News brief: Big stories of the day

President Donald Trump today said the US was in direct talks with North Korea "at a very high level" ahead of his planned summit with Kim Jong-un. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have not spoken directly, the White House said, but the US president confirmed that Washington and Pyongyang had been in contact at "very high levels" to prepare for a historic meeting between them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the UK today for a four-day visit of bilateral engagements as well as multilateral discussions as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson received Modi at the Heathrow airport here.

Ten people were killed and several others injured after strong winds of up to 98 km per hour hit Kolkata and its adjoining areas late on Tuesday night. Four died were reported in Kolkata, while 4 people in Howrah.One death was reported from Bankura and another from Hooghly.

Starbucks Corp will close 8,000 company-owned US cafes for the afternoon on May 29 so 175,000 employees can undergo racial tolerance training in response to protests and calls for boycotts after the arrest of two black men waiting in a Philadelphia store.

Barbara Bush, the wife of one former president and mother of another, died at the age of 92 on Tuesday. Bush was the wife of the 41st president, George H W Bush, and mother of the 43rd, George W Bush.