island of lampedusa. the antarctic sea—ice has declined to its lowest winter level on record according to satellite data. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. the chinese foreign minister wang yi has met with white house national security adviserjake sullivan for two days of talks in malta. the discussions come as the world's two largest economies look to stabilise troubled relations. little of substance is being said publicly by either side, but we do have this from a senior us official stressing the effort to lessen

tensions with beijing. the official told reporters that said mr sullivan underscored that the united states and china are in a competition. but that the united states does not seek conflict or confrontation. on taiwan, united states opposes "unilateral changes to the status quo from either side." jake sullivan also emphasised that washington does not back taiwan seeking formal independence from china. i've been speaking to rana mitter, who is chair in us—asia relations at harvard kennedy school and he explained to us the significance of that meeting. i think it is significant for two reasons, the first is it enables a pathway to be set out in which the us and china can dial down the very hot temperature of the relationship between the two sides.

it was just a few months ago there were fears there might be a conflict or war over the status of taiwan. it's very clear that both sides by meeting in malta want to make it clear that's not on the agenda, at least not in the near future. in addition, both countries the united states and china are grappling with the dilemma, they both eat economic growth to improve domestic political circumstances but also need each other at the same time to protect themselves against each other. there are two dilemmas that essentially are the context for this meeting in malta in the last couple of days. we have seen a series of high—profile visits to china and the recent past with live held meetings with officials in beijing. can talks be restored to the previous levels of diplomatic engagement that we've seen? i think we're going to see the friendly relations seen through much of the mid—19 90s and early 2000.

the reason being at that time, chinese economy were in tried with each other. some people including the historical neil ferguson said that you were linked together. that's no longer true because national security in both cases for china and the us is in some way overcoming the need for most efficient economic relationship. it would be cheaper for america to import more from china but also potentially those supplies could be cut off if relations become worse. xi jinping has talked about the need for security as the primary characteristic of chinese politics, not necessarily the highest level of economic growth if it involves being more open to the outside world and particularly the us. these days the relationship is looking a little bit warmer but national security trumps economics in both cases. the us is also saying they do not back taiwan's independence from china. in the past president biden has said the us could defend taiwan militarily if it comes to that. how much of a sticking point is this to iron out differences

between both countries? words matter here. the words "defend taiwan" don't necessarily mean actually sending american troops physically to fight in taiwan. under the taiwan relations act passed by congress way back in 1979 when presidentjimmy carter recognised the united states sorry — china is a government of the mainland. it was also stated that the us congress could authorise payments to allow taiwan to buy weapons, military and get training to defend itself. i think that's really what president biden is referring to in this case. it's a reminder to china that while the us is not looking to intervene military in any direct conflict any more than it is in ukraine it does still have the capacity to train and supply taiwan if it were to be unilaterally placed in a conflict situation. a woman who claims the comedian, russell brand, raped her, has been giving more

details of the alleged attack. in an interview with the sunday times newspaper, she describes how the star asked for her forgiveness, and says she was scared of the implications for herself and herfamily, if she went to the police. the woman is one of four making allegations of sexual assault against the comedian, when he worked at channel 4, the bbc and in hollywood. russell brand denies all the allegations, and says his sexual relationships, were consensual. here's david sillito. russell brand, comedian, actor, political commentator accused of multiple sexual assaults and the rape of a woman that the programme dispatches called nadia. he is grabbing at my underwear, pulling it to the side. i'm telling him to get off me, he won't get off. i was distraught, trying to get out of the house with him being so much taller than me, like holding me up against the wall.

further details have now been published about nadia reporting the incident to a rape crisis centre and a series of text messages investigators say russell brand sent to nadia. the exchange begins with him saying, "i am sorry, i will make this up to you". and then he goes on to ask, "will you everforgive me?" it was just as these allegations first began to emerged that he arrived for a performance in london. on stage he was met by fans with cheers and a standing ovation. he has these days, millions of followers on social media... this is antiestablishment anti—authoritarian. .. where he has cast himself as a voice of dissent against mainstream media. but the catalogue of accusations and concerns about his behaviour stretch over his many years in mainstream tv and radio and the foreign secretary says it raises wider questions about the entertainment industry. i think there are some real challenges where you have these very, very acute

differentials in power. whether that be in the entertainment industry, whether that be in politics and we see this in the commercial world as well. and i think we have to be particularly careful when we listen to the voices of the people who are relatively powerless. 0nly been locked up for four days and yet already... russell brand made his name on channel 4's big brother. dispatches featured claims that staff helped pick out girls for him from the audience. it felt like we were essentially taking lambs into slaughter. channel 4 says it has no evidence that any of the alleged incidents were brought to its attention at the time. oh, no, this is andrew sachs�* answer phone? and the bbc, which parted company with russell brand after a scandal over offensive voice mail messages, has also said it's making urgent inquiries. meanwhile, russell brand has issued a statement vehemently denying all of the allegations. i was very, very promiscuous.

during that time of promiscuity, the relationships i had were absolutely always consensual. i was always transparent about that then. and to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that i absolutely deny, makes me question, is there another agenda at play? however, in 2020, a woman the programme called alice said a relationship had begun when she was 16 and that she'd been assaulted by brand and contacted his agent. i phoned the offices and i asked to speak to his agent. they say they now believe that they were misled by brands denials. and as his tour continues, many others are facing questions about what they were told and what did they do? some breaking news — the british opposition leader, keir starmer, has promised he'll try to re—write britain's brexit deal with the european union

if his labour party wins the next general election. speaking to the financial times newspaper, mr starmer said he would make closer relations with the eu a priority to bolster britain's economic growth. he said there were improvements to be made in areas like security, innovation and research. but he's ruled out re—joining the customs union, the single market or the eu itself. an emergency plan of action has been laid out by the european commission president, following the arrival last week of thousands of migrants on the italian island of lampedusa. ursula von der leyen said european countries had to tackle the migration issue together. the italian prime minister giorgia meloni said the influx to the island and to italy had to be stopped — it wasn't enough to just redistribute migrants across the eu. the bbc�*s mark lowen reports. one of europe's migration

choke points is gasping. more than 8,000 arriving in lampedusa injust three days this week. the migrant centre, built to hold 400, was at ten times its capacity. congested, chaotic, some trying any futile way to get free. today, two new arrivals, rather more planned — the italian prime minister giorgia meloni and the eu president ursula von der leyen, to see for themselves the turmoil at europe's door. italy's leader is under pressure. elected with promises to curb migration, numbers are now double the same period last year. translation: what is at stake here is the future, the future i that europe wants to set for itself, and it is very important to be able to tackle the huge, massive challenges which lie ahead for us, especially in terms of illegal immigration. the eu president offered more

help from the bloc�*s border force to crack the smugglers, and more efforts to distribute migrants across europe — something several eu members have refused, prompting fears she was armed more with rhetoric than with workable solutions. migration is a european challenge and it needs a european answer and solution. it is concrete actions that will bring change on the ground. but lampedusa has repeatedly seen promises come as quickly as the migrant boats and vanish soon after, and patience here is wearing thin. translation: as far as i'm concerned, europe's done . nothing for lampedusa so far. theyjust come here to parade. translation: we've been undergoing this extreme i situation for years and it's not fair that we continue to suffer from it. the camp is emptying out as new arrivals are transferred elsewhere, but conditions remain grim — aid agencies stretched to breaking point.

face to face with the dreams of europe turning to misery, the continent's leaders will try yet again to solve it, just as countless more of the desperate will try yet again to come. mark lowen, bbc news. ukraine is claiming to have recaptured another village, during its offensive in the east of the country. it says that the small village of klishchiivka, has now been cleared of occupying russian forces. the village is just a couple of miles from bakhmut, the city captured by russian forces in may after a long battle. since then, ukraine says it has been re—taking land surrounding bakhmut — including andriivka, which it claims to have taken on saturday. russia has denied ukraine's claims. so what exactly does that mean? and are the ukrainians any closer to making significant progress that changes the face of the war? our security correspondent frank gardner has been working with the bbc verify team

to come up with this assessment. ukraine's big counter—offensive in the south is making progress. but how far have their troops really got? and can they break through russia's defences to turn the tide of this war? let's just remind ourselves. the dark red area is the area occupied by russian forces. the purple area is ground the ukrainians have recaptured. the russian defences consist of two major lines, each composed of several interlocking obstacles — trenches, anti—tank devices and minefields, all covered by artillery. the ukrainians have had to spend most of the last three months picking their way through minefields like this one. you can see the hidden mines circled in red here. they are doing this on foot, sometimes at night and often under fire. hence the slow progress to date. they're also having to find their way through obstacles like this, known as dragon's teeth, designed to stop tanks and armoured vehicles. but we do have confirmed

sightings of ukrainian troops just beyond the first line of russia's defences. like this one, where russian forces are shelling ukrainian positions in a wood. we've geolocated that wood to this point on the map just beyond that first line of russian defence. but so far it's only ukrainian infantry getting through. these yellow dots on the map show where those ukrainian troops have got to. what we're not seeing is big ukrainian armoured formations punching through. and that's because, like this burning british—supplied challenger two tank, they're vulnerable to russia's mines, drones and anti—tank missiles. and russia has been moving in reinforcements. this drone footage was filmed by a russian airborne unit. we've geolocated the ground shown to being close to the town of verbove. but let's remember this battlefront is dynamic, it's constantly shifting. now, on the map it doesn't look like ukraine has got very far in the past three months. but they are steadily wearing

down the russian defenders. and this is where they need to get to — the heavily defended town of tokmak. that would bring russia's main supply route for crimea here within regular artillery range, potentially cutting off russia from its garrisons in illegally annexed crimea. if they can do that, then this counteroffensive can be judged a partial success. and scenes like this will notjust be about a tactical victory. it'll be a strategic one that could end up turning the tide of this war in ukraine's favour. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. bbc news— bring a different stories across the uk. in the fight against crime. together with his handlerjosh this german shepherd is responding to a 999 call. like all police officers he has a colour number

two, his is pd six, better recognition of the essential role these animals play modern—day policing. the force has 26 dogs forjosh, he is not only a colleague but a best friend too.— only a colleague but a best friend too. ~ �* ., g; ~ friend too. we're together 365 da s a friend too. we're together 365 days a year- — friend too. we're together 365 days a year- he _ friend too. we're together 365 days a year. he comes - friend too. we're together 365 days a year. he comes out - friend too. we're together 365| days a year. he comes out with me, he lives with me, when i'm not at work on with him still. in recognition of their service a roll of honours been created for the recognition and reward are part of life, it seems only fair are or luggage friends should feel part of that too. —— for mac luggage friends. you're live with bbc news. new satellite imagery shows the sea—ice surrounding antarctica this year, is well below any previous recorded levels. the map image shows the typical extent of sea ice at this time of year, specifically on the

14th of september. that's the yellow dotted line, but the actual extent of ice is much less than the median. it's a worrying new benchmark for a region that had seemed resistant to global warming. our climate editor, justin rowlatt can explain. isolated at the end of the earth and surrounded by strong ocean currents, antarctica has its own weather system. indeed, until a few years ago, sea ice cover was growing, prompting scientists to hope the continent was resistant to the effects of climate change. that hope is now fading. this graph shows the area of ice around antarctica each year. look how it shrinks to almost nothing in the antarctic summer and then grows back in the winter. let's add in the ice cover this year. that's the blue line. and you can see the continent has seen all time record lows in summer and now in winter, too. here's another way

of looking at it. this shows how much ice there was around antarctica a couple of days ago, on the 14th of september this year. compare that with this. the dotted yellow line shows the average sea ice area on the same date over the last few decades. this year's ice cover is about 1.5 million square kilometers smaller than average. that is an area almost five times the size of the british isles. so what we've seen is just really mind blowing. we're way below anything that we've seen in our satellite record going back to 1979. it's just outside of any reasonable normal or norms that we've seen. so, what's causing this? scientists who study antarctica say lots of factors are likely to be involved, including the fact that this year saw the highest global sea surface temperature ever recorded.

they fear if the trend of shrinking ice cover continues, it will have far—reaching effects. sea ice is super important because it acts like a mirror reflecting incoming solar energy, and that keeps the antarctic climate, but also the whole globe's climate relatively cool. it also impacts ocean currents and weather patterns. so if we lose sea ice, that can have really significant local, regional and global consequences. dr gilbert says antarctica acts like a refrigerator for earth. but lose the reflective sea ice and much more of the sun's energy is going to be absorbed by the darker ocean, driving up temperatures. the worry is the refrigerator could end up acting more like a radiator. justin rowlatt, bbc news. dr t] young, a lecturer in physical geography at university of st andrews, has been giving me his assessment

of the situation. i think the findings are quite significant and of great concern to us researchers, notjust in the uk but all over the world, researchers researching cis because the amount of sea ice reduced... it acts as a natural buffer between the ocean in the solar heating from the suns rays. a reduction of that extent can result in out larger proportion of the ocean surface being heated by the sun. essentially less sea ice means more melting in our two antarctic ocean. until 2016 antarctica is winter cis have been growing in size until 2016 antarctica is winter sea ice have been growing in size and this was a region considered to be fairly resistant to climate change what do you think are the factors that can serve it to the situation we're seeing today? research is still under way until the exact mechanisms.

if i were to hazard a guess the major driver, it would likely be contributing to this would be a combination of the extremely warm air and ocean temperatures that we're seeing in 2023. amplified by the continued effects of climate warming from human activity. it's a double will me right there. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... north korea's kimjong un has left russia, after a six day visit, making a final stop in the far eastern city of vladivostok. he's making the journey back to pyongyang in his armoured train and is not expected to arrive until later on monday. the united nations says at least 11 thousand people are dead and another 10 thousand are missing, a week after two dams collapsed in northeastern libya during a powerful storm. it caused flooding that swept whole neighbourhoods out to sea. one of the hardest hit areas is the city of derna, where there's no electricity or clean water, but international aid is slowly

