police in baltimore say six people are presumed dead after a bridge collapsed and are moving to a recovery effort. at this point we do not believe that we are going to find any of these individuals still alive. the us supreme court appears skeptical in a case to limit the use of abortion pill mifepristone. and a moscow court extends the detention of wall streetjournal reporter evan gershkovich. hello. i'm caitriona perry. you are very welcome. six people are presumed in the disaster which saw a container ship collided with a bridge in the city of baltimore. it

collapsed. us guard says it is moving from rescue to a recovery mission. the missing are reported to be construction workers who were working on the bridge when the collapse happened. bishop sent a mayday call saving many lives. so why did the ship go off course? and how did the bridge come crashing down so easily? rebecca morelle has been looking at the sequence of events. well, what do we know about what action happened in baltimore? data analysed by bbc verify shows the ship set off from the port at a quarter to 1am local time. the dali is a 300m—long container ship, and on board were two pilots. mariners from the local port with the specialist knowledge to guide the vessel out to sea. now, it was heading towards the central section of the bridge, which is wide enough and high

enough for the vessel, the ship, to pass through, but it veered off course, crashing into this support column. so what happened 7 well, in this video, you can see the ship is nearing the bridge, but at 1:24am, the lights on it go out, suddenly, suggesting a major technical fault. that happened, and 1:25am, a minute later, the lights come back on. three minutes after this, you start to see black smoke billowing from the ship, and there on the bridge you can see the work vehicles here the team are fixing potholes on the bridge. a mayday call went out. moments later, at 1:28am, the ship collided with the bridge and caused it to collapse. if you lose power

all manoeuvring, there's a possibility you could lose steering of the vessel momentarily. there are estimations on how clear you have to be able to regain that control. but obviously, if that does happen, in such a confined area, the seconds or minutes could make the difference. why did such a large part of the bridge collapse? the bridge opened in 1977, and at its centre is a continuous structure which is 366 metres long, and there are four support columns underneath it. bridges are tested for impacts, but we don't know if the tests would have included a vessel of this size. ships are bigger now than they were in the �*70s and the head—on collision took out an entire loadbearing structure. protective reinforcement can be added to these but it is not clear if they were here. you have a long element that is supported by four| supports and you'rel simply one of them. i — i could not imagine another situation - where a bridgel like that resists such a massive force. a major search effort is going on, using sonar to try and locate

any vehicles that fell into the 15 metres of water below, and an investigation to the tragedy has already begun. earlier i spoke to my colleague for the latest from baltimore. that's right, desperately sad news for the families of those six men — of course, now presumed dead. the us coastguard a little earlier talking about how this search and rescue operation has now been suspended but the operation that was going onjust behind me until recently that, of course, has now become operations — a recovery operation. earlier, authorities spoke about desperately difficult conditions in which this was carried out. currents are strong and visibility is poor and added to all that the water is full of jagged metalfrom where the bridge collapsed into the river.

the water is cold and very deep. the various agencies that have been working here all day, looking for those men, using boats, helicopters, sonar equipment, they will regroup tomorrow morning to enter the next phase of this operation. i spoke to councilman todd crandall, who sits on baltimore city council. he represents communities around the eastern end of the francis scott key bridge. thank you forjoining us on bbc news and our condolences to you and the rest of the individuals in baltimore there on this tragic incident that has happened. we have been hearing the coastguard confirming the six missing individuals are presumed dead. some of those people were living in your district, i believe. yes, thank you, thank you for your kind words. yes, as i understand, three of the six that are — that are still

missing did live in my district in southeastern baltimore county. and three others lived in a neighbouring community, not in baltimore county, but right across the city line in baltimore city. a very tragic day here for all of us. we have seen a huge community effort, small boats out taking part in the search, everyone rallying around the first responders. how is this recovery effort going to continue? there is a massive effort now focused on recovery and, of course, at some point the investigation and mustering resources together to reopen the port of baltimore and to eventually rebuild the bridge. i represent a community that is strong and resilient.

it is kind of a hard—working blue—collar community. it has been for a long time. we were a steel town and auto making town before the those industries left. we have a way of bouncing back, after a tragedy like this, coming together and supporting each other. i have seen this already in the first few hours that i was at the command centre, off the riverfrom the bridge. and within sight of the containers and twisted metal. community groups, local restaurants were trying to contact anyone they could to supply food, anything that the first responders would need, knowing they are going to be there for 2h hours around the clock and probably be there for days and days, as the aftermath of this tragedy unfolds. i can't think the community enough for their sentiment and their

efforts so far. i did have the opportunity to attend a prayer vigil held at a church about half a mile from the site. community came out to rally and pray for families affected and the first responders that are investigating and searching around a very dangerous structure right now. prayers went out to the first responders and to the communities, to the families that were affected, which is very touching and that is just how our communities. strong, resilient, caring people. on the community, the bridge leads into the community where you are from. how essential is it to the community and the functioning of the community? obviously, it isn't there anymore. the bridge was opened in 1977 when i was seven or eight years old. it is surreal.

