welcome to newsday, on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl, in singapore. the headlines: kim meets donald — the sequel. reports a second summit between the two world leaders is being planned. efforts to retake idlib, the last pocket of resistence in syria, displace more than 30,000 people. the un has this warning. don't turn the next few months in idlib into the worst humanitarian catastrophe with the biggest loss of life of the 21st century. i'm rico hizon, in london. also in the programme: almost ten years after the end end of sri lanka's civil war, families of the missing are still searching for answers. and what doctors have called a miracle — the baby girl born with her heart outside her body. this is bbc world news — it's newsday. good morning.

it's 8am here in singapore, 1o‘clock in london, and 8:00 in the evening in washington, where the white house says the north korean leader, kim jong—un, has requested a second meeting with president trump and that officials are looking into scheduling one. negotiations on the topic appeared to have stalled after the two leaders‘ historic summit in singapore injune, leading the us secretary of state mike pompeo to cancel a scheduled trip to north korea last month. the white house spokeswoman has told reporters the letter shows a continued commitment on the part of pyongyang to the denuclearisation of the korean peninsula. the president has received the letter from kim jong—un. it was a very warm, very positive letter. we won't release the full letter, unless the north korean leader agrees that we should.

the primary purpose of the letter was to request and look to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to and are ready in the process which we are open to and are already in the process of co—ordinating that. the recent parade in north korea for once was not about their nuclear arsenal. the president has achieved tremendous success with its policy the president has achieved tremendous success with his policy so far and this letter was further evidence of progress in that relationship. a number of things that have taken place — the remains have come back, the hostages have returned, there's been no testing of missiles or nuclear material, and, of course, the historic summit between the two leaders. and this letter is just further indication of the progress that we hope to continue to make. toby dalton is the co—director of the nuclear policy programme at carnegie endowment. hejoins me now on he joins me now on the

hejoins me now on the line. a very optimistic sounding sarah sanders but what art the hopes of this meeting actually happening? inaudible. toby, we are having difficulties hearing yet. can you hear me now? what are the odds of this second meeting actually taking place? i think the odds are quite high. donald trump likes this kind of symmetry so why not give it a second shot. we know that critics of the first meeting, said president trump conceded far too much and that north korea has not then you can arise and the un has said it is not doing that —— denuclearised.

arise and the un has said it is not doing that -- denuclearised. what next? that has to be processed to recognise that north korea has nuclear weapons and how it has to give them up. there maybe some areas of concession the problem now is really a political one year in washington which is how did come up with a realistic approach that is acceptable. recognising that north korea has nuclear weapons and will be slow to give them up. there is oui’ be slow to give them up. there is our prospect of this happening but it will need to be north korea? agenda not washingtons. the two leaders talking, would this be the best way forward to a nuclear free korea? i am not sure they write any other alternatives. the more ministerial work, secretary of state

pompeo not getting a meeting with kimjong—un, a pompeo not getting a meeting with kim jong—un, a follow—up meeting cancelled, to agree on further steps it seems it has to be at this level of the two leaders meeting. the problem is, what will north korea agreed to and what is washington really to give up? sanctions lifting, other steps that will curtail missile capabilities. that is the big question. thank you for joining us today. let's take a look at some of the day's other news: and first to the syrian province of idlib where more than 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. syrian government forces and their russian allies resumed their bombardment of the rebel—held enclave last week. now the un is warning that a large—scale military offensive to recapture idlib could provoke the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the twenty—first century.

0ur middle east correspondent, yolande knell reports there is no tranquility in rural idlib. rescue workers rush to help survivors of another blast. this injured boy, another casualty of the intense bombardment by syrian government forces and their allies. here, it's a frantic scramble to rescue elderly villagers from what is left of their home. increasingly, this looks like the buildup to a major military offensive and that worries un officials. there needs to be ways of dealing with this problem. that don't turn the next few months in idlib into the worst humanitarian catastrophe, with the biggest loss of lives, of the 21st century. in recent days, over 30,000 syrians have fled from their homes in southern idlib and nearby rebel—held areas, according to the un.

