this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines... latest attempt to halt the us government shutdown ends without agreement on both sides blame each other. apple shares falling as it warns of disappointing sales in china that have made a big dent in its revenues. i am lewers fawnjones in london. also in the programme... one giant leapfor in london. also in the programme... one giant leap for china's space programme as it prepares to land a probe on the far side of the moon. times 550. and we meet the ten—year—old south african boy has been named the human calculator. live from hours studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. —— from our. glad to

join us. it is sam here in singapore, 7pm in washington, dc and the night in london, where the white house is meeting to discuss the budget row that has led to a partial shutdown in the us government. it has ended without agreement. president trump showed no signs of backing down for his demands for more than $5 billion to build a wall along the us—mexico border. here is the us president speaking his cabinet meeting just before the meeting. as long as it takes. i mean look, i am meeting. as long as it takes. i mean look, iam prepared, ithink meeting. as long as it takes. i mean look, i am prepared, i think the people of the country think i am right, i think the people of this country think i'm right. again, i have done nothing, i could have had a much easier presidency by doing nothing, but i am here, i want to do it right. for more on this, and joins from washington by our reporter david willetts, and david, we are now day 12 of the shutdown

with no resolution in sight. absolutely, still stablemates, and president trump continuing to insist on that more than $5 billion being made available to fund what was his signature campaign issue, a wall along the us border with mexico. the democrats want nothing to do with such a plan, some even view it, the whole notion of a wall as abhorrent, and a couple of weeks ago, their view on this sort of thing would not really have mattered very much but it matters now because tomorrow, thursday here, they take control of the house of representatives, following their gains in the mid—term elections last year, and the democrats have already made clear that they will be putting forward bills that would provide funding for most of the key government departments year, and that are currently part of this

partial shutdown. now, as they emerged from talks at the white house today with president trump, this is what the leaders of both sides had to say to reporters stop loop the president and vice president saydiyah over the christmas holidays and there was absolutely no negotiations on the other side, so they want to keep delaying and have a government shutdown. -- stayed. on our last meeting, the president said i am going to shut the government down. they are now feeling the heat. it is not helping the president, it is not helping the republicans to be the owners of the shutdown. and is david, what has been the reaction of the american public regarding this shut down? well, it is interesting, we have had of course the christmas holidays, in which president trump has been tweeting from the white house about all this, but you know

what, america has been rather caught up what, america has been rather caught up in the holidays, apart of course from those 800,000 or so federal employees, some of whom have been sent home, others have been told to work without pay. the simple fact of the matter is that by making this budget settlement is conditional on funding for his pet project, the water wall, president trump has somewhat painted himself into a corner here because he is conservative base is not going to accept anything less than funding for that war now. -- border wall. thank you so much for the update from washington. ok, let's take a look at some of the day's other news. us tech giant apple has announced it was going to have to revise it sales outlook, caused its shares to fall nearly 8%. in an unexpected letter to investors, chief executive tim cook said that sales of the iphone in china will

one of the key reasons behind the fall. he said trade tensions the united states put extra pressure on the market. dave lee has this analysis. trading on apple shares was halted pending sinews, we were told, and that news came very quickly. the letter came out tim cook went into several reasons why his company is going to come in and around, at least $5 billion under estimates originally made, originally predicted. the reasons we re originally predicted. the reasons were one that sales in china pretty much dropped off clipper thief recently, and they blame increased tension between the us and china on trade potentially to some of that problem. —— dropped off a cliff recently. they also talked about issues with supply chain as well. tim cook said although apple had released very popular new products, sales of those products, particularly its watches and laptops have been held back because they simply have not been able to make

enough, supply chain constraints have hit them there and overall, the iphone has been a bit of a handicap for apple in this quarter because people are not upgrading them as often as they usually do. so while the iphone is often apple's huge profit maker, people are simply not going out and buying them as regularly as they have in the past. that is the real driving force behind that, particularly in china, where the problem is becoming increasingly serious apple. also making use today washington's relations with beijing. the acting us trade secretary has started his first day at the pentagon by stressing the routine that while they are dealing with ongoing operations in other parts of the world, they must always remember china, china, china. in thailand's royal palace has announced the team will be officially crowned in the days of ceremonies from the fourth of may. the king has been serving sincejust of may. the king has been serving since just after of may. the king has been serving sincejust after his of may. the king has been serving since just after his revered father died in 2016, ending his 70 year

