that is soo kim, former cia agent, speaking to ben bland a little earlier. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: as a un panel prepares to examine the human rights records of brunei, we have a special report on the lgbt community in brunei. also on the programme: you're watching newsday on the bbc. despite widespread concerns, singapore has passed i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. its controversial fake news law. we look at what this the headlines: us and chinese negotiators means for the city—state. are making another attempt to resolve their trade dispute, just hours before new american tariffs are imposed on chinese goods. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, the us seizes a north korean cargo do hereby swear to be faithful ship, alleging violation to the republic of south africa. of international sanctions — just hours after north korea launched two short range missiles. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterand. hello. i'm ben bland in london. also in the programme: brunei under a microscope. the un will be examining but the tunnel is still not yet the country's human rights record. ready for passengers and freight services to begin. singapore's parliament passes a controversial anti fake news law, for centuries, christianity giving authorities sweeping powers, and islam struggled for supremacy. but critics warn it threatens now, the pope's visit symbolises freedom of speech. their willingness to coexist.

roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile live from our studios in under four minutes. in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future it's newsday. of peace and freedom. good morning and welcome to newsday. it's 8am in singapore, 1am in london, and 8pm in washington, dc, where trade talks are under way between chinese and american negotiators. this is newsday on the bbc. they are taking place after a week of threat and counter threat i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. to introduce new tariffs on one another‘s products. i'm ben bland in london. the us is planning to introduce new import charges on chinese products in five hours time, our top stories: even as the talks are taking place. american negotiators are making a last—ditch attempt to reach a trade deal with chinese officials. we'll hear from shanghai if there is no agreement, the us will impose new tariffs in a minute, but first let's look on chinese goods within hours. at the latest trade data. according to the us commerce department, the amount of merchandise — such as mobile phones and household goods — that the us buys the us has seized a north korean ship, alleging violation of international sanctions, just hours after north korea

launched two short—range missiles. from china fell sharply. compared to the previous month, it was down 6.2% to $28.3 billion. let's take a look at some front that's the lowest level since april 2016. pages from around the world. but the report also showed the new york times reports that the total us trade gap — on the plight of the children the difference between what the us of islamic state members now living sells abroad and what it buys — in camps in syria and iraq, actually rose 1.5% last and the difficult decisions facing foreign governments about whether or not to bring their citizens home. month to $50 billion. the south china morning post is reporting on the us—china trade dispute with a headline earlier, i asked our correspondent about china's sincere desire to end in shanghai, robin brant, the trade war, but beijing whether the trade deal can be will defend itself in the face salvaged before tariffs kick—in. of more american tariffs. well, the truthful answer to that is we just don't know. we had a very optimistic outlook about a week ago. america's trade secretary steve mnuchin had talked about 90% of the deal effectively being done, and in britain, the daily mail reports on radio presenter danny baker. but then a reversal, it appears, reportedly coming on the chinese side, with considerable swathes of the draft agreement being rubbed out and changed. he has been sacked by the bbc after tweeting a photo of a chimpanzee in a suit with a caption claiming that it something that donald trump shows the new royal baby leaving hospital. described as the chinese the presenter denies breaking the deal.

but, look, this is the 11th face—to—face talks, liu he the man that it was a racist insult. leading the chinese party — i understand they've gone for dinner now, in washington, dc — has talked about arriving with a rational and sincere attitude. they want a deal. brunei's human rights record will be examined bya un panel they are prepared, though, for retaliatory tariffs if america later on friday. the country faced criticism pushes ahead with its from the international community increase from 10% to 25%. after it introduced sharia punishments, such as stoning but all of this is in the context to death for adultery and gay sex. of a chinese economy where growth slowing down, credit is increasing the sultan last week promised not to carry out any death sentences, here, stimulus efforts but as our south—east asia led by the government are increasing as well, correspondentjonathan head reports, and the government is focused some in brunei's lgbt community onjobs, employment, and trying to ensure stability. so the last thing it wants is the continued uncertainty are still feeling uneasy. of a trade war. nonetheless, we have seen efforts to try and increase foreign access to some markets here — it is wealthy, orderly and sleepy — that's something america wants. a peaceful corner of south—east we've seen protection asia. of intellectual property, that's something america wants. brunei is also deeply religious, by custom and by order of its sultan, absolute ruler but also on the big substantive changes. of this tiny country for more subsidies for those big state—owned companies. than 50 years. and how this whole thing is enforced this is the capital — that's where the problem appears to be. during friday prayers.

and it looks like china's going to give very little ground on that and that's a big problem. the sultan now wants brunei to be even more islamic. he has imposed harsh sharia punishments, provoking international outrage. "it's our responsibility as a muslim the bbc‘s robin brant in shanghai. country, " he explained let's take a look at some recently, in a rare public statement. of the day's other news. but he also promised not the pope has made it compulsory in catholic church law to report cases of abuse or violence by priests and other clergy. to carry out any death sentences. he sent what's called an apostolic letter making it clear that any islam is at the core sexual advance involving of brunei's national identity. the use of power will now be considered abusive. his decision doesn't replace its role in everyday obligations to report suspected life is non—negotiable. offences to the civil authorities. yet very few people here believe thailand's pro military party the harsh sharia laws just enacted is expected to form the next government, six weeks after will actually be implemented. the country's general election. the results put the palang pracharat party in a good position to pick the next prime minister. the vote was marred by complaints brunei is laid—back, over irregularities they say, we're easy—going, and a controversial we are not like muslim societies in the arab world. yet, tellingly, no—one will speak to us proportional voting system. about these new laws. they've been told not to. laid—back it may be, but bruneians know they have no in argentina, a congressman has been freedom to talk openly shot and seriously wounded outside about what the government parliament in buenos aires. imposes on them. his advisor was killed.

deputy hector olivares was walking we got in touch with a woman in the square outside the national congress with his we've called sarah. colleague when they were ambushed too nervous even to meet us, from a car. she was willing to respond on a secure messaging app. like many gay bruneians, it's not sharia punishement chelsea and arsenal have continued she fears, but rising intolerance. england's domination of european football this season with both london clubs making if you're gay in brunei, i mean, the europa league do you feel you can be just final in azerbaijan. chelsea beat eintracht frankfurt as open on penalties while arsenal about it there as if you lived won at valencia. in any neighbouring it follows the dramatic champions league semi's country, like indonesia... with liverpool and tottenham i was able to meet a gay man, dean, making the final in madrid following astonishing fightbacks. not his real name, outside brunei. and finally, these pictures he said he was less concerned about the sharia code. of an ancient royal burial chamber keep a low profile, he said, found in english county of essex, east of london, has created and you won't get into trouble. quite a buzz. we have not been denied it's being described as the uk's "equivalent of tutankhamun‘s tomb". basic human rights. we have not been denied experts believe it belonged to a sixth century anglo—saxon the opportunities to work, to study, prince. to walk around in public. unlike a lot of the reports seem to say, life is as normal as normal gets.

eight years after syria descended well, this is a point where we cross into a bloody civil war, president assad's army is advancing, from brunei into malaysia. in a massive offensive backed by russian air power, this is where bruneians have to come on the last large area if they want to let their hair down of the country still held by rebel forces. the fighting has forced around and have a bit of fun. 200,000 civilians from their homes, leading to warnings limbang, a small riverside town of a new humanitarian crisis. in malaysian borneo, government forces are attacking does very well idlib, northern hama and western aleppo, the opposition‘s last out of brunei. remaining strongholds. the area was protected by a truce 0n weekend nights, it brokered with turkey. but a takeover of some rebel areas by extreme islamist fighters led to the collapse of the ceasefire. 0ur middle east correspondent suddenly comes to life. quentin somerville reports. karaoke bars fill up with bruneians enjoying what they can't do back home. and, so long as they can do this, with barrel bombs and air strikes, bashar al—assad is clawing at the edges of syria's they're not complaining too last rebel province. this most indiscriminate much, yet, about the of weapons has killed dozens new islamic rules. in the last week alone. jonathan head, bbc news, brunei. singapore's parliament has passed a controversial anti—fake news law that gives authorities sweeping powers to block websites and police private conversations. under the new law, which comes

into affect in the next few weeks, the government can order platforms to publish corrections, or in extreme cases, a deadly force has brought remove content it deems to be false. the war back to life. screaming. the rules will also cover personal electronic messages, even on platforms with end—to—end encryption such as whatsapp. the tactics and terror journalists, human rights groups, are horribly familiar. global tech companies and academics but the options for the three have expressed grave concerns million people in idlib have about what this means never been narrower. for freedom of speech. 0rient hospital in kafranbel was one of many targeted. the sick and injured forced out into the open. for months, a deal between russia, the regime, and its opponents turkey kept some kind of peace here. but the cracks are beginning to show. linda lim is a singaporean economist the al—hamdan family and professor emerita at the university of michigan's were asleep in their beds stephen m ross school of business. she was one of almost 100 academics who signed a letter when their home was hit. to the government expressing concerns about the law. she joins me now from ann arbor. welcome to the programme. we know that singapore is already a country that singapore is already a country that ranks relatively badly when it they found the bodies of the children first. comes to freedom of the press. so two—year—old khadija how is it likely to hurt academic was the only one to survive. institutions, as well? well, you

her father ali mohammed, her sister ghazal, and baby brother mohammed died know, the basic work of academics is alongside their mother. actually to contest the facts, four more lives lost to a war established knowledge, and to which has killed more than half a million syrians. explore new interpretations. and so we are right in the bullseye, in the centre of this law, which penalises khadija's grandfather tells us "my son ali never carried a weapon. a fighter jet bombed false statements that are harmful to and killed them. only this girl survived. who else will look after her? the public interests of singapore. we will take care of her." idlib is under the control the problem is this is all very of islamist extremists — broad and vague, and we don't really some influenced by al-qaeda. damascus says it will eradicate them all. know anything that we do could be british jihadists subject to the law. now, we have been reassured that we will not be are among their ranks. subject to the law, mainly because more than 100,000 people are already on the move. many of them have fled they will characterise what we say, aleppo and ghouta. now there is nowhere else to go, so they take cover in olive groves what academics say, our research and open fields. results, as opinion. 0pinion is allowed. contrary facts are probably

and, all the while, the government's not allowed. so it really strikes at offensive continues. the regime is far from done with idlib. the heart of the entire academic quentin somerville, bbc news. enterprise. all right. now, linda, you are saying it also applies to people publishing outside of singapore. as you say, it is a very broad law. so how might that work in the us says it has seized a north korean cargo ship, terms of prosecuting people accusing it of violating international sanctions. it's the first time the us has overseas? well, i don't know the actual mechanics of that, but i seized a north korean ship for breaching sanctions and comes amid worsening relations think that would be very, very contentious. and the reason is that between the two nations. a meeting between kimjong—un academia isjust intrinsically and donald trump ended heavily, heavily globalised without agreement in february. north korea has carried out two weapons tests in the space profession and activity. as we know, of the past week. state media confirmed the latest had been carried out by kimjon—un, singapore is a global city. 0ur describing it as a "strike drill" universities pride themselves on on "the western front". but the pentagon disputed this — being very globalised. most of their saying that the launches faculty in the research universities were of multiple ballistic missiles are foreign nationals. in most of that flew into the ocean. earlier, i spoke to soo kim, who is a former cia analyst the work that happens tends to take on north korea, and asked her — on what basis can the us seize place in groups. you collaborate another nation's ship, with researchers from all over the world. your research is vetted, that when it's not even in us waters? is peer—reviewed, by scholars all over the world. we are published in

international journals, over the world. we are published in well, this all goes back to the negotiations internationaljournals, which between washington and pyongyang over its nuclear programme. singapore university particularly as you recall, during venerate. so yes, the whole thing is the hanoi summit kimjong—un international, and this law says expected to get what he wanted — that was to lift us sanctions that the singapore law dominates or in return for piecemeal tentative denuclearisation on north korea's part. ta kes that the singapore law dominates or takes precedent over anything else, anywhere else. so at a minimum, it would be a legal nightmare. now, linda, there's also lots of critics he clearly didn't get what he wanted. saying this law was rushed through. so we've seen north korea ratchet up imean, saying this law was rushed through. i mean, obviously they proposed it a tensions through rhetoric and now few weeks ago. there've been a lot two missile tests. the united states, for its part, has been pretty discontent of concerns that it controversial. with the way negotiations have been going over the nuclear programme. but it was rushed through, and as a and we've seen a clear violation on north korea's part of the un singaporean, though, how do you sanctions that forbid north korea feel? well, i think as a from exporting coal. this was a un sanction back in 2017. singaporean, i share the same views and we're seeing that the violation has been taking place, has been observed, since 2018. as academics. because i think, as a singaporean, we want our country to be improved. and you cannot be improved if you don't have but with this seizing of the ship, criticism, right? so already how serious an escalation is that

in terms of the tension singaporeans tend not to be very between the two countries? critical of what goes on within should we be concerned by that move? well, this marks the first time that the united states has actually government or society, and i think seized a north korean ship that this will further reduce for violating un sanctions. and the atmospherics of the nuclear people's willingness to speak out. stand—off between the two countries, that the us decided to take this step, it actually shows it may also have a cramping impact that the united states is not pleased with the way things on artistic expression and on are going and that it is taking retaliatory, perhaps like—for—like measures, in response to north korea's two missile tests cultural as well as intellectual within the span of a week. life. so i think it impoverished as the society as a whole. thank you so much forjoining us with your views there. we invited singapore's minister for communications and information, s iswaran, onto newsday to respond to these concerns. he was not available for an interview. on that point about the weapons however, he did join us last month tests, that seems to point when the bill was first announced, in the direction of talks looking saying the law was not designed less likely to progress than getting back on track. to stifle debate or opinion. singaporeans have access to information around the world, well, the thing is, if we were to accord north korea news channels, as well as at this stage with another round of talks without really having internet sites and so on. a clear strategy of what we want, in fact, our objective here is not in the midst of north korea to suppress viewpoints.

ratcheting up tensions, and it is targeted at false statements of fact, not about opinions, not about criticisms, and not in the midst of the missile tests, about even satire and parody. so what we are really aiming to do in the midst of north korea not is to help people have access really holding up to its end of the deal during the hanoi summit, to facts, and avoid some during the singapore summit, of the harmful effects of such it definitely places washington in an even tougher position. information, of false information, so to accord kim jong—un another that can have on the public interest summit at this stage would be and the security. to really fall into you have been watching newsday. north korea's trap. and i just wonder, with the fact that this ship was apparently, so we're told, carrying coal, i mean, north korea wouldn't be able to evade the sanctions unless there was a failure, presumably, on the part of other hello there. nations and financial institutions to properly enforce the sanctions. we've got a couple more showery sure, sure. so the issue of sanctions days in the forecast, enforcement is that, as you pointed out, that all countries have to play a part. before things start to settle and from the perspective down during the weekend, of the united states, as high—pressure begins to build in. we are trying to enforce tougher we should start to see measures on north korea for its violation of un sanctions, temperatures rising as well. but key member countries, in the short term though, that's banking institutions, we've got this low pressure that's governments, they also need to hold themselves accountable which is still influencing for enforcing these measures the weather across the country. from beginning to end and, and the weather fronts through central parts still generating some showers. as in the case of the recent story so it does look like it's

about the united states seizing the north korean ship today, going to be a showery start through more central portions this was an indonesian shipping of the country this morning. company that caught this, a little bit of wintriness over that was impounded in indonesian waters and the united states decided 00:13:08,037 --> 2147483051:43:18,733 at this point to seize the ship 2147483051:43:18,733 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 for further investigation. the higher ground too. but for the rest of scotland, the north—east of england, it's going to be actually a cold start. out of town, could see a little bit of frost again, but less cold across southern areas. so through today, we will have some sunshine to start the day across the south and across the north—east. more cloud through central areas with some showers from the word go, and then showers are likely to develop elsewhere as the temperatures begin to rise in the afternoon. and some of these could be heavy, maybe thundering and slow—moving showers, ‘cause the winds will be lighter as well. but in the sunshine we could make 16 or 17 degrees in the south—east, and double—figure values elsewhere too. this area of low pressure moving into france could bring some wet weather to the channel islands, southern england through friday night. and then, into the weekend, high—pressure begins to establish itself. now, it will be quite a chilly start to the weekend, with the blue colour still lingering, but slowly we'll begin to import some warmer air from the near continent from sunday onwards. so we could have a few showers around at the start of the weekend, before it starts to turn

drier and starts to turn a little bit warmer. so let's have a look in a bit more detail, then, with saturday. it's a chilly start with light northerly winds. there will be plenty of sunshine around, then showers will develop most of them through central and eastern areas, and there will be the odd heavier one too. better chance of staying dry further west, closer to the area of high pressure, and in sunny spots we could make 17 celsius. but a milder day elsewhere. 0n into sunday, i think high—pressure is slap bang on top of us, so it looks like it's going to be a largely dry day. could see a little bit of cloud bubbling up into the afternoon, with the odd isolated showers, but most places will be dry, and temperatures responding as well. 18 degrees across some of the warmest spots. high—pressure still with us again at we head to the start of next week. moving a little bit further eastwards, so we're drawing some of this warmer airfrom france and from spain. so it's going to be a fairly cool start. going to have a little bit of mist and fog through the morning. that should fade away into the afternoon, widespread sunshine, as you can see here. and it's going to be warmer temperatures —

18 maybe 19 celsius, central scotland and in towards the south and the south—west. and it stays fine throughout the week, but there are signs we start to pick up a north—easterly. it could turn a little bit cooler by the end of the week.

hello. i'm ben bland with bbc news. our top story: american negotiators are meeting their chinese counterparts, in a last ditch attempt to reach a trade deal. if no agreement is reached, the us will impose new tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. the united states has seized a north korean cargo ship, which it says was violating international sanctions. earlier, north korea had launched two short—range missiles — raising tensions between washington and pyongyang. and this story is trending on bbc.com. chelsea and arsenal have continued england's domination of european football this season, with both london clubs making

the europa league final. chelsea beat eintracht frankfurt on penalties while arsenal won at valencia. liverpool and tottenham will battle it out for the champions league final. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: