midnight in london and 9am in seoul, where after months of tension between the two koreas, there's signs of a sudden and dramatic change. for the first time in over two years, north and south korea have engaged in formal military talks to try to defuse tensions between the two countries. the north will also send a delegation to the winter olympics taking place in south korea, next month. our correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes reports from seoul. the skiers on the slopes of pyeongchang today were moving a little slower than they will be in a months time. then, the world's best will be flying down these pistes. and now we know that when the olympic games open here on february 7th, there will be a full north korean team competing. they will march in side by side with their south korean compatriots. translation: i think with sport, we can put everything aside and everyone should do their best to achieve their goals in the competition. north korea isjust 50 miles away in that direction, and the north has really completely overshadowed preparations for the olympics here. some teams have threatened to pull out. ticket sales have been slow — you can see this place isn't exactly humming with skiers. so there is immense relief here that the north and the south are now at least talking. this morning, north korea's chief delegate, ri son gwon, strode across the demarcation line that divides the two koreas. he warmly shook the hand of his south korean counterpart. "the weather is cold", he said, "but despite the cold, the people's desire for improving relations is unfrozen". it's hard to overstate how dramatic and rapid this shift has been. it's only a month since north korea test—fired this huge new missile, boasting that it could hit any city in the united states. off the coast of korea, us aircraft carriers massed, their decks swarming with supersonic strike aircraft. it felt like this region was teetering on the brink of war. so is pyongyang's sudden change of heart real, orjust a tactic to avoid war with america? north korea would like to gain time in order to avoid a potential immediate retaliation by the united states against its wmd facilities and eventually re—engage in the provocation cycle so that it can threaten the united states with nuclear action. the winter olympics may be a cover for kim jong—un, 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 wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in pyeongchang, south korea. later, we'll hear any interview ricoh did with people who are spent time in north korea. —— rico. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. president trump's former chief strategist, steve bannon, has resigned as executive chairman of breitbart news, the right—wing news organisation. mr bannon was widely quoted in a new book which painted an unflattering picture of the trump white house, and which accused the president's son of treasonous behaviour. breitbart said that mr bannon was a valued part of its legacy, and they'd always be grateful for his contributions. here's our north america editorjon sopel on what it means. —— david willis is in washington. the moment that the funding of support behind him, his position became untenable. absolutely. that was the crucial thing that brought about the circumstances and now steve bannon out at breitbart as a result, the mercer is said that they would no longer back its plan to field far right candidates in congressional elections coming up later this year. now they seem to have bowed as well to a request from the white house, sarah sanders, the white house spokesman last week saying that breitbart should consider is that sacking —— sacking steve bannon. that has happened, a dramatic fall from grace as a man who was edited to steering donald trump to victory in the tradies 16 presidential election. but too early to write him off altogether. he is a man of independent means, he was a former hollywood producer, worked at goldman sachs, he is not short of money and there has been regulation at one point one c was busy with white house duties he was starting a right—wing new channel to rival fox news. that project was put on hold because partly he had duties at the white house. now that may resurface, who knows? too early to write steve bannon off. what happens to all the candidate? the candidates that he was threatening in the mid—term, the right—wing candidates that he was going to fund, what happens without planning? it would seem that project has been put on hold. this was a plan to shake up the republican party on the part of steve bannon. the sort of thing he loves to do. article it aimed at the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, a man who has been held in low regard by steve bannon. it remains to be seen whether and other financial backer steps in to help steve bannon achieve that aim but it is a considerably expensive one. he is going to need somebody, if not the mercers to help in that of. fascinating, we will have two wait and watch. think it very much that. as ha rq and watch. think it very much that. asharq thank you very much. —— thank you very much. also making news today. a tanker in the east china sea continues to leak oil, three days after it was hit by a cargo ship. chinese officials say there's a danger the tanker will explode, as well as the added concerns over the environmental impact of the leak. one person has been confirmed dead. 31 of the crew are still missing. police in italy and germany have arrested 169 people in a joint operation against one of italy's most notorious mafia groups, the ndrangheta. most arrests were made in italy, and include the head of the southern province of crotone, and two other mayors. the criminal network is based in southern italy, but it has expanded its reach into the rest of europe. police say at least five people have died in flash floods and mudslides in southern california. it's the first rainfall in more than six months in santa barbara county, which was recently scarred by the largest wildfire in the state's recorded history. a recording of iran's supreme leader speaking almost 30 years ago has emerged in which he says he's not qualified for thejob. the clip which appeared on social media, comes as ayatollah khamenei blamed foreign enemies for the recent unrest in his country. britain's prince harry and his bride—to—be meghan markle have visited the studios of a radio station in brixton in south london, to learn about its work supporting young people. the couple met presenters and staff from reprezent fm which trains hundreds of people every year in media and employment skills. let's return now to our top story: the agreement between north and south korea to hold military talks to defuse border tension, after their first high—level meeting in two years. the us has given the development a cautious welcome. this is what the white house press secretary had to say. the north korean participation is an opportunity for the regime to see the value of ending its international isolation, by denuclearising. we hope we can move forward on that front. earlier i spoke to andray abrahamian, a research fellow at the pacific forum of the centre for strategic and international studies. i asked him first what was his take on the dialogue. i think it is and and important development. kim jong—un is certainly feeling pressure from sanctions and is interested in exploring ways out and he has also noticed a real divergence in the interest of washington, dc and south korea over last year and i think he is try to exploit that gap that has developed. in the short term, both south and north korea have a real co nve rg e nt south and north korea have a real convergent of entrance. south korea really wa nts convergent of entrance. south korea really wants the olympics to go off well and without incident and north korea wants to have its athletes participate and also showcased some other cultural and sporting prowess in front of the world. on the flipside, has the north being drawn into this dialogue because sanctions are starting to bite? there is a little evidence over the last couple of that sanctions are starting to bite. we are seeing the exchange rate fluctuate a little bit. the price of gas shut up but then stabilised a if you months ago. i think overall, the economy is now robust enough in north korea that kim jong—un is more robust enough in north korea that kimjong—un is more keen to explore what is possible now with south korea and where the diversions is with washington. also to seek what mainly the moon administration may be able to sell in dc in terms of a compromise position. what does this mean now in terms of improved relationship between seoul and washington, given that seoul and pyongyang and now talking directly to each other. there is a real risk in the relationship between seoul and washington. both sides are going to have to be very careful and be in co nsta nt to have to be very careful and be in constant communication and co—ordination because we have seen over the last year, vijay in's primary objective is to make sure that a war does not break out on the korean peninsula. that is his main task. he is most interested in defusing tensions as much as he can. washington on the other hand is for interested in applying as much pressure as possible. that includes rhetorical pressure as well. the interest two have diverged a little bit and interest two have diverged a little bitand in interest two have diverged a little bit and in the past and a previous seoul and washington governments, the administrations have done a real job of making sure they don't drift too far apart. to see if that will will be the case in 2018. —— we will have two c. —— we will have to see. a japanese astronaut on the international space station says he's grown nine centimetres since arriving just over three weeks ago. norishige kanai said he was worried he would not fit into the seat of the soyuz rocket that would bring him home. libbyjackson from the uk space agency explains. it's normal for astronauts to grow, for their backs to extend while they are in the space of. as soon as you get up there, you are floating around there and cannot feel the effects of gravity and say your spine decompresses is and the vertebra relaxes and the muscles relaxed. nine centimetres is an awful lot, normally it is between two and five centimetres of. as soon as gets back on earth and feels gravity, the spine will compress and the muscles will get stronger. there are some risks of problems when people come back to earth but he will be fine within a if you weeks. going into space, as soon as you get there your body starts to adapt because you are not feeling gravity. your bones and your muscles weaken, the fluid in your body shifts around. there are lots of things. if you are to stay in space forever it wouldn't be a problem but because when they come back to earth they do a lot of exercise to make sure that they are to row as they can be when they are to row as they can be when they get back. —— as strong as they can be. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: a heaving mass of catholic humanity ta kes to a heaving mass of catholic humanity takes to the streets of men a lot for one of the philippines largest festivals of. also on the programme: and the self—propelling suitcase which follows its owner, just one of the marvels at this year's major tech show in vegas. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer, paul simon, starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories. after months of rising tensions, representatives from north and south korea have met to try to defuse tensions. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. on several front pages, including the japan times, is the much anticipated hand—sha ke between north and south korea's delegation — and the news north korea will attend the upcoming olympics. french president emmanuel macron made the front page of the china daily, celebrating joint progress with president xijinping. and the straits times also led with the korea meeting and the upcoming military talks that have been agreed too. now, what stories are sparking discussions online? yes, let's look at what is trending right now. first the lizards in florida — now alligators in north carolina are showing how they adapt to survive cold weather. at shallotte river swamp park they've been poking out their nostrils and breathing through holes in the ice. when the water is this cold, they enter a state of hibernation and doing this helps them to breathe. it is unsurprising that alligators have been around for so long. calls have been growing for the release of two reuters journalists in myanmar who are facing accusations of breaching the country's official secrets act. wa lone and jaw soe oo were detained on december 12th and are due to make their second appearance in court in yangon on wednesday. the two had worked on reuters coverage of the crisis in the western state of rakhine. an estimated 655,000 rohingya muslims have fled to neighbouring bangladesh. we spoke to reginald chua, coo of reuters, about how they‘ re holding up. we have not had a lot of contact with them. they were held incommunicado for two weeks and then briefly showed up in court did they spoke to reporters and met their family which was great. we only had a few moments although wa lone's wife sat with him. they have had some time with their family and we have hired lawyers. they have had sporadic contact. from what we can see their spirits remain high and wa lone was quoted as saying they are doing the best because they have done nothing wrong. former us president bill clinton is adding his voice for those calling for the pair to be released. how hopeful are you? we have been gratified by the outpouring of support in myanmar and around the world. i guess we will find out in the next few hours when they come back the second court hearing. in an ideal and just world i think we would recognise that they arejust doing their i think we would recognise that they are just doing theirjobs, they are hard—working journalists are just doing theirjobs, they are ha rd—working journalists and should be released. in a worst—case situation they may call for charges under official secrets act. it is a broad act many grey areas and you andi broad act many grey areas and you and i could probably be found guilty of something under that act. we are hoping for the best. you have any more detail about what they were doing when they were arrested? they reporting on? we would rather not talk about what they were reporting on, at least at this point. i can tell you that they were just doing theirjob as a journalist. nothing more, nothing less. they had been called to dinner with some policeman and then they showed up to big the driver dropped them off and they never left. they were arrested after that. and so it is hard to see what it is that they are guilty of here. hundreds of thousands of devotees in the philippines capital manila have joined the annual procession of a black statue ofjesus christ — known as the black nazarene. it's one of the biggest religious festivals in the largely roman catholic nation. the statue is believed to have healing powers for the faithful who came out in force to show their devotion. the bbc‘s howard johnson was there for us. it is believed that this statue was carved in mexico in the 16th century and then made its way to the philippine capital where by the late 17005 philippine capital where by the late 1700s of it was housed in the capital. today, millions of devotees flocked to the area around the church to watch the annual event where the statue was carried through the streets on a cart, a wheeled ca rt the streets on a cart, a wheeled cart pulled by devoted his using ropes. i was watching a being pulled through the streets and as it approached the crowd started whooping and cheering and shouting viva black nazarene! i saw people hammering on top of the statue, trying to wipe a cloth or touch the head or the foot of christ in the hope that it would transfer some believed miraculous powers. i spoke to devotees who told me they had been there since one in the morning. one person told me he had been there for the last ten years hoping that by seeing the statue it would bring good fortune to his family. there are health and safety issues every year with the transfer of black nazarene. busier authorities said there looked at the root to make sure there were no bottlenecks that could create crashing. they also looked at the bridges and stress tested them along the route to make sure that they could hold the devotees. in a small section i saw i saw at least five people being carried away. there was a very hot day and people were dehydrated. at the same time i saw a heavy army, police and red cross presence on hand carrying away people who had fainted during the procession. more than 170,000 people are expected to visit this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas. the tech companies' latest developments include driverless taxis and new advances in artificial intelligence, including some uncannily human robots. our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones is in las vegas with the latest. a powerful and largely invisible technology is on the march. it's learning how to drive. it can recognise individualfaces, and it knows an awful lot about our personal preferences. that technology is artificial intelligence and, in las vegas this week, tech firms are showing off how far it's come. hey, sophia, can we shake hands? in a las vegas university lab, i'm meeting sophia, a humanoid robot. how sophisticated do you think you are as a robot? i want people to perceive me as the robot i am. however, i wouldn't want to trick people into thinking i'm a human. i just want to communicate with humans in the best possible ways, which includes looking like one. sophia, who's had