this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: north korea prepares for the visit of xi jinping, the first by a chinese leader to pyongyang for m years. the leader of a cult in the united states who treated women as sex slaves is found guilty of all charges against him. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme. the philippines declares war on the online sexual abuse of children, many of whom fall victim to members of their own family. america ratchets up the pressure over attacks on oil tankers — showing what it says

is evidence of iran's involvement. it may have been designed to damage rather than sink. either way, it has sparked a huge international tension. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 8 am in singapore. 1am in london, and 9 in the morning in pyongyang, where north korea awaits a visit from the chinese president xi jinping. it's his first visit since he took power — and the first time a chinese leader has visited north korea for m yea rs. it's an important moment for kim jong—un, who's facing growing pressure from the us after his summits with donald trump failed to provide a breakthrough on sanctions and his nuclear programme.

before leaving, mr xi said he was willing to work with mr kim to draw up a ‘grand plan' for stability in the region.this was the scene in pyongyang on wednesday — with chinese flags very much to the fore. official newspapers are playing up the ‘irreplaceable bond' between the two countries. earlier i spoke with katie stallard—blanchette, an asia program fellow at the wilson centre. and asked what we can expect from this meeting? i think on the surface, this is going to look spec calculator. you are already seeing preparations in place. visually this will look perfect, a display of comer artery between these two men. we are seeing xi jinping writing an op—ed in the main state newspaper in north korea, talking about irreplaceable friendship and historic alliance, sailing in the same boat through wind and rain

so this will sound like they are the best of friends but the important background to understand as we watch this visit is how recently these men were not even speaking to each other so for the first five years that xijinping was in power, he didn't meet kim jong in at all and until recently he was backing the un security council sanctions so this is quite a belated discovery of this now irreplaceable friendship between these two men but they will put that to one side to send this signal to donald trump that they are standing side—by—side, and our joint force to be reckoned with. what do you think both sides get out of this meeting? we know china is north korea's closest

security and economic ally but to what extent is xi jinping sending appointed message to donald trump about china's broader influence? i think in terms of china's national interests, this is about xi jinping reclaiming ground he was in danger of losing. we saw this diplomatic flurry, there was a bit of a danger that china was going to be sidelined, that xijinping was not going to be a central player in that relationship is this is partly about him stepping up, that he and china's interests need to be ta ken into account. as he is now facing this tough situation escalating, the north korean alliance has become quite deliberate. we are starting to see it referenced quite explicitly, reporting on a trade dispute. together with the united states, starting to come. he is someone xijinping did not want to be in a room with. he is now becoming quite politically useful. about him stepping up, that he and china's interests need to be ta ken into account. as he is now facing this tough situation escalating, the north korean alliance has become quite deliberate. we are starting to see it referenced quite explicitly, reporting on a trade dispute. together with the united states, starting to come. he is someone xijinping did not want to be in a room with. he is now becoming quite politically useful.

let's take a look at some of the day's other news. jurors in new york city have found the leader of a sex cult which treated women as his slaves, guilty on all charges, including racketeering, forced labour, sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of a child. keith raniere founded the organisation ‘nexium', offering self—empowerment seminars. butjurors found raniere manipulated female members of the group — coercing them into having sex with him, keeping some on starvation diets and even branding others with his initials. he's said to have described himself as the ‘grand master‘ and as a ‘savant‘ and ‘genius'.

yes, and this is a group called nexium, as you say, set up in 2003 by keith raniere and designed as a self—help group, a group with the aim of helping people with personal empowerment but as the details of this trial have shown, the truth is very different and prosecutors described an organisation that was simply a cover for the enslavement of women, a group involved in sex trafficking and some other rather gruesome crimes. he was described as a massive manipulator, a conman akin to a crime family. he denies all the charges and in fact he said all of the sex encounters with women were consensual. clearly the jury disagreed with that and found him guilty on all counts. he could face life in prison.

yes, he will be sentenced in set timber on the likelihood is he will spend the rest of his days in prison. it was a detailed trial as far as the prosecution was concerned. he didn't give evidence himself. they didn't call any witnesses on his behalf. his lawyer did speak and said to the jury, you might find him repulsive, disgusting and offensive. we don't convict people in this country for being repulsive or offensive. unpopular ideas aren't criminal. disgusting ideas aren't criminal. clearly the jury saw it in a different light. also making news — moscow has condemned the decision by dutch prosecutors to put three russians and a ukrainian on trial over the downing of malaysia airlines the four men are accused of killing all 298 people on board with a missile. their trial will take place in the netherlands in march but, it's unlikely any of the men will be

present at their trial. the number of candidates to be the next british prime minister has been reduced to four, after a vote among conservative party mps eliminated rory stewart. the former foreign secretary borisjohnson retains a strong lead, and has increased his support. the new leader will be in place at the end ofjuly. the us congress has debated the idea of reparations for decendents of slavery, at a hearing in washington. there was testimony from, among others, democratic presidential hopeful cory booker, and the actor danny glover: despite much progress over the centuries, this hearing is yet another important step in the long and heroic struggle of african—americans to secure reparations for the damages inflicted by enslavement and post—emancipation and racial exclusionary policies. police in the uk investigating the death of the footballer emiliano sala in a plane crash injanuary this year have questioned

a man on suspicion of manslaughter. the 64 year old, who has not been formally identified, has been released while investigations continue. emiliano sala died along with pilot david ibbotson while flying from france to wales, tojoin his new club cardiff. these images show the dramatic extent of ice lost from glaciers in the himalayas. scientists compared images from cold war spy satellites dating back a0 years, and found the melting has doubled in that time. the main cause is attributed to climate change. let's turn to the philippines now, where alarming new research suggests that around two thirds of young victims of sexual abuse are being exploited by their own parents and family members. the country is considered to be the global centre of such abuse, which has now reached record levels. a warning — you might find parts

of mike thomson's report disturbing: translation: so one time my friend and i took a shower together and we were dressing inside her room and my friend's mother was also in the room with us and initially we thought she was just surfing the web on facebook but then soon we realised that she was taking her videos. jonah‘s experience is all too common. over the last five years, global reports of suspected online child sexual abuse have soared from 110,000 to more than 18 million last year. it's fuelled by paedophiles in western countries paying people in poor nations like the philippines to sexually abuse children to order. some pay thousands of dollars. 0thers, little more than the price of a pizza.

here in central manila, war has been declared on the online sexual abuse of children and it's happening here at the newly established philippines internet crimes against children centre. to make matters even worse, two—thirds of these children are abused by their own parents or a close relative, and the victims are getting ever younger. we are seeing really younger children being abused in online sexual exploitation. in fact, about 50% are 12 years or younger and even we rescued a child who was six months old. police prepare to raid a home on the island of mindanao where it's suspected several children are being sexually abused, following a tip—off from the fbi after the arrest of an american man who'd been communicating with the suspect. it is thought the suspected abusers may be armed but otherwise

physically violent so the police have told me to wait here and keep well away from the scene until they are sure. a 16—year—old girl is led away and a 27—year—old woman arrested on suspicion of sexually exploiting her. the next day, three more children in the house, all aged 14, are taken into care by social services. those accused of sexually abusing children for online purposes, like this woman, face a life sentence. translation: all you wanted to get from me is that i passed videos to him of children having sex. —— a 16—year—old girl is led away and a 27—year—old woman arrested on suspicion of sexually exploiting her. the next day, three more children in the house, all aged 14, are taken into care by social services. those accused of sexually abusing children for online purposes, like this woman, face a life sentence. translation: all you wanted to get from me is that i passed videos to him of children having sex. all the youngsters

in this child shelter, one of many, are here because they've been sexually abused for online purposes. as the fight goes on to combat this appalling trade, so do efforts to understand how this can happen. mike thompson, bbc news, the philippines. the us military says a mine used to attack one of the two tankers damaged last week in the gulf of oman strongly resembled those used by iranian forces. tehran has denied any involvement in the incident. but on wednesday, the us navy took journalists to see the damaged ship, currently anchored nine miles off the united arab emirates. our correspondent mark lowen was among them. it has brought a volatile region closer to conflict — attacks last week on two ships in the gulf, that the us

is blaming on iran. washington says this was the iranian patrol boat involved. today, american forces showed us what they say are fragments of the mine that caused the blast, and a magnet, allegedly part of an unexploded device, resembling those iran is known to have. this type of attack is a threat to international freedom of navigation in international waters, as well as freedom of commerce. as they build their case, the us navy took us out on a rare trip to see one of the stricken tankers. we travelled for an hour from the coast of the uae, through choppy waters, where a fifth of the world's crude oil is transported — a geopolitical flashpoint that feels nervous. as we approached the japanese—owned vessel, the impact of the attack was clear, gouging out the side. if it was a warning shot,