reign. his official coronation has been delayed until a year long mourning period for his father. in pakistan's prime minister imran khan has paid tribute to his former teacher, majorjeffrey has paid tribute to his former teacher, major jeffrey langlands, who has died in lahore at the age of 101. born in northern england, he first went to south asia with the british army and settled in pakistan after partition. he taught generations of students, including many future leaders at the prestigious school, before retiring in his mid— 90s. well, he the pictures is the aftermath of a dramatic robbery on a main road in southern italy. criminals use mechanical diggers, essentially like giant tin openers, to force their way into an armoured van. the vehicle was carrying unfortunately, the pensions people from bari to a

nearby town. the thieves made off with $2.3 million in cash. the good news is that the guards were unharmed. a chinese space probe has moved into position to land on the dark side of the moon for the first time ever and that is according to the country's media. the spacecraft, named after the moon goddess in chinese society slotted into a planned orbit on sunday to prepare for its historic landing. it is not clear when the lending would occur but experts say it is expected to sit down on a crater landing point between january one sit down on a crater landing point betweenjanuary one and third. earlier, an astronomer told me why this was so significant. well, the first thing is, of course, it has never been done before. no spacecraft has attempted to make this hazardous lending. when you are com pletely this hazardous lending. when you are completely out of radio contact with the earth, because the moon gets in

the earth, because the moon gets in the way, and the chinese have solved this problem very neatly by putting ina this problem very neatly by putting in a relay transmitter, a relay spacecraft, developed 20,000 kilometres beyond the moon in an orbit that allows the transmitter to see both the earth and the transmitter at the same time. so the technical challenges are enormous but of course, the scientific possibilities for the far side of the moon at even bigger, and that is what is so exciting about this potential projects. is only being done now, why didn't the americans or russians do it in the first place? -- are even bigger. because they were far too preoccupied. there is so much interest in geology and size to be done on the near side of the moon, that i think it is now very well studied. the key thing though is that the far side of the moon is completely different in its structure from the near side. it is made of a class that is much thicker than the near side, it does not have

this blows of basalt that we see on the near side, quite different geographically. it might have been regarded perhaps in past times as the boy inside the moon because it does have these wonderful sea is made of basalt, but it is a place we can learn enormous amounts about the origin of the moon. lending on the dark side of the moon should be celebrated. why do you think china is being so secretive on when it is supposed to happen? well, i think thatis supposed to happen? well, i think that is just in the nature of the chinese space agency. they like to play their cards close to their chest. they keep things rather under wraps but i can tell you that millions and millions of people in china are waiting this news with bated breath. we know it is going to happen possibly within the next few hours, a successful landing on the far side of the moon would be a very big thing for china. it pushes it up in the space stakes to a very high level, one that has not been achieved before. and why is china

spending so much on its space programme right now? well, i think it is partly because china wants to lay claim to space, to make its mark in the exploration of space. it is the most high—tech business that we can engage in, and if you can succeed in space in a way that perhaps now so the russian space agency were doing a0 or 50 years ago, then you have clearly arrived asa ago, then you have clearly arrived as a technological nation. but of course, there are other prospects as well. the moon is rich in all kinds of minerals. there is something called helium three on the moon, which a lot of scientists are interested in for its potential for nuclear power. i want to stay with the space theme because nasa has released images from the new horizons probe. the most distant object in our solar system ever to

be explored. they show the mysterious icy world known as ultima thule, some a billion miles away from earth. it is hoped that information and are so gathered from this new world will help explain how planets were formed, as a scientist editor david shipman explains. —— as our scientist editor david shukman explains. power is green. mission control running through checks that confirm this incredible venture has worked. this is right where we predicted. flying right beside the most distant world ever explored. we have a healthy spacecraft. the relief of decades of planning paying off, and the scientists proud of giving us a view never possible before. helping us understand the origins of our solar system. what this spacecraft and this team accomplished is unprecedented. here's where we were just

a couple of days ago. this was humanity's best image of ultime thule. well, that image is so 2018. meet ultime thule! they've discovered a strange shape which the scientists think looks like a snowman. they've even produced this image to make the point about this rock left over from the birth of the solar system. back when the mission was launched, hardly anything was known about the outer reaches of the solar system. it was an extraordinary gamble just trying to get there. it's almost impossible to grasp how far the spacecraft new horizons has travelled, but 13 years ago it began a long trek across the solar system, leaving earth injanuary, 2006, to fly past the planets, including mars, jupiter, saturn. and then, in 2015, it made it all the way out to pluto,

3 billion miles away, before racing on for another billion miles to ultime thule, reaching it on new year's day, skimming past, but still able to capture the images we're now starting to see. there's a lot that's surprising about this tiny world, made up of two pieces of rock joined together. so this may be the first glimpse of how the planets were eventually built. one lump binding to another over millions of years. this shape informs our models of planetary formation. you can see that they're clearly two separate objects that have come together. so it's pretty exciting to see that. when new horizons flew past pluto, it revealed a world more active than anyone expected. now this latest encounter has produced something even more profound, a snapshot of what it took to make planets like our own. david shukman, bbc news. you are watching newsday on the bbc

lives from singapore and london. why did police had to use tear gas and water cannons near a shrine in southern india? how is your mental maths? we meet the ten—year—old south african boy who has been nicknamed the human calculator. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got underway with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today, and then we'll be in france, and again, it'll be the same money. it's just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder.

i think it looks good. just good? no, fantastic. that's better. welcome back, everyone. this is the bbc. our top stories: and meeting called by president trump to discuss the budget dispute that has led to a partial government shut down has broken up without agreement. moving on to apple and the tech giant has warned revenues had taken

of the kit largely because of disappointing sales in china. let's ta ke disappointing sales in china. let's take a look at some of the front pages from around the world, and we start off with the south china morning post, and reports on the plummeting birth rate. around 2 million fewer babies were born in 2018 compared with the year before. they call it the biggest threat to china's future prosperity. turning the page, and we have the straits times publication of singapore, and it reports on changes to the city states school curriculum. moving away from a focus on exams, they hope students can discover the joy of learning. finally, the japan times newspaper and it looks ahead toa times newspaper and it looks ahead to a very busy year injapanese politics from the abdication of the emperor to hosting the g20 summit in

summer. it is a hectic year for japan. those are the papers. which story is sparking discussions online? let's look at what is trending right now, and these images of a waterspout falling off the coast of cyprus were captured by a passerby. in case you do know the definition, waterspouts are tornadoes that occur over a body of water but never actually reach land. that is what is trending online. police authorities in southern india have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters angry that two women have worshipped at a high profile shrine. the women were helped by police to enter the temple in kerala which is at the centre of a bitter dispute between conservatives and activists. the court ruled and ended the long—standing ban of all women of

menstruating age from worshipping there. protesters have continued to prevent women from visiting the shrine. these women are moments away from breaking a centuries—old tradition at this hindu temple. in the cover of the dark, these two women in their a0s are seen going inside the shrine in the south indian state of kerala. an act that has broken gender barriers. this temple is home to the hindu lord who is believed by devotees to be celibate. women of menstruating ages defined as between ten and 50 by the temple were not allowed here. although india lifted the ban on women entering the temple last year, there were protests by conservative hindu groups preventing women of menstruating age on entering the shrine. activists have finally entered the temple. but they

we re finally entered the temple. but they were escorted by two policemen. the issue has divided women across the country. just yesterday, thousands of women gathered to make a human chain to protest against conservation groups. today, they hailed this at it as a symbolic victory. translation: the entry of women is a historic win for us. victory. translation: the entry of women is a historic win for usm isa women is a historic win for usm is a bit rich of the movement for a quality and it is a victory of women power. but another group of women have protested against what they call it desecration of their faith. even the temple was shut down for a purification ritual and violent clashes were reported across the state. a sign that the fight for their right to pray it is far from over the women here. six people have been killed in a train accident on a bridge in

denmark. the crash happened on the great belt bridge, which links to islands. officials say debris from a freight train blew off during a heavy storm, hitting a passenger train. images of the aftermath of this morning's rush—hour crash on denmark's great belt bridge. police say the commuter train with around 100 people on board was hit by objects from a passing freight train and was forced to make an emergency stop. one of the passengers, heidi langberg, says she narrowly escaped. translation: it felt as if we were pushed forward, and then all of a sudden, there was a loud bang, and then the windows shattered over our heads and we fell to the ground. and then the train stopped. we are shocked. we were very lucky due to where we were seated. the passengers sitting in the next wagon weren't that lucky. the great belt bridge is one of the busiest commuter routes in the country, connecting the central islands and linking denmark and sweden to germany. the morning train had been on its way from the southern city

of odense to the capital, copenhagen. danish media reports suggest that metal poles, beer crates and tarpaulin from this damaged freight train were among the objects to strike the train's windows and sides. six people died, 16 were injured and evacuation efforts were hampered by stormy weather conditions. translation: it is a very, very tragic way to start 2019. six have been killed. it's very hard to take. right now, we can only send our best thoughts. the rescue operation to free those trapped on board took more than five hours. danish police are now investigating the exact cause of the accident. gavin lee, bbc news. a ten—year—old boy in south africa is causing a stir in the world of maths. it has an extraordinary ability to work out huge sums in impaired. mentalarithmetic ability to work out huge sums in impaired. mental arithmetic is turning him into a social media sensation. class is in session. at this school,

