welcome to newsday. i'm sharanjit leyl, in singapore. the headlines: what lies ahead for our ever—warming planet? scientists say last year was one of the hottest years recorded on earth, even without el nino. can the us avoid a government shutdown? politicians have until midnight friday to agree legislation preventing a funding freeze. i'm kasia madera, in london. also, new zealand's my minister and ounces she is expecting her first child. and as the two koreas announce plans to march under a single flag at the winter olympics, we speak to north korean skiers flee-er; hg”; egg-93:25 k; 1-995» .. 7 ,., 7 .. 7.

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the warming el nino current caused that spike in 1998. temperatures dipped for a few years after that, but in 2015 and 2016 el nino is back with record highs. but look — 2017 had no heating from el nino and it's in the top three hottest years. a clear sign that greenhouse gases are the main drivers of warming. what this is showing really is that these influences of the human activity on climate through our emissions of greenhouse gases are really dwarfing the natural climate processes associated with el nino. flooding near the coasts, like this after hurricane harvey, is the most certain outcome of climate change, as the seas rise and the planet keeps on warming. today's report has been a real wake—up call. it really shows that climate change is happening and it's happening now.

you know, you chose that we can't keep burning coal, oil and gas, and that politicians need to stop dithering and take real action. in scotland, travellers may be wondering why they've got snow while the world is warming, but that is just short—term weather. heatwaves in australia look more like climate change. records being broken all the time. all nations except the usa are committed to tackling climate change. they all accept they need to do more. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. a couple in california have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of torture, child—abuse and false imprisonment. as acute as detailed horrific abuse by the couple of 13 children who were held captive at their home. our correspondent is outside the court. and as for the surviving siblings themselves, they are said to be severely malnourished, they're said to be

suffering from cognitive impairments, and also we've heard more details about their ordeal, how they were punished, sometimes by being beaten, sometimes chained up, sometimes by being hogtied and strangled. and we've also heard that the 17—year—old girl who managed to get out of the window and raise the alarm by calling police, that she, at least with some of her siblings, had been plotting that escape for the last two years. her parents face between 94 years and up to life in prison if they're found guilty. that was james cook in california. also making news today: it's been nearly two weeks since the body of six—year—old zainab ansari was found in a rubbish heap in the pakistani city of kasur. the discovery sparked violent protests in which two people died. it has now emerged that the man who killed her attacked seven other young girls in the same area of the city over the past two and a half years. 52 people have been killed

in north—western kazakhstan after a bus bound for russia caught fire. it's thought the passengers were stuck when a door was blocked. five people managed to escape. now to some incredible pictures to share with you from australia, where two teenage boys have become the first to be rescued from the ocean by a drone. after using its camera to locate the boys, lifeguards were able to drop an inflatable rescue pod which swept the pair back to shore. new zealand's prime ministerjacinda ardern has announced that she's pregnant. she and her partner, clarke gayford, are expecting their child injune, after which she plans take a six—week break. in the last hour she's been talking about her news.

iam not i am not the first woman to multitask. i'm not the first woman to work and have a baby. i know these are special circumstances, but there will be many women who will have done this well before i have. i acknowledge those women. i am about to sympathise with them a lot, as i sympathise with all women who suffered morning sickness. but i am excited, we are excited and we know together that we are going to make this work and new zealand is going to help us raise our first child. congratulations to new zealand's prime minister. the us government could be heading towards a shutdown on friday night, u nless congress a pproves donald trump's budget for 2018 or agrees to a short—term funding solution. the president, meanwhile, has denied his views have changed about building a wall along the border with mexico. in the second of our reports charting a year since his inauguration, our north america

editorjon sopel has travelled to the border and considers how mr trump has reshaped us foreign policy. if you want a symbol of the trump approach to foreign policy, it's this: the wall. we will build the wall, as sure as you are standing there tonight. we need the wall. what's here at the moment he sees as woefully inadequate, as he tweeted about again today. "we need the wall for the safety and security "of our country. "we need the wall to help stop the massive inflow of drugs "from mexico." he wants a physical barrier sealing america from mexico literally. but it's a metaphor, too, for the rest of the world — america first, america protected. up the coast from this barren border in california, it feels like another planet. 0n the outskirts of la is the high—tech pharmaceutical company zencore, one of many in the area. this is the entire staff. this is how many of them were born in the us.

