i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. the headlines: an airstrike carried out by the saudi—led coalition in yemen hits a school bus, killing dozens of children. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok, has risen sharply to over 250. more than 150,000 are now homeless. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: america's vice president sets a goal of 2020 for creating a new space force as the sixth branch of the us military. and portraits of lgbt activists in malaysia are removed from a public photo exhibition on the orders of a government minister. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news.

it's newsday. good morning. it's 8 am in singapore, 1 am in london, and 3 in the morning in yemen, where an air strike on a school bus in the rebel—held north of the country has killed at least 30 children. the saudi—led coalition which carried out the attack has said it was a "legitimate military action" — aimed at missile launchers. with 8 million yemenis facing famine and three—quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid, the new united nations special envoy to yemen has told the bbc in his first interview that the country faces "collapse" unless a political solution can be found. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports a warning, you may find some of the pictures in her report distressing. school bags on their backs,

shock in their eyes. children who'd been heading for a day out. a yemeni child's day ends like this all too often. many in hospital beds. today, three to a bed — and many more dead. this man says an air strike in the market targeted the children's bus. "0ur shops were open", he says, "shoppers were just walking around." this was the school bus in a rebel controlled town. but the saudi—led coalition says it targeted missile launchers, taking aim at saudi cities, accusing the houthis of using children as human shields. an ugly proxy war, in a country teetering on the brink of collapse. i asked the un's envoy,

what if this war doesn't stop? collapse, and massive, massive humanitarian suffering in yemen. and the effect of that on the region — a possible increase in terrorist activities in yemen. al-qaeda, islamic state? so a failed state in yemen has extraordinary consequences for the region, and the wider region and beyond. for that reason, we need to act now. yemen is already the world's worst humanitarian crisis. more of its people rely on food aid like this than anywhere else in the world. millions on the verge of starving. a people desperate for peace, but many doubtful. translation: the warring sides don't want stability for yemenis or the yemeni people to be masters of their own state.

translation: we have had countless rounds of talks. they all failed. but the situation in yemen is now so bad, maybe there is a glimmer of hope that this conflict can be resolved. mr griffiths believes all sides are now ready for a political solution. the attacks are continuing, and the saudi—led coalition was backed by the united states, britain, france, providing weapons and support. that's something we will be discussing in geneva. myjob is to provide the opportunity for the people of yemen to sit down and talk peace. that is what we are here for. we're here to do that in a way that is consistent with security council resolutions, which include the requirement for disarmament and withdrawal of forces. that's the best answer, in my view, to the question about armaments on both sides. houthi rebels armed and trained

by iran are still fighting too. both sides say they're ready to attend talks in geneva next month. the first in two years after two failed rounds. if they keep failing, yemen itself will fail. lyse doucet, bbc news. we have much more on the crisis in yemen on our website. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok, has risen sharply. officials say at least 250 people are now known to have died. since the 6.9 magnitude quake struck on sunday, more than a hundred and fifty thousand people have been left homeless. from lombok, mehulika sitepu reports. more than 350 aftershocks have struck since the quake on sunday

but this one was different. "this was my reaction after my hotel was hit. "i was saying that i am still shaking because i had to run from my hotel room on the third floor." the ceiling was collapsing, glass shattered, walls cracked but all guests were safe. their fear was clearly visible. sturdy buildings like my hotel, 13 kilometres away from the epicentre in the north of lombok, can withstand the shock. but rickety houses where most of the islanders live can not. and that is why tens of thousands of people are now left homeless. these tents are now their homes. many are concerned about what will now become of them and their families. translation: i am scared to leave.

the only way is to stay. i hope the government tends to our needs and helps us to fix our homes. officials say creating temporary shelter has been a priority as has the continued search for survivors. promises have been made to rebuild and ensure the future of every islander. also making news today: the ongoing detention of a renowned photographer in bangladesh is attracting international criticism from human rights groups. organisations including human rights watch have called for a government investigation into whether shahidul alam was tortured in custody, an allegation the police deny. mr alam was detained on sunday over facebook posts relating to mass protests by students calling for safer roads. he'd criticised the government's handling of the protests in interviews with international media. police used tear gas to disperse

crowds at the weekend. at least 50 protesters have also been injured in street attacks. at least 20 people have died after torrential rainfall triggered landslides in southern india. authorities say rescue teams have been sent to the coastal state of kerala where flash floods have destroyed many structures. the national monsoon death toll is now over 700. unconfirmed reports say israel and hamas have agreed a ceasefire after another 2a hours of violence. israeli aircraft hit more than 150 targets in gaza. a pregnant woman and her 18 month old child were killed. palestinian militants fired scores of rockets including a long—range missile into israel, injuring several people. puerto rico has revised up the death toll from the devastation caused by last september's hurricane maria. the us territory has raised the number of victims from 64 to more than 1,400.

the puerto rican authorities are asking congress for $139 billion in aid. this couple are the slovenian—born parents of the us first lady, melania trump. their lawer has confirmed that they have become us citizens. they took part in a naturalisation ceremony in new york on thursday. viktor and amalija knavs had attained their citizenship through ‘chain migration‘, that's the process by which us citizens can sponsor relatives for permanent residency. that's also something that president trump has criticised, as a pathway for terrorists to enter the country. taiwan's government has flatly rejected a proposal by china

to build an undersea railway tunnel connecting the two sides. the proposal has been floated for years and chinese scientists are now reportedly close to reaching a consensus on the design. the proposed tunnel would link pingtan county in china's fujian province with hsinchu city, taiwan, stretching a total of approximately 135 kilometres, or 68 nautical miles. this would make it the world's longest undersea railway tunnel and 3.5 times longer than channel tunnel. it would cost a huge $80 billion with a desired completion date of 2030. 0ur correspondent cindy sui is in taipei with more. not only would it be the world's longest undersea railway tunnel, it would also be one of the most challenging civil engineering projects ever undertaken in the 21st century. if china is to go ahead and build it.

the reason it is hard is because what the engineers would have to do is to go under water for about 200 metres under the taiwan strait, the water separating the two sides, and dig through complex layers of rock including extremely hard granite and come up on the other side of taiwan's city. they need to bypass two earthquake faults to build this tunnel. the tunnel itself would not only be longer than the channel tunnel by 3.5 times but it will also be wider in diameter, about one third wider than its european counterpart. it would be one of the most challenging projects that not only china, but the world, has ever undertaken. why does beijing want this, given the fact you have outlined how would difficult it will be? for beijing, it has been carrying out a series of massive infrastructure projects in what it

considers its territory. we see a tibetan railway, the highest in the world, and also the three gorges dam and the one road 0ne belt project connecting china to its neighbouring countries. this project is notjust a transportation project is it? surely will reduce the amount of time to transport passengers and cargo between the two sides. it takes four hours by ship. this will allow people to whizz through the tunnel in 30 minutes. but this is more than transportation, it is a political goal of beijing to connect the two sides and bring taiwan closer because, after all, it considers taiwan to be a province to be reunified one day and by force if necessary. how do the taiwanese people feel? are they critical? the taiwanese government this week came out with a statement strongly rejecting the project, flatly saying that there is no chance they would have any

discussions with china on this project, given the current circumstances. by that they mean that china has been pressuring taiwan militarily, flying fighter jets around the island and sailing an aircraft carrier around the island to intimidate it. it has also squeezed taiwan's international space by wooing away allies and arresting citizens overseas and deporting them to china. so taiwan says no way, we will not dance to your tune. that is the words of the ministry of mainland affairs council. at the same time we see in at least one online survey, albeit unofficial, that the taiwanese people see this as making perfect economic sense. i want to bring you some live images from california in the us because

wildfires that are continuing to burn. these are images of the holy fire, in southern california, and authorities there say the fire in the cleveland national forest area has burned nearly 10,000 acres and it has displaced 20,000 people. these are some of the live images of the firefighters that are battling the firefighters that are battling the holy fire. 0ver the firefighters that are battling the holy fire. over 600 firefighters are trying to combat that fire, which is one of many mild —— wildfires ranging across the state. these wildfires are taking place over the past few days and to let you know, a 51—year—old man was arrested on tuesday on suspicion of starting the holy fire, the holy fire in southern california which has burned nearly 10,000 acres of land, displacing 20,000 people.

these are live images. staying in the united states, the us vice president says that the time has come grey space force to counteract threats from russia, china, north korea and iran. he sets out plans for the creation of a sixth branch of the military and mike pence has called for $8 billion in investment. 0ur correspondent in washington, chris buckler, has been following developments. donald trump really wants to see this new branch of the military setup, the first there would be for 70 years. and he's been talking about the space force for a number of months now. he even seems to like the phrase itself, he uses it a lot in rallies. what vice president mike pence was doing today was setting out the details as to why this is needed. that's because both the president and vice president need

to get congress to agree to this. so he was setting out exactly why this space force is necessary. he was talking about other countries, saying that there are countries like russia, china, iran and north korea, that are all developing technology that could lead to problems for the us in space, for example, anti—satellite technology. so mike pence gave us an idea of how this is being viewed by the administration, they talk about it really potentially turning into a battlefield, of this being a war—fighting domain. it gives you the sense that america needs to take this seriously going forward, although it has to be said, within congress — and like i said, they need congressional support — there is scepticism. notjust in congress, because things like the air force will not be happy because they deal with missile defence and will lose, potentially, some of their budget. and there is concern

aboutjust how this will work in terms of bureaucracy. how it would be sliced up. although they have managed to get the defence secretary james mattis on board, because he was somewhat cynical not that long ago, and now he says that he sees the merit in it. and certainly, the argument is that you have to have a dedicated organisation, you have to have a space command which they are looking to set up, in order to address these problems going forward. and, certainly, they were saying that if you look at the technology being developed by countries over the next few years, that will become very important. but donald trump seems very committed to this. his re—election campaign has new space force logos which they're asking people to vote on. so he may get a logo and he may get the space force. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: why these photos celebrating 60 years of malaysian independence have been

removed from an exhibition. also coming up on the programme: he's generated controversy for his comments on feminism, but as pakistan's prime minister—in—waiting prepares to be sworn in, we ask women what they want from their new leader. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. 0f the line of fans became bigger, the police prepared for a huge drop of crowd control. —— job. police prepared for a huge drop of crowd control. --job. uganda's brutalformer crowd control. --job. uganda's brutal former dictator has died at the age of 80. he has been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived next lull since being overthrown in 1979

stop low —— in exile since being overthrown in 19 79. 2 billion people around the world have seen the last solar eclipse to take place in this millennium. it began that its journey in this millennium. it began that itsjourney three in this millennium. it began that its journey three hours over canada, ending its journey where the its journey three hours over canada, ending itsjourney where the sun its journey three hours over canada, ending its journey where the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. and i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: an airstrike has hit a school bus in rebel—controlled northern yemen, killing and wounding dozens of children. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok has risen sharply to more than 250. let's take a look at some front pages

from around the world. the ongoing trade war between america and china is featured on the front page of the international edition of the new york times. the paper says attempts to diffuse the tariff crisis looks set to end in stalemate. is an issue that has been dominating discussions in the united states recently and some american companies are rethinking supply chains. the financial times reports of strained relations between ankara and washington, resulting in the turkish lira losing value against the dollar. america wants turkey to release us pastor, andrew brunson. that is certainly a big concern as the diplomatic rift continues between both sides. and the gulf news reports on the first muslim woman set to be elected to the us congress. 42—year—old rashida tlaib, who is a fierce critic of president trump, has been selected to run for a safe congressional seat in michigan. now, kasia, what is trending in your part of the world? the transfer window for the english premier league has

been dominating social media. if you are football fan, do just check out our website. and i'm going to ta ke check out our website. and i'm going to take you to pakistan now. imran khan generated controversy on the campaign trail for his comments about feminism. it's expected he will be sworn in next week as the country's new prime minister. so what do women want for their new leader? maybe those comments were taken out of context, maybe he did not mean to say those. i want to assume that he was trying to play to the right, which is what a lot of politicians in pakistan have to do. i say his views could have been better well rounded and better articulated. he needs to probably look at more women empowerment and addressing the subject accordingly.

i really would love to see 50% women representation in the cabinet. work on electoral reforms. he should be focusing on human development projects and he should also be focusing on macroeconomic stability. i also want him to focus on the increasing polarisation and hatemongering in the society. the one thing that concerns me is his history with regards to blocking women representative legislation or women—friendly legislations. there is no proven corruption against him. what i don't like is that sometimes there is this — too much self—promotion. maybe it's part of politics. i also very much like his idea of promoting, and not believing in the status quo. festival organisers in malaysia have removed two portraits of lgbt activists from a public photo exhibition on the orders of a government minister. nisha ayub is a transgender activist whose

portrait was among those taken down. she talked to me about its removal. first of all, it started from a viral page, that happened on social media and i expected that it would be public and, of course, they would bring the two speakers, which eventually they did. at the beginning, i wasn't too concerned about the pictures being taken away, but at the same time, it worries me the message being brought out to the public in regards of the community in malaysia itself. however, after really looking at the whole matter seriously, i feel there's some miscommunication and misinterpretation of the whole event itself. right. so, tell me, what's the impact in malaysia? have you seen a fair amount of support, or has there been criticism of this as well?

i would personally say it comes from both ways. and there is some support. i was really, really touched to see even some of the activists asked for a page to be brought down. what do you think this tells us about the actions or the behaviour of the new malaysia government, because i know they were elected recently and there was meant to be a real change in the tone? i mean, let's be realistic, it's been not even 100 days of the new government, and i'm sure there is a lot of other stuff that they need to concentrate on. however, what concerned

me, what i've been noticing is the way that the lgbt issue has been put aside by people of the opposition itself. most of the time, issues of lgbt has been raised i the opposition, questioning whether the current government does support the lgbt community. —— by the. from the whole newsday team, it has always, thanks for watching. bye— bye. always, thanks for watching. bye—bye. —— has always. —— as always. good morning. well, yesterday brought quite a change across the country. we had some welcome rain. nowhere near enough, but nevertheless i am sure gardeners and growers out there are happy. we had over an inch of rain in suffolk, also some thundery downpours towards the end of the afternoon and into the evening. that area of low pressure which was responsible is drifting off into scandinavia, but something also that's

interesting is behind that frontal system is introducing slightly fresher air in comparison to of late. that has brought a comfortable start to the day, chilly in some places with low single figures. so a bit of a change to the story. we've not lost summer completely, some of that warmth is set to return, but for today, it's a fairly straightforward day of sunny spells and scattered showers. some of those showers will become longer spells of rain, particularly in the south—east. looking at the afternoon, into the far north of scotland showers should remain well scattered, a fresher feel to the afternoon, with highest values around 15—17 degrees. a scattering of showers for northern ireland and northern england, some of those becoming frequent to the east of the pennines through the afternoon and showers and longer spells of rain into the south—east. by the end of friday, most of those will have cleared away and tempertaures are set to dip again, potentially into low single

figures to start our weekend. we will start the weekend on a positive note with a good deal of dry weather in the story, a little more cloud starts to gather into the far south—west. you can see the first signs of this frontal system — which will bring some rain as we go into the weekend. really, that rain just pushing in into cornwall, eventually moving into the dorset coast as we go into the afternoon, but for most of us it will be a dry, settled would story. —— story. clouding over into the afternoon with temperatures up to around 16—22 degrees, with the sunshine in the south—east that will feel reasonably pleasant. by sunday it looks as though we will see some wetter weather across western areas, if anywhere is likely to stay dry, perhaps the east of scotland and the far south—east corner and quite a humid feel with highs of around 2a or 25 degrees.

early part of next week through the northern half of the country continues with this fresher feel, but something a little bit right from tuesday onwards. further south, that little bit warmer, it looks as though that is where we are likely to see a little more in the way of sunshine, with highs of 25 degrees. i'm kasia madera with bbc news. our top story — dozens of children have been killed and wounded in an air attack that hit a school bus in rebel—controlled northern yemen. the saudi—led coalition said its air strikes were aimed at militants who target civilians, and were in retaliation for a rebel rocket attack. the red cross says at least twenty—nine children died. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok, has risen sharply to over 250. more than 150,000 are now homeless. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it's about how the fast pace of life in china can impact young people's mental health. a 17—year—old's revelations of her work stresses on social media reached more than 33 million people

on the sina weibo website. that's all. and the top story in the uk. england cricketer ben stokes has defended his actions