this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: america's new top diplomat mike pompeo is sworn in, with a pledge on north korea. speak —— to the unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the korean peninsula. us and china trade chiefs set to meet in beijing. can they sort out the dispute over tariffs? i'm ben bland in london. also coming up in the programme: cambridge analytica — the company at the centre of the facebook data scandal — goes bankrupt. as myanmar prosecutes two reuters journalists, we look at pressures facing the media on world press freedom day. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. glad you could join as.

it's 6am in singapore, ”pm in london and 6pm in washington, where america's new top diplomat has formally taken office. mike pompeo was accompanied by president donald trump, who said he was sure the new secretary of state would make america proud. mr pompeo — who recently met with the north korean leader — insisted pyongyang must immediately dismantle its nuclear programme. it came as china's foreign minister, who's in north korea, voiced beijing's hopes for progress. jane o'brien reports. mike pompeo became the 70th secretary of state in a ceremony of political theatre, a shot of pomp for a beleaguered department that for a beleaguered department that for the past ye have struggled with morale and direction.” for the past ye have struggled with morale and direction. i want the state department to get its way back. we need our men and women out at the front lines, executing

american diplomacy with great big and energy and to represent the finest nation in history of civilisation, should be proud of that and i'm counting on you all to help communicate in every corner of the world. and true to type, mike pompeo got straight down to business. we are committed to the permanent, verifiable, dismantling of north korea's weapons of mass destruction programme and to do so without delay. even before he was confirmed as america's top diplomats, mike pompeo made a secret visit to north korea over easter. he met with kim jong—un himself visit to north korea over easter. he met with kimjong—un himself in visit to north korea over easter. he met with kim jong—un himself in a bid to pave the way for the highly anticipated summit with president trump in the coming month. the trip caught most people by surprise, like much of us foreign policy itself and the president hinted that more to come. and we'll be doing things that you do not even know about. right now, they're not even a gleam in your eye. we have a couple going right now that a lot of people do

not know about, that are very, very encouraging. mr pompeo's predecessor was often at odds with the president, who frequently contradicted him in public, before unceremoniously firing him by tweet. i think rex tillerson will be much happier now that i really appreciate his service stop me thank you. mr pompeo is clearly more in tune with mrtrump, at pompeo is clearly more in tune with mr trump, at least for now. less clear is whether that will translate into a more coherent foreign policy, particularly on contentious issues such as syria, iran and north korea. let's take a look at some of the day's other news now. the us treasury secretary steven mnuchin — along with a trade delegation — will meet chinese officials shortly. they're hoping to ease the escalating trade dispute between the two countries. the chinese foreign ministry says it expects the talks to be constructive — as long as the us comes in good faith. translation: we believe that as long

as the us side comes in good faith to embrace the general stability of oui’ to embrace the general stability of our trade and business ties, and in an attitude that emphasises respect, equality, and mutual trade benefit and a win—win approach, both sides feel talks will be construct. —— constructive. more on those trade talks coming up on asia business report in 25 minutes. also making news today: the islamic state group says that it carried out one of the worst attacks in the libyan capital tripoli for several years. suicide bombers stormed the headquarters of the electoral commission, killing at least 12 people and wounding a number of others. is has threatened to strike against elections against the muslim world. at least five people have died after a military cargo plane crashed near an airport in the us state of georgia. the air force confirmed that an air national guard plane crashed in the area during a training flight and survivors were unlikely. the hercules transport had five personnel aboard when it went down.

a major australian bank has admitted that it's lost the historical bank statements belonging to almost 20 million personal accounts. commonwealth bank said it discovered the loss of two magnetic tapes holding the banking information in 2016, but chose not to make that information public at the time. now, liverpool have reached the final of the champions league, despite losing to roma at the olympic stadium in the italian capital. the english premier league side lost 4—2 in the second leg of their semi—final, but they go through on an aggregate score of seven goals to six. it means that liverpool will meet real madrid in the final later this month. and an endangered animal, a jerboa, has been found in china. this one had an injured leg and was rescued

after a villager spotted it in qingyang city, in northwest china's gansu's province. it'll be released into its natural habitat once it recovers. taiwan has lost yet another diplomatic friend in the world this week, as the dominican republic announced it was switching allegiance to china. china and taiwan have been ruled separately since the end of the chinese civil war in 1949, and both governments in beijing and taipei insist that countries cannot recognise both of them. so where are the remaining friends of taipei, as it appears to face an increasingly isolated future? we counted i9 allies around the world. some of them are small island states in the pacific, including the solomon islands and palau. when it comes to africa, taipei has two allies there, burkina faso and swaziland. there's a higher friends count in latin america and the caribbean, including haiti, nicaragua, honduras and paraguay. meanwhile in europe, the vatican city is the only ally left and it's feared that friendship could fizzle out soon.

