more than 5,000 athletes from 72 nations and territories will compete over the next 11 days. and the return of the tiger, why nepal kept its promise to double numbers in the last decade. it s 8am in singapore, and eight in the evening in washington, where presidentjoe biden has spent more than two hours on the phone with his chinese counterpart, xijinping. taiwan emerged once again as a key point of tension between the two leaders, this time sparked by a possible visit there by the us house speaker, nancy pelosi. although the visit hasn t yet been confirmed, mr biden told xijinping, that washington strongly opposed any unilateral moves that would change the island s status, or undermine stability across the taiwan straits. president xi said: those who play with fire will only get burnt. joe biden responded to that with on taiwan the us policy has not changed. so where does that leave diplomatic relations? well, with an assessment of that phone call, here s the bbc s barba
and the return of the tiger why nepal kept its promise to double numbers in the last decade. live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it s newsday. it s 7am in singapore, and 7 in the evening in washington where president joe biden spent more than 2 hours on the phone with his chinese counterpart, xijinping. the two leaders warned each other over taiwan which again emerged as a key point of tension. this time the tensions started because of a possible visit there by the us house speaker nancy pelosi. although the visit hasn t yet been confirmed mr biden told xijinping, that washington strongly opposed any unilateral moves that would change the island s status or undermine stability across the taiwan straits. president xi said: those who play with fire will only get burnt. joe biden responded to that with on taiwan. the us policy has not changed. so where does that leave us? well, with an assessment of that phone call here s the bbc s barbara plett usher i
it s not clear how many people had died since the violence began three weeks ago, although the united nations estimates that more than 200 people died in a nine day period earlier this month. the democratic republic of the congo has put 30 oil and gas drilling permits up for auction, opening up part of the world s second biggest rainforest to drilling. activists call this an environmental catastophe, which could release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. the drc s president said the process was a way to benefit from the country s natural resources. president emmanuel macron is having talks with the saudi crown prince at the start of mohammed bin salman s controversial visit to france. they shook hands cordially as prince salman arrived at the elysee palace, but the visit has been criticised by rights groups. they describe contacts with the saudi royal as inappropriate, less than four years after the murder of jamal khashoggi. he was tortured and murdered
in parts of the state. the governor said the rain had caused one of the worst, most devastating flooding events , in the state s history, with more than eight inches of rain falling overnight. it comes after record breaking rain left parts of missouri underwater earlier this week. the democratic republican of congo has put 30 oil and gas drilling permits up for auction, opening up part of the world s second biggest rainforest to drilling. activists call this an environmental catastophe, which could release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. the drc s president said the process was a way to benefit from the country s natural resources. climate change is now a bigger threat to elephants than poaching so says kenya s wildlife ministry. in the last year official figures show 179 elephants have died due to the ongoing drought. merchuma reports from the tsa vo national park in kenya, where poor rainy seasons have led to rivers drying up. and a warning, her report