translation: senior diplomats in the us and — translation: senior diplomats in the us and the _ translation: senior diplomats in the us and the us _ translation: senior diplomats in the us and the us are - in the us and the us are ordering their client state ukraine _ ordering their client state ukraine to do everything possible to achieve victory on the battlefield. this is impossible, so now they plan to destroy— impossible, so now they plan to destroy russia from within. we'll have more on that from our russia editor, steve rosenberg, who has travelled to the region. also on the programme... beijing expands its mass covid testing to more districts, as fears of a lockdown promote panic—buying across the chinese capital. for the first time, black women artists from britain and the united states win awards at the prestigious venice biennale. of course, it's an enormous accolade, _ of course, it's an enormous accolade, but_ of course, it's an enormous accolade, but i— of course, it's an enormous accolade, but i also- of course, it's an enormous accolade, but i also think i of course, it's an enormous i accolade, but i also think why has it— accolade, but i also think why has it taken_ accolade, but i also think why has it taken so— accolade, but i also think why has it taken so long? - accolade, but i also think why has it taken so long? it - accolade, but i also think whyi has it taken so long? it should have _ has it taken so long? it should have happened _ has it taken so long? it should have happened before - has it taken so long? it should have happened before now. i live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. elon musk — the world's richest man — has bought twitter, in a deal worth $41; billion. in a joint statement, the two sides said they wanted to make the social media platform better than ever. elon musk said, "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and twitter is the digital town square, where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated...". he went on to say, "i also want to make twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features". and shortly before the annoucement, elon musk tweeted, "i hope that even my worst critics remain on twitter, because that is what free speech means". i asked our north america correspondent, david wills, why elon musk was so keen to buy the company. the acquisition of twitter gives him considerable influence. now, it also potentially, though, gives a lot of headaches, going forward. regulatory headaches. what sort of content moderation will be put in place? elon musk has made plain in the past that he is not a fan of content moderation. he says that twitter should be a centre for free speech, but that comes, of course, at some cost, as we have seen in the past, with the rise of qanon and conspiracy theory group such as that. the big question now, will donald trump, who was banned for life of course from twitter and other social media platforms, following the insurrection at the us capitol building last year, be allowed to return? he had 90 million followers or just about when he was kicked off twitter, and of course it would be very, very important to him if he does decide to launch another run for president to have that platform at his disposal. it would seem to be contradictory to the remarks that he has made in the past, elon musk, for the ban around donald trump to remain in place but we willjust have to wait and see. in place but we will 'ust have to wait and see. indeed, david, so much that — to wait and see. indeed, david, so much that still— to wait and see. indeed, david, so much that still is _ to wait and see. indeed, david, so much that still is unknown i so much that still is unknown about what the future is for twitter, as much as we still don't know what elon musk plans to do with the platform, beyond taking it private. in any sense there of what his plans are? well, it remains to be seen. he is the latest of course in a line of billionaires to acquire a platform such as this. we have seen of course rupert murdoch acquiring the new york post, the wall streetjournal, jeff asked the washington post, but —— jeff bezos the washington post. but this is a huge deal. bezos paid $250 million for the washington post, this is a $41; billion deal. that remains to be seen though who elon musk puts in charge at twitter, does it keep with the present line—up of officials or does he mix it all “p officials or does he mix it all up a bit, and what will be the reaction i wonder of tesla shareholders, who may feel that with tesla and space x that elon musk is somewhat divided, as far as his concentration is concerned, he has a lot on his plate already, and what this may mean for the development of the first truly electric car for example.— for example. such an interesting _ for example. such an interesting point - for example. such an l interesting point there, for example. such an - interesting point there, david. i also wonder what you think of what impact this decision will have on users? it has been criticised, hasn't it, twitter, for being somewhat of an unpleasant place in comparison to other social media platforms. with elon musk at the top of the structure now, do you think users will stay on or migrate somewhere else? you know, that _ or migrate somewhere else? you know. that is _ or migrate somewhere else? you know, that is a _ or migrate somewhere else? 7m, know, that is a really good question, and let's go back to donald trump for a second because he has of course said that he won't be coming back to twitter. there remains to be seen whether he changes his mind on that front. he and elon musk have had a friendly relationship in the past. but donald trump has been promoting this platform of his own, truth social, but it is a real shadow of twitter. a couple of its key executives resigned this week, they have been technical problems and indeed donald trump himself has used the app apparently very little at all. so twitter is the big show, it is the main show in town. could you drive people away, will you get more hate speech? i suppose the question could also be askedif the question could also be asked if you do run it properly, well some of the conservatives who would have gone over to truth social migrate back onto twitter, feeling they have a more open platform at their disposal? a lot remains to be seen with this one. if you want to get in touch with me i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma you can send me your thoughts. will you continue to use the platform now that elon musk is in charge, or will you move somewhere else? let's turn to the war in ukraine now. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, has again suggested there's a danger of the conflict leading to a third world war, but he said he expected it to end with a peace agreement. mr lavrov said nato was in effect engaging in a proxy war with russia, and that weapons delivered to ukraine from the west would be, what he called, legitimate targets. five train stations were struck by russian missiles in western ukraine on monday. the railways have become a key target for russian forces, as they're crucial for both bringing in supplies and evacuating civilians. meanwhile, unrelenting russian attacks continue in the eastern donbas region. there's been fighting there since 2014, between ukrainian troops, and separatists, backed by moscow. russian artillery has been targeting towns and cities, where mainly civilians have been sheltering in basements, short of food and water. birdsong. explosion. the first sounds of spring, now drowned out by heavy shelling. in eastern ukraine, their battered flag still flying, but signs of life are vanishing fast, in the face of a renewed russian offensive. russia is making small gains, but creating widespread chaos and devastation, right across the region. most have already fled the towns and cities of the donbas. it's the few, like valentina, who've stayed behind. we found her trying to find food, during a lull in the fighting. translation: of course it's dangerous. _ everybody is scared. now we are even afraid of silence. you never know what will happen next. this is now her home. lysychansk has become an underground city. she shares a dark, dank shelter with another 50 people. they say they're running out of clean water and food, and some don't even care which side is winning. my brain hurts. two idiots are fighting, two old men. all of them are guilty. all of them. distant bangs. but there is no peace from the constant barrage of artillery. it's becoming yet another russian war of attrition. they're trying to break ukrainian forces along a front line that stretches for 300 miles. we have bomb attacks, rocket attacks every day. every day, every time, every day, every house, all day. if we lose, lose not only ukraine, lose all world. and your countries, and other countries, too. here, they're still relying on mostly old soviet weaponry. they proudly show off their one british—supplied anti—tank missile, the nlaw. they've already used the other one to destroy a russian tank. we need that weapon - for our freedom, for a win, for that war. we need that weapon. and when we have more of that weapon, war is ending. - do you have enough of them? that position? yeah. this position? no. ukrainian forces have been holding the line here since 2014 against russian—backed separatists. they're still holding the line, but this time against the russian army. and what has been sporadic fighting over the last eight years has now turned into a full—blown war, and they are being pounded by russian artillery. this war is grinding down life in the donbas. deserted towns and cities, slowly being destroyed, as we travel through the region, from lysychansk to slovya nsk, to lyman in the north. the only certainty — this will be costly and brutal for whoever wins this war. jonathan beale, bbc news, eastern ukraine. in russia, there've been at least two huge explosions at an oil depot, around 95 miles from the border with ukraine. the cause is still being investigated, but it follows moscow's claims in recent weeks that ukrainian attack helicopters have been hitting targets on russian soil. there's been no official comment from either side about the explosions, which happened not far from the border, in the town of bryansk. from there, our russia editor, steve rosenberg, sent us this report. caught on cctv, the prelude to an inferno. the russian fuel depot was engulfed in a fireball. flames lit up the night sky over bryansk. then, over to the right, you can see a second explosion. the border with ukraine is less than 100 miles from here. so, was this the result of a ukrainian strike to disrupt logistics for russia's military offensive? was it sabotage? neither moscow nor kyiv are saying. all day, plumes of thick, black smoke hung over the city, making bryansk feel like a war zone. "this never happened before," she says. "at 3am, we heard explosions. "we were amazed". "i don't know what this is," he says. "is it war here? "i suppose we're on the front line. "i wonder if ukraine did this". we've seen something similar early this month, in belgorod. russia claimed that ukrainian helicopter gunships had opened fire. kyiv wouldn't confirm it. whatever the cause of today's fire, it sparked concern in this city. when the kremlin launched its so—called special military operation two months ago, for many here, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind. this was a conflict playing out on tv screens. but that's changing, and, for many russians now, hostilities are starting to feel much closer to home. back in moscow, president putin accused the west of prolonging hostilities in ukraine. translation: to our surprise, senior diplomats in europe - and the us are ordering their client state ukraine to do everything possible to achieve victory on the battlefield. this is impossible, so now they plan to destroy russia from within. vladimir putin claims he sent his troops into ukraine to bring russians security, but there's little sign of that. steve rosenberg, bbc news, bryansk. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: the winning black female artists at the centre of this year's venice art biennale. nothing, it seemed, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year warfor them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting forfor so long. it was 7 o'clock in the morning on the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority. when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani, in singapore. 0ur headlines: elon musk, has clinched a deal to buy twitter — elon musk has clinched a deal to buy twitter — in a joint statement, the two sides said they wanted to make the social media platform better than ever. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, says nato is in effect engaging in a proxy war with russia, and that weapons delivered to ukraine from the west would be what he called legitimate targets. let's turn to the us now, where a judge in new york has found donald trump in contempt of court for failing to provide documents investigation into his business practices. the former us president has been ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 a day until he complies. the new york attorney general has been probing mr trump's business practices for two years. mr trump's lawyer said she would appeal the ruling. a partner in the new york law firm buckley llp, daniel r alonso, gave his reaction to the ruling. subpoenas are not optional, court orders are not optional, people comply with them every single day. it is very unusual for somebody to say, i'm not going to comply with this or keep arguing even after they have been ordered and if the government, in this case, the attorney general, just got fed up. you have to do it. there is no loophole for former no loophole forformer presidents. the authorities in beijing have announced they're expanding a mass—covid testing campaign to another ten districts after a sharp rise in cases in china's capital. people have been stocking up on food, as fears grow that the city could be locked down. millions of residents in shanghai are still in the middle of a lockdown that's lasted for more than a month. earlier i spoke to professor yanzhong huang, senior fellow for global health at the council on foreign relations. i asked him how serious the coronavirus situation is in china right now. if you just look at the cases, the absolute number remains lower compared with the number in the west, but if you look at the increase of the cases, it is clearly the largest outbreak since the wuhan lockdown. the number of cases are many times more than that in wuhan. and in the meantime, the government consider the worst—case scenario is going to happen if china chooses to coexist with the virus. so it also believes this is a very serious and grim situation, given the rapid spread of the virus in the country. professor, what is the worst—case situation, given the rising number of covid infections in china? and can the government stop the spread of the 0micron virus, given what we know about how contagious it is? well, what they define as worst—case scenario after opening up, is that there is a rapid nationwide spread of the virus, a surge of cases overwhelming the country's healthcare system. there will be fewer healthcare personnel available to treat the infected, given that many of them themselves will be infected, and that there will be mass die of — there is even prediction of more than one million deaths in china — therefore there are going to be significant implications for social and political stability. the problem here is that the existing zero covid approach, which aims at resetting cases to zero or at least at extremely low level, that is becoming increasingly impossible, given the rapid spread of the new variant. so, professor, parts of — the other parts of the world, i should say, that have managed to get beyond covid have used vaccines great effect to solve some of the problems you've just described. what's the situation china with vaccines? well, overall, nationwide, they have an 88% vaccination rate in the country, so that is actually very high. by 88% i mean 88% of the population have been vaccinated with at least the two doses, but the problem is that you have a large percentage of the elderly population, those who are aged over 60, that are not fully vaccinated. so we're talking about here 20% of the population — that is more than 50 million of the elderly — who are not vaccinated, fully vaccinated, and above half of that are aged over 80. we know that this is the population that is very susceptible to the virus and they are more likely to develop into severe cases. the defamation trial betweenjohnny depp and amber heard has started its second week in the us state of virginia. the hollywood actor is suing his ex wife for an article she wrote in which she described herself as a victim of domestic violence. so far the testimony has laid bare their violent fights, drug use and vicious words to each other. on monday, the court was played audio recordings of the couple's arguments. the british artist, sonia boyce, has won the top prize, the golden lion, at the venice art biennali. her work looks at the contribution of black british female musicians to british culture. katie razzall met sonia boyce in venice. the british pavilion at the venice art biennale has been transformed to the sound of five black female musicians. it's a hugely noisy, but hopefully joyously noisy experience. sonia boyce's work here, called feeling her way, is the latest stage in a wider project that tells the stories of black women singers and musicians. you are the first black female artist to ever represent britain. i wonder what you feel about that. um, i mean, of course it's an enormous accolade. but i also think, why has it taken so long? i mean, there are so many brilliant british female black artists out there. it should have happened before now. it's her time in the sun now. with a golden lion for the show, she's joined the likes of other famous british names, bridget riley and henry moore amongst them, to the very top biennale prize. boyce had this message. there's a longer arc of people that we need to keep saying, they're here. for more than a century, the world's most high profile art exhibition has centred around men. not this year. close to sonia boyce's pavilion, america's has a new temporary thatched roof, and an exhibition courtesy of simone leigh, the first black woman to represent the us here. they wanted to start this part of the show with this monumental artwork. simone leigh won the other golden lion prize for this 16 foot bronze sculpture at the central biennale show, curated by cecilia alemani. of the 213 artists featured in what's called the milk of dreams, between 80% and 90% are female. i wanted to give the stage and the platform to many amazing, wonderful artists who also happen to be women. and why has it taken so long, do you think? because we still live in a very sexist society, and it's very, very hard to advance. advance is happening in scotland's exhibition. this tapestry looks at slavery and the stories we're told. the artist, alberta whittle, is the first black woman to represent scotland in venice. i think the world's more ready to accept women artists, possibly. black women artists, i don't know. i'd like it if people weren't so scared to work with ideas of race or to kind of open up these conversations. but change is afoot here, certainly when it comes to whose art gets a place on the wall. katie razzall, bbc news, venice. stars of the popular british television series downton abbey have hit the red carpet for the the world premiere of the franchise's latest film a new era, which follows the crawley family as they travel to the south of france to visit a newly inherited villa. hugh bonneville, who plays robert crawley, earl of grantham said audiences should come along to the cinema and just sit back and have fun! i personally felt incredibly fortunate to be making and appreciate the world more after the experience of the world has been going through. just a tonic at a time when we need some escape. this is pure entertainment, we're not to change wild or centigrade messages. just sit back and have fun. —— change the world. that's all for now, stay with bbc world news. hello. if it's rain you're after, you won't find any substantial amounts in this forecast. we were on monday teased by a few showers out there that only produced a few millimetres of rain here and there and they are not a sign of things to come. this weak weather front in scotland in northern england will squeeze out a little light and patchy rain on tuesday. but this is the main weatherfeature building in for the rest of the week and looks like for the rest of the month to. high pressure right across us, keeping things largely dry and settled, with a chance, though, it's on the cool side out there. a the touch of frost over the next few mornings. for tuesday mornings, across parts of southern scotland, northern and eastern england. many starting with sunshine but some thicker cloud across parts of scotland, running down into northern england, will produce a little light and patchy rain, not amounting to very much. the far northeast of scotland brightens up a touch. northern ireland, wales, the midlands, east anglia and southern england, a lot of early sunshine, some cloud building, the chance of an isolated shower — that's all it's going to be. these areas seeing some of the higher temperatures, warmest near 17 degrees, but feeling quite cold through eastern scotland and northeast england, especially with this onshore breeze. any showers that have developed along with the cloud will melt away overnight and into wednesday morning. we keep some cloud though across eastern—most parts here. the chance again of a touch of frost looks to be on wednesday in parts of scotland and northern england. then on wednesday, it does look as if that area of high pressure moves right in to be a mainly dry day. where you start with cloud in the east, it mayjust thin and break in places. where you start elsewhere was sunshine, some clouds going to build, but we'll continue to see some sunny spells, and there'll be a range of temperatures, from the cooler north sea coast, to something closer towards the mid—teens in the warmer spots elsewhere. by then on thursday morning, could be quite a bit of cloud through wales, in much of england, although there's a hint of something sunnier towards southern england and south wales, although breezier as well. just may lift the temperature a little bit higher than it's been. a few sunny spells still around in scotland and northern ireland. that area of high pressure stays with us into the weekend. there is a chance on saturday, perhaps seeing a little patch of rain towards northern ireland and scotland. not set in stone. it is the exception to the otherwise largely dry theme. bye— bye. 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. # so you can keep me # inside the pocket of your ripped jeans...#. ed sheeran faced claims that his 2015 song, photograph, was strikingly similar to the song, amazing, by x factor winner matt cardle. sheeran settled out of court without admitting any guilt. by the time he'd become the uk's leading male recording artist, he'd released three of the top ten best selling albums of the last decade in the uk.