welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm monica miller. the headlines: the presidents of russia and china signal their shared interests on trade and political ties and discuss a possible road to peace in ukraine. while in ukraine, japan's prime minister kishida voices his country's support for kyiv in the war. speculation, political posturing but no arrests, as donald trump's self—announced date for indictment comes and goes. and another night of volatile protests in france, after president macron�*s government forced controversial pension reforms through parliament.

live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. it's 7am in the morning in singapore and 2am in moscow, where president putin has wrapped up talks with chinese president xi jinping for a second day. the two leaders have been discussing what's been described as a peace plan for ukraine, put forward by beijing. president putin has also warned that if the uk goes ahead with a plan to supply ammunition to ukraine, then russia will be forced to respond. our russia editor steve rosenberg reports. take two world leaders... ..a dash of kremlin choreography... ..and you get this. the symbolism was clear. on the world stage, xi and putin,

china and russia, are coming together to forge what they claim is a strong partnership. the talk at the table was about expanding cooperation, but equal partners they are not. russia, under pressure over its war in ukraine, is increasingly dependent on china. and vladimir putin is increasingly critical of the west. later, he slammed the uk for deciding to provide ammunition to ukraine that contains depleted uranium. translation: i would like to note that if this happens, _ then russia will be forced to take action accordingly. i'm talking about the fact that the west is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component. tonight, this warning from moscow has sparked a reaction from london. the uk ministry of defence has pointed out that depleted uranium has nothing to do with nuclear

weapons or capabilities. it says it's a standard component the british army has been using for decades, and that russia is deliberately trying to disinform. a chinese peace initiative for ukraine made little headway. president putin blamed kyiv and the west. but this is a war he started, and he shows no sign he's ready to pull out his troops. might beijing be ready to supply russia with weapons? that key question was left unanswered. in any case, xi's visit is seen here as a diplomatic coup. at last, the kremlin has something to celebrate. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. well, at thatjoint press conference today, xi jinping made clear his continued support for russia.

translation: | would _ like to emphasise that on the issue of the ukraine crisis, china has always follow —— of the ukraine crisis, china has always followed the principles of the un charter — holding an objective and fair stance, actively promoting peace talks. china is always standing firmly on the side of peace, dialogue and on the right side of history. last month, china published a 12—point plan calling for dialogue on the war, as you heard mentioned in that previous report. vladimir putin's been responding to that today. translation: we believe that - many of the provisions in the peace plan put forward by china are consistent with russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when they're ready for it in the west and in kyiv. however, so far, we've not seen such readiness on their part. in the last few hours, the us has responded

to what mr putin had to say on that chinese plan to end the war. if china wants to play - a constructive role here in this conflict, then - they ought to press russia to pull its troops out - of ukraine and ukrainian sovereign territory. they should urge president putin to cease bombing cities, - hospitals and schools, j to stop the war crimes and the atrocities - and end the war today. it could happen right now. so how has the meeting between the two leaders been going down with people in moscow? translation: on the one hand, xi's visit is very good. _ on the other hand, we must stand our ground as well and not cave in. time will show. they are themselves in an uneasy situation now, so maybe they want to work closely together with us as well. translation: the visit is important to maintain relations _ with the closest neighbours. all europe has sanctioned us. we hope it's not for long and sometimes things will restore

and the european countries will treat us the same. china is a friendly country and we hope for more cooperation with them. well, while xijinping has been in moscow, japan's prime minister fumio kishida is in ukraine and has been visiting the town of bucha, just outside kyiv. tokyo has voiced support for ukraine since the beginning of war and joined other g7 countries in extending sanctions against russia. mr kishida had been the only g7 leader not to visit ukraine, until today. bucha's mayor has said more than 400 civilians were killed in the town last year by russian forces, and mr kishida laid a wreath and observed a moment of silence. translation: as i step on the ground of bucha today, i really feel— great anger for all the atrocious acts. i would like to give my heartfelt condolences to all the victims and the wounded on behalf

