welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: alien worlds that may be teeming with life. scientists make a tantalising discovery a0 light years away. the trump administration revokes us government protection for transgender students, angering teachers and campaigners. the us secretary of state arrives in mexico, hoping to rebuild relations despite president trump's hostile rhetoric. and the dresses that defined diana — outfits worn by the late princess of wales go on display in london. hello. astronomers believe they may have made a crucial step towards finding life outside earth. a team of international scientists have found seven new planets with temperatures that should allow

water to exist in liquid form, which means life could have developed there. as our science editor david shukman reports, the planets are orbiting a distant dwarf star known as trappist—i. an artist's impression of a startling discovery deep in space, around a faint and distant star, much weaker than our sun, is a collection of planets that are surprisingly similar to earth. in all, seven of these worlds have been spotted, and astronomers think it may change the way we look at the night sky. the discovery gives us a hint that finding a second earth is notjust a matter of if, but when. an array of telescopes kept watch on one point in space and what the scientists were looking for were tiny clues about the light of a particular star becoming dimmer, on a regular basis, as planets orbited in front of it. they can't see these new worlds, but they know they're there. well we are extremely excited. this is the biggest amount of planets that we've found in one go that look like the earth in composition, size and mass.

all seven are close enough to the star and far enough to the star that they could host liquid water, and that's just incredible. this is the latest revelation in a wave of discoveries over the past 25 years of new worlds that exist in solar systems beyond our own. the total of these distant planets now stands at well over 3,000. what makes this discovery so unusual is the sheer number of new worlds spotted in one go, seven in all. and crucially, they'rejust the right temperature for liquid water to exist at the surface. three of them are in what's called the habitable zone, which raises the tantalising possibility that they could conceivably host life. but we won't be getting there in a hurry, they're a0 light years away. to reach them, using the rockets we have now, would take something like 700,000 years. there's so much to find out about these worlds, whether the artist's impressions are right, whether it's possible

that the conditions for life do exist, and astronomers say they'll be a huge effort to try to find out. the more we look, the more planets we find and the more earth—like planets we find, but this is especially exciting because this, sort of, ultra—cool star that we've discovered, they're quite populous throughout our galaxy, and it's the first time we've had planets going around a star like this and we've found seven of them. the best hope lies with huge new telescopes that'll come into service soon, improving the chances of getting a really close look at these alien worlds to see, for example, if they do have oceans and maybe, just maybe, discover if there are some hints about life. david shukman, bbc news. and you can find more on how astronomers believe they may have made a crucial step towards finding life outside earth on the bbc website. go to bbc.com/news for further background and analysis. the un secretary—general has issued an urgent call for funds to avert

famine in 4 countries. the un has already said more than 20 million people face possible starvation in south sudan, nigeria, somalia and yemen. so far, governments have pledged only about 2% of the nearly $4.5 billion needed. the us vice—president, mike pence, has paid his respects at a jewish cemetery in st louis, missouri, that was vandalised on monday. so far no—one has been arrested. a crowdfunding project to raise money to repair the damaged headstones, led by american muslims, has now raised more than four times its $20,000 target. the white house has put an end to government protection for transgender students. president trump has revoked rules from the 0bama era which gave pupils in public schools the right to use toilets matching their chosen gender identity — the ones they felt most comfortable in. thejustice and education departments say the 0bama

guidelines were confusing. advocates for tra nsgender rights argue they were needed, to protect students from discrimination. frankie mccamley reports. whether to turn left or right — a simple decision for many. but the issue of choosing between the door for women and for men is once again highlighting a political touchstone dividing social conservatives and those who support greater equality. last may the 0bama administration directed public schools to allow transgender access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity, not what was on their birth certificate. it warned if schools were to discriminate, they could lose funding. republicans pushed back, 13 states sueing to challenge the directive. earlier this week the trump administration signalled it was reversing the policy. the president has maintained for a long time that this is a states rights issue, and not

one for the federal government. so while there will be further guidance coming on this, i think all you have to do is look at what the president's view has been for a long time. but this is not something the federal government should be involved in, it is a states rights issue. in this draft letter, officials say they are withdrawing previous guidance, as many have struggled to understand and apply the statements of policy. however, it says it will not diminish the protections from bullying and harassment that are available to all students. schools must ensure the transgender students, like all students, are able to learn in a safe environment. but advocates for lgbt students have already begun speaking out. the guidance has changed and saved lives, and has hurt nobody. withdrawing it will only create confusion now, and fear, for students who already face grave risks. legal experts now warn this change could impact some pending court cases. as for the impact on the wider lgbt community, that is yet to be seen.

jess herbst, mayor of new hope, is the first openly transgender elected official in texas. she described what effect the change in the bathroom bill will have on transgender students. what it means to transgender children is that they are still going to be forced to walk into a bathroom that either says they are not the gender that they believe they are, they are not going to get to go into the women's room if they feel they are female, they are not going to get to go into the men's room. so the bullying is still there, just the dysphoria of being forced to be different, to be unusual, to be somebody who is not who they believe themselves to be is traumatising. the children, transgender children, they suffer from it tremendous amount of

internal fear, from it tremendous amount of internalfear, dysphoria, from it tremendous amount of internal fear, dysphoria, and from it tremendous amount of internalfear, dysphoria, and this is what leads to the high suicide rates. not allowing them to act and to feel and to be the way that they know they are inside is just damaging. the 0bama rule, of course, allowed those students to use the bathrooms they felt most comfortable in. do you understand why that makes some other people not transgender feel uncomfortable, feel threatened in some cases? they feel it is a safety issue. you understand why some conservative voters feel so strongly about this?” some conservative voters feel so strongly about this? i wish i could say understood why they feel this way. i don't. 0therthan say understood why they feel this way. i don't. other than to say that they don't understand us. they fear us. they don't understand us. they fear us. they fear transgender people, because they don't know what these feelings are like and theyjust rebel against it. as far as an issue of safety, ever since the north carolina thing came up over a year ago, people have been trying, the press has been trying, the

conservatives have been trying, everybody has been looking at through the records to try to find an incident where there has ever been a transgender person causing any kind of a problem, any kind of disruption in any bathroom. and it has never happened. they can't find it. so now they say, well, it is just a matter of privacy. when you go into the bathroom it is private. when you go into the bathroom to use the bathroom, you are in a private stall. it is not an issue. and the other thing they always point to, in particular, women, i don't want my daughter to go to in there and there is somebody who thinks they are a woman who is not. they never consider the fact that there are transgender men. when you put them in the bathroom, you are going to put someone in the bathroom that feels they are male. if they have started any type of hormone replacement therapy, they are going to look mail. so now you have a situation where you are putting somebody in the wrong bathroom, you are putting somebody in the girls that was bathroom that is very clearly male in their mind, and

their body is changing to become male. that is going to be a problem. but they see this as a one—sided issue. they never talk about trans men, it is almost as if trans men do not exist. they do exist. there are trans men, trans women, we are who we feel we are. we have never caused any problems. this isjust a made up smokescreen. president trump saying, it isa smokescreen. president trump saying, it is a states rights issue, do my rights, to transgender rights, do a transgender child's rights change when they cross a state border? when we we re when they cross a state border? when we were going to the civil rights movement in 1965 did they say, we will that the states decide which states can allow will that the states decide which states can . you i will that the states decide which states can . you not get round it at now, could you not get round it at all by providing more unisex bathrooms that anybody could use if they wanted to? that would be fine foreign adults like myself. again, when you are either veneer sold or 12 years old and you are transgender, you feel isolated already. when it is time for you to

go to the bathroom and all your friends are going to one bathroom or the other and you have got to go to this special bathroom, thatjust puts an even stronger mark on them. that's just isolates you even further. the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, has arrived in mexico, and donald trump's proposed border wall is top of the agenda. there's concern in mexico too, as in the us, about the president's deportation plans. james cook reports from texas where many migrants from central america cross the border into the united states. it's rodeo season deep in the heart of texas. this is a state with a proud heritage and tough people. texans will tell you they're god—fearing, cattle rearing straight—talking folk. inside this arena it's strictly apolitical, but outside they don't mince their words. what do you think of the idea of a wall? perfect. why's that? wall it up! we don't need the criminals in here. wall it up! the wall will probably never happen just because of geography. that simple.

there's definitely security measures that will be put in place that will definitely help alleviate some of the illegal immigrants, but i agree with him, we need immigration. most of the time they need water but you do see some carrying fully automatic weapons and you'd better keep on going. and some parts of the frontier are easier to cross than others. i'm sitting here on the very edge of the united states, that's mexico just over there, you could be across in a couple of minutes, and apart from the river this wire is the only physical barrier separating these two countries. but ranchers worry about a barrier slicing through their fertile fields and one republican congressman said the wall would be the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border. and across that divide every week come thousands of families for whom this is

a moment of pure joy. welcome to america! yanelli is three years old. she's been on the road from honduras for 13 perilous days with her mum and her brother. like everyone arriving today, the family say violence and poverty forced them to flee. translation: it was hard because when you're an adult, you understand, but babies get scared and they cried. there are parts of the forest where you walk in the dark and when the police came, my little girl knew she had to hide and stay quiet. the mass here has a latin american rhythm and the catholic church is making the moral case for immigration reform. but this bishop says a secure border with mexico depends on solving problems elsewhere in honduras, guatemala and el salvador. people have a right to live in conditions in their own country where they are safe and secure

and can provide for their children. and if they don't have those conditions something seriously wrong. the americas are connected and sometimes we don't always realise how profoundly. these families have made it and are now applying for asylum, but there may soon be another physical barrier to the fulfilment of the american dream. james cook, bbc news, mcallen in texas. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the dresses that defined diana, outfits worn by the late princess of wales go on display in london. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets.

a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos's sanctuary, malacanang, the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. citizens are trying to come to grips with their new freedom. though there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibility and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, be hidden from the world for the rest of his life. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: astronomers discover seven new planets orbiting a distant star, they say three of them could support life. the trump administration has put an end to government protection for transgender students

in public schools, revoking the bathroom guidelines brought in last year by president 0bama. let's return to that top story now. keith cowing is editor of the space news website, nasa watch. i asked him whether there was a chance of ever exploring these planets. keith cowing is editor of nasa watch. actually rather good. there is a project since you asked, called breakthrough sta rshot which is hoping to send nano sized spacecraft to alpha centauri, four light—years away. four light—years, a0 light—years. it's a bit further away, but this technology is under development. we might not go there ourselves but we might send our robotic avatars there sooner than we think. watching that press at nasa headquarters, even i could sense the excitement in the voices of scientists, but discovering planets is surely not that uncommon.

what is so special here? i broke the story yesterday and pieced it together, i've been tracking it for a long time. it is like, thousands of planets that we have found when you find a planet the size of earth there is usually one maybe two in a star system. they found three and then four, five, six, seven of them and all seven have at least a theoretical capability of having conditions where liquid water could exist. we don't know if there is water there but they are at the right temperature, and within that group of seven there are three which have the conditions that, as i say, are habitable. habitable doesn't mean inhabited, but it could, if we look carefully, could have the conditions that are conducive to life as we know it. and could we find evidence of life? at this distance, it is difficult. that is unless you fly by.

but you can use telescopes to examine the atmospheres of these planets. if you see oxygen in one of them, oxygen is a gas that does not last long in the atmosphere. you can look afar at the spectrum, the colours of the atmosphere and tell something about them, and infer that maybe this planet does not have any life or something is going on. but it's more than that. there are other aspects. but the only way to find out about life on the planet is to go there. keith, what would you say are the chances of contact with life from another planet? any contact presumably with something much more advanced could be profoundly threatening to us. possibly speedily quite fatal? 0r benign. it could be just like, you walk by somebody in the street and after you meet your first extra terrestrial and your second and your third, it becomes routine. we will not know until it happens. some people like to draw analogies

with tribes in brazil which keep isolated from us civilised folks yet they have a more peaceful life. i'm not sure. in terms of finding life, every time you see a star system pop up with seven planets that have potential to have liquid water on the surface and you look at the number of small stars like this out there, and then you look in our solar system and places where we think we may find life, we might not be able to shake its hand or its tentacle but we are going to say hello to something. the authorities in chile say more than 4,000 people have been evacuated from their homes as wildfires rage in the centre of the country. a red alert had been issued for the area around the village of parral. pablo uchoa has this report. within just withinjust a within just a few hours, flames engulfed three and a half thousand hectares of land in this region. this fire started raging earlier on

wednesday. authorities have since ordered and evacuation of more than 4000 people. translation: it was unbelievable. the fire spread over 300 metres in seconds. unbelievable. then came firefighters, police and military. they asked to evacuate the area. firefighters, police and military. they asked to evacuate the aream is out of control. my uncle had a house here and it looks like it was burnt. we couldn't get there in time. the fire came from an area down below. hopefully they won't go any further. we are going to remain oi'i any further. we are going to remain on alert. the national emergency office says it has sent all resources to the area, including almost 400 firefighters, emergency brigades and aircraft. at least 40 houses have been destroyed, officials say it is still too early to assess the full extent of the damage. forest fires are common in

the hot summers and the long period of drought and usually high temperatures have created perfect conditions in central regions. 11 deaths have been blamed on fires this season. vili 1500 deaths have been blamed on fires this season. vili1500 homes have been destroyed. there are 25 fires still active across the country and many areas remain on red alert. her life was a mixture of glamour and heartache. now, 20 years after her death, princess diana's style and elegance is centre stage at her former home in london. an exhibition at kensington palace will show off her most iconic dresses, including the one she wore to dance withjohn travolta at the white house. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. her public image was in so many ways defined by the clothes that she wore. she was one of world's most photographed women, and many of the world's top designers clamoured to dress her. the results were frequently eye—catching, dresses that have lingered in the memory.

and now, 20 years after diana's death, 25 of those dresses have been brought together, for an exhibition at herformer home, kensington palace. they chart the evolution of a relatively demure newlywed, through to her emergence on the international stage, with, outwardly at least, much greater confidence in her dress sense. so here are some of the famous dresses. the one that she wore to dance withjohn travolta, and others that were part of her wardrobe in the 1990s. by the time she is wearing this dress, she is very confident in her own sense of style — we are seeing a diana who has risen above those seasonal changes in fashion. and she has a timeless elegance — she knows what suits her and she wears it well. few would disagree with that, and the exhibition organisers can be confident that the crowds will come from around the world to experience something of diana's glamour. interest in diana remains considerable, despite the passage of years, but one imagines

that her family would hope that she will be remembered for much more than just the dresses she wore. so do the organisers feel comfortable about perpetuating the focus on diana and her clothes? diana herself didn't like to be known as a clotheshorse, however she did understand the language of fashion very well and she used clothes to help her do the job at hand. she was a very proud ambassadoress for british fashion as princess of wales, but she also used clothes to help her do herjob as a humanitarian. they were the essential props which helped this sometimes insecure young woman to face the world and win its admiration for her image of glamour and style. nicholas witchell, bbc news, at kensington palace. david bowie has won two awards at this year's brit awards in london — making him the first posthumous winner in the event's history. just over a year after his death, he was named best british male solo artist, while blackstar,

released two days before he died, won album of the year. george michael, who died on christmas day, was also remembered — coldplay‘s chris martin singing the ballad ‘a different corner‘ alongside clips of the star. amongst the other winners were beyonce for best international female and adele for global success. just briefly recapping our top story. nasser have discovered a new star that may be capable of supporting life. they have found seven planets, and it is believed that they are the correct conditions for liquid water and therefore, possibly, life. it would take about 100,000 years to get there. thank you for watching. hello there.

check before you travel. i think that's the main message today. stormy weather pushing across the uk from west to east. storm doris developed through the night. by the start of morning rush—hour this is where it will be the lightest wind. a number of hazards. to the northern flank of it, snow. parts of central and southern scotland, a met office amber be—prepared warning. especially on the higher ground. we could see 20—30 centimetres of snow. that could impact the higher parts of the m74, the m8, and m90 during the morning rush hour. and even some snow cover in the central belt. the other feature of the weather is the strength of the wind. england and wales, the main impact of that. it is particularly covered by a be—prepared amber warning from the met office. this stretch will go from north wales through the morning pushing across east anglia and the midlands. this is where we could see maybe 70—80 mile an hour gusts, especially over hills and coasts. widely in england and wales, in excess of 50 miles an hour through the day, causing travel disruption and power problems as well. with it, if you look

at the forecast for the day. the band of low pressure going east to west. many seeing rain for a time. this is where the most persistent will be. away from the hills is where we will see snow. a risk of minorflooding here. easing in the afternoon. brighter skies to the west and south. northern ireland sees sunshine and showers. a cold and north—westerly wind digging in. temperatures dropping through the day. the wind is strong into the afternoon, the evening, especially in lincolnshire and east anglia. the winds will drastically drop down through the night and into friday. wintry showers here and there. maybe some ice. friday will be a much quieter day. for many, a pleasant day. frost to begin with. one or two showers initially. most becoming dry with some sunny spells. clouding over into the west later on. rain into northern ireland, western scotland, strengthening winds. some snow in the western highlands.

not especially warm, but in the sunshine, just a gentle breeze. it should feel 0k. milder south—westerly winds as we go into the weekend. quite strong winds on saturday, bringing mild weather up from the mid—atlantic. lots of cloud. the best of any breaks to the west and east. wettest in the north and west. temperatures widely into double figures. again, rising river levels and a risk of flooding to parts of north—west england. more rain at times to come on sunday. a quiet day compared to saturday. the winds a bit lighter. the strongest winds towards the west and east. take care. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm mike embley. astronomers say they could be a step closer to finding extra—terrestrial life, after the discovery of seven earth—sized planets nearly 40 light years away. three of the planets are within what's considered to be the habitable zone where surface water might exist and therefore life may be possible. the trump administration has revoked us government protection

for transgender students, which gave them the right to use school bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity. transgender rights advocates say the guidelines were necessary to protect students from discrimination. the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, and the head of homeland security have arrived in mexico for talks on the proposed border wall and the deportation of undocumented immigrants. tensions are high, with the two countries facing their most serious rift for years. now on bbc news, click. this week: waterfalls and flowers, lions all around. oh, i can see lions and stuff, playing.