and bts, the wildly popular south korean k pop group, visits the white house to speak about the growth in anti asian hate crimes in america. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. . it s 8:00 in the morning here in singapore, and 3:00am in ukraine, where it s reported that a russian air strike has hit a chemical plant in the embattled city of severodonetsk, releasing a cloud of dangerous gas. residents have been told to stay in bomb shelters to avoid the fumes. the ukrainians say russian forces now control most of severodonetsk, the main focus of the russian offensive in the donbas region. the local governor said the city wasn t surrounded, but continuous shelling was making it impossible to bring in supplies or evacuate the remaining civilians. and russian troops are pushing deeper into the region. this is the city of slovyansk, where three people have been killed in a russian missile strike. ukraine s president zelensky has been talking about the