Six In The Morning Friday January 5

North Korea accepts Olympics talks offer, says South

North Korea has accepted an offer to attend high-level talks next week, South Korean officials have said.

The meeting, on 9 January, will focus on finding a way for North Korean athletes to attend the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea in February.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said this week that sending a delegation to the Games would be "a good opportunity to show unity of the people".

The meeting is expected to be held at Panmunjom, on the border.

These will be the first high-level talks both Koreas have had since December 2015. It is not yet clear who will be attending.

Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn

Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanity

Damian Carrington Environment editor

@dpcarrington

Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.

Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas.

The analysis, published in the journal Science, is the first comprehensive analysis of the areas and states: “Major extinction events in Earth’s history have been associated with warm climates and oxygen-deficient oceans.” Denise Breitburg, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the US and who led the analysis, said: “Under the current trajectory that is where we would be headed. But the consequences to humans of staying on that trajectory are so dire that it is hard to imagine we would go quite that far down that path.”

By lashing out at Steve Bannon, Trump has tripped head over heels into his own political coffin – but not for the reason you'd think

The bromance is reaching its logical endpoint: if Steve can’t have Donald, then apparently neither can we

• Nash Riggins 
• @nashriggins 

There’s nothing sadder than a messy divorce. They just bring out the worst in people, and you can understand why. Divorce obliterates the foundations of all your hard-won hopes and dreams for the future. The end of a marriage can turn your world upside down, erode your sense of trust and really make you want to lash out at the person who’s betrayed you.

One of the easiest ways to make your turncoat lover hurt? Plaster all of your hushed bedroom whispers far and wide for everybody to gawk at.

Those spilt secrets have the ability to bulldoze somebody’s entire career. They destroy lives – and if Steve Bannon gets his way, they’ve got enough power to destroy a presidency, too.

Nigeria finds missing Chibok girl after almost four years

The Nigerian army rescued one of the 276 girls who was captured by Boko Haram terrorists at her school in 2014. Although dozens have been released, some 100 are still held captive by the Islamists.

Authorities in Nigeria announced on Thursday that they had rescued one more of Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram nearly four years ago. While the community expressed joy at the girl's return, leader Madu Usman called on the government to make all efforts to free those who remain in captivity.

The abduction of the 276 girls by Nigeria's terrorist insurgency in April 2014 sparked a global outcry and highlighted the plight faced by Nigerians who live in territories where the Islamists operate.

The girls, who mostly ranged in age from 16-18, were sleeping at their school, awaiting exams, when they were taken. Amnesty International has alleged that the Nigerian government had warning of the attack, but did not move to reinforce the guards at the school.

All Apple devices are at risk from two major flaws, Apple to issue fix

Apple has said that all iPhones, iPads and Mac computers are affected by two major flaws in computer chips.

Apple Inc will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said on Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers.

Meltdown and Spectre

On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc’s Google and other security researchers disclosed two major chip flaws, one called Meltdown affecting only Intel Corp chips and one called Spectre affecting nearly all computer chips made in the last decade. The news sparked a sell-off in Intel’s stock as investors tried to gauge the costs to the chipmaker.

The Biggest Secret

My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror

James Risen

BUNDLED AGAINST THE freezing wind, my lawyers and I were about to reach the courthouse door when two news photographers launched into a perp-walk shoot. As a reporter, I had witnessed this classic scene dozens of times, watching in bemusement from the sidelines while frenetic photographers and TV crews did their business. I never thought I would be the perp, facing those whirring cameras.

As I walked past the photographers into the courthouse that morning in January 2015, I saw a group of reporters, some of whom I knew personally. They were here to cover my case, and now they were waiting and watching me. I felt isolated and alone.