it has been an architectural icon for us. it has been a major commuter and commerce thoroughfare. it is part of i695, the beltway that runs the entirety of the baltimore metropolitan area and the francis scott key bridge was one of only really two ways around the beltway. one is the harbour tunnel, and the other was the bridge, that is how you would traverse the patapsco river. there is another tunnel, on i95 south, and these tunnels will be heavily utilised by the commuters and commerce. and there will be long—standing effects from a traffic and commuting and services into and out of the area. and we're going to have to be very patient and realise that, you know, we have lost a major

artery in and out of our community. all right. and of course lost the lives as well. thank you forjoining us on bbc news, councilman todd crandall of baltimore county council. thank you for talking to us. thank you very much. prayers for everyone. here in washington, the us supreme court appear unlikely to restrict access to the widely used abortion drug, mifepristone. the case centers on the food and drug administration's decision to expand its access. medical professionals belonging to anti—abortion groups say the drug is unsafe and also say that treating patients who use it is against their moral and religious beliefs. numerous studies show that mifepristone, which was first approved by the fda in 2000, is safe. a study in the medical journaljama found that the number of self—managed abortions obtained using pills has soared with more than 26,000 americans using pills to induce at—home abortions after the overturing of roe v wade injune 2022. on tuesday, lawyers representing opposing sides

of the issue pled their case to the court. fda approved it upon the scientificjudgement the drug is safe and speak —— effective. it has maintained that judgement across five administrations and many have usedit administrations and many have used it to safety end pregnancies. respondents may not e.g. —— agree to that choice but that does not give them a reason to uphold the scheme. ., ., , scheme. ruling against respondents _ scheme. ruling against respondents on - scheme. ruling againstl respondents on standing scheme. ruling against - respondents on standing he would — respondents on standing he would allow federal agencies to conscription unregulated parties violating consciences and suffering other harm without _ and suffering other harm withoutjudicial and suffering other harm without judicial recourse. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news.

two government ministers have resigned in a double blow to rishi sunak, who was forced to carry out a mini—reshuffle of his team. robert halfon unexpectedly quit as skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister, while james heappey followed through on his stated intention to step down as armed forces minister ahead of exiting parliament at the general election. newly released documents reveal a church which supported the asylum claim of the clapham chemical attacker limited his rights to attend services after learning about a sexual assault conviction. ezedi won asylum in 2020 after proving his conversion to christianity. he attacked a woman and two children with a chemical solution injanuary — his body was found last month. buckingham palace says the king and queen willjoin other members of the royal family at the easter sunday service held at st george's chapel in windsor. it will be the king's most significant public appearance since he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. the prince and princess of wales will not be in attendance, as catherine continues with her cancer treatment. you're live with bbc news.

on tuesday, us defense secretary lloyd austin issued some of his strongest comments on the situation in gaza a humanitarian catastrophe on the israel—gaza war so far at a meeting with israel's defense chief yoav gallant. secretary austin also said that it was "a moral necessity and strategic imperative" to protect palestinian civilians. no surprise the fighting in gaza continued a day after the un security council approved, for the first time, a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. realistically there was no expectation that this would lead to any kind of pause in the fighting. in gaza today health officials said dozens of palestinians were killed in israeli airstrikes across the territory, including in the city of rafah, the last relatively safe place in gaza, where more thani million palestinians have been sheltering. the resolution at the united nations was only approved because the us abstained in the vote, something that was heavily criticised by the israeli

authorities. this shows a growing discontent in the biden administration with the way israelis have been conducting this military campaign and also shows growing international isolation of the israeli government. more than 30,000 palestinians have been killed in gaza and a humanitarian crisis continues. in washington, the israeli defence minister yoav gallant had a meeting with american secretary of defence, lloyd austin, who had a strong message for israeli authorities. he said it was a moral necessity and strategic imperative to step up a distribution in gaza, also saying that gaza was facing a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation was only getting worse. i've been speaking to barbara starr about all this. she's a senior fellow at university of southern

california's center for communications leadership and a longtime pentagon correspondent. yet his defence minister is already here speaking to officials. the secretary of the cathy latham the defence secretary of state today. do we know what they've discussed in relation to the impending rafah invasion? the word is that the israeli defence minister yoav gallant came to the pentagon today to discuss with secretary of state lloyd austin more arms sales to israel. but that isn't necessarily what austin wanted to press on. by all accounts he spoke about a moral imperative, a moral and strategic imperative, to take care of civilians, that if the israelis are going to make a move

on rafah, they need to have a credible plan for the protection of civilians. the us feels it hasn't seen such a plan. not that the pentagon said it will hold up arms sales, but they are pressing the point that they want to see a credible plan for civilian protection in rafah and equally important more aid crossings opening up more aid going into gaza, and more crossing points for that aid being allowed by the israelis. it isn't at all clear that in this meeting they came to any resolution on any of this, caitriona. given that oden issue as you mentioned of getting food aid into gaza basically into northern gaza where we have seen children and people of all ages starving to death, is there any indication that israel is minded to open up greater border access? well, ou see greater border access? well, you see the _ greater border access? well, you see the statements - greater border access? well, you see the statements fromj greater border access? well, - you see the statements from the government about this in

israel, that they are working on it, and you see various rhetoric coming from the netanyahu government, but let's be clear that it has not exactly happened yet. they are talking about hamas stealing the aid, but in the meantime so many people are suffering and huge numbers of people. this is the case that the us and of course the united nations is pressing. a ceasefire, get the hostages out, get the adm and be very careful going into rafah. the other point i would make is the pentagon pressed the case but if the israelis are going into rafah that they have to have a very targeted plan. they have to know where the easter hamas targets are, go after them, protect the civilians while you are moving aid along those quarters into various places of gaza so the us sees this as a much more complex undertaking, if you well. all these pieces have to

be put together. the well. all these pieces have to be put together.— be put together. the focus of so many peeple _ be put together. the focus of so many people is _ be put together. the focus of so many people is on - be put together. the focus of so many people is on the - be put together. the focus of i so many people is on the deal, these talks and qatar. can anything be agreed? latest news is israel pulled her positives from the top. is there hope that a deal may be forthcoming at any point? at that a deal may be forthcoming at any point?— at any point? at this point it continues — at any point? at this point it continues to _ at any point? at this point it continues to be _ at any point? at this point it continues to be the - at any point? at this point it continues to be the case - at any point? at this point it| continues to be the case that at any point? at this point it i continues to be the case that a ceasefire is likely one of the critical sticking points. a ceasefire during the rest of ramadan. a total ceasefire of an undetermined length stop short ceasefire. this is what seems to be one of the key sticking points and to have that ceasefire be of another length of time to get hostages out is going to be critical. what the us is pressing for is to get all the hostages out. of course president biden's top priorities he says is getting american hostages out, the israelis have a lot of hostages

still there and hamas knows that it holds the cards in terms of it may be able to press for a ceasefire. but the israelis are still determined to go into rothfire and if most of the remaining hostages are with hamas into rafah, it was tough going to get to them. andy. we will wait to see what happens next. barbara starr, she's a senior fellow at university of southern california's center for communications leadership and a longtime pentagon correspondent. authorities have only begun releasing bodies to families in kenya. remains were handed to families and the coastal town after months of work to identify them using dna. the cult leader is accused of forcing hundreds of followers

to starve to death to seejesus sooner. he faces murder charges along with 29 others who will plead guilty. our correspondent was another long process leading to the development. only 3a bodies have been resumed. there were emotional scenes as relatives went to see the remains of their loved ones praying and wailing and some families have suffered significant losses daughter, son—in—law and grandson. another man is missing six children. he did not get the core that the bodies had been identified but he came to the morgue to see where things stood. this has taken a very long time, about a year, something big canyon human rights commission has complained about but why has it taken so long? a lot of the bodies were quite decomposed,

about 10% couldn't tell if they were men or women. there was an overwhelming number of cases and there were not enough resources to do with them, not equipment or chemicals needed to do the test. the government pathologist has said that many families did not come forward to claim bodies or look for bodies. that may be because there is a stigma attached to there is a stigma attached to the cult, maybe because of cost. it is expensive, transport, funerals. that's another reason perhaps that there has not been more identification in the meantime court case continues. the self—proclaimed preacher and 29 other defendants have been charged with the murder of 191 children among other things. then they went on a hunger strike in protest so you can see that this is not a speedy process. it will continue for some time. a russian court extended the detention

of evan gershkovich, by three months as he awaits trial. mr gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges nearly a year ago while on a reporting trip, making him the first western journalist to face those charges since the fall of the soviet union. the us ambassador to moscow has called the allegations �*categorically untrue' and �*fiction.’ mr gershkovich has now spent almost a year in moscow's high—security lefortovo prison, and his pre—trial detention has been extended tojune 30. bbc�*s russia editor steve rosenberg has more. we weren't allowed into the moscow city courthouse. nothing personal — all journalists were being kept out. instead, the court released its own video — just six seconds of evan gershkovich. ajudge ruled he must stay injail. evan, how are you? this week marks one year since the wall streetjournal reporter