this is how many have parents who were born in the us. the owner, himself ofjordanian origin, says the president's immigration policies are self—defeating. we're competing against china and india and europe. if we can't bring in the best from everywhere, we're not going to win anymore. when you think of these american industries, we don't function without the ability to get the best talent from the world and, well, that means immigration. america can't just disentangle itself from the rest of the world and its long—standing commitments, whether it be trade with the people who live on the other side of this wall, whether it be nato commitments, the pacific, orfighting isis, or donald trump's long—standing ambition of bringing peace between the israelis and the palestinians. just along from here, they are working out what sort of wall to build. the inspiration for it are the concrete sections of the separation barrier that israel has built. when donald trump visited

the region last may, he made a point of being evenhanded, pleasing israelis with his visit to the western wall, satisfying palestinians by going to bethlehem. but he enraged the arab world when last month he announced he wanted to recognisejerusalem as israel's capital and move the us embassy there. this is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. it is also the right thing to do. palestinians were horrified and showed their disgust by burning us flags. one year on, no one's any clearer about what the trump peace plan will look like. a reinforced wall might stop illegal immigrants scurrying across the border from mexico, but it's not going to do much to stop an intercontinental ballistic missile fired from north korea. that country's nuclear tests have provided donald trump with his greatest foreign policy challenge, a challenge he's met in his own, inimitable way. rocket man is on a suicide

mission for himself, and for his regime. they will be met with fire and fury. but here, the tough talk may be working. yes, the provocative nuclear tests have continued, but have slowed down. tougher sanctions have been agreed, and north korea has reopened a line of communications to the south, and its athletes will now participate in the forthcoming winter olympics. is that the trump effect? donald trump had almost seemed to hope that the world would leave america alone, but that's not how it works when you are us president. the world has a habit of intruding. and even the sturdiest wall and the most trenchant america—first slogan can only protect you from so much. jon sopel, bbc news, on the us—mexico border. so, we heard jon talk about north korea being the president's greatest foreign policy challenge. i asked duncan innes—ker, an analyst at the economist's

intelligence unit, what he thought of the president's strategy. certainly 0bama when he was handing over power to trump did list north korea as being the challenge to watch and i think it has turned out that way. i think when it comes to the trump administration's policy with regards to north korea, there's been a lot to welcome. the tough approach towards china really has resulted in some big significant shifts in the way china reacts to north korea. sanctions have been toughened, of course that's partly in response to increased aggression from north korea in terms of more testing. but the real problem is that essentially trump's actions are coming too late in the game. north korea essentially already has nuclear capabilities. it has shown that it nuclear capabilities. it has shown thatitisif nuclear capabilities. it has shown that it is if not fully on the way to getting icbm capability, it is

almost there. and the real challenge for trump is that there doesn't really seem to be a brute to walk north korea back from this situation —— route. so what we are likely to end up with is the us accommodation ofa end up with is the us accommodation of a nuclear career, rather than north korea abandoning the programme entirely, which is surely the ultimate goal. you mentioned china. in terms of the relationship between the us and china now, on the campaign trail donald trump made a lot about how powerful chinese in terms of trade. what you think about how he is now in cementing his campaign promises, or not, may that be the case? i think is early days, frankly, as far as the china trade i’ow frankly, as far as the china trade row is going. it was a big thing during the campaign and there were hints that trump would impose a raft of high sanctions across the board on imports from china. fortunately that hasn't happened, but we are seeing a number of investigations

