to be here and realise that people are just going about their ordinary lives. westminster waits for the report that could determine the prime minister's future — as borisjohnson rejects calls for him to resign. and the story of the little girl who vanished for days in australia more than half a century ago. now finally, answers about what happened to her. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's nine in the morning in singapore, and eight in the evening in new york, where prince andrew is demanding a trial byjury. he formally denied all the allegations against him as he gave a court his official response to allegations of sexual assault. virginia giuffre accuses the duke of york of forcing her to have sex more than two decades ago at the london home of the convicted sex trafficker ghislaine maxwell. the 11—page document sets out the duke's detailed response, strongly denying that he abused ms giuffre when she was 17. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell has more details. across 11 pages, andrew's lawyers have set out his defence — a denial of the central allegation of sexual abuse made by virginia giuffre and an assertion in respect of others that andrew lacks sufficient information to either admit or deny what's been claimed. he says, for example, in relation to the widely publicised picture of the two of them, that he doesn't have enough information to admit or deny that there exists photographic evidence of his alleged meeting with miss giuffre. elsewhere, his lawyers assert that virginia giuffre�*s civil complaint should be dismissed because she's a permanent resident of australia and not domiciled in the united states. and they say this... finally, they demand this... ..all of which suggests that andrew is determined to fight it out in court, though lawyers say this doesn't preclude an out—of—court settlement. you can certainly have a settlement further down the road, and it wouldn't shock me at all, between now and a trial, to see something like that happen. and sometimes, though, there are cases where no amount of money will make them go away. there are times when, again, a victim wants their day in court. and that certainly seems to be virginia giuffre�*s intention. her lawyer has said they look forward to confronting prince andrew with his denials and his attempts to blame miss giuffre for her own abuse at the trial. nicholas witchell, bbc news. nada tawfik is covering this story for us in new york. she explained more about the likely defence strategy of prince andrew's lawyers. well, in terms of the substantial allegations, it was no real surprise that he would deny them, as he has done in the past. i think it's the finer points of what the complaint against him states that you find some interesting responses. for example, he really hits back at the assertions that he was a close friend of ghislaine maxwell's or a frequent guest ofjeffrey epstein�*s, both convicted sex offenders now, although he does admit to having stayed in epstein�*s properties in the past, and i think what's really interesting is how his lawyers deal with some key pieces of information in the complaint. the first, we heard there in the package about that notorious photograph, where prince andrew has his arm around virginia giuffre with ghislaine maxwell in the background, and then secondly, an e—mail in which allegedly prince andrew writes to ghislaine maxwell in 2015, asking when they can talk, because he has some questions regarding virginia giuffre. well, in both those matters, his lawyers respond that there's not enough evidence for them to deny or admit the allegations, and so it really suggests that they are keeping their options open for a strategy on how to deal with those two pieces of information, which will be, i'm very sure, points that virginia giuffre�*s team will come back to again and again, this issue of connecting him strongly to ghislaine maxwell and prince andrew and the existence of what they will say is evidence that will prove their case. now, it's really interesting also to see that prince andrew, in this legal filing, has stated at least 12 different defences, and one of them really hits at his assertion that virginia giuffre can't sue because of her own alleged wrongful conduct. well, her lawyer david boies has said that this is just a continuation of them trying to blame the victim and that they look forward to confronting prince andrew. the united states has responded to a series of russian demands over the future of ukraine — with the us secretary of state antony blinken insisting that ukraine �*can choose its own allies�*. it comes as moscow has deployed an estimated 100,000 soldiers near the border in both belarus and russia. president putin has accused western nations of aggressive expansion into russia's sphere of influence. he says one of his key concerns is the expansion of nato — the military alliance of european states with the us and canada. many countries in eastern europe became members after the fall of the soviet union. mr blinken said they would never compromise on nato�*s founding principles. it is for nato, not the united states unilaterally to discuss the open door policy. these decisions are made by nato as an alliance, not by the united states unilaterally. from our perspective i cannot be more clear. nato's door is open and remains open and that is our commitment. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has more now from the ukrainian capital, kyiv. matches. needle, etc. medicals and bandages, medicine. yuri is getting ready for a war he hopes he never sees. he's packed an emergency bag to grab and go if russian bombs or troops reach kyiv. a basic survival kit for the worst possible scenario. what does it actually feel like to be doing this? it's unbelievable. i understand it, i am living now in the 21st century. i'm amazed that i should do this, that i should pack this bag, but this is what i have to do to keep my family safe. yuri thinks a major escalation in ukraine's eight—year—long war with russia is unlikely. he just feels better being prepared for it. today, the us government strongly advised its citizens to leave ukraine. the government here calls warnings of a major new incursion by russia alarmist, but it's not ignoring the tens of thousands of troops deployed near its border. a few weeks ago, the authorities here actually released a map with all the bomb shelters, and just look at it. there's thousands of them — 5,000, in fact — all over the city. marking a map, though, is the easy bit. the door�*s locked. and this is one of the official bomb shelters, supposedly. so either nobody here's expecting war to break out any minute now, or they're just not very well prepared for it. the metro might be a safer bet, deep below ground. if the air raid siren sounds, people will have 20 minutes to get down here. there's so much talk now outside ukraine about the possibility of the conflict escalating, ofan imminent russian invasion, and it's quite weird being here inside kyiv itself and realising that people are just going about their ordinary lives. there's no sense of panic here at all. do you think it's possible that the conflict could actually reach kyiv? i don't know. i don't have any information about that, so i'm just living my best life right now and hoping that everything will be ok. did you make any kind of preparations, or any...? no, no. so, as western governments wrestle with moscow's ultimatums and demands, ukrainians for now are getting on with a life they've long lived, in the shadow of russian threats and aggression. sarah rainsford, bbc news, kyiv. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. north korea has fired two short—range ballistic missiles from its east coast into the sea of japan according to military officials in the south. thejoint chiefs of staff confirmed the launch. it marks north korea's sixth weapons test this year. a single body has been recovered by us coastguards after a boat capsized off the coast of florida. a sole survivor had earlier told resucers that the vessel had left the bimini islands in the bahamas on saturday with a0 people on board. the boat is believed to have been made up of people from cuba and haiti who paid smugglers to take them to the us. it is dire. the longer they remain in the water without food or water, exposed to the marine environment, the son and the sea conditions, every moment that passes it becomes much more dire and unlikely that anyone could survive in those conditions. one of the nine justices on the us supreme court is reported to be considering retirement. stephen breyer has been on the court for more than 27 years and is one ofjust three liberaljudges on the nine—person court. his retirement would be a massive opportunity for president biden to appoint a newjudge who may influence the highest court for decades to come. borisjohnson has once again rejected calls from labour to resign, as mps await the publication of the cabinet 0ffice report into lockdown parties in downing street and whitehall. it's believed that sue gray's inquiry into whether covid regulations were breached is essentially complete. work has been taking place to ensure the document can be published in full. the subject once again dominated prime minister's questions. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg has more. busy doing nothing much. waiting, wondering if the findings of a report into rule—breaking in downing street will make life impossible for borisjohnson. 0ther ministers, trying to concentrate on serious matters of the day... can you survive this, prime minister? ..anxiety, anticipation about what the next few hours would bring. the prime minister, eager not to show any nerves to his backbench troops. cheered at lunchtime, but with questions pressing, can that mood prevail? how much damage are the prime minister and his cabinet prepared to do to save his skin? let me just remind the house what's been going on in downing street. we've been prioritising the covid backlogs, mr speaker. and when the official verdict into what really went on is ready, will we see it all? can the prime minister confirm that he will publish the full sue gray report as he receives it? of course, i will do exactly what i said. remember, the official civil service inquiry isn't the only one that lurks. we now have the shameful spectacle of a prime minister of the united kingdom being subject to a police investigation. isn't this a prime minister and a government that have shown nothing but contempt for the decency, honesty and respect that define this country? and, for all sorts of reasons, many people may want me out of the way, but i'll tell you the reason he wants me out of the way, it's because he knows that this government can be trusted to deliver. and we're — and particularly i — am getting on with the job. a public show of force. but it's the private world behind number 10's show that's been exposed. it's a business meeting! laughter. allegations of parties in the press office exploded with a cringeworthy video of staffers joking about how they'd explain it away. and it's not socially distanced. can you stop? i'm going to make a statement, you don't... the tears of the former press spokesperson allegra stratton, the first casualty of this whole mess. then admissions of various other gatherings in whitehall when the country was locked down. revelations of bring—your—own—booze drinks in the downing street garden, organised by none other than martin reynolds, one of the most senior staff by borisjohnson�*s side. a basement booze—up during the national