was arrested in russia. evan gershkovich, the first us journalist here since the cold war to be charged with spying. he and his employer insist he is innocent. deadlines and everything... so does the us government. might be a first step... it's demanding that russia let him go. the message is release him, release him now. he was and is a journalist who was doing his job. doing nothing wrong. the insinuations that he was somehow engaging in some kind of criminal activity is just — is just flat—out false. last month, vladimir putin hinted that evan gershkovich could be freed in a prisoner swap. in return, the kremlin is thought to want the release of a fsb officer who is serving a life sentence for murder in germany. no deal yet. if convicted, the usjournalist

faces up to 20 years in prison. russian officials no longer hide the fact that evan gershkovich is a bargaining chip — someone they would, in theory, be willing to exchange for one of their own in prison in the west. his fate has attracted worldwide attention. but he is by no means the only american behind bars in russia. former us marine paul whelan is serving a 16—year sentence for espionage. america insists he is innocent. journalist alsu kurmasheva holds us and russian citizenships. she has been accused of spreading false information about the russian army. as for evan gershkovich, those who know him just want him home. we all miss, you know, our best friend, we miss talking to him all the time. all his friends feel the same way. there is some part of their lives where there is this big hole, this big absence. evan gershkovich is a journalist who loves russia and loves reporting on russia but

he remains in a russianjail. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. some of the news moran arrived. julian assange's addition to the us was put on hold after the us was put on hold after the uk's high court said the us must provide assurances that would have freedom of speech production will not face the death penalty. the court has given the us government three weeks to comply with the order before making its final decision on list stavis rjip's extradition. the use us authorities have sought the wikileaks founder execution on espionage charges. ukraine has qualified for the 2024 european championship after a dramatic 2-1 championship after a dramatic 2—1 victory over iceland. president volodymyr zelensky is elevated the win on telegram thanking the teams are proving again that when ukrainians faced challenges but refused to give up and continue the fight, he said, they invariably win. that's it for the moment. i'm

caitriona perry. stay with us here in bbc news. hello. the weather is going to throw just about everything at us over the next couple of days. certainly for wednesday — lots of heavy thundery downpours, albeit with some spells of sunshine in between, also quite windy out there. all driven by low pressure centred to the west of the uk. rain and hill snow pushing northwards across scotland. some really heavy rain for a time across eastern counties of northern ireland. that will take a while to clear. and then for england and wales, yes, there will be some spells of sunshine, but also some heavy, thundery downpours with hail thrown in for good measure, some sunny spells in between. pretty windy, particularly in the south, but also up towards the north of scotland and temperatures north to south between seven and 11, maybe 12 degrees celsius in parts of eastern england. now through wednesday night, we will see further showers or longer spells of rain. this clump of wet weather drifting across southern england into the midlands.

if that gets far enough, west into wales, well over high ground, that could give a little bit of snow because it will be quite cold to take us into thursday morning. although probably too windy for most places to see a frost. and then into thursday, while this area of low pressure firmly in charge. this low has been named by the spanish weather service. it's been named storm nelson because of the impacts it is going to have in spain, but pretty close to us on thursday. close enough to give some very strong winds, gales around coasts in the south and the southwest. but windy weather even further north across england and wales, very strong winds even inland. some outbreaks of rain — northern scotland perhaps seeing the best of the dry weather, but they'll even here be some showers. and temperatures around nine, ten or 11 degrees. now as we get into friday, good friday, of course, it is not going to be completely dry, but i am hopeful there will be fewer showers. more in the way of dry gaps in between. it won't be as windy and it will feel a little bit warmer. and that certainly is the theme for the start of the easter weekend.

our area of low pressure loosening its grip and so not as many showers more in the way of dry weather. however, there is a lot of uncertainty about the second half of the weekend. there's an area of low pressure that some computer weather models keep well to the south of us, it's this one here. but other computer models push that a lot further north, giving us the chance for some rain. so a lot of uncertainty about the second half of the easter weekend. there will be some rain at times, some spells of sunshine, not as chilly as it has been.

collision in baltimore. authorities say they are suspending search operations and that the six missing people are presumed dead. and a windfallforformer us president donald trump — find out why later on the programme. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. we begin with the collapse of a major bridge in the us city of baltimore after a container ship crashed into it. authorities have said they've suspended search operations and six missing people are presumed dead. it is obviously overnight in baltimore now but the incident has a lot of sing a or

connections. some details