it had a crippling effect. well, you can see the force of the blast here. this is the hole that the americans say was caused by the iranian limpet mine that ripped through the outer and inner hull of this ship. it may have been designed to damage rather than sink, but either way, it has sparked huge international tension. iran says it'll increase its nuclear stockpile next week, due to us sanctions meant to force tehran to the negotiating table. "they're putting us under economic pressure while at the same time asking us to talk", said president rouhani. "that would be like an act of economic surrender." in this crucial choke point, peace is being strangled. neither side may want war, but the risk of an accident is perilously real. mark lowen, bbc news, off fujairah. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: why pakistan's polio immunisation scheme has become

a deadly business for the country's health workers. also on the programme: is australia's working holiday visa programme exploiting backpackers and other migrant workers? there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for a0 years forcibly classified each citizen according to race. germany's parliament, the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat government from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into the night but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. just a day old and the royal baby is tonight sleeping in his cot at home.

early this evening the new prince was taken by his mother and father to their apartments in kensington palace. the real focus today was valentina tereshkova, the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement and i think we might be able to persuade the wife it would be a good idea if i could to get her to go up there for a little while. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: north korea prepares to receive president xijinping, the first visit by a chinese leader to pyongyang for 14 years. the leader of a cult in the united states who treated women as sex slaves is found guilty of all charges against him. and at the women's world cup, japan have qualified for the knock—out stages —

despite losing 2—0 to england. the lionesses top their group — but scotland have been eliminated. more on that in sport today in half an hour. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. we start with the times of india, which reports on the death toll related to an outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome. so far 114 people have died, almost all the victims are children. next we have the japan times, which has this image of the aftermath of an earthquake in the country's north west. 26 people were injured and 800 evacuated following the 6.7 magnitude quake that caused landslides and power outages. and the south china morning post reports that five of hong kong's universities are among the world's top 100.

the university of hong kong was ranked the city's best, coming in at number 26. -- 25. the crippling disease polio has been eradicated in many parts of the world, but in pakistan, there has been a recent rise in cases. more than 20 have been reported this year. the resurgence of polio is party due to mistrust of the country's immunisation scheme — which has led to several health workers being murdered. shumaila jaffery reports. these health workers are on the frontline. they must go house to house to persuade parents to let them give the polio vaccine to their children. but it's hard to convince parents when there is so much misinformation. it can be any rumour or myth that it's a government plot.

and that they are giving birth control medicine in the guise of the polio vaccine. sometimes the parents fear the vaccine contains forbidden ingredients, so they refuse the polio drops. pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where polio is still prevalent. the government was forced to hold a vaccination campaign earlier this year after 800,000 refusals, an attack on vaccinators and police officers, killing three of them. in pakistan's biggest city, karachi, localities like these are run—of—the—mill reservoirs of polio virus. it's the same city, where almost eight years ago, a new chapter of the country's formidable fight against the disease was started, with an attack on the vaccine. people fear vaccination is a campaign against muslims. nearly 100 people have been killed in polio

vaccination campaigns since 2012. this man lost the use of his legs due to the disease. it ended his childhood. now he wants to stop its spread, but it is getting harder. what are the authorities doing to tackle fake information on twitter and facebook? when the government wants to trace someone on social media they can do it easily. these anti—vaccine videos have been created openly and uploaded from somewhere. the government has managed to get some videos from youtube and facebook taken down, but knows it faces a bigger task. i seriously believe that efforts have to be made to de—link the polio programme fromt he rest. we have to own the programme ourselves, we have to come up with an open dialogue sort of a strategy where we should straightaway answer all the concerns of parents. and convincing these parents is more important than ever. more polio cases have been reported in the first six months of 2019, than during all of last year.

australia's working holiday visa programme will be extended next month, giving backpackers and other migrant workers under 30 the opportunity to stay in the country for three years. that's as long as they do six months of work in regional australia, mostly on farms. but there are concerns the system exposes people to exploitation and abuse. there have been reports of backpackers being paid below minimum wage, poor living conditions and sexual harrassment. i've been speaking to fouad awada a lawyer who represents temporary migrant workers in australia. i asked him to explain what kinds of problems backpackers are coming across. in relation to these sorts of matters, primarily, financial exploitation matters, sexual harassment exploitation matters, in relation to employment, in relation to sexual abuse, and primarily in relation to substandard living conditions.

they form primarily the basis for the clients that we represent on a day—to—day basis. so can you explain to us what is it specifically about this visa arrangement for backpackers and young people that puts them at a risk that makes them vulnerable? essentially, what we must keep in mind is that these individuals come from foreign countries. they are not aware of the australian law, they are not aware of, for example, ohs laws in australia, they are not aware of employment laws, they're not aware of the sexual harassment laws, but most importantly, they're not aware of the culture in australia at all. and therefore it puts them at a relatively great disadvantage when it comes to understanding what avenues they have by way of legal redress, or by way of legal options, generally. so it puts them in a really disadvantaged category. what are authorities doing to counter this, then?

i think in general, to answer that question, it's a multifaceted answer. firstly, the government response, the federal government response should be one of enacting legislation, which it has, to counteract workplace safety issues, to counteract sexual abuse at work, to counteract financial exploitation, and substandard living conditions. but the issue is primarily, in my view, that education and awareness needs to be greaterly looked at because on one hand there is employer accountability, and on the other hand there is also the awareness and those backpackers primarily knowing what their avenues of redress are as opposed to someone who doesn't know what their legal options are. fouad, just in a sentence, though, many, most people do have positive experiences? they do, it's one of those

areas where we can't generalise, i know that the criteria in relation to this working holiday visa is primarily that they are between the ages of 18—30, and that they are coming from a country that is supported by the scheme and that they don't have dependent children. it is a relatively broad category and generalising, which i'm aware that we are doing here... it's important to stress that most people have a good time when they do that kind of work in australia. you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. stay with us. with preparations underway for president xi and kim jong—un‘s meeting in pyongyang, we'll look at the state of economic relations between north korea and china. and let's aim high, and leave you with these pictures of a pilot's eye view

from inside a stunt plane's cockpit. this is pilot hugues duval taking time out from his dayjob flying for air france, perfoming at the le bourget air show. hello there. the recent warm, humid, thundery, weather across the south—east was just a little taster of what perhaps might be a bit more widespread across the uk as we head on into next week. more on that in the moment. this is the thundery front which brought those downpours to the far south—east recently, low pressure will be more the dominant feature as we had through thursday. and that will feed in some showers maybe to northern and western areas early on this morning. and also a cooler west or north—westerly wind. so it will be a fresher start to the day this morning, most noticeably across the south—east. at least largely dry with some sunshine. and today, in fact, will be a day of sunny spells and scattered showers. these heaviest and most frequent across northern and western areas.

it will be quite blustery as well across scotland, wind gusts in exposure, 30 or 35 miles an hour. the showers here could be heavy and thundery, same into northern ireland. further south we will see a few showers spreading across england and wales but there's also a good deal of sunshine around, but it will feel noticeably cooler and fresher. 19, maybe 20 degrees in the south—east, closer to 12—16 celsius across scotland and northern ireland. as we head on into friday, high pressure is building in from the south, that will settle things down, but we have low pressure still anchored to the north of the uk. so that will bring another fairly blustery day for scotland on friday, with scattered showers, again a few heavier ones. further south, a better chance of staying dry although there could be a few showers around, close to that high—pressure, the winds will be lighter, so in the strong sunshine it will feel a bit warmer, 20 or 21 degrees, but still on the fresh side for the time of year in the north. high pressure though, builds in, moves across in towards the north sea, during saturday and that will bring us a run of fairly warm south, south—easterly winds. but we will have this area of low

pressure nearby slowly encroaching in as the weekend wears on. for much of the country, it is going to be a fine saturday, a little bit of fairweather cloud bubbling up in the afternoon. we could see an isolated shower but most places will be dry and temperature is away from the east coast reaching below 20 celsius. high—pressure still dominating the scene, i think, on into sunday, this is the area of low pressure which will start to bring more cloud and perhaps a little bit of rain to western areas later in the day on sunday, but we will be importing some warm and humid air during sunday and into next week. so we could see 2a, 25 degrees in the south—east on sunday, and for parts of the country, a bit of uncertainty. it could turn briefly very warm into next week, but that could spark off widespread heavy, thundery showers.

i'm kasia madera with bbc news. our top story: china's president xi will visit north korea on thursday, the first trip by a chinese leader to pyongyang for 1h years. this was the scene in pyongyang on wednesday. before leaving, mr xi said he was willing to work with mr kim to draw up a grand plan for stability in the region. the leader of a sex cult in the united states who treated women as sex slaves has been found guilty of racketeering, forced labour, sex trafficking and child pornography. and this video of a police news conference in australia is doing well on our website. when it was interupted by a man fleeing from police. detective darren edwards drew on his past rugby player experience to execute the perfect tackle. that's all.