going forward that are likely to result in actions by the us administration in the next month or two. he has been holding back from those with the name —— with the aim of getting china to support its policy on north korea, but i think 2018 will be the year when we start to see the us is getting tough on china, in terms of imposing tariffs. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: how do you use photography to try to prevent a catastrophic nuclear war? we talk to prize winning sim chi yin about her work capturing images of missile sites. also on the programme: a flight to remember. a couple of air stewards get a surprise blessing while in the air over chile. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attacks since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry, and it's one of its biggest, but the industry

is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected. huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she'd been given no help and no advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws, passed by the country's new multiracial government, and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 9,610th performance of her long—running play, the mousetrap. when they heard of her death today, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore.

i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: the year 2017 was among the hottest years recorded on earth, according to us scientists — even without the el nino effect. in the us, republicans and democrats battle to agree to legislation to avert a government shutdown as friday's deadline looms. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the japan times has a front page story on that news that the rival koreas have agreed to form their first unified olympic team and have their athletes parade together. the times says it's the most prominent step towards rapprochement since the two countries recently began exploring cooperation following a year of heightened tension over the north's nuclear weapons programme. the china daily focuses on some strong economic data that shows growth beating forecasts to reach 6.9% in 2017.

the paper says it marks the first acceleration since 2010 despite financial regulatory tightening and measures against pollution. and the straits times here in singapore reports that higher paid professionals and managers will be entitled to improved employment terms. it will mean that the executives will have rights to paid sick leave and compensation for wrongful dismissals under the proposed changes to the law. now, what stories are sparking discussions online? sharanjit, the newly engaged royal couple have caught people's attention online. and hundreds of people have greeted prince harry and his fiancee meghan markle at cardiff castle on theirfirst official visit to wales. the royal couple arrived to huge cheers and after meeting members of the public theyjoined a festival celebrating welsh culture

inside the castle. the couple, who are due to marry in may, are on a tour of uk cities to introduce meghan to her new home. i think we will be seeing a lot more of them. so as we heard earlier this week north and south korea will march together, under a single flag, at the opening ceremony of the winter olympics in south korea. now in a rare interview two north korean athletes have spoken to the bbc‘s korean service. they hope to qualify for the winter paralympics via a para world cup beginning this weekend in germany. and good luck to them. donald trump calls north korea's leader "little rocket man" and kimjong—un has mocked a tweet by the us president boasting about the size of his nuclear button, calling it a "spasm of a lunatic". but this war of words between the two leaders downplays the horrifying destructive power of nuclear weapons. that's the theme behind a series of images by singapore artist sim chi yin.

she's been named 2017's nobel peace prize photographer and spoke to me earlier about why she chose nuclear missile sites for her main subject. the main thing in this project is that i wanted to create land skip pictures and paint them. one is from north korea and the other is from the us and the idea is to ask people to think about how we judge countries for having nuclear weapons and who gets to have what and to get people to reflect on the horrifying situation that we are in. we sometimes forget that the nuclear issue is with us still, not merely a cold war relic. and particularly with the north korean tests in recent months. how did you even go about getting some of these shots? presumably, access to north korean sites is non—existent. i knew i could not get into north korea to photograph

the sites so i spoke to nuclear academics who study maps, satellite maps about its nuclear test site and munitions bases were. i plotted a map on the chinese side of the border and drove to places on the chinese side that were closest to these points. i photographed from 120 kilometres away. we are looking at some of the shots right now. taking a look at one particular photo, very much a different experience in the us where you did get access to some sites. you have some incredible intimate shots of... looking at one of the titan 2 missile. this was shot in arizona. it used to be a command control centre but it is now a museum. it was the largest missile the us

