i'm rico hizon in singapore. this is newsday on the bbc. the headlines: america's new top diplomat mike pompeo is sworn in with a pledge on north korea. right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the korean peninsula. cambridge analytica, the company at the centre of the facebook data scandal, goes bankrupt. i'm ben bland in london. also in the programme: as myanmar prosecutes two reuters journalists, we look at pressures facing the media on world press freedom day. and we meet a troop of girl scouts. they are young and determined, and just happen to be homeless. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news.

it's newsday. it's 8am in singapore, 1am in london, and 8pm 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 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 the past year has struggled with morale and direction. i want the state department

to get its swagger back. we need our men and women out at the front lines, executing american diplomacy with great vigour and energy, and to represent the finest nation in history of civilisation, we should be proud of that and i'm counting on you all to help communicate that in every quarter 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 diplomat, mike pompeo made a secret visit to north korea over easter. he met with kimjong—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 there is more to come.

and we'll be doing things that you don't 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, rex tillerson, was often at odds with the president, who frequently contradicted him in public, before unceremoniously firing him by tweet. i think rex will be much happier now but i really appreciate his service. thank you. mr 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. jane o'brien, bbc news. let's ta ke let's take a look at some of the day's other news. 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 address the stability of the area with mutual benefit and a win—win approach in mind, it will be constructive. 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 twelve people and wounding a number of others. is has threatened to strike against elections around the muslim world. a 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 about. a major australian bank has admitted that it has 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. 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. liverpool will meet real madrid in the final later this month. an endangered animal, a jerboa, has been found in north—west china. the jerboa is a rare desert rodent which is on the red list of threatened species. this one had an injured leg and was rescued after a villager spotted it in gansu province.

the animal has been treated, and will be released back into its natural habitat once it recovers. 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 and political campaigns 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 the scandal had driven away... 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. the company says it will honour its obligations to staff, but many think the company still has questions to answer. bbc news. 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 around 1 million rohingya refugees stuck in makeshift camps in bangladesh, this is 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 don't want any help from the outside world. however, there has now been a change in tone and message from aung san suu kyi. she says that the time is right for the un to come in with their expertise and help her government. she says together they want to create the conditions whereby rohingya can come back and not live in fear, as she puts it. the un seems to think they pretty near the signing of some sort of agreement with the authorities here. we will have to wait and see. speak to human rights groups though, and they are sceptical.

they say look at the 500,000 rohingya people who have not fled for their lives still in rakhine state, they don't have access to education or healthcare and they don't have citizenship. they think that they should be the priority before other people are. so a change of message from aung san suu kyi but for now, it is a change in words, not in actions. let's stay with myanmar, because 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. press freedom day comes shortly 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 the risks faced byjournalists, and the ongoing trial in myanmar 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, the judge 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 begin with but at least now we have got a police officer who is willing to tell the truth about what happened. it is now more than 140 days since your two

journalist were arrested. what effect is that having on the work of otherjournalist in the online specifically their ability to report on what is going on in the country? well, you know, ithink 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 wonder how typical this situation is, as far as the two journalist in myanmar is. how typical is that of the challenges faced by your journalists and journalist elsewhere around the world? well, thankfully these are 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 very 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. also on the programme: scout troop 6,000 in new york. it's the first troop in the city just for homeless girls. we'll 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.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. and i'm ben bland in 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's 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's 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? it's all about the royal wedding.

it is. prince harry and his fiancee meghan markle have chosen their wedding carriage, and this is it. what do you mean you didn't have one of these? the couple will tie the knot on saturday 19 may in windsor. let's get more on our top story — president trump's newest appointment, mike pompeo. the former head of the cia has officially become the usa's top diplomat. earlier, i asked our washington correspondent, chris buckler, how significant it was that donald trump visited the state department in person, to be at mike pompeo's swearing—in. it really marks a huge difference

between mike pompeo and his predecessor, rex tillerson. it was a symbolic decision, one intended to show president trump is really giving his backing to mike pompeo, that there is a report, something that there is a report, something that brings those two men together and when he walked into the news conference today, you got a sense of place that was i suppose being rejuvenated in some way. there has a lwa ys rejuvenated in some way. there has always been this feeling that because rex tillerson and donald trump or not in the same place that really got the impression that the state department felt they were something set apart from the trump administration. today, cheers and applause and a feeling that the state department was at the centre of the trump administration for the first time and that coincides with foreign policy becoming ever more important with north korea approaching, the iran nuclear deal and syria and russia as well, very

