123456 welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories... chinese state media confirms north korean leader kimjong—un did have talks with xi jinping in beijing this week. nato expels seven russian diplomats over the spy—poisoning in britain — moscow calls it part of a containment policy. president putin calls a national day of mourning for victims of the shopping centre fire but angry crowds denounce local officials. also in the programme... the mona lisa may be allowed to go on tour — the first time it's left the louvre museum in almost half a century. hello. first of all, our breaking

news. —— hello. chinese state media has now confirmed the ruler of north korea has made his first foreign trip as leader for talks in beijing with china's president xijinping. there's been much speculation that kim jong—un was on his first trip abroad in seven years, since a special train used in the past by the north korean ruling dynasty was spotted in the chinese capital. steve mcdonell is our correspondent covering this for us. what do you make of it? well, the worst kept secret in china has been confirmed. yes, it was kimjong—un, and all along people have been following this in recent days, knowing that reporters have been chasing this mysterious motorcade around beijing. there was the train, as you mention, that pulled up at beijing station, which looked very much like the train that had taken former north korean leaders to beijing, and now, it has been confirmed that it was in fact a him.

this was the first confirmed international trip from the north korean leader since he came to power, and, you know, it is interesting, and kind of bizarre, that the chinese official state media waited until this train had left chinese territory and gone back into north korea before confirming that any of this actually took place. we do have a few details, though. for example, he went to the great hall of the people, that president xijinping. there great hall of the people, that president xi jinping. there was a performance there, we are led to believe, and he also met other senior members of the chinese communist party, including the premier and the vice president. so pretty historic meeting, given developments on the korean peninsula. and it has been confirmed. thank you very much for that. doctorjohn park is director of the korea working group at the harvard kennedy school. he's in cambridge massachusetts. welcome. thank you very much for

your time. people might wonder why we are getting so excited about this. the north korean leader was educated abroad. he has been abroad before. yes. in terms of his education, as you mention, he was at a swiss boarding school. but since assuming power in 2011, this is the first time that kim jong—un has left north korea. so from that lens, this isa north korea. so from that lens, this is a historic meeting. and in terms of what just talk less, this is a historic meeting. and in terms of whatjust talk less, this is something we are all piecing together in terms of its significance. but we had to keep in mind that when the chinese meet with an official in this capacity, it is an official in this capacity, it is a done deal. in several ready taken place in terms of that kind of transaction. that is a part of the broader — looking at how this all played out, this is what we are basically wherein free—fall right now, it is taken by air on —— has taken thereon by surprise. but given the summit that is coming up between president donald trump, moonjae—in,

and kim jong il, president donald trump, moonjae—in, and kimjong il, it would have been strange if he had not met his ally. the meeting between the two korea's and donald trump, what we know of the chinese style of this type of summit is that this is the end of many processors in and of itself. so from this i can say we can expect some resumption of the six party talks. these are the kinds of things that the chinese would put on the north koreans at this level. we are told by chinese state media that there was a banquet. we are told that kim jong—un talked about denuclearisation. just to be clear, he is not talking about unilateral disarmament. he means you to weapons of the peninsula, which were the

united states is quite a different matter. that is correct. and if you look at it from the chinese standpoint, the denuclearisation of the group petition has been a long—standing goal. so this is not just for north korea per se. we had to keep in mind that demutualisation is aspirational. this is a gold that the parties will work towards. this isa the parties will work towards. this is a big emphasis of the sikh party talks as well. demutualisation is a goal that, to all parties. the pace and when it happens is what is good to be important. —— six. and when it happens is what is good to be important. -- six. it is now pretty clear that china will have a role in managing these talks? absolutely. i think this is one of the kinds of situations where china is back in the driver ‘s seat. if your callback in 2003, china was the party that led to the initiative of the six party talks. notjust initiated it, but announced itself as the care of it. so when we see

the oral multilateral approach dealing with this goal of denuclearisation, and it gameplan, as well. i think we will see china play this role again and co—ordination between the countries will be a key component of china moving forward as well. doctor park, thank you for much indeed. and the chinese president has a personal message to donald trump. there has been a briefing from the chinese government to the white house. in the latest diplomatic response to the chemical attack in salisbury, nato has expelled seven russian diplomats from its headquarters in brussels. 25 countries have now taken similar action,expelling at least 140 diplomats in total. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov has said moscow will respond in kind. steve rosenberg reports. it looks like a game show, but this was russian tv on the diplomatic war with the west. the names in the frames, the string of countries who had expelled russian diplomats over the salisbury attack.

26 countries have now ordered expulsions. moscow's point is that the west has got it in for russia. this is not about poisoning some former agents. this is about containing russia, creating problems for russia with its sovereign and independent foreign policy. and could a diplomatic war morph into something more dangerous? this confrontation has certain logic, and this logic is to step up — each next move should be stronger than the previous one. and with this, we can reach a pretty dangerous situation where militarisation of behaviour will be inevitable. the one expression you hear more and more to describe the growing tension between russia and the west is "new cold war". but in fact what we have now is potentially more dangerous

than the cold war, because back in the days of communism against capitalism, both sides stuck to the rules of the game. today, it seems, there are no rules. sergei skripal and his daughter yulia are still in a critical, but stable condition in a british hospital. up to now, their relatives in russia have said very little about the incident — but now in her first tv interview mr skripal‘s niece, viktoria, has told 0lga ivshina, from the bbc russian service, that she's not interested in the political war of words. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. fire chiefs have apologised for their response to the suicide bombing at the manchester arena last year. an independent report has found firefighters were kept away from the scene for two hours, because of poor communication between emergency services. the boss of larry nasser, the disgraced doctor at the centre of the usa gymnastics sex abuse scandal, has himself been charged with criminal sexual conduct. prosecutors allege the former dean

of michigan state university, william strampel, assaulted female students, and stored nude photos of others on his office computer. through his lawyer, he's denied doing anything wrong. the israeli prime minister has been released from hospital — doctors found he was suffering from a mild respiratory infection. benjamin neta nyahu tweeted "i am on my way home, sure some rest and hot soup will put things right." he's 68 — he'd been taken to hospital with a high fever and coughing. in russia, president putin has declared a national day of mourning for the 64 people who died died in a fire at a shopping centre in siberia on sunday. most were children. people in the city of kemerovo have been protesting as mr putin blamed what he called ‘criminal negligence' and suggested safety certificates had been obtained with bribes. paul adams reports. grief turning to fury on the streets of the siberian mining town.

two days after the fire, people are angry. "resign, resign," they shout. local officials are bombarded with questions — how many people really died, were children locked inside, why were the fire alarms not working? the crowd smells corruption. the sign above the mayor's assistant reads, "how much are your closed eyes worth?" translation: i've got nothing more to lose, my whole family has died, my younger sister, my wife and my three children. my wife rang me quite late, shejust wanted to say goodbye to me. inside what's left of the shopping complex, a scene of utter devastation. this place was packed on sunday. when the fire broke out, it swept through the building with appalling speed. on one of the upper floors,

the cinema, where many of the children died. the man leading the investigation says those responsible for safety simply run away. the view from above is equally shocking. is there evidence here that corners were cut? vladimir putin visited the city this morning, offering condolences, saying what happened was inexcusable. translation: an investigation group of 100 people is working here. they will go through the whole chain, starting with those who issued licenses and up to those who were responsible for safety. in moscow this evening, a silent vigil for the victims, the people here promising not to forget what happened in siberia two days ago. what began as a local tragedy now has the potential to turn into a national scandal. fires like this are not uncommon in russia, and behind them there's often a story of corruption, fast money and lax oversight. this disaster raises a host difficult questions. pauladams, bbc news, moscow.

more to come injust more to come in just a more to come injust a minute. in fa ct, more to come injust a minute. in fact, very soon, but we are trying to make contact with sergei goryashko. what is the latest on this? aloe. -- hello. still some people who were at the shopping centre are among the list of missing. and not all the bodies of those who died in this awful inferno are identified. so they are still in hospital. yesterday was a big rally

in keremovo. it lasted for 11 hours, and there were people who were against the local government, who, in their opinion, were responsible for the tragedy. well, and that is exactly what we have for now. sergei goryashko, thank you indeed for that update. thank you for been with us. stay with us. lots more to come. including this... the boss of facebook refuses to answer questions on data misuse before members of parliament in london — and the mps are very unhappy. let there be no more wars or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. with great regret, the committee

have decided that south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition. chanting gasps from onlookers on fiji. woman: wow! this is bbc news. the latest headlines: chinese state media has revealed that the north korean leader, kim jong—un and his wife did have talks with his chinese counterpart xijinping in beijing this week.

nato is expelling seven russian diplomats from its headquarters, the latest international sanctions in response to the nerve agent attack in the uk. let's stay with that story. we go live now to san francisco and to the research scientist vera zakem. vera, you work as a disinformation and diplomatic specialist at the cna — the center for naval analyses. are you surprised at the unity of the western response and what do you think happens next? thank you to having the. i am not surprised one bit and having the. i am not surprised one bitandi having the. i am not surprised one bit and i think this is by the international community the first step ina international community the first step in a broader sense of actions that potentially not be us and the uk, but the broader international community may take. in terms of what

happens next, i do suspect that there will be a series of covert and overt action. some actions can be retaliatory actions that russia may ta ke retaliatory actions that russia may take in expelling diplomats from the countries that expelled russian diplomat. in addition, russia may choose to take 7: —:l:::; a: gr; ;ze:,: sis 125 $7; 4 —llllll ll llrl llllll lll l li; l and we absolutely the][choosinoandwe—abselati. . week, . l ,, week. . it similar attacks l — similar attacks that we = similar attacks that we saw 5.45.4“, r:__:|_._ _u_z|.__' u“; u... _l... in the uk against the international norm. it may be more propaganda and disinformation campaigns that are designed to sow doubt and discord. ata ink designed to sow doubt and discord. at a ink this is the end, i think this a at a ink this is the end, i think thisa summit at a ink this is the end, i think this a summit that is going to continue but it certainly will further escalate the tensions between russia and the west. how dangerous do you a is and

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