ever made, about 30 metres high. it is in the middle of the desert in arizona and in the us we applied for permission to get into these sites and we were able to climb into missile silos, get into radar facilities and photograph them. you talked about how you wanted to put these pictures next each other. here is a pair of pictures that we can look at. it is hard to tell which is north korea and which is the us. that was an intrinsic part of the project, you say, to show how similar both sides seem. what i found fascinating were the visual and historical parallels between the countries. they are very different but the history of it... the history of nuclear weapons is being repeated in away. the us was the first country to have this technology and north korea

is the only country in the 21st century to have tested it. i was surprised at how many parallels there were. the pope has married two flight attendants aboard the papal plane during a flight over chile. the couple, who were married in a civil service because an earthquake had damaged their church 2010, approached the pontiff to ask if he would bless their wedding — and he went one better. 0ur religion editor martin bashir has the story. they'd walked up the aisle on many occasions, but never in church. flight attendants paula ruiz and carlos elorriga married in a civil ceremony because their church in santiago had been destroyed by an earthquake eight years ago. and so they asked the pope if he would bless their union. but pope francis, who wrote about love in the family two years ago, made them an even better offer. would they like him to marry them?

an astounded groom describes what happens next. translation: we had a short and small ceremony. he took our hands and he asked if there was love in our marriage, and if we want to keep on being together all lifelong. i'm getting emotional as i say it. it's not easy. we said yes. translation: it was a huge emotion. we are very, very happy. the handwritten marriage document was signed by the bride and groom, with the pope adding his own name in spanish — francisco. he concluded the ceremony in the sky by saying, "i hope this motivates couples to marry." but as far as catholic weddings go... it's pretty hard to beat being married by the pope on an aeroplane. martin bashir, bbc news. a big congratulations.

you have been watching newsday. stay with us. has asia's golf industry lost its swing? stay with us. and goodbye from me in london. following hot on the heels of the stormy weather yesterday brought wind gusts of 83 miles an hour to east in england, the focus today is on the snow. the sunlight shows snow showers to the north—west and here at is the trough, a cold front that enhances the amount of snow, the frequency and heaviness of snow showers. where it is going? western scotland, arriving in time for the morning rush—hour. you could see further disruption here with significant accumulations of snow. it could be one of those mornings. certainly worth checking condition of the roads before heading out on a journey in this part of the world. northern ireland will see snow

showers, causing problems out and about and it is it is not snow then there is the risk of ice that it further south, showers across southern mars and england, many will have rain and wintering is over the hills. for many across england and it should be a sunny start to the day but it will feel cold temperatures hovering about freezing and brisk wind. the risk of disruption. as we go into friday morning, the focus across the western side of scotland. check before travelling and allow extra time for your journey. for the rest of the day the majority of snow showers will be across the north and west of country. fewer showers elsewhere will with the best of sunshine across central england. there could be an occasional wintry shower blown in an wind. the wind will make you feel chilly. temperatures not reaching much above freezing. there will be changes in the weather coming up through friday night. the weather front will try to move in and bring a spell of rain to the south of the uk. uncertainty about how far north this

band will get that could start to bump into the cold air and possibly bring a spell of snow to hills and southern england. that is uncertain. further north there is a surefire certainty of snow showers and risk of ice into saturday morning. through saturday morning the risk of rain and hill snow fades away from southern england and a decent day will be left. cold, sunshine, fewer showers and northern ireland scotland are more sunshine. for the second half of the weekend, a band of heavy rain will spread in and there could be a spell of heavy snow on the leading edge for a time before the mild returns. this weekend is not loking bad on saturday but heavy rain and a chance, for some of us, of snow on sunday. i'm kasia madera, with bbc world news. our top story: scientists say 2017 was the warmest year ever recorded

without the el nino effect. president trump has said that it's possible the us government could be forced to shut down as congress tries to break a deadlock over legislation. democrats say they won't support any bill without protection for undocumented immigrants. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it's an unexpected visitor for researchers in antartica, when up pops a penguin. the penguin takes a little look around the boat before realising it's not the quite the icy landing he was looking for and jumps back into the water. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the uk is in the grip of the worst flu season for seven years.