important for the trump administration see really get the feeling that mike pompeo is going to be an important man here and an important man to donald trump himself. you mentioned about north korea. mike pompeo met kimjong—un personally over the easter weekend and there are unconfirmed reports that us prisoners in north korea might be released soon. we know exactly what is on the agenda as far as north korea is in —— is concerned and that includes denuclearisation. nonetheless, the us is also concerned, specifically about three korean americans who have been held by north korea for some time. they are very aware of what happened with otto warmbier who was released last summer otto warmbier who was released last summerand otto warmbier who was released last summer and return otto warmbier who was released last summer and return to america and died shortly after as a result of

brain injuries suffered in north korea. there are also three korean americans. unconfirmed reports suggesting they have been moved out of those notorious labour camps into a hotel and being looked after their ahead of the summit with the intention they will be released but we do have a report from the state department which says we cannot confirm the validity of those reports. as well as the welfare and safety of us citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the department of state. it gives you an idea that this summit is going to be important and their release is going to be one of the issues discussed alongside the important one of whether kim jong—un will be willing to give up his weapons. two men in arrested in philadelphia

star bucks after waiting in the without buying anything have reached a settlement of $1 and have offered $200,000 for an entrepreneurship programme for young people. starbucks is also reached a settle m e nt starbucks is also reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount. in armenia, anti—government demonstrations have been suspended after the governing republican party indicated it would back the protest leader, nikol pashinyan, to be prime minister. tens of thousands of supporters in the capital, yerevan, cheered as he made the announcement. rayhan demitrie is there for us. the leader of the armenian opposition, nikol pashinyan, 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, nikol pashinyan. he lost the vote on 1 may, and according to armenia's constitution, the second vote should take place within one week. so the vote is coming up on 8 may, and people here in the square, they are absolutely confident this time around that the person that they want to lead armenia to its brighter future, nikol pashinyan, will become this country's prime minister. now, to a girl scout troop with a difference. visit troop 6000 in new york and you'll 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.

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. 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. 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 too was homeless for 3.5 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. dream and dream big. a bright future. you have been watching newsday. stay with us.. sailing the seven seas — one of the world's oldest cruise lines that's making big money off 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. hello. there's warmer weather on the way

for the bank holiday weekend. for most of us, it's looking dry, as well, with increasing sunshine as the weekend goes on. we're not quite there yet, though, this weather front went through on wednesday, with some rain followed by showers. this weather front is coming in from the west thursday, though by no means all of us will get rain from it. but even from the word go, in the morning, that bit of patchy rain for parts of northern ireland and western scotland, whilst for many, particularly across eastern parts, it will be clear, it will be 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 as we go into the afternoon. cloud for northern ireland, western scotland, some spots in north—west england, and a few in wales. north—west england, and a few in wales. there will be some patchy rain around, shouldn't amount to too much. and a brisk breeze blowing across the northern half of the uk, moderate to fresh west—south—westerly wind. around 10—14 degrees for most places, as high as 17 in south—east england. even into the afternoon, even into the evening, southern and eastern parts of the uk

will see a few breaks in that cloud, allowing a bit of sunshine to come through. now, as we go on through 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, not as chilly as it will be first thing thursday. so a cloudy start on friday. a lot of cloud around, misty, murky in places. some outbreaks of rain, particularly affecting the north and north—west of scotland. this little piece of energy runs away northwards. still a bit of drizzle, i think, parts of western scotland and northern ireland. but for many, friday will be a dry day, if not a particularly 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 weekend, with high pressure for most of us, though the further north—west you are, you're still close to weather fronts. with breeze, it's going to be cooler here compared with elsewhere, especially north—west scotland. but, for most of the weekend, this includes the bank holiday, it'll be fine, it'll be dry,

and it will be getting warmer. just take a look at saturday and monday. for now, on saturday, i think some cloud to begin the day. just take a look at saturday and sunday for now. on saturday, i think some cloud to begin the day. rather misty and murky in places, and cloud could increase in northern ireland and western scotland. north—west scotland beginning to see some outbreaks of rain coming in. but for most it'll 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 affecting mainly the north of northern ireland, running through central parts of scotland for a time, whereas england and wales are looking dry. and again that sunshine starting to break out more widely, even more so by the bank holiday, along with that welcome, for many of us, warmth. i'm ben bland with bbc news. our top story: mike pompeo has been sworn in as the new us secretary of state in a ceremony in washington. the former cia director was accompanied by president trump

who said he was sure mr pompeo would make america proud. the new secretary of state insisted pyongyang must immediately dismantle its nuclear programme. the us treasury secretary steven mnuchin, along with a trade delegation, will meet chinese officials in beijing shortly. they're hoping to ease the escalating trade dispute between the two countries. and this story is trending on bbc.com. liverpool are in the final of the champions league, despite losing to roma in the italian capital. the english premier league side lost, four—two, in the second leg of the semi—final but are through on an aggregate score of seven goals to six. that's all from me for now.