According to the centers for disease control, Patient Hospitalizations have jumped by nearly 20 in the past week. Overall, cases are still down by about 60 compared to this time last year. North korea is set to discuss supplying russia with weapons for its war in ukraine at a high level meeting between the countries� leaders later this month. The New York Times reports north Korean Leader kimjong un may seek food aid and Technology Used in satellites and Nuclear Powered submarines from russian presiden, Vladimir Putin. This would be a rare trip abroad for kim jong un. The white house put out a Statement Saying our correspondent Gary Odonoghue has more. This is about the russians Going International shopping for more arms. We know that theyve already been taking International Delivery of drones from iran to use in the war in ukraine. And now theyre lookingfor extra Artillery Shells and missiles from north korea. Its not the first time that missiles and shells have gone from north korea to russia, but they were imported previously by the wagner group before the demise of yevgeny prigozhin. This will be a high level meeting between president putin and president kim jong un. They have met before in the Eastern Port Of Vladivostok back in 2019, and its thought that perhaps, that may be the place where theyll meet again in the coming month. The americans have warned that these negotiations are actively advancing and theyve also said that they will pursue this at the United Nations, because there are countless, Countless Security Council resolutions and sanctions against north korea that means that they shouldnt be doing this. The other thing to take away from this, i think, is that its a sign that perhaps russia, despite its military might, is running short of some of the things it needs on the battlefield. In the last hour i spoke with jean lee, the former Ap Pyongyang Bureau chief and co host of the bbc podcast the lazarus heist. Thank you for being back on the programme. First of all, whats the significance of this potential deal between two countries that are becoming even more isolated on the world stage . I think you laid it out. If the two leaders do meet and arrange a deal of some sort, this is a deal that is possibly going to help the russian president extend that war ukraine the russian president extend that war in ukraine by supplying him with munitions that he desperately needs, and in exchange, possibly, food that north korea needs, but beyond that, quite possibly technology that north korea needs to take its Weapons Programme to the next level, and that certainly has implications that have a far greater reach because it is about Nuclear Proliferation and so it may be that the leaders meet, they hold a high level summit, lots of pomp, lots of propaganda, but it will be interesting to see what they say about any deals that come out of that. I have a feeling they are not going not admit to any kind of a weapons deal which they both know would be Illicit Activity as members of the un. We are watching some footage now of previous meetings between the two leaders. I want to ask you, what would you make between another potential face to face meeting between kim jong un and Vladimir Putin in russia . As we mentioned, north koreas leader rarely makes it out of the country these days. This is an interesting development. Just to provide a little context, north korea has been in self imposed isolation since january 2020, and we assume and they say that is because of the covid pandemic but i believe that the reason goes beyond that and that is because Nuclear Talks broke down in 2019 between the United States and north korea. That is when i started to see north korea retreat, kimjong un closing up borders, so he could recalibrate his strategy, reshape the narrative, and now he is emerging at a time when, frankly, this Border Closure has been so devastating to their economy. So, there are a couple of things here. He is setting himself up for his re emergence but also he needs to tell his people, listen, we may have been closed off for 3. 5 years but this superpower, russia, ourally, has not forgotten about us and im just as important as i was in 2019 when i last met Vladimir Putin in vladivostok. So really, for kimjong un, if he does make this trip, he is looking for those photos that he can take back to north korea. So that is the political propaganda, part of it, but clearly that is going to be much more coming out of that meeting that we should be concerned about in the rest of the world. Russia seems to be seeking weapons for its continued war in ukraine. Do we know how effective are north koreas weapons are and whether theyd be any help to russia on the battlefield . So, on the part of president putin, this is a time where he is increasingly isolated, i think he is kind of digging at the bottom of the barrel when he is looking for friends like north korea, but north korea is a country that did invest in its military� s conventional weaponry for many, many years. Kim jong un, as we know, has been investing in nuclear weapons. His father, the late Kim Jong Il Invested in conventional weapons, and they have a lot of that kind of conventional weaponry that we are seeing russia use in ukraine and so this is a time of rare opportunity for north korea to step up and say, hey, we have something that you need. It is illicit. North korea has denied supplying these weapons in other types of partnerships but this is an interesting moment where we are seeing these reports come out and perhaps us officials saying, listen, we want do know we are seeing this, we are flagging it, we are trying to draw global attention to it, we see what youre doing. We have seen this relationship between north korea and russia getting a little bit closer. How would that tight relationship between those two countries impact the rest of the world . So, this is a traditional alliance, it has not always been so strong so seeing the restoration of this alliance also serves as a reminder that this global divide between the us and the west, and russia, china and allies like north korea on the other side, isjust deepening but i would say it really comes down to the extension of that ukraine conflict and also with this partnership it is going to be so much harder at the un Security Council for the us and its allies and the west to really press ahead with more sanctions to stop both russia, china and north korea. And then also of course if this doesnt help north korea with its Nuclear Programme thats a Proliferation Issue so i think that we should be worried that this partnership, this Strengthening Alliance and it has implications far beyond the korean peninsula. Jean lee, former Ap Pyongyang Bureau chief and current co host of the bbc podcast the lazarus heist, thank you so much forjoining us. Thank you. Talks between russias Vladimir Putin and turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to revive the black Sea Grain Initiative ended without a deal. Turkey helped broker the original agreement alongside the United Nations in 2022. Russia backed out of injuly. Russia backed out of that deal injuly. Putin wants obstacles removed for russias own food and fertilizer exports and returning access to the Swift Financial transaction system to re enter the deal. Ukraine has claimed a russian dried landed in romania but romania denies version of events. It is not the first time they have made such accusations. Ukraine originally claimed it was a Russian Missile but it turned out to be a likely ukrainian drone. Ukraines accusation on the battlefield comes as ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is shaking up military leadership, dismissing his defense minister 0leksii reznikov. Mr reznikov confirmed monday that he will leave the post, saying on social medai that he had submitted his Resignation Letter to ukraines parliament. Mr zelenskyy plans to replace him with Rustem Umerov who runs ukraines State Property fund. Umerov will need to be formally approved by parliament. My colleague Catriona Perry spoke with evelyn farkas, former Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, and eurasia about ukraines latest shakeup and russias latest moves. President zelensky has re moved his Defence Minister. No charges against 0leksii reznikov. What does it all mean for the current state of the four . I think it is a really positive sign because i have travelled around the world, meeting with Defence Ministers from all kinds of countries, urging them to reform, to root out corruption, to make sure their Defence Ministries are up to Western Democratic standards in many cases and, often time, if they are waging a war and they are reluctant reformers, they will use the war as an excuse and in this case president zelensky did not do that. He took the courageous move to to move out against corruption. Hes picked a Defence Minister who looks ready on day one to do something about it, someone with a Business Background and someone with experience in ukraine rooting out corruption in ukraine and privatising a very transparent fashion so i am taking a great deal of encouragement from this that president Zelensky Means Whay he says. He said still the anticorruption president while he is also a wartime president. Ukraine has a lot of some successes on the counter events in the past week. Does that call that into question now that the Defence Minister has been changed . I think these are two separate things. I am here at the tblisi conference at the Mccain Institute without georgian partners, the epc. Eprc rather and the bush institute. We have had a lot of interesting conversations about the progress of the war and i think that most people believe that the war progressed thus far has not been a failure, so it is not a firing because it is not going as president zelensky thought it should proceed. My sense is this truly is related to corruption, although of course it is possible he thought he needed some fresh blood and fresh advising on the war as well. You mention you are at the conference in tblisi, georgia, the 15th Anniversary of Russia Invading Georgia and it continuous occupy territory there. Georgia has not impose International Sanctions on russia and in fact it has seen its trade go up with russia since the war began. Do you see that situation, that