let's cross over now to our correspondent in taipei, cindy sui. how much of a blow has been for taiwan losing the dominican republic as an ally? well, definitely it has been a major psychological blow because as you mentioned, i want only now has 19 allies in the world and what is especially worrying for taiwan is that this could create a domino effect, that i losing panama last year and also now dominican republic, that other countries will follow suit and that china very clearly is trying to lure away taiwan's allies. now, on a practical level, that means there will be fewer countries in the world to lobby for taiwan at the un, where it is not allowed to be because it is not considered a country, and there

will be fewer chances of people speaking up for taiwan to let it participate in un organisations such as the world health assembly or other groups, and at the same time it feels increasingly politically internationally isolated and it will have to find other means to make friendships, even if it is not on the formal diplomatic level. all right, it is done to 19 allies and there is this the right now in taiwan that there could be a domino effect with other countries following the lead of the dominican republic. tell us, why the countries switch allegiance? well, you hear from taiwan's government and the media this week, you would think that it media this week, you would think thatitis media this week, you would think that it is all china's fault and that it is all china's fault and that these countries have no sense of loyalty, that they have received so much aid from taiwan, that really it not understand what real friendship is about. but if you look at it from the water level and with less emotion, he realised that actually these countries in central america, in africa, in south

america, in africa, in south america, they actually increasingly trading china, and china is very powerful economically, of course. for one country, especially dominican republic, trade has been increasing and the paraguay, which is in south america, that is the next one that people think will switch to china, china is one of its biggest trading partners and even countries like nicaraguan, it has a left—leaning government. one has to remember that china is actually the second largest economy in the world and it is only natural for these countries to want to have diplomatic ties with china, especially because china is also now dangling financial incentives that are huge. we had from the foreign ministry in taiwan that china promised $3 billion in loa ns to that china promised $3 billion in loans to the dominican republic, to build all kinds of infrastructure and taiwan simply cannot compete with that because they have a much smaller economy. taiwan losing yet

another diplomatic friend in the dominican republic. thank you so much for that update. after months of resistance, myanmar‘s leader aung san suu kyi says she will now allow un agencies to help with the return of some of the one million rohingya refugees in bangladesh. in what seems be a significant softening of her position, ms suu kyi said the involvement of outsiders would strengthen her government's ability to ensure refugees can come back "without fear". here's our myanmar correspondent, nick beake. with a wound i million rohingya refugees stuck in makeshift camps in bangladesh, this is the biggest refugee crisis in asia, the biggest refugee crisis in asia, the biggest refugee crisis in the world today. but so far, the message from here in myanmar has been no, we do not want any help from the outside world. however, there has now been a change in tone and message from aung san suu kyi. she is at the time is right

for the un to come in with their expertise and help the government. she says together they want to create the conditions whereby rohingya can come back and not live infear, as rohingya can come back and not live in fear, as she puts it. un seems to think they pretty near the signing some sort of agreement with the authorities here. we will have to wait and see. speak to human rights groups and they are sceptical, they say look at the 500,000 rohingya people who have not led to their lives still in rakhine state, they do not have access to education healthcare and they do not have citizenship. they think that they should be the priority before other people are back so a change of message from aung san suu kyi but for now, it is changing words, not a in actions. —— a change in words. may the 3rd is world press freedom day. in myanmar, two reutersjournalists who were investigating violence against the rohingya minority were arrested last december, and their trial is still going on.

it comes just a few days after a twin bomb attack in kabul killed ninejournalists and one of bbc‘s own reporters, ahmad shah, was shot dead in eastern afghanistan. earlier, i spoke about this with the chief operating officer at thomson reuters, reg chua. overnight, there was a ruling by the judge that the testimony of a police captain, who said that our two reporters had been set up, thejudge ruled that his testimony was credible and that he would be brought back for further questioning. the prosecution had attempted to declare him, i guess, a hostile witness and his testimony not credible, so this is a good step forward. we welcome that, obviously we do not think they should be in jail to we do not think they should be in jailto begin we do not think they should be in jail to begin with but at least now we have got a police officer who is willing to tell the truth about what happened. is now more than 140 days since your two journalist were arrested. —— it is. what effect is

that having on the work of other journalist in the online specifically their ability to report on what is going on in the country? well, you know, ithink on what is going on in the country? well, you know, i think at one level obviously, it has helped galvanise a sense of solidarity amongst journalist ‘s there. i think we have had much is in supported them and we have been really happy to see that support from everyone. on the other hand, people are concerned about what they can and cannot do, even before this they have been restrictions placed on reporting in rakhine state and so on. clearly, there are some issues of being able to report as freely as i think we would all like to. and of course, it may three is world press freedom day. i just may three is world press freedom day. ijust wonder how may three is world press freedom day. i just wonder how typical this situation is, as far as the two journalist in myanmar is. how typical is that of the challenges faced by yourjournalists and