0thers, staying behind, resort to desperate means to try to protect themselves. this man is putting together a makeshift gas mask. the syrian government says it is targeting terrorists. this area is the last stronghold for many different opposition groups. islamist militants, jihadists linked to al-qaeda and secular rebels but the un warns that, for every rebel fighter, there are 100 syrian civilians now in danger. yolande knell, bbc news, beirut. also making news today: evacuations have been ordered as the us east coast braces for hurricane florence, in what may be the strongest storm to hit the region in decades. officials say florence is now a category four storm, and is gaining strength. south carolina's governor ordered the evacuation of its entire coastline, while north carolina and virginia declared states of emergency. the united states

has ordered the closure of the palestine liberation organisation's office in washington. a senior palestinian official called the decision a dangerous escalation. it comes as the white house's national security adviser, john bolton, accused the plo of not supporting peace talks with israel. the world meteorological organisation has warned there's a 70% chance of another el nino weather event before the end of this year. the last one occurred in 2015 and 2016 and impacted weather patterns around the world. it was one of the strongest ever recorded, creating heatwaves, droughts and floods. but researchers say they are not expecting this new one to be as intense. sri lanka's national airline has found itself in trouble with the country's president, over a few nuts. president maithripala sirisena has complained that, during a recent trip

with sri lankan airlines, he was treated to some cashews which were not fit for human consumption. the airline has yet to comment on the president's outburst. the war in sri lanka ended in may 2009 with the defeat of the tamil tiger rebels. but the country is still struggling to come to terms with its past. tens of thousands of people were killed and many others went missing. their relatives have been holding protests seeking answers. the bbc‘s anbarasan ethirajan, who reported there during the conflict, went back to see what has changed for the minority tamils. the former rebel stronghold in northern sri lanka. i was here ten yea rs northern sri lanka. i was here ten years ago and the place was in

ruins. today, it is a bustling town. these people want answers are about their loved ones who went missing during the war. translation: during the final stages of the war, we were kept behind barbed fence. the army then asked all those linked to the tamiland then asked all those linked to the tamil and promised general amnesty. my tamil and promised general amnesty. my son, daughter—in—law and two young children gave themselves up. the army took them away on a bus. we we re the army took them away on a bus. we were all crying and watch them go. this was the last time we saw them. these women are not alone. around 20,000 people, mostly tamils, it disappeared during the conflict. as a country, we can have progress and reconciliation in the knowledge that

they have been violations, there had been instances of hundreds of people, thousands of people, and going missing, and we must acknowledge that that should never occui’ acknowledge that that should never occur again. a busy morning in the cultural capital of tamils. nearly ten yea rs cultural capital of tamils. nearly ten years after the war, life appears to be returning to normal but there are still underlying tensions and concerns are among the tamil immunity and they fear some of the court issues which triggered the conflict have not been addressed by government. —— community. the government. —— community. the government says it is looking into it tamil concern, particularly the issue of enforced disappearances. 40,000,10,000, issue of enforced disappearances. 40,000, 10,000, 30,000, 100,000 issue of enforced disappearances. 40,000,10,000,30,000,100,000 but now we are investigating into that.

relatives of the disappeared said when will the loved ones return? when asked how long they will continue to practise, this woman says as long as she lives. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we talk to a wildlife monitoring group which says it has found more than 1,500 online listings of live animals for sale in thailand, some of them endangered. also on the programme: the baby born with her heart on the outside of her body. we'll look at the incredible medical breakthrough that's allowed her to be taken home for the first time. freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down

and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes the spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears. enough! translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. and i'm rico hizon in london.

our top stories: the white house says the north korean leader, kim jong—un, has requested a second meeting with president trump. the un warns that an assault on the syrian city of idlib could become the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century. and among the most read on our website, an egyptian man in saudi arabia has been arrested after a video of him having breakfast with a woman went viral. this is illegal in saudia arabia, where single men and women must sit seperately in public restau ra nts a nd cafes. the incident has divided users on social media. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post looks at the man set to become head honcho at one of world's most valuable companies. daniel zhang, who's described as a free and unfettered spirit,

will be taking over at the e—commerce giant alibaba from next year. the straits times is adding a splash of colour to their front page, as a horticultural story hits the headlines. they spotted these flowering trees in singapore. they're calling them a home—grown version of japan's famous cherry blossoms. and the new york times takes a peak at an exhibition that really deserves the name, underground art. these alien—styled domes are on top of helsinki's newest museum. it's so people can look down on some high—brow art. that on some high—brow art. brings you up to date with of that brings you up to date with some of the papers and. —— that brings you up to date with some of the papers. now, what stories are sparking discussions online? yes, let's looks at what is trending right now. this video of a car chase through an airport has been grabbing people's attention.