beginning to get through. public gatherings have been curbed in the southern indian state of kerala, as authorities try to contain a rare outbreak of the nipah virus. they have also closed some schools in the state. the virus usually spreads to humans from animals or through contaminated food, but it can also be transmitted directly between people. now what do a collection of tombs in south korea, a town in india and a viking fortress in denmark have in common? they are amongst the latest places to be added to the united nations list of world heritage sites. our reporter nicky schiller is in the newsroom with more. some of the world famous places that are world heritage sites include the great barrier reef. there's the taj mahal, the pyramids of giza, and indeed the great wall of china. now, globally, there are over 1170 sites in more than 165 countries. but the united nations cultural body unesco's meets each year to consider adding

to this list. member countries get to nominate places. now this time, 50 sites were nominated to make the list. a site has to be cultural and natural heritage from around the world, considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. so what places were added this time? well, amongst them was this — a prehistoric site in the occupied west bank. tel san is nearjericho. it contains evidence of human activity dating back more than 10,000 years. now palestinians claim it's the world's oldest continually inhabited settlement. this town in west bengal is also on the list. india had been working for years to get it, added. prime minister narendra modi tweeted that he was delighted

and that it was a proud moment for all indians. this collection of ancient tomb clusters in south korea, which date back to the fourth and fifth centuries, has also been added. now, the united nations said it showed a diversity of ancient civilisations in east asia. also making the list, a viking age ring fortress. in denmark, there was a tenth century temple complex in the north cambodianjungle and indeed a bronze age site in mongolia. now, globally, it's italy that has the most listed sites like here in venice. that is followed by china. now, the united nations hopes by adding places to the list, it helps protect them for future generations. carlos sainz has won the singapore grand prix — ending formula one leader max verstappen�*s record run of 10 wins in a row. it was close though, with sainze only 0.81 seconds clear at the chequered flag. mclaren�*s lando norris and mercedes' lewis hamilton completed the top three.

incredible feeling, incredible weekend. what think and if everyone for making this huge when it was a tricky beginning but winning at the weekend, we nailed the race, we did everything we had to do. we did a perfect and we brought home. italy for very good be proud. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello. it is shaping up to be a very unsettled and autumnal week of weather with some strong winds and some heavy rain. and talking of heavy rain on sunday, parts of south west england had localised flash flooding because of some really intense downpours and thunderstorms that drifted up from the south. you can see the shower clouds there on our earlier

satellite picture. we've also got a couple of different frontal systems pushing in from the west. so whichever way you slice it, quite a wet start to monday for many of us. still some hefty showers across parts of eastern england first thing. then here comes our band of rain, some particularly wet weather across parts of scotland. behind our rain bands, we see a mixture of sunny spells and showers. some of those could be on the heavy side. and also behind our rain band, a cooler, fresherfeel. so temperatures north to south, 13 to 20 degrees. so cool and fresh as we head into monday night, some clear spells, still some showers. and then here comes our next weather system, a zone of cloud and outbreaks of heavy rain across northern ireland, south west scotland, northwest england, parts of wales. turning very mild down towards the south west, rather chilly across north eastern parts of scotland. so here comes our next frontal system for tuesday that is going to bring some heavy bursts of rain, particularly wet, i think over high ground in southwest scotland, northwest england and parts of wales. to the south of that,

some patchy rain and a fair amount of cloud. but it is going to be windy, particularly for england, wales, northern ireland. inland spots could see gusts of 50 miles per hour. around some of the coasts the winds could be a little bit stronger than that. temperature wise, well we could get to 20 or 21 degrees if the cloud breaks at all eown towards the south of england and south wales. tuesday night into wednesday, we see all these white lines, all these isobars on the chart, that shows us that it is going to be windy still, windy on wednesday, particularly just ahead of this band of cloud and rain, this cold front which will be pushing its way southwards and eastwards through the day. to the north and west of that, well, we see a mix of sunny spells and showers returning — temperatures of 1a to 22 degrees. for the end of the week it does stay very unsettled showers or longer spells of rain and it will often be windy, particularly in the northwest of the uk as we head into next weekend.

a strike affecting america's top three car makers has entered its third day, and workers are warning they could escalate it even further. paving the way for a cleaner maritime industry. we'll bring you the maiden voyage of a ship that runs on a new low carbon fuel.

it's a brand new week. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm arunoday mukharji. we begin in the united states where workers of the top three american car makers are threatening to expand a historic strike which is on its third day. the united auto workers want conditions for its members to improve across the board, including a 40% pay raise over a four?year contract. the auto companies are so far offering raises of around 20%. so far, just over 12,000 of the unions ? that's around 150,000 workers have joined the strike but, in an interview on us television, union president shawn fain warned of a much broader action. if we don't get better officers and don't get down and take care of the member's needs to, we are prepared to do everything we have to do, so the number she was ready. the

membership is fed up, we are