journalist elsewhere around the world ? journalist elsewhere around the world? well, thankfully these are the only two journalist that we have in jail the only two journalist that we have injail but according the only two journalist that we have in jail but according to the international committee, there is more than 216 journalists in jail around the world right now and many more operating under very dangerous conditions. as you know, reuters works all around the world, we work in the difficult conditions. you mentioned afghanistan, we had a photographer barry nearby, he ca ptu red photographer barry nearby, he captured images of the tragic deaths right after the second bomb went off. there has probably been never a more difficult time for journalist is to work around the world, in terms of restrictions, in terms of physical threats, in terms of digital threats to them. i wish i could, i wish there was a happier message on world press freedom day but i am afraid it is not all good news, but we do keep going, i think we all have a real sense of mission and a desire to serve the public. you are watching newsday on the bbc.

still to come on the programme: the company at the heart of the facebook data scandal, cambridge analytica, is to close down. also on the programme: scout troop 6,000 in new york. it is the first troop in the city just for homeless girls. we will be meeting some of them. nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactive levels started to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood

here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they have fighting for for so long. it was 7:00am in the morning, the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm in ben bland london. our top stories: america's new top diplomat is sworn in. mike pompeo pledges to change the course of history on the korean peninsula. us and china trade chiefs are set to meet in beijing in a bid to ease the tariff dispute between the two countries.

the comments made by kanye west suggesting that slavery may have been a choice are still provoking reaction. and there is a lot of interest still in that story on bbc.com. the director spike lee is the latest to criticise the rap star. for his part, kanye west has said his remarks had been misinterpreted. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. let's start with the china daily, and how times change. it leads with the news we reported — china and the us holding trade talks in beijing, starting on thursday. it marks the the first high—level meeting since the row over tariffs. the american delegation will be led by treasury secretary steven mnuchin. the japan times examines a story featured worldwide. over 90% of the global population is breathing in high levels of pollutants, but points out that it is the poorest that are worst—affected,

especially in asia and africa. to hong kong, and the south china morning post. it has this picture of a huge drugs haul, suspected ketamine and cocaine, put on show by police following a raid in kowloon. now, what stories are sparking discussions online? yes, let's look at what is trending right now. and prince harry and his fiancee, meghan markle, have chosen their wedding carriage, and this is it. you mean you didn't have one of these? the couple will tie the knot on saturday 19 may in windsor. the british company at the centre of the facebook privacy scandal,

cambridge analytica, is to file for insolvency in the uk and the us. the firm, which has denied using data improperly obtained from facebook to make targeted political adverts, said its business was no longer viable. our media editor amol rajan reports. it sold itself as the pioneer of a new kind of digital marketing. able to give companies unprecedented control over their message. but tonight, cambridge analytica bowed to the inevitable. the company, which denies wrongdoing, received the data of some 3.7 million users. it was the harvesting of that data which ultimately caused its undoing. in undercover filming by channel 4 news, the company's most senior figures claimed they could decisively influence elections. in recent months, scrutiny

of the company's practices has been remorseless. the offices were raided by the information commissioner. people see the work that we did in the negative light... erstwhile ceo alexander nix stepped down not long after a grilling by the sports and culture committee. tonight, the committee's chairman said this was not the end of the matter. we've got to make sure that this is not an attempt to run and hide, that these companies aren't shutting down in order to avoid being vigorously investigated for the allegations made against them, the misuse of data, the ethics and legality of their practices. those investigations have to continue. we have to know what happened. in a statement, cambridge analytica said... fallout from the controversy is global and ongoing. the founder and ceo of facebook, mark zuckerberg, apologised in washington last month for his company's failure to control the british firm. we didn't take a broad enough you of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake.

and it was my mistake, and i'm sorry. many analysts believe this scandal will have a long—lasting impact. this whole affair has changed people's perceptions of social media. we've drifted into the way that we use these tools without really a clear understanding of the way that that data is used, and how it is targeted by advertisers. we have had too much more mindful people and making people more mindful of what they share a. the company says it will honour its obligations to staff, but many think the company still has questions to answer. tens of thousands of supporters in yerevan cheered as an announcement was made. the leader of the armenian opposition and a crowd of his supporters here in the public square announced that the ruling republican

party is ready to the support the candidate for prime minister that will be proposed by the rest of parliament. at the moment there is only one candidate standing. he lost the vote on may the first, and according to armenia's constitution, the second vote should take place within one week. so the vote is coming up on eight may, and people here in the square, they are absolutely confident this time around that the person that they wa nt to around that the person that they want to lead armenia to its brighter future will become this country's prime minister. now to a girl scout troop with a difference. visit troop 6,000 in new york and you will find what you would at countless meetings across the country — young women working hard to earn that next badge, and preparing for the annual cookie sale. but this troop is the first for homeless girls living in the city's shelters. it is an attempt to build both community and skills. we went to meet those involved.

on my honour, i will try. all: on my honour, i will try. to serve god and my country. all: to serve god and my country. iam i am proud of the first aid kit that we made. 67% of the children who come to us have already been in shelter or living on somebody‘s couch or floor. homeless children go to at least two schools are year. they come from a disjointed education. all of this is trauma that the children internalise. and we saw what happened with veterans. if you don't provide an outlet, that trauma will just fester and fester, and what it does for homeless children is make them twice as likely to be homeless adults.

have you ever changed your appearance or clothing, style, to please others? i have more than enough understanding of what the mothers of homeless little girls are going through, because i was also homeless for three and a half years. when you're going through those kinds of things, you don't think about dressing up, or the little girl dreams that you had. you think they don't apply to you. but what we do, and what we've been able to do, is let them know that they can dream. i would start my own business, like, it would be a clothing business. what are some things that you think you need to have? how would you be successful? i want to be a criminaljustice lawyer, to help people with crime and all that stuff, and i would hopefully want to win all the cases. the girl scouts are helping me become a lawyer by dealing with problems, and just

being considering and caring about how people feel. often you think of shelters as places where dreams don't exist. but the girl scout troops create another place where dreams are fostered, and those will come to a reality someday for these homeless kids. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. sailing the seven seas. one of the world's oldest cruise lines, that is making big money of the asian market by selling old—world british glamour. and, before we go, let's take a look at these pictures. usually at festivals you try to avoid the mud. but this one, held every year in yunnan province in south—west china, is all about the mud. people from the wa ethnic group throw mud around to bring good fortune to all those involved, and the more caked you are, the better your luck will be. hello. there's warmer weather on the way to the bank holiday weekend for

most of us. it is looking dry as well, with increasing sunshine at the weekend goes on. when quite there yet, though. as weather front went through wednesday with rain followed by showers. this weather front is coming in from the west on thursday, though by no means all of us will get rain from it. but even from the word go in the morning, a bit of patchy parts of northern ireland and western scotland, was for many, particularly across eastern parts, it will be clear is sunny, once the sun is up, but it will be chilly, with low single figures in places. and that sunshine will be lost to increasing cloud is going to afternoon. cloud for northern ireland, western scotland, some sports in north—west england and a few in wales. they will be some patchy rain around. should an amount to much. a brisk trees blowing across the northern half of the uk, along with a fresh west, south—westerly wind. around ten to 14 degrees for most places, as high as 17 in south—east england. even into the afternoon, even into the evening, southern part of the cable see a few breaks in that car, allowing a better sunshine to come

through. now, as we go on to thursday night and into friday morning, a lot of cloud around away from east anglia and south—east england, but even here, under clear skies, as it will be first thing thursday. so are the start on friday. a lot of cloud around, misty, murky and places, some outbreaks of rain are deeply affecting the north and north—west of scotland. this little piece of energy runs away northwards. a bit of drizzle, i think, potter western scotla nd of drizzle, i think, potter western scotland and northern ireland. but for many, friday will be a dry day if not a particular sunny day. but when the sun comes through the cloud occasionally it is going to feel warmer. notice those temperatures are starting to edge up. and that is the process that accelerates into the process that accelerates into the weekend, with high pressure for most of us, though the further north—west you are, you are still close to weather fronts with a breeze, it is going to be cooler here compared with elsewhere,

especially north—west scotland. but for most of the weekend this includes the bank holiday. it will be fine, it will be dry, and it will be fine, it will be dry, and it will be getting warmer. just take a look at saturday and monday, for now, on saturday, some cloud to begin the day. rather misty and murky in places and cloud could increase in northern ireland and western scotland. northey scotland beginning to see some outbreaks of rain coming in. but for most it will be dry, and a few spots start to get above 20 celsius. and then for part two of the weekend on sunday, could be some rain effect been mainly the north of scotland, central part of scotland for a scotland, central part of scotland fora time, scotland, central part of scotland for a time, whereas england and wales are looking dry. and again that sunshine dadic to break out more widely, even more so by the bank holiday, along with that welcome warmth. i'm ben bland with bbc world news. our top story: mike pompeo has been sworn in as the new us secretary of state in washington. the former caa director

was accompanied by president trump, he said he was sure he would make america proud. mike pompeo said north korea must immediately dismantle its nuclear programme. the us treasury secretary will meet chinese trade officials soon, along with the delegation. they are hoping to ease the tensions between the two countries. and this video is trending on bbc.com. liverpool are in the final of the champions league, despite losing to roma in the italian capital. they are through to the final on an aggregate score of 7—6. that's all from me now. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.