relationship continuing . Unfortunately, i do not see any indications that it is going to change. Georgia now is in a grey zone of its own making, of the governments making rather, not the making of the georgian people, not the desire of the georgian people but this government is in effect aligning with Vladimir Putin because they are not participating in sanctions against russia and they allow goods to flow freely to russia and these goods help the Russian Military effort against ukraine and so that is problematic. The future of georgia is very much in question under this government. You mentioned the eu membership, they will make a decision on that by the end of the hour, given the small pace and hitting the goals, do you think georgia will meet that deadline . Again, our georgian colleagues who have been speaking at this Conference Today and tomorrow as well, they are very pessimistic and they do not believe this government will do the 12 things the European Union is requiring. Most significantly and problematic is the de oligarchization isolation. I do not show up how they would do that. There is one oligarch funding the Main Political Party and is basically buying off opposition and there Strong Civil Society pointing all of this out but whether the government has the will to turn against the man that has given them all the power against the man that has given them all the power is an open question and one that right now nobody is optimistic about the answer to it will be yes. Defeating Vladimir Putin when it comes to the war is the theme of the conference. Can he be defeated . Absolutely but i think the reason we picked defending Vladimir Putin as a theme of our conference because last year it was actually helping ukraine to victory, was a recognition that it will not be enough just to defeat Vladimir Putin or remove putin from the political scene but it is putinism or trumpism, these sicknesses, these authoritarian tendencies, the anti human rights regimes, and the power that they exert across the globe, putting their tentacles into democratic societies and other struggling societies to try and gain advantage, whether it is in africa, latin america, europe or the United States, is what were trying also to draw attention to here. Thank you so much for speaking to on bbc news. Thank you. Around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. Lets look at some other stories making news Burning Man Festival goers have finally been given the all clear to leave the site in nevadas black rock desert. Rare rainstorms turned the area into a muddy mess, leaving the 70,000 attendees stranded. Some attempted to walk nearly 10km to the nearest road with plastic bags on their feet. Thats about six miles. Smash mouth frontman Steve Harwell has died at the age of 56. The band was one of the biggest names in music in the 1990s, selling over 10 million albums worldwide. Their song all star brought the band a new audience when it was featured in the movie shrek. Harwell left the band in 2021, citing mental and physical health issues. His manager says he died from acute liver failure. Scrutiny over the structural safety of englands schools is intensifying. The british Prime Minister has denied claims that he oversaw budget cuts that led to crumbling concrete in schools not being repaired. Youre live with bbc news. The first african Climate Summit of its kind is taking place in nairobi, kenya, to discuss ways the continent can respond to the threat of Climate Change. At least 23 African Heads Of State and government will join thousands of delegates with a goal to influence climate commitments, pledges and outcomes. Of the countries most affected by the climate crisis, 17 are in africa thats according to us climate envoy, john kerry. A un Report Estimates climate related disasters are costing african countries anywhere from 7 billion to 15 billion per year. To help these countries adapt, the African Development bank says they need to raise an average of 124 billion annually. But right now, they only receive a fraction of that amount, about 28 billion per year. 0ur africa correspondent anne soy filed this report. We have heard from the president , william ruto, that this is time to think about the solutions. This isnt time to talk about grievances. Everybody knows where the problems are, that africa contributes least to Climate Change but suffers the biggest impact from it. So he says it is time to look for ideas and bring them together. That is what they are hoping to do during this conference, to bring together ideas from across the continent, come up with a document that articulates the position of african countries going into cop28, the United NationsClimate Summit coming up in november. He says some of the Solutions Lie in the vast land available for agriculture, underutilised, minerals used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. He drove himself today and yesterday to the conference in an electric vehicle. And just the african population, a useful population that makes economies of scales, it makes sense. It sounds really good when it is put in a speech or put on paper, but there are so many complicat