Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. And now, bbc world news. Laura this is bbc world news america. Reporting from washington, i am laura trevelyan. North and south korea. For the first time in over two years, and the north announces it will send a team to the Winter Olympics in seoul. Steve bannon steps down from his platform at Breitbart News. The departure of Donald Trumps former chief strategist just comes as his comments anger to the white house. And domestic robots, self moving suitcases, Driverless Cars the future could be here sooner than you think. Laura welcome to our viewers on Public Television in america and also around the globe. Held and south korea highlevel talks today for the first time in over two years. The south asked the north to end hostile acts, while north korea said it would not discuss Nuclear Weapons. Afterwards, pyongyang said it would send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in seoul next month. Rupert wingfieldhayes has the latest from seoul. Rupert skiers on the slopes of pyeongchang were moving a little slower than they will be in a months time. Then, the worlds best will be flying down. And now we know that when the Olympic Games open here on february 7, there will be a full north korean team competing. They will march in sidebyside with their south korean compatriots. I think with sports, we can put Everything Else aside from and everyone should do their best to achieve their goals in the competition. Rupert north korea is just 50 miles away in that direction, and the north has completely overshadowed preparations for the olympics here. Some teams have threatened to pull out, ticket sales have been slow. You can see this place is not exactly humming with skiers. There is immense relief that the north and south are at least talking. This morning north koreas chief delegate strode across the demarcation line that divides the 2 koreas. He warmly shook the hands of his south korean counterpart. The weather is cold, he said, but despite the cold, the peoples desire for improving relations is unfrozen. It is hard to overstate how dramatic and rapid this shift has been. It is only a month since north korea testfired this huge missile, boasting it could hit any city in the United States. Off the coast of korea, u. S. Aircraft carriers amassed with their decks swarming with the supersonic strike aircraft. It felt like this region was teetering on the brink of war. So is pyongyangs sudden change of heart real or just a tactic to avoid war with america . North korea would like to gain time in order to avoid potential retaliation by the United States and eventually reengage in a production cycle so it can threaten the United States. Rupert the Winter Olympics may be a cover for kim jongun, a convenient excuse for him to step back from the brink. But here in the south, any chance to talk is better than the terrifying alternative. Rupert wingfieldhayes, bbc news, pyeongchang, south korea. Laura for more on todays talks i was joined a short time ago by bruce klinger, a former cia deputy chief for korea and now at the heritage foundation. Do you see these talks as a tactic by north korea to take the pressure off or a genuine strategic shift . Bruce i think more of a tactic. What we have not seen kim jongun do so far like his father did is a charm offensive, and this may be the beginning of the tactic. Every year in the new years day speech they extend an olive branch to south korea. What is different this year is how quickly the new south korean president grasped at the olive branch. Laura do you think that north korea is trying to drive a wedge between the south korea, which has been very concerned about the bellicose rhetoric, and the United States . Bruce very much so. That is a typical tactic that they play up standard interkorean themes, saying that we can solve problems if we just do it without outside i. E. Us influence. We should Work Together as koreans. Theyre playing to that and to president moons concern that there would be provocation during the olympics. Laura do you expect that north korea will not let off any rockets until at least after the olympics . Well, they tend not to do things much during the winter. We may expect a resumption of the robust Missile Launch schedule that we have had the last several years, but maybe in the spring. Laura is it possible, too, that the very cap u. N. Sanctions that americans wanted are having an impact on kim jongun, and that is partly why he has taken this opportunity . Well, kim jongun even admitted as much, that the sanctions were having an impact during his new years eve speech. It is a couple of things. The sanctions having a bite that they want to undermine the International Support for these sanctions, trying to get concessions, particularly from seoul. It is also a way of alternating provocations with a charm offensive, something that predecessor north korean leaders did. I think there are a number of things that play in a pyongyangs tactics. Laura the north completely shut down, didnt they come when the south mentioned the Nuclear Program today. Is that off the table . Right, and as they set from as they said, the talks on the Nuclear Issues would only be between north korea and the u. S. , because they said that the Nuclear Weapons are only targeted at the United States. That, of course, ignores many north korean statements in the past threatening to turn seoul into a sea of fire, threatening to sink the japanese islands. Laura and yet, here in washington there is talk of a bloody nose for north korea, a limited strategic strike. Do you believe that is truly on the table . Bruce i think it is. We are hearing differences in different parts of the government that some are advocating a preventive attack, even if we dont feel imminent fear of a north korean attack, perhaps a limited tactical kind of attack to send a signal to north korea. But most observers and experts see that as very highrisk, dangerous. Laura bruce klinger, thank you very much for joining us. There has been nonstop fallouts fallout nonstop since the infamous book about the trump white house, fire and fury, was released, and tonight comes a highprofile departure. Steve bannon will step down as the executive chairman of Breitbart News. The former white house chief strategist has been criticized for his comments in Michael Wolffs book. The news came after the visit posted the president hosted a group of bipartisan lawmakers in the white house today and urged them to find Common Ground on a comprehensive immigration bill. For more on all of these developers, a brief time ago i spoke to the senior politics writer for u. S. News world report. Lets start with steve bannon stepping down from the important conservative platform Breitbart News less than a week after his explosive comments came in the Michael Wolff book. How significant is his departure from breitbart . David this is a precipitous demise. In one weeks time he has not only lost his relationship with of the president , he has lost his main vehicle for distributing his ideological view, populism and the nationalism. The question is where does steve bannon go from here . He does not have breitbart, which has a huge following on the alternative right, he does not have the financial backing, aause it was Rebekah Mercer big republican donor, who basically signaled that she did not agree with bannons critique of the president , and forced him out of breitbart. Now he is without a home. Laura in going, how much damage has he done to the president particularly with his comments which seemed to soak in. The white house so infuriate the white house alleging that the members of the president s family were treasonous taking that meeting with russian lawyer during the campaign . David i think he did significant damage, which is why you saw President Trump discard him so quickly. Now he has damaged himself. It ricocheted back. It shows that anyone who goes at President Trump in a way, tries to go at him, is diminished in the end. I think he had damaged the presidency, and even though donald trump has a reputation for bringing back old advisers, this seems irreparable at this point because he has implicated the family. Laura and yet for a long time donald trump resisted breaking with him because he was worried about the damage bannon could do from the outside. Minus breitbart, he is presumably neutralized. David he is, but he has gone around the country and endorsed senate candidates. Do they fully discard him . We saw some distance developing. They will pick the president over steve bannon and that is what steve bannon found out. Laura lets turn to the extraordinary bipartisan immigration meeting where the cameras were allowed in, and afterwards, everyone seemed confused as to whether the president had agreed to protection for the undocumented immigrants in imminent danger of deportation without a wall. David it is striking, because not all the time do we see a camera inside the negotiation. Sometimes we see it after. The bring in the cameras beforehand and then they kick them out and get into the details. But we didnt see the president but we did see the president apparently confused about his own position, and then House Majority leader Kevin Mccarthy stepping in and saying, no, we dont agree to a vote on just daca, mr. President. We need concessions for daca including border security, and then the president said, oh yeah, that is what i meant, but im not sure that is what he meant when he said it. Laura republicans have said there is going to be 4 areas of immigration, including dreamers, there will be agreed on in a comprehensive immigration bill. David and chain migration another issue republicans want action on. I dont think they made daylight today. To me, what this indicated is they will go for another shortterm spending agreement and then have to put this aside, because democrats want daca clean. They want protection for these dreamers. Republicans want money for the wall and chain migration dealt with. Democrats have not shown a willingness to engage on that yet. To me, that looks like another kicking the ball down the road and not dealing with it just yet. Laura thank you so much for joining us. David thanks a lot. Hasa the syrian army accused israel of launching a series of strikes on targets close to the capital, damascus. It says both israeli war planes and missiles were deployed and claims it brought down one play. Plain. Israel has refused to confirm the military action. Lyse doucet is in damascus and joined us earlier. How unusual are these strikes that syria is blaming on israel . Lyse they are not unusual. They are now happening every few months. Israel is striking its neighbor, syria. But it comes at a time when israel grows ever more worried about the growing threat along its northern border with syria, and that is because that border has been largely controlled by syria and they are losing ground. For israel, that means not just that the Syrian Military is coming close to its border, it is that 2 of syrias most important allies, iran and hezbollah, are also approaching israel. They happened to be israels biggest enemies in the region. It is fair to say that the real target of the strikes is not the Syrian Military. It is iran and hezbollah. From what we know of the strike, it hit arms depots northeast of damascus which are used by the military and hezbollah forces. Today the israeli Prime Minister happened to be speaking to nato ambassadors, and he emphasized that israel has a longstanding policy, and we have seen it month after month, strikes carried out here, that it will not allow the transfer of any Game Changing weaponry, as the Prime Minister put it, from syrian territory across the border into lebanon. Laura and you are right there in damascus. Is syrias government feeling confident about the way the war is going right now . Lyse you speak to any senior government official, and they say the war is over. All the major cities are back in our hands. The pockets that they are worried about, the suburb of damascus, and you can still hear the warplanes in the sky, you can hear the sounds of fighting, you still see the terrible pictures of emaciated children suffering under a siege of this area, and we are getting reports from northern syria, where russian and syrian warplanes are in action and they are taking the last province of idlib still under rebel control. As far as damascus is concerned, it is over. Laura lyse doucet in damascus, thank you. In other news, rex tillerson, secretary of state, has ordered a new inquiry into the Health Problems suffered by diplomats in cuba. President trump blame to the cuban government for the symptoms ranging from 15 to hearing loss, and called washington to collect most of its staff in havana. Cuba has denied involvement. Ecuador has called for mediation to avoid a standoff over the wikileaks founder Julian Assange , who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london the last five years. Assange refuses to leave the embassy, fearing he will be deported to the usa and put on trial for publishing classified documents. We have had unusually cold weather in the usa, but it has also been snowing in the sahara desert. Northern algeria was hit by a rare spell of icy weather. It didnt last long, though, the snow melting nothing after not long after these pictures were taken. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come, prince harry and Meghan Markle make their 2018 debut, delighting their many fans. In europe, heavy snow across the alps has cut off towns and villages and raised the avalanche risk to the highest level in some areas. A swiss ski resort has begun airlifting tourists out after snow block trains and cars. People are stranded there. Reporter so much snow, literally tons of it. Its sheer weight forces it down to the valley. This is the scene in switzerland. No one was hurt here and up at but the avalanche risk is the highest it has been in almost a decade. Over a meter of snow fell in parts of the alps on monday alone. In this italian resort, residents were evacuated with snow pouring down into their homes. Villages are cut off. Many schools are closed. This is in france. We heard a big noise no tremor, but a very big noise, a huge growl, and then i saw up the cloud coming down, so we ran back into the basement. Always a shock. It is not nice to see. We thought the house would explode. When you see that, your heart sinks. Reporter and in the shadow of famous matterhorn, over 13,000 tourists in the resort cannot leave. Skiing is not possible. The slopes are closed because of the avalanche danger. Residents and holidaymakers alike are being warned to avoid high alpine roads and to follow all safety advice. Those stranded in cutoff villages may have to be patient. Another meter of snow is forecast in the next 24 hours. Bbc news, geneva. Laura if you are a tech guru, right now you are in heaven. It is the annual Consumer Electronics show underway in las vegas, the worlds biggest trade show of its kind, where Tech Companies large and small come to unveil the latest gadgets. This year the attention is on Driverless Cars and advances in Artificial Intelligence. Rory callenjones is there and sent this report. Rory a powerful and largely invisible technology is on the march. It is learning how to drive. It can recognize individual faces. And it knows an awful lot about personal preferences. That technology is Artificial Intelligence, and in las vegas this week, the tech firm is showing off how far it has come. Can we shake hands . In the Las Vegas University lab, im meeting sophia, a humanoid robot. How sophisticated do you think you are as a robot . I want people to perceive me as the robot. However, i would not want people to think i am human. I want to communicate with humans in the best possible ways, including looking like one. Rory sophia, who had advance notice of my questions, has a few practical uses for now, but her creators believe she is a big step on the road to Artificial Intelligence. Our aspiration is to create living, intelligent systems, and there you will see the greatest revolution in Artificial Intelligence. Rory as the giant tech show gets underway, chinas spending on ai and robotics is much in evidence. This suitcase recognizes and follows its owner. Here is chinas biggest, the search giant baidu with a lavish las vegas event with a slogan, ai is changing the world at china speed. It calls itself chinas google, and is already a leader in technologies like facial recognition, and baidu is confident that china can challenge americas ai dominance. China is catching up and the gap is closing. But china has far more people. It is a big market. I think that is a foundation for china to prevail. Rory google, which usually keeps a low profile on this show, has chosen to put its name everywhere across las vegas, stressing its leading role in ai. We are trying to do our best to stay ahead. There is lots of great competition, lots of excitement. What it means is there is a lot of investment in this area, a lot of the best minds working on it. You will see the field advance pretty quickly. Rory it is arriving quite slowly. Vegas, i booked taxi, in an autonomous made by french transport property. It is not just american china racing to get ahead in ai. Laura i spoke to a Senior Editor or short time ago from las vegas. Dan, it looks as though Artificial Intelligence devices are the star of the show out there. Which gadget are you most excited about . It is less about individual gadgets and more about the platform. These Companies Like google and amazon are making userfriendly platforms like alexa. You want to work with companies you are familiar with, and put their assistance in other peoples products. They can get out of the hardware business and focus on building an ai platform. Laura what can the new generation of Artificial Intelligence robots do to help us in our lives . Last have started in the couple of years people buying these smart speakers like the amazon echo. Google has their version, apple has a version that has been delayed by is supposedly coming sometime in 2018. That is fine if you want something that plays music and answers questions and can access your information. The next move is to put it in a lot of things in our house, whether it is in your television or refrigerator or a small display that he put on your kitchen countertop, and then you have access to not only all of , but frankly,ions you get to take advantage of the big cloudbased brains, where all the interesting stuff happens. That is why the google what is so good because it leverages the power of google and the personal information you have chosen over the us share with these companies. Laura speaking of personal iformation come when it comes to devices that monitor your physical activity and health, what have you seen that is cutting edge . Wearables and health tech is a category that weve seen people try to kickstart for several years. The apple watch the most famous version of that right now, but even that is not all that popular. You see people with apple watches, but it is hard to make a case that Everybody Needs one. I saw smart ring that is very interesting. You put it on your finger and it can track your heart rate and your steps, although those are things that a lot of other devices can do. That takes away one of the main reasons you would want to get one of these tracking devices. Laura thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Laura prince harry and his fiancee, Meghan Markle, stepped out together for the first public appearance of the new year. They went to a youth Radio Station in south london, as crowds lined the streets to grade them. Our royal correspondent reports and warning, it contains flash photography. Nicholas they travel with all the paraphernalia of royalty, but harry and meghan are the new royal couple, determined to do things a little differently. This was a visit to a Radio Station housed in old shipping containers. Believe it or not, everyone is listening, and im in the same room as the royal couple right now. Nicholas it was set up 10 years ago to help tackle innercity issues. It gives young people a purpose and trains them to be broadcasters. I can see why youre so popular, because you are so thoughtful in the approach and also so engaging. Nicholas inside the station, harry and meghan were getting getting to another broadcasting class of 2018. Outside it was apparent that royaltys newest recruit is reaching new audiences herself. It was a lot of people of color that were just cheering her on, and honestly, you could tell that she was quite surprised at the reception. She looked shocked, because everyone was shouting for meghan and not really harry. Nicholas we want to see meghan, demanded crowds in south london. Expect to hear a lot of that between now and the wedding in may and beyond. Nicholas witchell, bbc news. Laura cannot wait for that wedding. Remember, you can find much more on all the days news at our website. I am laura trevelyan. Thanks for watching world news america. With the bbc news app, our vertical videos are designed to work around your lifestyle, so you can swipe your way through the news of the day and stay up to date with the latest headlines you can trust. Download now from selected app stores. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. Bbc world news was presented by kcet, los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight on camera, President Trump negotiates immigration policy with congressional leaders at the white house. Then, new details on the controversial trump dossier from a key witness. What more do we know now about the russia investigation . And, actor Tracee Ellis Ross on times up, and the changes sweeping hollywood and the work place. I think one of the things that we all are discovering is thatabuse and discrimination and Sexual Violence is supported by a system of imbalance, and that it is structural. Woodruff plus touchdown, alabama wins