of the japanese nationals. at a joint press conference during his visit, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky highlighted pledges of aid and reconstruction from japan. translation: we have enormous| opportunities for such cooperation, thanks to japan's powerful technological potential and a strong aid package. since february 24, 2022, it has reached more than 7 billion and it is already clear that japan can become one of ukraine's key partners in its reconstruction, and i am confident that this will be the case and i thank you once again for such a powerful package. i'm joined now by senior lecturer in politics and international relations at australia's university of new south wales, alexander korolev. and we see there that the stark contrast of how russia's invasion of ukraine has divided world leaders,

those that visit ukraine, but xi jinping is choosing moscow. 7 because xijinping cares jinping is choosing moscow. 7 because xi jinping cares about his geopolitical interests in the asia—pacific. this visit is happening in the immediate aftermath of the august meeting, during which the alliance between the uk, us and australia consolidated into an explicitly anti—china alliance. it is a strategy of containing china, now it is crystal clear to beijing. at the beginning it was camouflaged as alliance of keeping peace, maintain peace and security in the asia—pacific. now it is clearly formed to deal with the chinese threat, so xi is in a very tricky jubilee go situation if you look at the broader context, the global geopolitics, and he needs an ally and russia is the only great power partner and strategic partner that china

has. this meeting is less about ukraine itself, even though ukraine is in the spotlight. it is driven by broader, structural geo— clinical trends that are unfolding international pollux and specifically the dramatic deterioration of us china relations and the consolidation of the aukus alliance. . . , and the consolidation of the aukus alliance. ., ., , ., , , alliance. china has got the upper hand in this _ alliance. china has got the upper hand in this relationship - alliance. china has got the upper hand in this relationship but - alliance. china has got the upper hand in this relationship but howj hand in this relationship but how far is beijing willing to go to protect moscow7 it far is beijing willing to go to protect moscow?— far is beijing willing to go to protect moscow? far is beijing willing to go to rotect moscow? .., ., , ., protect moscow? it can go very far. i don't have — protect moscow? it can go very far. i don't have an — protect moscow? it can go very far. i don't have an evidence _ protect moscow? it can go very far. i don't have an evidence of- i don't have an evidence of beijing helping moscow militarily at the moment. however, it will depend on how, let's say, thejewish and around taiwan goes, because recently the chinese foreign minister for the first time, we see a high level chinese official linking ukraine and taiwan. he says it is hypocritical of the us to ask china not to sign

—— sell weapons to russia when it sells weapons in taiwan. these things are interconnected, and depending on how the situation around taiwan devolves, how much china feels contained by the united states and allies, this might shape china's decisions to cross the rubicon, so to speak, and to support pressure militarily, and at the same time, everything will be done to it up. it will be very difficult for external observers to really have a full picture of that, because there are many different ways china can do that without sending a lot of chinese weapons to russia. the us has been saying — chinese weapons to russia. the us has been saying that _ chinese weapons to russia. the us has been saying that no _ chinese weapons to russia. the us has been saying that no peace - chinese weapons to russia. the us has been saying that no peace deal| has been saying that no peace deal can take place until china has a discussion with ukraine will somewhat is the relationship like between ukraine and china? is there one? , ., ., one? very limited one, i would say. china will not _ one? very limited one, i would say. china will not go _ one? very limited one, i would say. china will not go behind _

one? very limited one, i would say. china will not go behind russia's - china will not go behind russia's back. if there is a conversation, hypothetically, between xi and zelensky think moscow will be informed. china sibley cannot afford turning its back on russia. at this moment, given the broader geo— political circumstances. plus, look, the so—called peace plan, this will point peace plan that china has offered, is not the aps plan, it is more of a position paper. it repeats many points and statements that were made on multiple occasions, multiple times, by xi and other chinese officials, so i don't think that ukraine, the war in ukraine, is really in focus here for the chinese. they care more about their own geopolitical interests worldwide, so i am not holding my breath, expecting that china will broker a peace solution between

russia and ukraine. i don't think it's feasible at the moment. find it's feasible at the moment. and cuickl it's feasible at the moment. and quickly before — it's feasible at the moment. and quickly before we _ it's feasible at the moment. and quickly before we go, you made the comparison many others have made, the comparison of what russia has done to ukraine and there has been close, i hear, in this part of the world about china and taiwan. what is china taking away from the global reaction to the war in ukraine? what have they learned?— have they learned? yes, that is an im ortant have they learned? yes, that is an important question. _ have they learned? yes, that is an important question. first - have they learned? yes, that is an important question. first of - have they learned? yes, that is an important question. first of all, i important question. first of all, they are looking at the sitch which very carefully and what they've learned is that as long as you have a bunch of powerful friends, sanctions will and not cost efficient damage to your economy, to force you to change your foreign policy, basically, because at the beginning of sanctions we saw many western leaders promising that these tensions will cripple russian economy, that russia will default within a month or something like that, and nothing like that happened was the breccia keeps going thanks

to, again, china, india and other non—western partners —— russia keeps going. the take away for china here is that while it will be painful, you can keep going, basically sub sanctions... they studied sanctions very carefully. sanctions in china would be different from sanctions in russia. china is the economy in the world. i think they see if you stick together with russia and other non—western partners, you can survive. non-western partners, you can survive. �* ., ., ., ., ~ survive. alexander korolev, thank ou ve survive. alexander korolev, thank you very much _ survive. alexander korolev, thank you very much for _ survive. alexander korolev, thank you very much for your— survive. alexander korolev, thank you very much for your insight. i let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk. a review of the uk's biggest police force finds staff routinely experience racism and sexism from fellow officers and staff members. a year—long investigation into london's metropolitan police also shows a "deep—seated homophobia" within the organisation.

the report's author, baroness casey, says the predatory and unacceptable behaviour has "been allowed to flourish" in the force. there is, without doubt, a discriminatory culture right across the metropolitan police. it's not in pockets, it pervades the whole organisation. the former british prime minister borisjohnson has accepted that he misled parliament over gatherings at 10 downing street during the covid lockdown. but mrjohnson also insisted his actions were not reckless or intentional. he made the admission in a written defence of his actions, ahead of a televised appearance in parliament on wednesday. and a man has been hospitalised for burns after he was set on fire walking home from a mosque in birmingham on monday. police have arrested another man on suspicion of attempted murder.

officers are investigating if there's a link with a similar attack in west london last month. police in major us cities are preparing for potential unrest, in case ex—president donald trump is arrested this week as part of a hush—money investigation. authorities in new york, washington, dc and los angeles are ramping up their law enforcement presence. a manhattan prosecutor may charge mr trump over how he declared a payment to an adult film star, stormy daniels, to keep quiet about an alleged affair. it would be the first criminal case brought against a former us president. our correspondent, nada tawfik, has been outside the court in new york again today and explains what happens if donald trump is arrested. the world's media has descended on the lower manhattan. they have been camped out here ever since news broke that donald trump might be arrested this week. the focus right now is on this building.

—— the focus right now is on this building, the office of the manhattan district attorney. now, just a few steps away from here is where trump's aides and michael cohen, his former lawyer and current antagonist, have been testifying to a grand jury. if the da pulls the trigger and charges former president trump, his lawyers would likely negotiate a time for trump to turn himself in voluntarily. he would be formally booked, meaning he would be fingerprinted, have his mug shot taken, and be read his miranda rights, just like anyone else under arrest. but unlike a typical person, he will be escorted throughout the whole process by his secret service detail. a trial would ultimately take place at the manhattan criminal court, opening up what could be a long, drawn out legal battle that could last well into, if not past, the 2024 presidential campaign. the nypd are already working on security plans in case of a protest, after donald trump urged his supporters to turn out.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: battle of the so—called "chatbots". google launches its own ai platform to rival the viral chatgpt, but can it compete7 applause i'm so proud of both of you. let there be no more war or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. with great regret, the committee has decided that south africa will be excluded from the 1970 competition. chant

streaking across the sky, the white hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm monica miller in singapore. the sri lankan president says a loan approved by the international monetary fund means the country is no longer deemed bankrupt by the world. the country is expected to get the first $330 million tranche of the bailout in the coming days. but our correspondent archana shukla says the funds come with numerous conditions attached. the $3 million loan from imf will certainly not push the sri lankan economy out of the woods, but it will give a fillip to the economic activity

that was stalled over the last year, first being bringing sri lanka back on the loan market. remember last year when sri lanka defaulted on its loan repayment, it was declared bankrupt and it could not raise fresh funds. but now with the imf deal, more avenues will open up and sri lanka can go ahead and borrow fresh funds from other multilateral organisations like the world bank or the adb, and all the government projects that were running with this supply of money from multilateral organisations, will also come back on stream. add to that, with better foreign reserves and better reserves, the government will be able to import essentials and some of the import restrictions that it had put would also be slowly eased out, which means shortages on the ground would be eased in the coming months. and that will also help bring prices of essentials down to a bit.

there's been another night of volatile protests in france over president emmanuel macron's controversial pensions reform. this was in paris a few hours ago — demonstrators setting off fireworks aimed at police in riot gear. street battles like this have been raging for six consecutive nights in the country's capital. police have also set off tear gas attempting to disperse the protestors. it comes a day after the french government narrowly survived a no—confidence vote in the country's parliament. it was brought after president macron's administration forced through a rise in the pension age — from 62 to 64 — without parliamentary approval last week. meantime, mr macron will use a highly anticipated tv interview on wednesday to try and "calm things down". china has charged the former chairman of a major computer chip maker with crimes including corruption. zhao wei—guo is the former boss of tsinghua unigroup. china's anti—graft watchdog claims

he illegally handed profitable businesses to his relatives and friends to operate. it's claimed this caused heavy losses to national interests. neither the company nor zhao weiguo have so far made any comment. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude has struck afghanistan. it's not yet clear how many people may have been killed or injured, but there are reports of nine deaths in parts of northwestern pakistan. strong shaking was felt in the afghan capital kabul and tremors as far away as the indian capital delhi. the quake was centred in the hindu kush mountains, near the remote community ofjurm, in afghanistan's badakhshan province. an indonesian court has granted a class action request filed by a group of victims of acute kidney injury in children caused

by tainted cough syrup. families of 25 victims have brought the case against indonesia's government and eight pharmaceutical companies. more than 200 indonesian children have died of acute kidney injury since 2022. the hollywood star gwyneth paltrow has appeared in court in utah, accused of crashing into a man in a skiing accident in 2016, causing a head injury and broken ribs. terry sanderson — who's now 76 — alleges he was hit from behind, but ms paltrow says it was mr sanderson's own fault. the case, which is drawing media attention worldwide, is expected to last eight days, as our correspondent sophie long reports. the oscar—winning actress was used to gracing the red carpet, and appearing on the silver screen, before founding her wellness company, goop. today, she appeared in court,

accused of a human hit and run. this is the case of terry sanderson versus gwyneth paltrow. at the centre of this case is who hit whom on the slopes of park city, an upmarket mountain resort and celebrity hang—out that hosts the sundance film festival. 76—year—old terry sanderson says she was skiing recklessly and struck him from behind, smashing his body to the ground, before continuing her descent down the mountain, leaving him stunned and seriously injured. ms paltrow has sentimental feelings about skiing. her dad, who left this life too early, took her skiing as a kid at alta. but her lawyer said she's a conservative skier and he was the culprit in the collision and she who received the full body blow. the court will decide who should pay damages. mr sanderson is seeking $300,000, saying he sustained a permanent brain injury and four broken ribs. but miss paltrow�*s lawyers say he's overstating his injuries and filed a counterclaim

for a symbolic $1. the central question is who had right of way, who was further down the slope when they slammed into each other? miss paltrow is expected to testify in the case, which continues. sophie long, bbc news, los angeles. artificial intelligence could change the way we search the web. big tech companies are confident that ai will revolutionise the way we work online. microsoft already has one of these ai chatbots — now google is launching its own version. it's called bard, and our technology editor zoe kleinman is one of the first to try it. this time four months ago, nobody had heard of ai chat bots. now, millions of us are trying them out. so what is an ai chatbot7 unlike the regular search we have become used to, it can answer questions rather than send you links. it can also write songs, speeches and even do homework. microsoft has invested billions of dollars in the creators of chatgpt, and now google wants to catch up with bard.

i was one of the first people to get access. let's start by asking bard to write a thank you note for a wedding gift. "thank you so much for celebrating our wedding day with us. we will be using our gift to help us with our honeymoon." not bad! how is bard different to microsoft's version7 there are a few key differences between bard and chatgpt. bard is connected to the internet so it knows about current affairs. it has also got a "google it" button here so you can go back to google search to check your answer, and that is important because these things do sometimes make mistakes, and they even make stuff up as well. google is rolling this out very slowly. you have to be over 18 and have a google account before you can even get on the waiting list. google describes bard as an experiment. so, will it replace us7 the creators of this tech hope it will free us all up to do more fun things in our lives. but some fear that ai will start taking over more and morejobs, sooner, rather than later, leaving us with far fewer ways to make money.

