welcome to newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi, in singapore. the headlines: facebook‘s problems get worse. politicians in europe and the us demand answers about alleged misuse of personal data. a bbc investigation finds rohingya girls who fled violence in myanmar now trafficked into prostitution in bangladesh. and the last male northern white rhino in the world is gone — another step towards extinction. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday. good morning.

it's 8am in singapore, midnight in london and 6pm in california, where executives at facebook are under growing pressure to explain how their company gathers and uses our information online. allegations that millions of users had personal information harvested for political gain have triggered investigations by authorities in the us, the uk and europe. cambridge analytica, a company hired by the trump campaign in 2016, told undercover reporters from britain's channel 4 news how some of the information was used. the man speaking there is chief executive of cambridge analytica, alexander nix, he's since been

suspended by the company. and a little earlier facebook has also released a statement. it said its chief executive mark zuckerberg and chief operating officer, sheryl sandberg, and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward because they understand the seriousness of this issue. the entire company is outraged we were deceived. we are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens." the fallout of this story is being felt far and wide, in a moment we'll hear from jon sopel in washington, the number of issues that had many.

lots of valley has been wiped off the value. a senior executive who said he is eventually going to leave the company a few months from now on there is a mood are feeling real aims. it's got to be said that facebook‘s response to the issue has made things worse, not better. you mentioned that statement with senior executives working around the clock. there was a meeting of senior staff here and those two executives were not present. when this story first broke, facebook were robust in their response. the truth is, it was potentially something much, much worse it is the mass harvesting of the personal data of tens of millions of people who didn't know their data was being used in that way. it's those millions of people, the public who are questioning their relationship with facebook and that

is where the reputational damage kicks in. you said they didn't get the response rate so what can they do to restore reputation? they need to talk about what they knew and when. what facebook themselves and cambridge analytica have said. we also need to know the extent of the data breach or the data leak, the fa ct data breach or the data leak, the fact that 50 million people reportedly had their information out there. we need to know exactly when that happened and what facebook did about it. the thing is that mark zuckerberg and cheryl sandberg need to come out and say something about this issue. it echoes when they

first talk about russians spreading they can use and disinformation. mark zuckerberg said that it was crazy that it affected the election result. he recanted that. facebook staff are certainly clear in their messaging, they want to hear from him. what can facebook users do in order to protect themselves?” him. what can facebook users do in order to protect themselves? i think there are two issues. facebook users are themselves, they need to make sure they are fully fact that when they go on line, they leave these vast digital footprints. they go on line, they leave these vast digitalfootprints. i'm they go on line, they leave these vast digital footprints. i'm afraid that sounds rather boring but you do need to look at your terms and conditions, look at the prissy settings you have, make sure you fully understand the absolute depth and breadth and the extent and consumers need to wise up. the second thing is, they need to be pragmatic and realistic about the fa ct pragmatic and realistic about the fact that when there is such vast, vast amounts of data on line held by

a few superstar firms and companies, some of that data is going to get lost, some of it is going to fall to the hands of individuals and companies that might do things consumers don't want. wise up about your rights and which were leaving behind and be realistic about the fa ct behind and be realistic about the fact that sometimes that data is going to go missing orfall into the wrong hands. some breaking news to bring you now and we are getting reports from austin, texas of another explosion. few details at the moment but if confirmed this will be the sixth attack in recent weeks. a 30—year—old man is believed to have been injured in this one is

expected to live. we'll bring you more as we can speak to our correspondence there. also making news today: president trump has lost a bid to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by an ex—playboy model and apprentice contestant, summer zervos. she says mr trump groped her after she appeared on his former reality tv show. rejecting mr trump's claim that he was immune from being sued, a new yorkjudge said he had "absolutely no authority" to dismiss litigation just because he occupied the white house. 23 russian diplomats and their families have left the uk today. they've been expelled after the salisbury poison attack. the british prime minister has said russia orchestrated the poisoning of the double agent sergei skripal and his daughter. russia denies any involvement. this is a water main break in san

