i'm mariko oi, in singapore. the headlines: donald trump's top economic aide resigns in protest at the president's threatened trade wars. the us gives a cautious response to news that north korea is open to talks on giving up its nuclear programme. i really believe they are sincere and stop we will soon find out. i'm babita sharma, in london. also in the programme: military experts in britain are testing the substance that's thought to have made a former russian spy and his daughter critically ill. and swimming in the plastic ocean — we'll speak to the diver who took these amazing pictures. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday. good morning it's 8am in singapore and 7pm in washington where it's been announced that

president trump's top eonomic advisor, gary cohn, is to resign. in a statement he said it had been an honour to serve his country in the trump administration. he's rumoured to have been unhappy that mr trump could trigger a trade war by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. our correspondent peter bowes is following this story from los angeles. i guess the revolving door at the white house continues. this is not the first time that gary cohn has wa nted the first time that gary cohn has wanted to resign but has this come asa wanted to resign but has this come as a surprise? it has come as a surprise to some but perhaps not to others. it is known that he was unhappy with the president's very sudden announcement last week that took so many people by surprise, both outside and inside the white

house, about tariffs for still and aluminium imports. it is said he was trying to persuade the president change his mind but perhaps realised he was losing that battle and it is the timing of this resignation that is so significant. people said that he had considered resignation before, over a completely different issue — the far—right march in charlottesville, virginia, when mr trump said there were some good people in that much, in fact there we re people in that much, in fact there were ku klux klan members in about march. this is about policy and an announcement by the president a few days ago. president trump only several hours ago said he is going ahead with these tariffs and that trade wars are not too bad. have we heard from president trump about the

rest of nation? yes, we have. he has said a few words, gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superbjob driving chief economic adviser and did a superb job driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and unleashing the american economy will once again and we thank him for his dedicated services to the american people so no indication of their of any division between the two but, clearly, they saw this issue and a major announcement in very different ways. we have heard from the aluminium industry which is set to gain from these tariffs, opposing the move. do you think president trump will still go ahead with its? there is certainly a lot of opposition, not only for those in industry but from his party as well. president trump, as we have seen on other issues, is very dogmatic about

what he sees to be right, despite the opposition of those close to him. many have said this policy could backfire in a big way, imposing these tariffs could make it harderfor imposing these tariffs could make it harder for certain industries to do business which could ultimately lead to job losses. business which could ultimately lead tojob losses. some republicans have said the gains made by tax reforms and tax cuts, those could be overturned if this policy comes into effect. thank you for the updates. staying in washington, president donald trump has responded cautiously to the news that north korea might consider giving up its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees. south korea says the subject was raised when its officials met with kimjong—un in pyongyang. nick bryant has this report. normally it is the battle of the sabre from the north korean leader now the warm shake of the hand. on

state television, the soundtrack doubled as diplomatic music is kim jong—un kim jong—un greeted doubled as diplomatic music is kim jong—un kimjong—un greeted the delegation from south korea. he has offered to abandon the nuclear arsenal in returns for security guarantees from the us. the first time he has proposed that kind of deal but also to suspend nuclear and missile tests while engaged in talks. no wonder these are long—time adversary is parted on such cordial terms. it is a significant overture in decades. the response from president trump in washington, caution and so congratulation. to what you own this recent openness to talk? me. no, ithink that nobody got that, i think that they are sincere and i think they are sincere also because the sanctions and what we are doing with respect to north

korea, including the great help that we have been given from china, they can do more, so i really believe they are sincere, i hope they are sincere and will soon find out. you can and tests from north korea have resented the gravest policy challenge for the us. he has responded with tough talk. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. rocket man is ona world has never seen. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. , we will see more joint military exercise between the us and south korea. it is seen as a dressed rehearsal for poor and washington has affirmed that the military option will remain on the table until it sees concrete steps towards scuffed korean denuclearisation. we have seen this movie before, north korea has engaged in talks with previous

administrations will at the same time developing nuclear weapons that could soon threaten his ghost cities like new york. donald trump's hard—line like new york. donald trump's ha rd—line stance is like new york. donald trump's hard—line stance is working according to some. for the view from seoul we were joined a short while ago by our corresponent laura bicker. they say they will hold missile tests. . . well, not only is kim jong—un willing to discuss getting rid of his nuclear weapons, he's willing to do so with the united states, and he said he will halt any missile tests while those talks take place. now, these are extraordinary announcements. they come from a dinner in pyongyang, hosted by kimjong—un, where he welcomed ministers from south korea for the first time. those delegates will travel from here in seoul, to washington,

to brief the trump administration, where the us president believes that it is his policy of maximum pressure, those international sanctions, that have forced kim jong—un to the table, and it may well be that pyongyang is running out of cash. in south korea it is seen as moon jae—in moonjae—in should take the credit. donald trump will now be brief. a note of caution, this could all be a ploy by kimjong—un. it has happened in the past were north korea has tried to buy time while continuing with its missile programme or it could be that this young leader is looking for something that his grandfather and father failed to something that his grandfather and fatherfailed to do— something that his grandfather and father failed to do— a peace treaty with the south. ever the motivations, south says they are dealing with the north with clear dealing with, the north wittheal whatever after a powerful earthquake

killed dozens of people. rugged terrain has made it difficult for aid workers to access mountainous areas, and tens of thousands of people are in need of supplies. africa's infrastructure, we partner with african country by incentivising good government could develop goals. this stands in stark contrast to china's approach which encourages dependency using a paik encourages dependency using a pa'k deals and the town of ampara.

earlier the government announced a state of emergency. take a look at these pictures. a five year old girl was dangling from a skilift in california. fellow skiers were trying to work out what to do and they find a tarpaulin. they stretch it out under the girl and she falls safely onto it. we are getting breaking news from

the us state department which says it has the time and that the north korean government used a chemical wa rfa re korean government used a chemical warfare agent, vx, to assassinate the half brother of kim jong—un. warfare agent, vx, to assassinate the half brother of kim jong-un. he was killed in malaysia in 2017th of top at kuala lumpur airport after the highly toxic agent was a p pa re ntly the highly toxic agent was apparently rubbed into his face. the us state department says they have determined that it was the north korean government using the chemical wa rfa re korean government using the chemical warfare agent to assassinate the half brother of kim jong—un warfare agent to assassinate the half brother of kimjong—un kim. we will get more details. they used the agent to assassinate kim

sergei skripal and his dagghter'mfia' ' are critically ill in hospital after they were exposed to an unidentified substance on sunday. the substance is now being tested by military experts. relatives of mr skripal have told the bbc russian service that the former spy believed the russian special services might come after him at any time. the russian government is denying any suggestion of involvement in the incident, as steve rosenberg reports from moscow. it sounds chillingly familiar. russia under suspicion of planning and executing an attack, 2,000 miles away, in britain. in 2006, the target was former russian agent alexander litvinenko, murdered in london. the man britain believes poisoned him is andrei lugovoy.

today, he dismissed claims that moscow had attacked sergei skripal as propaganda. translation: why do they say he was poisoned? perhaps he poisoned himself or had a heart attack. you talk about propaganda, but what about alexander litvinenko? the inquiry in britain into his death found that you had poisoned him, probably on the orders of vladimir putin. translation: there was no official investigation into litvinenko's death. there was an attempt to accuse russia and a russian citizen, me, of poisoning him in britain with polonium. as for the kremlin, well, it's been saying very little today about sergei skripal. president putin's spokesman told me earlier, "we have no information about what happened. we cannot comment." although he did add,

it was a "tragic situation." but catching spies has become one of vladimir putin's priorities. yesterday, the former kgb officer praised russia's security service for uncovering 397 spies last year. the kremlin leader has never hidden his contempt for those who betray the motherland for money. moscow denies any connection, but a former double agent, collapsing in britain, it can only add to the chill in relations between the uk and russia. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: a success story from india — how the country has managed to dramatically reduce the number of children forced into marriage. first, the plates slipped gently off the restaurant tables,

then suddenly the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched on to her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans have successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier and so my heart went bang, bang, bang! the constitutional rights of these marchers are their rights as citizens of the united states, and they should be protected, even in the right to test them out, so they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states? well, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say. this is newsday on the bbc.

our top stories — donald trump's top economic aide has resigned in protest at the president's threatened trade wars. the us president says north korea's willingness to talk about nuclear disarmament is a positive step, but remains cautious about the way forward. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. in singapore, the straits times leads with the korea summit proposed to take place next month. if all goes to plan, kim jong—un, pictured here having dinner with a south korean delegation, will meet his counterpart from the south in the demilitarized zone, which separates the two countries. the top headline in the japan times is "kim applauds openhearted talks with seoul." to illustrate the story, this picture,

showing smiles all around when the north korean leader met south korea's head of the presidential national security office on tuesday. the gulf news reports on the state of emergency declared tuesday in sri lanka. the government in colombo says this is just a preventive step after a number of clashes between buddhists and muslims, but insists that the country is still safe for travellers. you up—to—date with the papers. yesterday he newsday, we told you about the new study which showers a significant drop in the number of child marriages across the world in the next —— in the last decade. india has seen one of the biggest reductions in recent years. but overall, it's still the country with the highest number of women who've been married underage. our global affairs correspondent, naomi grimley, has been to rajasthan in the north—west of india, to find out how girls there are fighting back against the age—old practice. monica is out shopping for the food

with her mum. it is a scene of domestic harmony, butjust a few months ago, monica's parents tried to marry her off age 13. at the same time as an elder sister. the marriage never happened because on the day of her wedding, monica found the day of her wedding, monica found the courage to report her own pa rents to the courage to report her own parents to a children's hotline. translation: i cold up and i told them everything. but i am young and i don't want to get married and i wa nt to i don't want to get married and i want to study further —— i cold up. i ask them, can you please do something that stops my marriage. if i had got married, nobody would have allowed me to talk. like ingles would have just made allowed me to talk. like ingles would havejust made me allowed me to talk. like ingles would have just made me work. ganesh, did you know it was against the law? translation: we did know that it the law? translation: we did know thatitis the law? translation: we did know

that it is a criminal offence and we did feel bad, but we are a family of labourers, sometimes i don't get work whole month. so we thought since are marrying one daughter, we should marry off monica as well and save on the expense. in the end, ganesh and his wife promised the police they would not marry monica off before she comes of age. the authorities in this part of rajasthan say they see dozens of cases of child marriage every year and many more go unreported. in the case of monaco, the 11th hour call for help was counselled by a woman ready to jump into action. meet prettier, a guardian angel on the mopeds. speed is often the essence of herjob. she is a woman who handles the local child marriage cases which come to light via the hotline. it was pretty, together with a specialist police team, burst in on monica's wedding at the very

last moment. translation: when monica called upon the same day of her wedding, we had a tricky challenges we had only three hour was to save a child. she was ina three hour was to save a child. she was in a wedding dress when we arrived and she gave us a little smile. she knew that we had come to stop her wedding. she was happy then. she is part of a broaderfight back against child marriage in a state where 35% of young women say they were married before the age of 18. don't marry me off, seeing these people that are boarding school. they know all about what the law says and education remains one of the best defences in stopping early marriage. i have in the desert village, the wider community is getting involved as they watch a puppet show tackling the issue. afterwards, the villagers rise to

their feet and pledged to abandon child marriage. it is a poignant moment and assignment in this part of india, things are beginning to change after years of entrenched custom. translation: back at monica but the house, she chats to her new friend on the street of the family home. nearly a childhood loss. now, through an act of rebellion, it is a childhood regained. a british diver has filmed himself swimming through a sea of plastic in bali, putting renewed focus on just how polluted our oceans really are. the video was taken off bali's main island of denpaser at a dive site in nusa penida. the area is known as manta point and attracts thousands of tourists because of its marine life and pristine waters. but look at this video taken a couple of days ago

by richard horner. you can see him swimming through plastic waste. it's everywhere. rubbish is common on bali's beaches during the rainy months as it washes ashore from neighbouring java island. well, richard hornerjoins me from nusa lembongan in bali. thank you so much forjoining us. very horrifying pictures that you took there. is it quite common to see plastic like that? it was your reaction? we see it randomly, but just not on mass scale. we see the occasional clout of it and it comes and goes with the currents within a few hours, but that was horrifying, that amount. and was its smelly? the pictures that we are seeing, it looks like it is a lot of food waste as well. was there any smell to it? not really. it probablyjust smell

like driftwood you would find on the beach, it is the smell would mostly come from the organic matter that would naturally get washed out into the sea anyway. even before plastic. but the plastic doesn't really smell. it is just the algae on the foliage breaking down. could you tell whether plastic was from?” didn't look on that day, but when we normally look at the labels on the packaging, i think all the stuff that i have seen has been from indonesia, but with the indonesian currently have dominating here, it could come from further north up in the north of southeast asia perhaps. keeping those beaches clean is in the interest of the local government. are you aware of any actions taken by the authorities to make sure that these waters remain clea n ? make sure that these waters remain clean? especially on here, partially, we have every single

water bottle and every single glass bottle is collected. you just never see them, if they are on the ground, they will not be on the ground for long and at hubli ship them back to a plant in bali where they are recycled. general plastic waste, it is not, yemen, the general waste, i don't think it is collected enough. soa don't think it is collected enough. so a lot of people deal with it themselves. would you say the awareness is not exactly as high? yeah, ithink awareness is not exactly as high? yeah, i think when i was growing up, we had to keep britain tidy campaign that kind of brainwashed us in a good way, but people here have had that yet. and perhaps they could. richard, thank you so much for joining us from bali. we saw that really horrific picture that he filmed in the beaches of varley. -- bali. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. we will have more on that top story

of the resignation of president trump's economic adviser. it is already having an impact on the us dollar. it me remind you that raking news we had a few moments ago because the united states has formally concluded that north korea did order the murder of the half rubber of kim jong—un. the vx nerve agent was used. you would recall that the half rather died at kuala lumpur airport after this highly toxic nerve agent was rubbed on his face. in retaliation, the us has triggered another layer of economic sanctions against pyongyang, and it's all happening just as we have that warming in relationship between the south koreans and a north korean. for that news breaking. we will get much more analysis right here on tuesday. —— newsday.

it felt like we had two different seasons across the uk yesterday. we had heavy snow causing transport disruption again. temperatures struggled to get much above freezing. further south, 11 celsius and we had some cloud reakes. it didn't feel too bad around. the sunshine broke through. in the north of scotland, it was another snow day. that caused problems through those higher central belt motorways. looking at the weather picture now, the last of the snow clearing away from the north highlands, but aside from the north highlands, but aside from that, some clearer slots around. a colder start through the day with some frost patches around, a little bit of ice is some possibility first thing in the morning. certainly ace in —— a chilly start to the morning. they really —— a little area of low pressure moving in. there could be extensive rain across south—east

england. by the afternoon, the cloud should be breaking up. a few showers, wintry over the higher ground but not causing problems. a few showers later in the day, for many areas, cloud will break at times to give some sunny spells. temperatures coming up in scotland. highs of six in edinburgh and aberdeen. you might remember thursday was going to be a dry day, but there has been a big jump in the weather forecast, and now but there has been a big jump in the weatherforecast, and now we band of rain and perhaps some seal —— and perhaps have some hill snow. but thatis perhaps have some hill snow. but that is uncertainty to let the moment. there will be some further wintry showers coming in across the north—west and temperatures ranging from six to 10 degrees self he is, many areas breaking up as we go

through the afternoon. north—westerly breeze for many areas after a cold start through the day, we should see some sunny spells coming through. a band of rain approaches here and cloud in over in london as well. highs of the 11 or so. london as well. highs of the 11 or so. looking ahead to the weekend, this area of low pressure will crash —— pusha this area of low pressure will crash —— push a band of rain northwards and the cold air is still there, so we could see a spell of snow over some of the higher hills, the northern pennines and perhaps into parts of scotland as well. it will turn milder all the world. —— all the while. that is your weather. i'm kasia madera, with bbc world news. our top story: the white house top economic advisor, gary cohn, has announced his resignation. mr cohn was said to have been unhappy with the president's threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. the us has cautiously responded to news that north korea might consider giving up its nuclear programme. donald trump has described

the latest statements from seoul and pyongyang as a positive step. and this video is trending on bbc.com... remember this photo of a little girl staring up in awe at a new portrait of michelle obama ? well now the former first lady has met little parker curry and posted this clip saying, "parker, keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day i'll proudly look up at a portrait of you!" that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.