zoe kleinman, bbc news. and that's it for us now. i'm monica miller. hello. scotland had its warmest day of the year so far on tuesday, with temperatures reaching 16 degrees in fyvie castle in aberdeenshire. overall, it was a brighter kind of day, but we still had a number of showers around and those rainfall totals continue to mount up. of course, it's already been a wet month. there are quite a few places now that have seen more than one and a half times the march average rainfall, but there's loads more to come. and, indeed, as we look at this satellite picture, we've got a current batch of rain falling from this cloud, working its way eastwards right now. and the rain's quite heavy, actually, across parts of scotland, england and wales. it will be clearing over the next few hours in northern ireland, but we'll have some heavy showers

flowing in here. all the while, south—westerly winds will be picking up in strength. of course, it means it's going to be a mild start to the day on wednesday, temperatures for some into double figures. but for wednesday, it is another unsettled one. more rain around. and we're going to see some strong winds particularly affecting western scotland. it's here where, through the morning, we could see gusts of around 75 miles an hour for a time, so potentially seeing some disruption from those very strong winds. elsewhere, it will be blustery, gusts of wind generally around a0 to 50 miles an hour. and it is a day of sunshine and showers. the showers will be heavy and thundery at times, but at least they won't hang around. they'll be blown across the sky pretty quickly, thanks to those strong winds. another mild one, temperatures up to 1a or 15 degrees. thursday sees another showery day and, again, the showers will be heavy, some of them with a bit of thunder mixed in. temperatures still on the mild side and anotherfairly blustery kind of day, the winds still coming in from a south—westerly direction. now, thursday night, we may well see a more prolonged spell of rain work into parts of eastern england, and certainly it looks pretty wet across western areas of the uk as well.

well, that sends us on to friday's forecast and the low pressure is still with us. still fairly brisk winds around, still loads and loads of showers, some of them heavy with hail and thunder. our temperatures just coming down a little bit across northern scotland — highs of around eight or nine degrees here — but otherwise, we're staying into double figure temperatures. now, for the weekend, we're going to start to get some slightly cooler air just working into northernmost areas of scotland. there will be more showers around, so for most of us, it's more of the same, really. but across the far north of scotland, we'll start to see some of those showers turn wintry for a time. hello there, i'm gavin ramjaun with your update from the bbc sport centre. roy hodgson says his sole objective is to "get crystal palace winning football matches again to keep them in the premier league". the former england manager roy hodgson will take up the reins at selhurst park once again, less than two years after he left,

replacing patrick vieira after he was sacked on friday. but is hodgson right for thejob7 fans are divided — asjoe lynskey reports. roy hodgson! in may 2021, roy hodgson said goodbye. he'd spent four years at crystal palace — but for club and coach, it was time for change. he was the boyhood fan who kept his team at the top. now, with palace three points from safety, they want him to go again. at age 75, he's been reappointed and said in a statement... since that day, hodgson's been tempted back before. he took charge of watford in january last year — but in 18 games, won just twice. his team had gone down, his farewell had turned sour. it won't be easy for me to wean myself off football because it's

been such a massive part of my life for 46 years. but i'll now pass the baton, if you like, to the guys who have been out there. i have seen them suffering on the weekend, on the touchline, and maybe that'll make me feel like i did the right thing by leaving the suffering to others. we won't see you suffering on the touchline again, will we? i don't think so, no. if there was doubt, palace have stepped in and convinced him to replace the man who replaced him. patrick vieira took them to a cup semifinal — but they've not won in 12 games. hodgson has put in charge for the debts to the end of the season, and palace have hit reset. you know, palace fans will be so divided with this appointment. roy is such a wonderful guy, so experienced and he's so lovef and respected at palace. but he's 75 years old, we're supposed to be moving forward. i'm still reeling from riviera's sacking, but we were sleepwalking into a relegation. and just being in this magic circle and the premier league isjust such an honour and privilege for palace.

personally towards the end, i was vieira out —