BBC在线收听下载:特朗普政府取消2020年人口普查中的国籍身份问题

Hello, I'm David Harper with the BBC News.

Sudan's military rulers and protest leaders will continue to direct talks later to try to reach agreement on forming a new governing body to lead the country into elections. After a first round of fresh talks on Wednesday, the African Union mediator said Sudan's military rulers had agreed to release all political prisoners, but did not offer details. Anne Soy reports.

The resumption of dialogue restores hopes for a transition to civilian rule. The military council, which is currently running Sudan has been under pressure from the international community to hand over power. Protests were held on Sunday across the country to press for change. The demonstrations were organized in spite of a month-long internet shutdown and threats against opposition leaders. By the time talks collapsed in May, the two sides had agreed to have a majority civilian legislature in a three-year transition period.

The United Nations Security Council has failed to agree on a joint statement to condemn an air attack on a migrant camp in Libya in which forty-four people were killed. Reports citing diplomats in New York indicated the United States was not prepared to support the text. Libya's UN-backed government and rebel militias have blamed each other for the attack. Peter Bowes reports.

During a two-hour closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Britain circulated a statement that would have condemned the airstrike and called on the warring sides to immediately de-escalate the situation and commit to a cease fire. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was outraged by the horrendous incident. But US diplomats told the meeting they required a green light from Washington to approve the text of a statement and the talks ended without agreement.

The interim President of Algeria Abdelkader Bensalah has made a state television address, repeating his call for elections and national dialogue to end the political crisis in the country. Mr. Bensalah said it was the only democratic solution. His previous appeals for dialogue have been rejected by protesters who want to overhaul the entire political system.

The American whisky company Jim Beam says a lightning strike appears to have been the cause of a massive fire at one of its warehouses in Kentucky, which destroyed forty-five thousand barrels of bourbon. Jim Beam's spokesman said the barrels contained two hundred liters of whiskey each, but the blaze was not expected to affect retail sales.

President Trump has insisted that he is pressing ahead with plans to include a contentious citizenship question on the forthcoming 2020 US census in a dramatic reversal of his own administration's announcement on Tuesday that it had been dropped. Mr. Trump has tweeted that the Department of Commerce's statements were incorrect and fake news.

That's the latest BBC news.