pupils are hard at work perfecting their maths skills. there is one who stands out. he is called the human calculator and he is just stands out. he is called the human calculator and he isjust ten stands out. he is called the human calculator and he is just ten years old. does anyone know the answer? 540. translation: i does anyone know the answer? 540. translation: lam does anyone know the answer? 540. translation: i am the does anyone know the answer? 540. translation: lam the best maths in the whole school. when people see me, they asked me to do sums for them to just people see me, they asked me to do sums for them tojust how people see me, they asked me to do sums for them to just how good people see me, they asked me to do sums for them tojust how good i am, and they are surprised when i get the answers right. some people even give me money for dipping difficult thing. igive give me money for dipping difficult thing. i give that money to my mother and that makes me happy. he was discovered when a local policeman filmed him. 250 times 11? 2,750. at home, his mother may not be able to help him with his homework, but she is his biggest fan. we always dream big, most of the time. with me, i wish everything that

could go well for him. i want him to explore. he loves challenges. 78... and so we put him to the test. ..times... 550. 42,900,000. what?! how...how did you do that? after a professional assessment, he is deemed a gifted child, but that brings other challenges. he becomes bored easily and needs unconventional teaching methods in order to thrive. professor belinda huntley runs the wits siyanqoba maths olympiad programme, and wants sibahle tojoin her class and compete with some of the best minds in the world. if he isn't enriched now, he's just going to dissolve into the rest of the masses. he's just going to be expected

just to keep up with the curriculum. and now admitted to the geniuses programme, young sibahle finally has a chance at a bright future. an amazing boy, amazing achievement. he seemed to know his 550 times table. you know your 550 times tables? ido! and tables? i do! and i would give you the a nswer after i do! and i would give you the answer after the show. that is very, very good at you. iam not that is very, very good at you. i am not good at numbers, but i know there is only one rico. we must leave it there. you are watching bbc world news. goodbye. good morning. we have certainly been

chasing cloud amounts around the country at the moment, but my new yea rs country at the moment, but my new years resolution was to stay on the optimistic side with a glass half full. or the next few days, it will stay chile, but i am optimistic we will say more sunshine coming through. freezing fog patches could be an issue first thing in the morning. the uk is sandwiched right in the middle between this mild air sitting in the atlantique and colder air across eastern europe at the moment. there is an area of high pressure a cross moment. there is an area of high pressure across the uk and circulating around the high, the wind direction always driving in a little more cloud". just come further inland and that is that we will see the clearest of the skies. that is where we are likely to be the best of the sunshine as well. if you are offered early this morning, it will be a chilly start, as it can see right through the spine of the country. the blue tones denoting that temperatures below freezing. well below freezing in some places. it will be a cold and frosty start

to thursday morning. that is where the best slice of the sunshine is likely to be, though, along the east coast. more cloud driving in. with a south—westerly flow to the west, more cloud and moisture and we could see the problem with some fog forming a little later on. top temperatures but thursday afternoon, three to seven degrees the high. in the evening, we could potentially see some freezing fog forming. if that happens, it may well be slow to clear away. the real cold air and stormy weather is across eastern europe. heavy rain and snow at lower levels across greece and turkey at the moment, and that bitterly cold air is sitting not only across the south—east mediterranean, but it is moving all the way up generally to eastern europe over the next few days. the yellow tones, not mild but something less cold across portugal, spain, france and the uk. but if we get some freezing fog first thing on

friday morning, it may be slow to clear a way, and that could have quite an impact on the temperatures. again, there will be some sunshine around after a cold and frosty start on friday. if the freezing fog lingers, favourite spots will be central and southern england, those temperatures only around three or four degrees. mild otherfurther west we go. this quiet theme of weather looks quite —— to continue. it will be largely dry, but we will be chasing cloud amounts around. take care. iam i am lewis vaughanjones with bbc news. a top stories... meeting called by president trump to discuss the budget dispute that has led to a partial government shutdown has broken up without agreement. as they left the white house, republican and democrat congressional leaders accused one another of intransigence and being the cause of the dispute. mrtrump has and being the cause of the dispute. mr trump has demanded five billion dollars for a border war with mexico. apple has said that its

sales figures will be sharply lower than expected. the company said it had not foreseen the scale of the economic slowdown in some emerging markets, particularly china. and this video is delighting people all over the world. two giant panda cubs have been practising learning to drink from a ball and eat bamboo shoots. this is bbc news.