the driver decided to take a spin on the tarmac in a bid to escape the police. it resulted in one of the biggest airports in france being closed. but the chase came to an end when the suspect tried to flee on foot. they were surrounded by officials and arrested. that's trending today. they're being billed as the biggest war games russia has conducted since the cold war. nearly 300,000 troops and more than 1,000 aircraft are to take part in the exercises in central and eastern russia. there's nothing new about russia carrying our military drills, but what is different is that china's armed forces will taking part with russian forces for the first time. mongolia is also playing a part. so how significant is beijing's participation and what should the rest of the world make of it? the bbc‘s stephen mcdonelljoins us now from beijing. tell us a little bit more about the scale of these drills, because

they're being described as being as large as some of the major battles in world war two. yes, absolutely. as you mentioned, hundreds of thousands of troops, imagine tens of thousands of troops, imagine tens of thousands of troops, imagine tens of thousands of vehicles. two russian navys involved. thousands of aircraft, tanks. but what will have intelligence agencies really poring over the footage will be to see how the people's liberation army from china interacts with the russian military. now, this is the first timea military. now, this is the first time a non—soviet bloc, a non—former soviet bloc nation has been involved in these exercises, and if you consider in the past when russia has held these huge wargames, it's been with a purpose of preparing to attack china. you can imagine then what a huge change it is to be involving china in these wargames,

and it means the militaries of either side will be able to check out each other‘s gear, how their ta nks out each other‘s gear, how their tanks work, and what it is also designed to check is the interoperability of the militaries of these two countries, and that's what we'll be worrying some in the west west, this idea of the power thatis west west, this idea of the power that is possible if russia and china can somehow pulled together on a military front. they've still got a long way to go to become fully fledged military allies, but this is quite a big step. that's right, there's a lot of concerns about the message these games sent to the rest of the world, but how is it being perceived in china, where some a nalysts a re perceived in china, where some analysts are saying it's a good time, chance for china to learn as they haven't really fought any major battles ? they haven't really fought any major battles? if you were to compare the russian and chinese military experience in recent times, china

hasn't actually been involved in a proper shooting war since that with vietnam in the seventies. 0n the other hand you got the russian military involved in syria, involved in the ukraine, so they have much more experience in terms of actual battle and then can learn from one another. and we should point out that while this is going on, on the sort of pretend battlefield, that xi jingping and vladimir putin will be sitting down in bloody brawl step at this economic conference as well and having discussions —— vladivostok. that will also kind of the ringing alarm bells in other countries along the lines of people should at least be paying attention to what is going on in russia over the next week. stephen mcdonell, thank you for bringing us up to date on those games. hejoins bringing us up to date on those games. he joins us bringing us up to date on those games. hejoins us from beijing. a wildlife monitoring group says it has found more than 1,500 listings on facebook of live animals for sale in thailand, some of them endangered. the group traffic said 200 different species were listed for sale on facebook pages.

a spokeswoman for facebook said it did not allow the trade of endangered species and removed such material as soon as possible. so we looked at 12 facebook groups for 23 days, butjust for 30 minutes a day. and from this short period of time what we discovered was 1,521 live wild animals were offered for sale. these were offered for sale as pets. why is this a problem? they're being marketed as pets. many of the species being marketed as pets are protected under law, they shouldn't be sold. many of them are also endangered, and are already facing many threats in the wild, so they really shouldn't be taken out of the wild. that's the basic problem we're seeing here. it's a vast volume of wildlife being taken out of the wild

and being traded online, and many of these animals are already those in trouble. all right, elizabeth, you mentioned that you monitored these facebook listings over a 23—day period, have you been able to identify the locations of these listings and where these animals are being sold? they're being sold across many places in thailand, from north to south, but as you know, with locations on facebook, it's really up to the person selling and buying to mark their location. so we take this with a little pinch of salt when we look at the locations, but they seem to be across thailand. a spokesperson for facebook has already said that it did not allow the trading of endangered species and removes such material as soon as possible. from your last check,

elizabeth, has facebook taken down these listings? facebook has taken down some of the listings, we understand, but it is a question of whether the postings violate the community standards. so when facebook looks at the community standards, they look at the endangered status of animals, whereas when traffic does its study, it looks both at the endangered status and the legality of animals according to the laws of the country. these might not turn out to be the exact same list. so there are these animals that are being still sold on facebook. elizabeth from wildlife activist group traffic speaking to recover earlier. —— to rico. vanellope wilkins was born with her heart outside her body and with no breastbone. after spending the first nine months

of her life in hospital, the little girl from nottingham, has been allowed home for the first time. she is the only child with this rare condition to have survived in the uk. fergus walsh's report contains some graphic images. this is the moment vanellope's parents dreamed of, taking her home from hospital. it is just for one night for a trial home visit, but it shows the remarkable progress this baby girl has made. she's fought all the way to be here. nine months down the line. it doesn't seem real. she's finally sat in our front room. during pregnancy, ultrasound scans clearly showed vanellope's heart was outside her chest. so, at birth at glenfield hospital in leicester, she was immediately sent for surgery. it took three operations to put her heart back inside and close the wound. her parents were told she had less than a 10% chance of survival, but vanellope has defied the odds. she has no breastbone,

and so nothing protecting her heart, that's why she wears this purple brace, which will be crucial once she starts to crawl. in a few years' time, she'll need more surgery to build a breastbone. the bigger she is, the easier it will be for us to do some reconstructive surgery and using her own cartilages and bones or using some artificial materials. vanellope was transferred to queen's medical centre in nottingham in may to be nearer home. she's continued to make excellent progress, but needs help to breathe, and sometimes a mask to ensure a constant supply of oxygen. her parents are being taught how to manage her care. if they are taking over charge of a child who needs breathing support to sustain their life, they need to be adequately trained and competent to manage all the equipment,

to know when to escalate care, to check for help and to manage emergency situations at home. and despite the challenges ahead, vanellope's parents say they're looking forward to having her home for good. fergus walsh, bbc news. you've been watching newsday. and i'm rico hizon in london. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. stay with us, we'll be looking at what's in store for alibaba now jack ma says he's stepping down? we talk to an author who knew him from the start. and before we go, we'd like to leave you with these pictures of kylie minorgue who took her fans by surprise last night be calling her old neighbours co—starjason donovan up on to the stage. they performed their 1988 hit especially for you at a concert in london's hyde park. it's emerged that jason had cycled to the show and never expected to be singing with kylie. hello there.

full uk weather forecast coming up injust a moment, but first of all, i thought we'd cast an eye with what's going on on the other side of the atlantic. you might have heard, we have a major hurricane on our hands. this is hurricane florence, which is a very powerful category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 140mph. but it's forecast to strengthen, up to 155 mph with 190 mph gusts, and that is heading to the east coast of the united states. landfall probably thursday night around north carolina. it's going to cause big, big problems. just to the north of florence, we've got an area of cloud that extends of miles across the atlantic, right over to the united kingdom. yes, it's a massive weather front, or a couple really. it's going to be pushing southwards, bringing some heavy rain. the rain always heaviest across the hills and coasts of north—west england and wales. to the east of higher ground, it's one of those fronts where the rain's probably not going to amount to too much. but nevertheless there will be some damp weather getting into the east of the pennines, for example.

given it stays quite windy overnight, temperatures will stay up into double figures. and this massive long weather front marks the dividing line between some coolish air that we've got flowing into northern areas, and air that's come in more from the mid—tropical atlantic across the south. so a lot of cloud around, but we are going to see the highest temperatures across southern counties of england. now, i wouldn't even rule out an odd spot of drizzle towards the coasts and hills in the south to start the day. but, for many of us, probably a dry start. now, through the day we'll see outbreaks of rain pushing southwards across wales, quite murky through the bristol channel for a time. and there'll be further showers in western scotland as well. temperature—wise, coolish air across the north of the uk, with temperatures between around 13 and 16 celsius. but, further south, well, the temperatures still into the low 20s. 22, 20 three degrees, something like that around the london area. now, through tuesday night, we're going to see that weather front have a pulse of energy running along it, and that will push the rain back northwards, back into north—west england, back into the north of wales. that's where it starts

the day on wednesday, and then wednesday, the rain will very slowly trickle its way southwards, where it will become confined to southern counties of england to take us into wednesday afternoon. so it will stay quite dull and damp across these southern areas, with the rain perhaps even a bit slower to clear than this. and temperature—wise, 16 degrees in london. so those temperatures around seven degrees lower. it is going to be a much colder—feeling day in the south, particularly on wednesday. the rest of the week sees a bit more sunshine in the south, so temperatures do tend to recover, but the north—west will see further showers from time to time. that's your weather. i'm rico hizon with bbc news. our top story: the white house says the north korean leader, kimjong un, has requested a second meeting with president trump. officials are looking into scheduling another meeting. negotiations on the denuclearisation of the korean peninsula appeared to have stalled after the two leaders' historic summit in singapore in june. you warnings from the un that a forthcoming offensive on the syrian city of idlib could be the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century. more than 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. and this video is

trending on bbc.com. the video is from a shop in colorado where a robbery goes badly wrong for the robber. he drops his gun as he draws it on the sales person. as you can see, she then picks it up and he makes a quick exit. that's all. stay with bbc news. and the top story in the uk: