 ears? w years? it is a balancing act and what _ years? it is a balancing act and what we're _ years? it is a balancing act and what we're doing - years? it is a balancing act and what we're doing in i years? it is a balancing act - and what we're doing in europe, we are looking at how can this help innovation? also new forms of ai, may be help in health care or make some jobs easier? we also look at how we can defend the rights — therefore we build regulation, we are trying to build up further, we are working on it, and i'm very

happy with the idea to share this here and see how your country, but also basically this region is looking into this, how do we look at new forms of ai that could be very good and do super nice legs, but also make sure they can work for us. do but also make sure they can work for us.— but also make sure they can work for us. do you think ai is something _ work for us. do you think ai is something that's _ work for us. do you think ai is something that's very - work for us. do you think ai is | something that's very different from other issues you've seen in terms of technologies? is this a new challenge in addressing and regulating? i think it is new, and if you look at it from a technological point of view, it's very clever, very new, something that can do loads of things we didn't know computers could do before. but now we see it, we have to ask questions to it, because it's basically a social experiment, everyone is using it or at least a lot of people are using it, seeing the advantages, but now we have to look at how we can make sure

that will be adhering to our values, the idea that you can use it safely and that people can feel secure about what's happening in their world. and that part of the regulation we need for that is something i would really like to discuss here and see how countries from this region are looking into this region are looking into this question.— this region are looking into this question. thank you so much for — this question. thank you so much forjoining _ this question. thank you so much forjoining us - this question. thank you so much forjoining us on - this question. thank you so - much forjoining us on newsday, enjoy your day in singapore secular thank you very much. before we go, a quick look at the sport before we leave. the english premier league football club tottenham hotspur have announced ange postecogulou as their new manager. the former australian international player and manager, who most recently lead celtic to two scottish titles, takes over as tottenham end the season with their lowest league table result since 2009. spurs have been looking for a new boss since the exit of antonio conte in march, with cristian stellini, that's it for the programme, thanks so much

for watching newsday. hello there. ourfine, dry run of weather continued on monday. plenty of sunshine out west, bit more cloud in the east, and that created some cooler air that then flowed across the uk, hence the lower temperatures that we had — for example, london going from 23 on sunday to 18 for a high on monday. the highest temperatures out west, 2a celsius, warm in the sunshine. we'll see some changes in the weather picture, though, over the next few days, and it's all down to storm oscar that's bringing torrential rain to madeira. some strong gusts of wind there, as well. oscar itself doesn't actually make it to the uk — it stays to the southwest — but it will be transporting some much warmer air our way. humidity levels rising, as will the temperatures through the weekend, mid—to—high 20s. but it won't be dry everywhere, there will be some fairly hefty thundery showers around, as well, to watch out for — something that gardeners might want, actually, given how dry the weather's

been over the last few weeks. now at the moment, we're seeing cloud come back in off the north sea, affecting central and eastern scotland, central and eastern england, eastern parts of wales, too. and so for these areas, we start the day tuesday with a lot of cloud that cool breeze with us, notable again first thing in the morning. out west, sunshine from the word go once again. now where you start cloudy, that cloud will probably get burned back towards those north sea coasts by the time we get to the afternoon, so most areas will brighten up, but there could be some areas in the east. there the cloud loiters, the onshore winds continue to blow, it'll feel quite cool, 111—15 celsius — and that is a feature of the weather we've seen so far this month. for example, in holbeach in lincolnshire, the average forjune's 19 celsius — we'll be nowhere near that so far this month, on account of often cloudy weather we've seen, and often those chilly northeasterly winds. and another feature of the weather we've got at the moment is some of you will see quite high levels of pollen — and it's grass pollen we have at the moment — so if you're

allergic to that, you might find it being a bit sneezy on tuesday. wednesday, probably less in the way of cloud around. what little cloud there is could loiter across some english eastern coasts, but otherwise more sunshine, and so probably temperatures a little bit higher, 211—25 out west. and over the next few days, more of the same — it's really into the weekend that we see those temperatures rise, along with the humidity, and we'll probably start to see showers and thunderstorms break out, as well.