BBC在线收听下载:朝韩领导人会晤进入倒计时

Hello, I'm Jerry Smit with the BBC news.

The French President Emmanuel Macron has set out the case for a liberal European Union in response to what he called a resurgence of distractive nationalism. Mr. Macron told the European Parliament in Strasburg that a fascination with illiberalism was leading to divisions in Europe, calling it a form of civil war. In the face of authoritarianism which surrounds us, the response should not be authoritarian democracy, but the authority of democracy. Mr. Macron said European sovereignty should complement, not replace national sovereignty. He also called for an EU budget to favour economic convergence, saying France was willing to increase its contribution.

South Korea's Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan has said that a peace treaty is its government's ultimate goal for the forthcoming talks with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The two sides are technically still at war, having only signed an armistice at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Laura Becca is in South Korea. The South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the heavily fortified border between the two countries next week. A direct hotline will be set up for the two leaders so that they can continue talks after the summit. President Donald Trump has said he plans to meet Kim Jong-un in late May or early June.

Protests in Armenia against the former president Serzh Sargsyan have now spreaded to two more cities. It's the fifth straight day of demonstrations. The protest leader, the MP Nikol Pashinyan told a rally in Yerevan that a popular non-violent revolution was underway. Rahim Dimitri watched the protest. They are asking people onlookers, people who are looking at them from the windows of their houses to join them. And the main slogan which they keep repeating is "Make a Step to Reject Serzh". This is a reference to Armenia's ex-president Serzh Sargsyan who ruled Armenia for ten years. And he stepped down earlier this month.

World news from the BBC.