mourning for prince philip. and then, just this week, news of a birthday celebration for the prime minister in the cabinet room during lockdown. lulu, why did you go to borisjohnson's party? lulu lytle, the interior designer of the renovation of the number 10 flat, briefly there, along with borisjohnson�*s wife. the painful question all the way through — how could the people who wrote the lockdown rules have broken them, too? this whole place is in a deeply uncomfortable limbo. the report into what went on in downing street is still not out even though it was essentially complete, apart from last—minute checks, last night. the questions about the integrity and truthfulness of what happened have still not been answered, and just when those doubts are swirling thick and fast, a new, separate contradiction has emerged. remember this? the desperate images of the evacuation of kabul when it fell to the taliban. there are claims that the prime minister interfered to prioritise rescuing animals from a british man, penn farthing's, charity. that was fiercely denied at the time. but e—mails published by a westminster committee today give a very different picture, referring to the "prime minister's decision", saying in writing... that's a total contradiction of what boris johnson said last month. did you intervene in that way? no, that's complete nonsense... marrying up different versions of events has been part of this government's problem. mps sent home tonight without the official report into parties coming out, so accusations hover, still waiting for a verdict. the prime minister hopes for political escape. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the latest on the relief effort in tsunami—hit tonga. the shuttle challenger exploded soon after lift—off. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman schoolteacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening, tahrir square, the heart of official cairo, was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word 'revolution'. the earthquake singled out| buildings and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasingj desperation about it as the hours pass. l the new government is firmly in control of the entire republic of uganda. survivors of the auschwitz concentration camp have been commemorating the 40th anniversary of their liberation. they toured the huts, gas chambers and crematoria and relived their horrifying experiences. this is newsday on the bbc. 0ur headlines: britain's prince andrew demands a trial byjury as he rejects the allegations of sexual assault made by virginia giuffre. the us formally responds to russia's concerns over ukraine, saying they've offered moscow a serious diplomatic path forward. let's get more on the situation in ukraine, because the former president petro poroshenko told the bbc that everyone now understood that global security was at stake. he said the world needed to show president putin that it was strong and united. first of all, president putin is absolutely serious, and the understanding of the world is different, because beforehand, everyone in the world understands that this is the danger for ukraine. understands that this is the dangerfor ukraine. now, nobody has any illusion that this is the dangerfor has any illusion that this is the danger for the european and global security, because putin can at the same time attack the baltic states, attack poland, using ukraine as an instrument for blackmailing the whole world. and with this situation, everybody understands that in the west and in ukrainian security, they invest in their own security. and i have one proposalfor all own security. and i have one proposal for all the viewers and listeners of abc, to all the leaders: don't be afraid to surprise putin. surprised him by our unity, surprise by our strength. and putin now is simply raising the states. he is blackmailing the world. and with this situation, definitely, united and strong ukraine is absolutely the right answer to putin. and if you ask me what now, ukraine needs from the west, point number one is that we need to increase the defensive capabilities of ukraine. this is, we should make russia weaker. weaker by introducing sanctions, weaker by presenting the sanctions if he makes a decision towards continuation of aggression. we should present to ukraine a membership action plan, because thatis membership action plan, because that is the right answer for the blackmail of putin not only to ukraine but for the whole world. the former ukrainian president poroshenko speaking to the bbc. the red cross says humanitarian aid to tonga is ramping up after the airport was cleared of ash, making it safe for planes to land. britain's royal navy ship carrying aid arrived on the island on wednesday, but tongan officials say the country is still in dire need of more international support. i've been speaking to vanessa lolohea, executive director at the tonga national youth congress, who had this update. we are currently working on the ground. we are doing a water relief response. tnyc, tongan national youth congress, have worked with 0xfam in england since 2012 in humanitarian work. so we have eight water stations on the ground now, with more than 25—plus youth volunteers working in different locations around the main island of tonga. so we have a useful kind of system now for water purification. 0ne system is sky hydrants. that is the cleaning of water from water catchments, and then purifying the water and then return it back to the water springs. and the second one is using desalination units, turning sea water into clean, fresh drinking water. at the moment, we have worked with nemo, the national emergency management office, on distributing the water from the new zealand navy boat that has docked in the wharf on wednesday. so we have cleaned the storage area for drinking water. as you know, water is still the main need around on the ground at the moment. we have done work on this island, and that is planned for the future. i see. now to the story of an amazing reunion, more than 50 years after a toddler was found wandering alone miles from her home in australia. kathy wrethman�*s dissappearance in 1968 sparked a huge search, one that fortunately had a happy ending. until now, though, she never really knew who had rescued her. but all these years later, our correspondentjon kay finally found the answer while he was researching the story of another missing child, as he now explains. june 1968, and kathy wrethman was safe. the toddler had been missing for three days. but she was found alone in new south wales, almost 20 miles from home. now a grandma, this is the first time kathy has ever spoken publicly about what happened. the person that took me didn't hurt me. the only thing kathy could tell her parents was that there was a man. and the only clue — whoever took her from the family home cut her hair. nobody was ever charged. i can only remember a dog and a room — being in a room. someone coming in, opening this door and saying, "go to sleep". i do remember that, and the dog under my bed. it was a big dog, i think it was an alsatian. what is it like for you now, even now, not really knowing where you were and who you were with during those few days? it's mind—boggling. i came across kathy's story while i was making the bbc podcast series fairy meadow about the disappearance of cheryl grimmer in australia at around the same time. she was never found, and the two cases have never been formally linked. of course, ifeel like the luckiest lady in the world. kathy was found wandering in a creek by some schoolboys who were skipping lessons, but she has never seen them since. what would you say to them? thank you. i mean, thank you wouldn't be enough for saving your life, because what i've got now is my family, and i wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for them. i want to introduce you to somebody. who? who's that? hi. this is mark. mark — oh, my god! how are you? long time, no see. this is mark — so mark byrne was one of those three boys who found you. we were wagging school. like, we weren't good boys at school, but we had a good outcome that day. thank you so much for wagging school. i can't believe it. this is a dream. i'vejust wanted to thank you, and... oh, my god, thank you's not enough. i love you, and you're always going to be my hero. you're always going to be my hero. five decades on, at least one mystery has been solved. that's it from us. good buy. hello there. we've certainly seen some windy weather across more northern parts of the uk into the night. the winds will continue to ease down during the day on thursday. it'll still be breezy, mind you, and there should be more sunshine more widely. the strongest winds have been near that area of low pressure that's moving away from the northern isles. this weather front is continuing southwards. it's continuing to weaken, and that means the rain and drizzle on it is becoming very light and patchy. and this is the picture towards the end of the night. further north across the uk, clearer skies are continuing to follow with some more of those showers, mainly in the north of scotland. but it should be a frost—free start to thursday. we start quite cloudy across much of wales, the midlands, and southern england. some light and patchy rain and drizzle mainly in the west. that'll move southwards, soon cheering up in wales in the midlands. the cloud takes all morning to move away from southern england, heading out into the channel. then sunshine follows widely, a few more of these showers continuing mainly across northern and western scotland, but not a cold day despite the north—westerly wind. temperatures double figures for most. it will feel quite cooler than of late, though, in northern parts of scotland. the winds ease down during the evening. some clear skies will turn it chilly for a while overnight. and then, if we look out to the west, a stream of weather fronts will bring some wet weather mainly toward scotland on friday. but at the same time, we're drawing and some very mild south—westerly winds. ahead of it, though, across england and wales, a chilly start. some sunshine, one or two early mist and fog patches. does tend to cloud over more and more from the west during the day, hanging onto some sunshine towards south—eastern parts of england, most of the rain coming eastwards from scotland. and for many, those temperatures will be reaching 10—11 celsius. it is turning milder and windier through the day, and most of the rain will continue to affect scotland overnight, that weather front tapping up the rain over western parts of scotland. then that weather front moves southwards on saturday. so again, it'll weaken and the rain becomes light and patchy. moving away from scotland and northern ireland, there won't be much rain heading down across england and wales. then we get a north—westerly wind once again, a few showers across northern parts of scotland. double—figure temperatures for most of the day, very mild in the south—east of england at 1a celsius. a windy day on saturday. the winds won't be as strong, though, on sunday. it will be a bit cooler. northern areas turn wet and windy later on. this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. hello. i'm zeinab badawi. welcome to global questions from kyiv, the capital of ukraine. the build—up of russian troops near its border with ukraine has raised fears that moscow wants to extend its influence in former soviet states such as ukraine. in this second edition of global questions from kyiv, we ask what is putin's game in his backyard?