advance notice of my questions, has few practical uses right now, but her creators believe she represents a big step on the road to artificial intelligence. our aspiration is to bring the machines to life, to create living, intelligent systems and there you'll see the greatest revolution in artificial intelligence. as this giant tech show gets under way, china's spending on al and robotics is much in evidence. this suitcase recognises and follows its owner. here's china's biggest force in al, the search giant baidu, laying on a lavish las vegas event with the slogan "ai is changing the world at china's speed". it calls itself china's google. it's already a leader in technologies like facial recognition, and baidu is confident china can challenge america's ai dominance. china is quickly catching up and the gap is closing, but china has a lot more people, much larger scale. it's a big market. so i think that's a foundation for china to prevail in the ai age. google, which usually keeps a low profile at this show, has chosen to put its name everywhere across las vegas, stressing its leading role in al. we are trying to do our best to stay ahead. there is lots of great competition and lots of excitment. what it means is that there's a lot of investment going into this area, a lot of the best minds working on it. so i think you're going to see the field advance pretty quickly. it's arriving quite slowly. out in downtown las vegas, i've booked a ride in an autonomous taxi — no steering wheel, no pedals, no driver. it's made by a french transport company. it's notjust america and china racing to get ahead in al. rory cellan—jones, bbc news, las vegas. iamrh03.a i am r h 03. a robot humanoid version of rico hizon. you have been watching newsday. stay with us — we'll have more from the international consumer electronic show in las vegas, including cutting the cord. what did you think of the luggage? i would love that luggage if it was three orfour times the would love that luggage if it was three or four times the size than i could just about fit all of my luggage inside it. i am not a light packer. and before we go, let's take a look at these pictures. we've had some unusually cold weather in the usa — but it's also been snowing in the sahara desert. northern algeria was hit by a rare spell of icy weather. it didn't last long though — the snow melted not long after these pictures were taken. tuesday was a disappointing day up and down the country, cold, damp and grey with the exception of western scotla nd grey with the exception of western scotland which saw a model sunshine. into wednesday we start to see a change to the weather. a band of rain smoothly —— slowly moves eastward across the country. first being on wednesday clearest skies and quite chilly with a touch of frost, a little fog and i did it wednesday for many of us looks brighter. we should see some sunshine, particularly in the afternoon because big begin cold with ice in northern ireland and here is a weather front slowly moving out into the north sea. in fa ct, moving out into the north sea. in fact, for a good portion of scotland it could stay down for all—day. there will be a little mist and murk and hill fog. most of the rain is north—east into the northern isles so north—east into the northern isles soi north—east into the northern isles so i think some western fringes and south—western parts of scotland should see sunshine in the afternoon. that veil of cloud with the weather front is draped across the weather front is draped across the eastern counties of england down towards the south—east. the further west you are, the brighter the afternoon. ten, 11 degrees maybe and afternoon. ten, 11 degrees maybe and a couple of showers across the south—west. as we head towards wednesday evening and overnight a few heavy showers will clear away from the south—west of england. the weather front will eventually clear from the eastern side of england but is confined to the northern isles there. elsewhere the clear skies with light wind will be quite chilly and a touch of frost here in there. adam blyth and some mist and of that isa sign adam blyth and some mist and of that is a sign of things to come towards the end of the week with morning frost and fog. it could cause a little problem. for thursday it is a cold start with a little mist and fog around. frost as well that it should generally lift. there is a little that could be stubborn in a few places that there should be sunshine breaking through for many although for the northern isles will remain damp. a bit more cloud across the coastal andhra eastern counties. as we head into friday, high pressure holds an, will tightly packed and a more breeze. clouds arriving in northern ireland late in the day but for much of the country should be dry, chilly with an early fog but a few sunny spells in the afternoon. on saturday the weather front across the west will vary and move eastwards during the course of the day. it won't reach the east until later on. where it will stay dry and on the cool side. i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story: north and south korea have agreed to hold military talks to defuse border tension. and the two countries' teams will appear together at next month's winter olympics in the south. it follows their first high—level meeting in two years. the us has given the talks a cautious welcome. but the north's delegation ruled out any discussions on its nuclear weapons programme. former trump strategist steve bannon has quit his right—wing news group, breitbart. it follows unflattering comments attributed to him in a new book about the white house. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it's the alligators of north carolina demonstrating their ability to survive the cold weather. they poke their snouts through holes in the ice to breathe. when it's this cold, they enter a state of hibernation. that's all from me now. stay with us on bbc world news. it is just after half past