diego, it shot up above stories above the california highway. it shut the road for about 30 minutes while crews worked to shut off the water and according to local media, construction crews hit a bow. china's annual parliamentary session has closed with president xi jinping — now cleared to rule indefinitely — outlining a nationalist vision of his country as a rising global power. he spoke of the "china solution" to world problems and delivered a stern warning over his resolve to protect "every inch" of chinese territory. 0ur china correspondent john sudworth, who has been covering the parliament since it opened two weeks ago, assesses its implications. while the world has been

watching china's parliament, chinese people have been in cinemas watching this... amazing china, the country's highest earning documentary ever and an eye—popping propaganda fest. how was the film? i asked, " fa ntastic, it spoke from the heart" he tells me. but then... did you have to come? let's just say it was organised, this woman says, revealing that her state—backed company block—booked the cinema. but the government's corralling people into nationalist movie now is no coincidence. this two—week parliamentary session has been all about china's sense of its national historic destiny and the apparent belief that only one man can guide it. sworn in for a second term, but in theory able to rule the life. i am really, really

concerned about... wang xiangwei, a former editor of the south china morning post is one of those prepared to accept that president xi needs to be given a little longer. i think there is a strong compelling argument here that, because of what he has done over the past five years, that is why he has received so much support within the leadership and outside the party, for him to get a stronger mandate. of course, there are concerns, but i think the chinese government has done a pretty good job of ensuring that they are not showning in public. that is an understatement. the parliament has been marked by barely a murmur of dissent and heavy censorship of almost all public discussion. as the delegates head home, they will have been infused

by xi jinping's vision of a nation reclaiming its place on the global stage but what has happened here will have consequences notjust for 1.3 billion chinese people but for all of us. a rising superpower has placed its fate totally, indefinitely, in that man's hands. the fortunes of the chinese nation and its ruler are once again intimately entwined. john sudworth, bbc new, beijing. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: 0n the trail of the traffickers — a bbc investigation reveals that rohingya girls are being forced into prostitution. also on the programme: ringo starr rocks up at buckingham palace as the former beatles drummer receives a knighthood. today, we have closed the book

on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision, all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted.

welcome back. this is newsday. 0ur top stories. politicians in europe and the us are calling executives at facebook to answer questions about allegations that data was misused to influence elections. and another explosion has been reported in the city of boston in the american state of texas. it is the sixth in a month. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post is leading on a warning from the country's president. it says xi jinping has vowed to crush any attempt to divide what he describes as the motherland. it's after the us signed the taiwan travel act into law, allowing american officials

to visit the island. the gulf news is covering a saudi diplomatic visit to the us. the report details a meeting between crown prince muhammad bin salman and us president donald trump, with a focus on trade and investment opportunities. and finally, the straits times is looking at problems with a cycle sharing scheme. 0perators are being made to apply for licences after thousands of bikes were left indiscriminately parked around the city. we've seen quite a few, haven't we, sharanjit? now, what stories are sparking discussions on line? well, the french may be known for their culinary pride but it seems tastes are changing. for the first time in history, french people have bought more american—style hamburgers than their own classic jambon—beurre sandwich. a new study says 1.46 billion burgers were sold last year, compared with 1.22 billion of the traditional baguettes filled with sliced ham.

the news has certainly got people talking. a bbc investigation has revealed that rohingya girls as young as 13 who fled myanmar in the past six months are being trafficked into prostitution in bangladesh. the undercover team filmed traffickers openly offering the girls for sex in cox's bazar, the town nearest to the refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims now live. the bbc‘s mishal husain has the story. a small city on the bay of bengal, where the main business was tourism, is now the hub for aid agencies working in the nearby refugee camps. but alongside the shop fronts, the beachside bars and the hotels of cox's bazar there's an open secret. after hearing repeated stories about children trafficked

into prostitution, we went in search of the evidence. 0ne14—year—old rohingya girl we met in the camps, and whose identity we've protected, told me what happened to her as she crossed from myanmar into bangladesh. translation: women came with a van, they asked me if i'd go with them. not long after that, in a building in cox's bazar, they brought two boys to me. they showed me a knife and punched me in my tummy and beat me because i wasn't cooperating. then the boys raped me. i wasn't willing to have sex, but they kept going. we heard other accounts from girls of a similar age. a 13—year—old told me she was lured out of the camp by a woman from within the rohingya community offering her work.

with the desperate conditions the refugees are living in, her family agreed to let her go. translation: she came to my home. we know her. she said, "you're not being fed properly, come with me to cox's bazar, i will give you a job." when we got there, she put me in a hotel in the morning. by the afternoon, a boy was put in my room. he beat me and raped me. i asked the woman, "why i should do this?" she told me, "if you don't do this, i will kill you." after only 48—hours on the ground, our team had identified a number of people offering children for sex. this was one of them, not only boasting about his own collection of women and children, but of a network of traffickers, all of whom had more than ten girls under their control. we had to be careful not to create

a demand and asked for girls who were immediately available. we were offered these three and told they were all rohingyas, aged between 13 and i7. we went to the police and told them what we had found. they agreed to conduct an operation that same evening. 0ur undercover investigator posed as a client who wanted to have sex with children and arranged with the trafficker for the delivery of two young girls to a hotel. bring the girls down here... as we waited, the trafficker sent a scout. eight o'clock, red hoodie. he asked our investigator to go with him, but we needed the trafficker to come to us. he's away with the girls. he appeared to change his mind. we're

but when the girls arrived, it was a driver who was with them and who collected the money. how's it going? 1a,15,16 and two for you. ask him, if tonight's good, can they get more? we handed over around £140. as soon as the deal was done, the police moved in. come on, girls. hey, come here. the girls were two of those we'd seen in the photograph. as they were taken aside and into safety, they told us they were 15 and 21 and that theirfamilies depended on the money they made from sex work. what the two girls told me here tonight reveals so much about how they and others like them get trapped in the sex industry in cox's bazar. they've never been to school and have no idea how

they would support themselves without this work. and with the arrival of so many refugees in the nearby camps, there are even more vulnerable young people for the traffickers to prey upon. childcare professionals and trafficking experts helped us to arrange care for the girls afterwards. the younger one went into the care of social services, but the 21—year—old refused. we handed over all the information we had to the police. but the trafficker is still at large, part of an established network that puts children into sex work here and, as our investigation found, also sends them further afield, to india and nepal. now the presence of a large refugee population, including many unaccompanied children, is providing easy pickings for the traffickers and another danger for the rohingya people. mishal husain, bbc news, bangladesh. the northern white rhino

is a species on the brink of extinction following the death of a 45—year—old male in kenya the last of his kind in the world. his name was sudan, and he was put down on monday after his health problems worsened significantly. his daughter and grand—daughter are the only female northern white rhinos left, as our correspondent, alistair leithead, reports from kenya. and then there were two — the last remaining northern white rhinos on earth, now that the last male, sudan, has died of old age. a subspecies of rhino ever closer to extension. one is najin, 27—years—old, sudan's daughter. the other is fatu, his teenage granddaughter. the last of what was once a great species that roamed central africa. this was sudan, and for the last few years scientists

and conservationists have been trying to get him to mate. they even put the 45—year—old on tinder as part of a publicity campaign. there was no other animal quite like him. it highlights first and foremost the fact that human greed and sometimes human activities that are not controlled can drive species to extinction. the last wild northern white rhinos were seen here in garamba national park in the northern democratic republic of congo, but that was many years ago. they became extinct in the wild in 2008. well, fatu and najin are now the last two remaining northern white rhinos, and obviously they're both females. they're here under armed guard 24—hours a day, such is the continuing threat to these animals from poachers. they are now incredibly rare. there are only 30,000 rhinos left on the planet and sudan was unusual for his kind in that

he died of old age. now it's up to the scientists and a never before tried fertility treatment in a last gasp effort to save these animals from extinction. alastair leithead, bbc news, in northern kenya. the beatles legend, ringo star, has been knighted at buckingham palace for his services to music. the drummer's knighthood follows the mbe awarded to each band member in 1965. speaking after the ceremony, starr told colin paterson he was delighted to receive the new honour. it means a lot actually. it means recognition for things we've done musically and in life. so, i was really pleased to accept this award. where does it rank compared to your other career achievements? what would you put it up there with? you mean first number one? it's way up there. it is, it's way up there. i'm not holding this anymore, 0k, i'm going to just close the box. obviously this is not

the first time you have been to buckingham palace for an honour. in 1965, the beatles came for their mbes. compare and contrast today with that. well, you know, that was a long time ago. four lads straight out of liverpool then. and we've all seen a bit of the world since then and this was another honour. so, we had a lot of fun ‘cause there was four of us, and i was a bit shaky today on my own. well, apparently, 1965, you were so nervous you snuck off into a toilet in buckingham palace and had a cigarette. i know! who said that? i don't know! i'm not keeping that rumour going. you also wore your mbe on the cover of sgt pepper's, famously. what are your plans for this one? well, with this, i'll be wearing it at braakfast. you've been watching newsday. i'll be back with business news and... could this be the answer to greater productivity? we look at how brainwave technology is being used to improve the way we work.

and news from austin, texas where police are responding to a reported explosion in the city. this is the sixth explosion we believe following a series of sometimes deadly blasts and we're getting more reports from reuters, were apparently officials are saying this latest blast does not appear to be related to the other incidents. but we know it comes other incidents. but we know it co m es after other incidents. but we know it comes after a series of parcel bombs in texas that have killed two people and put lots of residents on edge. of course this is escalating now. we saw two more incidents, a bomb that exploded at a fedex distribution centre near san antonio as well, and some 500 federal agents are on this case is investigating it. we will bring you more on that in the coming hours. hello again.

tuesday brought us some beautiful, sunny weather across northern ireland and scotland. that's where the best of the sunshine was, and what a beautiful end to the day it was as well. this was the scene in 0ban, argyll and bute, looking out over the scottish islands as the sun set in the west. some changes, though, working in for wednesday. got some thicker cloud working into the north—west of the country. so, for scotland and northern ireland, a cloudier start to the day. some rain on the charts edging into western scotland as well. so for some, it will be a damper start as well. whereas further south, for england and wales, clearer skies overnight. well, that means, for early—risers, we've got something like this. a widespread frost developing, even in the towns and cities. head into the countryside and a really a cold start to the day. temperatures could be down as low as —6 in the coldest spots wales. a cold start then, yes, but beautiful sunny skies in england and wales for most of the morning.

into the afternoon, cloud thickening from the north and west. sunshine will make the sun hazy elsewhere, but probably the thicker cloud won't reach the south—east until the evening time. further north a different story. cloudy with outbreaks of rain working into western scotland fairly quickly in the day. any rain not lasting long in northern ireland. but could be slow to clear in western scotland. eastern scotland will be prone to seeing occasional bright spells through the afternoon. and here, temperatures will lift into double figures, probably one of the warmest spots in the uk. even further south, those temperatures going up. and, crucially, we will have lost the bitter wind. looking at the weather picture for thursday, a decent start to the day for many of us, with some bright and sunny spells. we've got a weather front coming in from the atlantic bringing heavy rain to western areas later in the afternoon. also some pretty strong winds edging into wales and south—west england, where we could get gales developing around the coast later in the day. looking towards the end of the week, an area of cloud and rain pushing across the uk. and then another area of low pressure set to swing in off the atlantic and moving

towards the south—west of the uk. some uncertainty about exactly how far north the band of rain gets. we may see a stronger area of low pressure develop, and if that happens, the rain might not get as far northwards. so, that is a possibility for friday. 9—11 for most of us. but the position of that rain is really important for the weather we'll have across scotland and northern ireland on saturday. at the moment, we're forecasting rain. but if the low pressure area is a bit more developed, it could be clear and a decent day on saturday with bright or sunny spells. as i say, quite a bit of uncertainty at the moment, but we will keep you posted. i'm sharanjit leyl with bbc news. our top story. the british—based company accused of misusing facebook information for political gain, has suspended its chief executive alexander nix. cambridge analytica has been accused of harvesting the personal data of from fifty million users without their consent. the us, british and european parliaments have all asked

for explanations. there's been another explosion in the city of austin, following a series of recent blasts in the state. police say one man has suffered potentially serious injuries. and this video is trending on bbc.com: for the first time in history french people have bought more american—style hamburgers than their own classic jambon—beurre sandwich. almost 1.5 billion burgers were sold last year. that's certainly got people talking. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk.