i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: south korea's president wraps up his landmark trip to the north. but is peace within a year really achievable? translation: chairman kim has reaffirmed his commitment towards denuclearisation, time after time again. treachery against clean athletes — the furious reaction from whistle—blowers as russia's three—year doping suspension is lifted. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: britain's brexit blueprint gets a resounding thumbs—down from european leaders. they tell theresa may her plan for an economic partnership won't work. and no to dictatorship. opposition groups in the philippines call for a day of protests against president duterte‘s plans to change the constitution. good morning.

it is 8:00am in singapore, 1:00am in london, and 9:00am in the morning in south korea, where president moonjae—in says he has set a goal of formally ending the war on the korean peninsula by the end of the year. he made the comments after returning to seoul from the north. the two koreas are, of course, still technically at war. but there are concerns that the south korean leader is pushing too far, too fast, as laura bicker reports. the symbolism could not be clearer. this is sacred soil to koreans. they tell stories of it being their birthplace. president moon has publicly longed for this moment, and took time to sample the clear water. he marveled at how far these two countries have come. he even asked kimjong—un not

to build more cable cars, to keep the mountain pristine, saying it was his hope more people from the south could visit. # arirang this time last year, south korea was condemning the north's sixth nuclear test. now, the country's two leaders are hanging out on a mountain, as a k—pop star sings arirang, the unofficial korean national anthem. as soon as he landed in seoul, president moon addressed the press, and reaffirmed the agreement that he made with kim jong—un. translation: chairman kim has reaffirmed his commitment towards denuclearisation, time after time again. he also expressed his desire to complete the denuclearisation in the near future, and focus on economic development. this is notjust any photo opportunity. it is a chance to convey a potent message to the korean people — that even if the united states

is not on board, they'll forge ahead with their own relationship. laura bicker, bbc news, seoul. and you can find more on our website about the meeting between the leaders of the two koreas. just log on to bbc.com/news. let's take a look at some of the day's other news: the world anti—doping agency has ended a three—year suspension on russia. the ban was put in place after a report found state—sponsored cheating during international sporting events, including the 2014 sochi olympic games. some athletes and other nations opposed ending russia's exile. 0ur sports editor dan roan has more. this is one of the most controversial and divisive decisions ever reached by wada, in its 19—year history, defying an unprecedented outcry from athlete and figures in the anti—doping community.

it's worth remembering that russia was punished three years ago for an extraordinary state—sponsored doping scandal. they were found to have sabotaged events like the london 2012 games. it spread across 30 sports, 1,000 athletes. but today's reinstatement of its anti—doping agency means that once again it can test its own athletes, bid for events, its track and field team will be back to full strength soon, racing under its national flag. now, earlier this week, the bbc revealed that wada senior figures had offered a compromise deal with the russians over two key criteria, and that enraged many athletes. now, wada insist that it still means this deal, that if russia doesn't provide key samples and data from its moscow lab by the end of the year that it could be rendered non—compliant once again. but the fear, i think, is that many now feel that wada's independence and integrity has been irreparably damaged. later we will hear from the lawyer

for the whistleblower, who says he is more than disappointed. also making news today: a tanzanian government official says more than 200 people are missing, feared drowned, after a ferry capsized on lake victoria. 42 people are known to have died. witnesses say the ferry was heavily overloaded. the search for survivors has been paused until dawn on friday. it has emerged that one of the two men the uk has accused of carrying out the novichok poisoning in salisbury visited britain three times in the two years before the incident. alexander petrov, seen here on the right, has denied being a russian military intelligence agent, and says he was just a tourist. four people have died after a woman opened fire at a warehouse complex in the us state of maryland. the woman, who is among those who died, is understood to have been a temporary worker there, and to have been acting alone. the motive is unclear, but officials have indicated they do not think it was terror—related. christine blazey ford, the woman who has accused

supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexual assault in high school, has said she is prepared to testify next week before congress, but only if certain conditions are met. her lawyer has also said the conditions for any appearance must be fair. the indian airlinejet airways has suspended a flight crew and launched an investigation after a problem with the air pressure in the cabin left these passengers needing hospital treatment. the flight from mumbai to jaipur had to turn back after some passengers began bleeding from their ears and noses. doctors say some of those who were on board will suffer from temporary deafness. european union leaders have rejected the british prime minister's brexit plan at a two—day summit in salzburg. the head of the european council said theresa may's proposed economic relationship with europe will not work. with just six months until brexit is due to come into effect, mrs may had called on the remaining european nations to evolve their positions. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg reports. in this spectacle, neither

side wants to budge. brexit? there is no progress, there is only position explained. stand—off still is in place. as long as there is no deal, there is a risk of a no—deal. don't doubt this is one against 27. from the german chancellor, a polite rebuff — substantial progress is needed. the french president said the proposals were not acceptable, and those who said britain could leave easily were liars. then, from the boss of the european leaders‘ club... everybody shared the view that, while there are positive elements in the chequers proposal, the suggested framework for economic co—operation will not work. theresa may could not pretend this

afternoon that nothing had changed. instead, she was cross and frustrated. 0ur white paper remains the only serious and credible proposition on the table. so with the eu against your plan, with large chunks of your party at home against your plan, how can you credibly cling on to the deal you struck at chequers with your cabinet? well, look, i'm negotiating, and i'm negotiating hard, in the interests of the british people. yes, concerns have been raised. i want to know what those concerns are. there's a lot of hard work to be done, but i believe that there is a willingness to do a deal. but let nobody be in any doubt that, as i've always said, we are preparing for no deal. have the chances of no deal just gone up? we are continuing to work for a good deal. i think you will have heard both president tusk and a number of the eu leaders saying

that they are looking and hoping — working to that good deal. but there's a lot of work to be done. it certainly is, prime minister. more heat from rival voices trying to force her to ditch her plan. it is looking clear that it'll be very, very difficult to deliver a chequers strategy that will meet their requirements. so it's time for a reset, time for a rethink. the prime minister can't and won't step away from her proposals yet, but the choreography of doing the deal today has gone badly wrong. the uk is on its way out of this club, but theresa may is finding this a long and lonely way out. malaysia's former prime minister najib razak has appeared in court charged with 25 fresh offences linked to the disappearance of billions of dollars from a government investment fund known as 1mdb. he is accused of transferring almost

$700 million from the fund to his personal bank account. four of the charges relate to alleged abuse of power. mr razak denied the allegations. he was flanked by police and security officers as he arrived at the court in kuala lumpur. the latest charges also include 21 counts of money laundering, speaking outside the court, mr najib told reporters he is determined to clear his name. translation: i am not a thief, and hopefully the journey in this court will end up upholding the truth. i have no problem going through the process, as long as i getjustice. i wantjustice so that i'm given a chance to clear my name. if this court acts fairly, we believe that what we hoped for, that the pending decision,

can show that the rule of law truly exists in our country. earlier i spoke to ei sun 0h, who was the political secretary to mr najib until 2011. i began by asking him about the charges. on the one hand, the malaysian people will clamour for very thorough, very open, very fair investigation and subsequent prosecutions into this series of alleged scandals. on the other hand, of course, there's this need to act very impartially, or at least the process will have to appear so. what — in terms of the investigation, how broad do you think it will be? well, i think, as i said, both the new government as well as the voters who voted them into the position, i think they are looking forward to indeed extremely thorough investigations, no matter how extensive these sort of networks of associates who are in a sense

related to this serious scandal will be. so i think in coming weeks you will see, for example, more figures will emerge, for example, to be investigated, to be prosecuted, and so on. so should — najib‘s allies, should they be worried right now? do you think they are feeling uncomfortable? well, if they did not avail themselves of the proceeds of such, shall we say, quote—unquote shady dealings, then i think there is nothing to be worried about. for example, i worked for mr najib before. but if people have sort of ingratiated themselves with some of these proceeds, then of course they have that to worry about. mr razak, najib razak, has denied all the charges and wants to clear his name. we're talking about huge amounts of money. is it going to be found, ever going to be recovered? well, i think it's rather difficult

to recover fully this amount of money, because, well, according to the charge sheets, according to various investigative reports, the money has been dispersed around the world. you are watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: activists call a day of protest against phillipine president rodrigo duterte. but can anything they say dent his popularity among his most fervent supporters? also on the programme: as the world anti—doping authority paves the way for russia's return to international athletics, we'll hear from one of the whistleblowers who got them suspended in the first place. blainejohnson, the

blaine johnson, the fastest man blainejohnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home to canada in a disgrace. all athlete should be clea n. disgrace. all athlete should be clean. iam disgrace. all athlete should be clean. i am just happy thatjustice was served. it is a simple fact that this morning these people were in their homes, tonight those homes have been burned down by the serbian soldiers and police. all the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, are assumedly in case the americans invade. it is no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world, and so the british government has no option but to continue this action, and even after any adverse judgement in australia. concord have crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: south korea's president wraps up a landmark trip to the north. he says kimjong—un is keen to de—nuclearise quickly, so he can concentrate on economic growth. there's been a furious reaction from whistle—blowers, as the world anti—doping agency lifts russia's three year suspension. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. trade between the us and china leads the international edition of the new york times, there is a story about us and china trade. president trump is confident that the us is winning its trade war with china. it reports on how president trump is confident america is winning the dispute. shifting our attention

to the straits times, front cover proposals to combat fake news in singapore. a total of 22 measures have been put forward by a select committee. and the japan times carries a story about the tokyo medical university. you may recall how it was revealed that entrance exams at the school of medicine had been manipulated to favour males. the organisation has now appointed its first female president, yukiko hayashi. those are the peters. —— papers. campaigners for clean sport have reacted angrily to the world anti—doping agency's decision to lift the suspension of russia. it was banned in 2015 after a report found it had carried out a state—sponsored doping campaign. but the head of russia's anti—doping agency, rusada, yuri ganus said the decision was a positive sign for russia's suspended competitors. translation: it is a question of trust, lack of trust

to be precise. in this regard, what we have been working on during these years was to restore the trust of the world anti—doping system, of our colleagues from national anti—doping agencies around the world, and this is we what we'll have to work on, not us only, but all of the russian sport system. earlier i spoke with avni patel, who is a lawyer for whistleblower, dr grigory rodchenkov, the former anti—doping laboratory director at the sochi olympics. i asked her if he was disappointed by wada's decision. saying that he's disappointed would be an understatement. today's decision by wada, he generally believes, is a clear indication wada is not fit to be the regulatory watchdog of clean sport around the world. what about what wada is saying, the fact that they want to maintain and monitor what russia is doing, and the best way to do it is to bring them

back into the fold? well, wada laid out a clear roadmap last year to reinstate rusada, and there were many things that rusada needed to do. the first thing they needed to do was to accept the findings and also turn over the data and the samples for retesting. today's decision clearly indicates that wada is not requiring that transparency from rusada to go forward, but instead is saying that rusada can be reinstated without that for the betterment of the athletes of russia. but the clear message wada is sending is that it cares more about reinstating rusada, for whatever potentially—corrupt reason, than in supporting all of the clean athletes around the world. wada's president, craig reedie, was saying the pressure was on wada to ensure russian sport is genuinely clean now. can they maintain that kind of pressure? i believe that today's decision indicates that they cannot maintain that kind of pressure. in order to pressure

rusada into compliance, they should have maintained their initial requirements, which the requirements that rusada essentially had were to prove, before reinstatement, that they were compliant. now what sir craig reedie is saying is that they're willing to reinstate rusada without that compliance. this week marks the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the philippines, and the rise to power of the late ferdinand marcos. thousands of activists from the country's opposition groups are expected to hold a rally against president rodrigo duterte's proposed changes to the constitution, which they say will lead to a dictatorship. president duterte has in the past defended his "strongman" style of leadership,

saying the country would make no progress if he did not act like a "dictator." church groups in the philippines are spearheading the "anti—dictatorship" protest. manila's auxiliary bishop broderick pabillo has supported a call for people tojoin the rallies, saying that: earlier i spoke to steve wilford, a risk analyst who's spent many years in the philippines. i asked him why president duterte wants to change the form of government. for ostensibly very sensible reasons. the 1987 constitution was, many would argue, quite a rush document in the wake of the fall of the marcos regime, a sort of interim measure, if you like. it created a system of government that some people describe as hyper presidential, it's very, very centralised. currently it is bicameral, you have a house of representatives and a senate, and they want to shift it to a federal form of government. will that help the country?

the argument is a federal system will bring governance much closely to the provinces, and it will bring the application of development money, local investment much closer to the businesses and the people in rural philippines. but a lot of opposition groups are saying that this will open up the constitution for tinkering and changes, and could lead to a duterte dictatorship. you know, rody duterte isn't the first president to try to change the constitution. in fact, all of the post—marcos presidents had a go at it, and they all failed, and they all failed for the same reason, which was a large caucus of congress and the public didn't trust... so will duterte fail? he will, for the same reasons that there's a lack of trust, there's always a suspicion that there's an ulterior motive behind constitutional change, that it could usher in a more powerful president rather than a more devolved country. protests will be taking place today. it is the anniversary of martial law when president marcos declared

it way back in 1972. do you think these protests, these demonstrations will have any effect on president duterte's policies? i don't. president duterte is obviously very single—minded. he's a very populist president. he still, i think, captures the imagination of the majority, although his popularity is sliding in the polls. but these demonstrations arejust a reminder to the general public of the dangers of allowing presidentialism to get out of control, which is exactly what happened in 1972. and there's already been two people power bloodless revolutions way back in 1986, the first one, and another one in 2000, is there the possibility of another one? in our opinion, political stability risk is rising and it's rising because the president's increasingly locking horns with the military.

there's a growing body of people who are disgusted with the way he's executed this anti—drugs campaign. all these factors are coming into play. but will this culminate in mass protests and removal from power? the answer is not as we see it right now. the coalition of forces to bring that about are just not in place at the moment. the indie band wolf alice have picked up the 2018 mercury music prize for their eclectic, enchanting second album, visions of a life. it is the second time the group had been shortlisted for the £25,000 prize. the group beat the likes of noel gallagher, arctic monkeys and lily allen to lift the trophy. the group's singer, ellie rowsell, spoke of their surprise at receiving the honour.

i think i've always found, being a musician, being a performer, the whole music industry extremely intimidating. i've been scared about it and not knowing what i was doing. but here we are, four best friends and we still don't know what we're doing, but we're here. it means everything because... i don't know. i don't know the answer to that question. i'm just so happy! members of the public are being asked to get involved in celebrating 100 years since this world—famous monument, stonehenge, was gifted to the nation by a local couple. the organisation is in the process of adding hundreds of then and now pictures to a digital photo album. visitors from the uk and around the world have been returning to the ancient monument to recreate photos taken decades earlier. the neolithic site was donated by cecil and mary chubb who bought

it at an auction in 1915. it is incredible. i haven't seen it myself! same! you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. i have never been to stonehenge, which go there one of these days of. —— these days. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us, because the future has arrived. the talking microwave is here. we have more on asia business report. iam i am looking forward to that. the talking microwave. see you soon, from rico hizon and me and from the whole team, as always, thank you for watching. hello again. friday is set to be cooler

and fresher, with sunshine and blustery showers. before then, storm bronagh has really been packing a punch across england and wales. a good couple of inches of rain in places, producing some flooding and particularly squally winds of 60mph or so. very squally winds on that cold front as it moves away from the south—east. the centre of the storm is out into the north sea. still some very windy conditions early in the morning across the coasts of north—east england. the rain pushes away and then we're left with this north—westerly wind, meaning sunshine and blustery showers. quite heavy showers actually from time to time, and maybe some thunder in there too. a few getting into southern parts of england, but the bulk of them further north. look at those temperatures, back down again, numbers falling across england and wales, it will feel cooler and fresher everywhere. the winds lively as well, easing down a bit as we head through the evening and overnight. a lot of the showers fading away, a few going in the far north of scotland, cloud increasing in the south—west, but on the whole, a much chillier night with widely temperatures in the mid—single figures.

into the first half of the weekend, wetter weather in the far north of scotland with some showers, and then we've got a slice of sunshine, but the cloud is increasing and thickening from the south—west, and it looks like we've got outbreaks of rain into the south—west of england, wales and the south—east maybe in the afternoon. temperatures are disappointing to say the least. 13—15 degrees at best. second half of the weekend, still a lot of uncertainty. looks like we'll see an area, quite a deep one, low pressure pushing its way across the uk. the centre could be further north. the winds could be further north as well. but at the moment, it looks like england and wales will get the worst of it. some heavy rain pushing its way across england and wales, and some very strong winds, particularly as the rain starts to clear away. as we move into monday, that wet and windy weather should have pushed away into the continent, leaving us with some much drier conditions. there'll be a few showers around, still quite windy in northern

and eastern areas, lighter winds towards the south—west and perhaps a top temperature of 15 or 16 degrees. big changes on the way for next week. instead of the jet stream being right over the uk, driving in all these storms, it gets pushed further north, and that allows high pressure to build in. so that's what's settling things down, and certainly changing the look and the feel of the weather as we head into next week. so tuesday, a lot of dry weather. by this stage, it won't be as windy. light winds for the most part. those are the temperatures, 15 to perhaps 17 degrees. but it will be quite a bit cooler at night. hello. i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story: south korea's president, moonjae—in, says he's set a goal of formally ending the war on the korean peninsular by the end of the year. his comments come at the end of a ground—breaking trip to north korea. he says kim jong—un wants to denuclearise as fast as possible

and concentrate on economic growth. sport's world anti—doping agency paves the way for russia's return to international athletics, provoking a furious reaction from whistleblowers over drugs in sport. and this video is really trending on bbc.com. it shows the newest recruits to chile's police force. these puppies are just 45 days old. they're golden retrievers and they're the youngest members of the canine training unit. when they're fully grown they will be catching criminals. and the top story in the uk: