hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. russia and the west are at loggerheads over who was responsible for the syria chemical attack that left 70 people dead. the turning point of the use of chemical weapons in syria was the establishment by the previous us administration of the so—called red lines. if russia had been fulfilling its responsibility, there would not even be any chemical weapons left for the syrian regime to use. we've also heard from president trump. i will tell you, it's already happened, that my attitude toward syria and assad has changed very much. mr trump's controversial chief strategist steve bannon has been removed from the us national security council. we'll be live in washington to find out why. the european parliament has set out its priorities for brexit. and there were some heated exchanges along the way. we'll talk to chris morris about that. and don't forget you can get in touch with questions about any of the stories we're covering using the hashtag #bbcos. all our contact details are on

screen throughout the programme. faced with the horror of syrian children dying from a suspected nerve agent, the world's most powerful countries have not been spurred into unified action. instead they've argued. this video show scenes the world was supposed to have consigned to history. it is, of course, deeply upsetting. those affected by this chemical attack in northern syria are given assistance. according to one monitoring group, 72 people were killed. 20 of them were children. the argument here is not about whether there was an air strike. it's not about whether or not the suffering was caused by chemicals. it's about where those chemicals came from. and america and russia,

with all their might and all their intelligence operations, have two quite distinct versions of what happened. the americans blame the syrian government. the russians blame the rebels. and they can't agree on a un security council statement. so no response to the horrors we have seen in these videos. let me play you the views of all sides, first donald trump. at attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me, a big impact. that is a horrible thing. i have been watching and seeing it and it does not get any worse than not. and i have a flexibility and it is very, very possible, and i will tell you, it has already happened, that my attitude towards syria and assad has

changed very much. this is the us ambassador to the un. how many more children have to died before russia cares? the united states sees yesterday's attack as a disgrace at the highest level, an assurance that humanity means nothing to the syrian government. the question members of this council must ask themselves is this council must ask themselves is this —— this council must ask themselves is this -- if this council must ask themselves is this —— if we are not able to e nforce this —— if we are not able to enforce resolutions preventing the use enforce resolutions preventing the use of chemical weapons, what does that say for our chances of ending the broader conflict in syria? what does that say of our ability to bring relief to the syrian people? if we are not able to enforce resolutions preventing the use of chemical weapons, what does that say about our effectiveness in this institution? the ambassador to the uk said that

syria had humiliated russia by making a mockery of the peace process it had brokered. the syrian government denies ever using chemical weapons. this is the russian response. translation: everything is geared, everything is guided by the need to change regime. this obsession with raging changes what hinders the work of the security council. —— this obsession with regime changes. you're trying to have the security council give the cover of legitimacy to your illegitimate plans. you should not try to introduce discord to our relationships with the people of syria, the people of iraq and others in the middle east. i thought big uk had long ago abandoned these tactics. so once

againi abandoned these tactics. so once again i repeat that without truly uniting our efforts through collective action, we will not resolve the problem of the syrian conflict or the problem of sectarianism. these are long—standing issues at the un, given fresh urgency by this attack. after a suspected chemical attack. after a suspected chemical attack in 2013, president obama said attack in 2013, president obama said a red line had been crossed. that led to an argument with russia for syria to destroy its stockpiles of the weapons. this is a bbc article from 2014 about all of the weapons supposedly removed from syria. evidently someone still has some. nada tawfik is live from the un. let's ta ke nada tawfik is live from the un. let's take it from the russian side, howard a defending their repeated blocking of any resolution on this? —— how are they defending? blocking of any resolution on this? -- how are they defending? the uk ambassador matthew wright croft as the russian ambassador back

question. he said what is russia's plan now after, as you say, repeated resolution vetoes, the seven vetoes in the security council. the russian ambassador said their plan is to continue to fight terrorism, that is how they have been framing what they see as a key problem in the syrian conflict. that is in direct conflict to the western powers on the security council who say that this attack and other chemical weapons attacks have the hallmark of president assad. we heard a dramatic statement from the us ambassador, nikki haley, who got up out of her seatin nikki haley, who got up out of her seat in the un security council and held pictures of children who had died chewing this attack and said we cannot look at these faces and ignore that problem any longer. she turned directly to the russian ambassador and said how many

children have to died before russia ca res. children have to died before russia cares. it was a really powerful moment but is again showed the deep divisions that we continue to have on the security council and any progress on passing a resolution which would hold those responsible for these attacks and recount. with the american said black and the russian said white, who at the un thrashes out what actually happens? it means that nothing happens. we continue to have the inaction we have had, this conflict is entering its seventh year. us ambassador nikki haley basically warned at the end of her statement that if the un cannot collectively, and decide on the unified approach, it would be time for the us and other members on the security council to take their own action. we have heard a lot from member states who have said that russia, iran, those who have basically said they are the guarantors of the ceasefire in syria had to continue to use their sway on

president assad. others frame this in the case of fighting terrorism, but all of those unilateral actions andi but all of those unilateral actions and i think the key here will be how president trump approaches the syria conflict. he has criticised president obama this setting a red line and emboldening president assad by not doing much. this chemical attack has certainly changed his calculus, president trump has said that but his foreign policy is still unclear and lots of people at the un are hoping to see a stronger us response. we appreciate that. thanks for taking us through that. the attack happened in the town called khan sheikhoun. it is in the north—west of syria. it's in idlib province which is held by the rebels. medics say the victims‘ symptoms are consistent with exposure to nerve agents. and this is a tweet

from a uk—trained doctor, shajul islam, who is in syria as an aid worker. "do u still doubt that #sarin is being used on us? non—reactive pinpoint pupils!" i'll show you what he means — he also posted this video. this person has very, very small pinprick pupils. pinprick pupils are a common symptom of exposure to nerve agents like sarin. the horror of this attack — and the international row that's followed it — has overshadowed a conference in brussels aimed at funding and co—ordinating aid for syria. and those affected by the conflict. chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who has recently been

in syria, was there. the meeting was arranged before the latest atrocity to be discussing the future of syria, including the very delicate question about when can funds start to be provided, to start rebuilding syria. what has happened in the last 24 hours has emphasised again that it is very hard, if not politically impossible, to start rebuilding when the war continues and with such devastating effect. one after another the world leaders arrived this morning, the consequences of the chemical attack, the repercussions of it, the casualties it has caused was at the top of their minds, they have called for a thorough investigation and warned there will be consequences, the same thing will happen tonight in new york at the un security council, but the fundamental question is what will be done about it. what will be done to make sure this time will be done rather than the other times when nothing happened. thanks, lyse doucet. steve bannon is

one of donald trump's most trusted advisers, his chief strategist, no less. steven bannon has been removed from his position on the national security council. his original appointment to the council was met with widespread criticism. lots of analysis on this. jeff stein is the national security correspondent at newsweek. thank you for your time, many people predicted this, did you see it coming? no, i don't think many people saw it coming but there is a lot of chaos in the white house so we just can't predict, day to day or hour to hour, what will happen. trump's some time confidant, roger stone, had been tweeting or writing in the last 24 hours that jared kushner, the son—in—law of the president, had been trying to oust bannon from the security committee, i think you have the right church on the wrong pew. it appears to be the general mcmaster, the head of the

national security council, got a piece of gum out of his hair in removing steve bannon from the principal‘s committee of the national security council. some people would describe this as flexibility and willingness to listen from the president, others say it is weakness in his inability to hold a position. what is your analysis? i don't buy into that. i would say this change somewhat cosmetic. it removes some annoyance, the international security council, in that bannon could sit in and bring a political points. he will still be up political adviser in the oval office and know what is going on in the nse. moreover the white house is putting out a cover story about this saying that he never attended any of the national security council meetings, they say that his work was done there, his

principal job that his work was done there, his principaljob was to keep an eye on the ousted national security adviser michael flynn. why he needed to keep an eye on general flynn is not explained. it is hard to pass. i think we will have to let the dust settle and see how this plays out. some would see this as the latest stage in an interesting relationship between mr trump and the security establishment and the republican establishment. would this be one push back the security establishment? i think there is almost giddyjoy right here in the swamp, which is to say the permanent establishments in the intelligence community currently intelligence agencies and the department the feds. there is some relief on capitol hill, mainstream republican senators likejohn capitol hill, mainstream republican senators like john mccain capitol hill, mainstream republican senators likejohn mccain will be overjoyed at this news. it is a pushback. there is an intense desire

on behalf of mainstream republicans, not to mention democrats, to bring order and cohesion to the national security question. lots of that will depend on the president, what he tweets, if he quiets down and lets the normal process of diplomacy and the normal process of diplomacy and the deliberations of the national security council take their course, as per usual. this shake—up, as it has been called, i'm not sure if it is to return to the status quo here in washington. thank you for your time. ina in washington. thank you for your time. in a couple of minutes we will look at some of the heated exchanges in the european parliament, not so much featuring jean—claude junker bert nigel farage and guy verhofstadt. labour's ruling body the national executive committee will review ken livingstone's status in the party after his comments about hitler and zionism and his suspension for another year. jeremy corbyn said... "ken livingstone's comments have

been grossly insensitive, and he has caused deep offence and hurt to thejewish community." butjenny manson, a labour party member who isjewish, and gave evidence at mr livingstone's tribunal says she doesn't think the former london mayor's comments were anti—semitic. there is a jewish tradition of justice, and a very important national tradition of free speech. in my view, nothing ken livingstone has said or done has been anti—semitic. as to mentioning hitler and zionism, it may offend some people, but i have been offended by something is such as describing their being rampant anti—semitism in the labour party. —— i have been offended by some things such as. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is...

russia and the west have clashed over who is responsible for a deadly gas attack in syria which left 70 people dead. the russians blame rebels, the americans and the allies blame the syrian government. russia's supreme court is considering whether to ban thejehovah‘s witnesses religious movement. they would be the first registered religious movement since the soviet era to be outlawed in russia. that is from bbc russia. ecuador‘s president—elect has told julian assange to stop meddling in the country's politics after he mocked a rival candidate who had vowed to expel him from the london embassy. that's from bbc mundo. pepsi have removed their brand new commercial from youtube and are halting any further roll—out of the campaign following widespread criticism. the ad featuring kendaljenner drew criticism from some civil rights advocates said it trivialized recent unrest across the us. the european parliament has set

out its non—negotiables on brexit. it voted through its priorities. they include equal rights for eu citizens in the uk and uk citizens in the eu. if you want to get full details, there is a press release on this website. it tells that it has ruled out making any decision on trade with the uk ahead of settling other terms and brexit. some of the parliament's main characters were to the fore — first here's nigel farage. you are behaving like the mafia. you think we are a hostage, we are not. we are free to go. this... i know. i do understand. translation: i am trying to give you

the chance to speak and 71 to say, that if you're going to speak about the matter, ifind that if you're going to speak about the matter, i find that unacceptable. applause ido applause i do understand, mr president, national sensitivities. i will change it to gangsters. and thatis i will change it to gangsters. and that is how we are being treated. next mr farage's long—time foe, european parliament lead negotiator guy verhofstadt. iam i am convinced in 100% sure about one thing, that there will be one day or another, dear colleagues, that there will be a young man or a young woman who will try again. who will lead britain again into the european family once again. applause and a young generation... applause

applause a young generation that will see brexit for what it really is. a catfight in the conservative party that got out of hand. a loss of time, a waste of energy and, i think, a stupidity. both men are nothing if not consistent. guy verhofstadt is the lead brexit negotiator for the european parliament. earlier i got some analysis from chris morris. i asked whether any of this mattered, given the european parliament wouldn't actually be involved in any negotiations. it matters that eventually the parliament has a real role in this. for the next 18 months or so you could say there will be shouting from the sidelines of it because they are not at the negotiating table when britain and the eu sit in a room together. but eventually they get vote on the separation agreement, so smart people on the eu side and in the uk government know

they have to key parliament onside because they can create trouble. they have just sent out a few warning shots saying we are watching this, this and this, don't forget us. three elements of what was said, one is the insistence that we will negotiate the withdrawal and then the future relationship. in reality, aren't those two going to intertwine? to a future extent, but that there adjapong is what we saw from the european council, the draft guidelines produced by donald tusk. there is an insistence on the european side that we have to do those things first, look at money, the divorce bill, the status of eu citizens in the uk and uk citizens in europe. ireland has been mentioned. you are essentially creating a new external border for the eu with what will be a third country, we know the sensitivities of the border between the republic of the border between the republic of violence in northern ireland as pa rt of violence in northern ireland as part of the peace process. if we can't create that sense of trust

between the two parties, how can we know where we will go with the future relationship, notjust on trade but on a whole host of other things? the uk want to talk about trade straightaway because that is what it is all about in the end, but ido what it is all about in the end, but i do not think the eu will stick to that. we saw another sharp exchange between nigel farage and some of his collea g u es between nigel farage and some of his colleagues in parliaments, does any of that impact on how the parliamentarians do the british government or do they see the two as quite separate which, of course, they are? i think they see them separately. we need to bear in mind, as the process goes on, we will get to massive stumbling blocks and crises but on both sides the governments genuinely want to reach a deal. some people around the margins probably don't and probably would not mind if the whole thing fell apart, but the governments want to reach a deal and we should remember that when we talk about a

crisis in the talks, they will push very ha rd to crisis in the talks, they will push very hard to reach and sort of arrangements. they are neighbours, they had to get on in the long term, they had to get on in the long term, they will not turn into enemies. it will be very hard disentangling this incredibly complex relationship, but they will try very hard to get it done. you will be aware that donald trump wants to build a wall along the border with mexico. the deadline has passed for those companies wanting to build donald trump's wall on the mexico border. it's reported hundreds of companies have submitted bids. only a few will now be selected to build prototypes. then one will be chosen. let's bring in michelle fleury, live from new york. the figures involved, the amount of money you could make from it are pretty sizeable? estimates of the cost of the full wall range from $12 billion to more than 20 billion. to be clear, the pa rt than 20 billion. to be clear, the part companies are bidding on right now, the deadline you are there into, this is to build a prototype and we are told by officials that it

will be constructed in the san diego area, that would cost closer to 200 or five area, that would cost closer to 200 orfive in bears and each, not the full sum of money. —— close to 200 or 500,000 each. several companies have lots of ideas about what the potential border wall could look like. how does that scale up to the point where the whole thing gets done? just this small area, some of the ideas involved, from what we understand, because the process at the moment is fairly secretive, as is normal, i should point out, what we understand from some companies there is talk of a solar wall, a sustainable structure built out of recycled shipping containers. what that looks like translated across the whole border is hard to see. forget the engineering challenges, you have the political challenges,

who will pay for it? it is not yet clear, that has not been agreed. donald trump has made a huge deal about building a border wall on his campaign trail but has not yet got agreement from legislators as to whether money will come from. there are whether money will come from. there a re lots of whether money will come from. there are lots of unanswered questions, the only thing we know for sure at the only thing we know for sure at the moment is the focus on the prototype, i guess it is one step at a time. thank you, michelle. i suspect we will talk about that for quite a while. german ministers have approved plans to fine social media firms up to $53 million if they don't remove fake news and hate speech fast enough. the new law would give companies just 24 hours to block content after it has been reported. our technology desk editor leo kelion explains. germany already has very tough laws against people who post hate speech. if you deny the holocaust, for example, you can face a prison sentence. the issue is there is not

a lot of prosecutions in those online cases and the government once the social media companies to do more to take it down. under the new rules, what you would find is that if something was obviously criminal they would have to take it down in a day, after seven days if the post is offensive but needs a little bit of investigation. that will take a lot of people to investigate. facebook was saying they have around 700 people in the country. the concern in the statement that they gave to us was in the statement that they gave to us was that they should not be the ones judging us was that they should not be the onesjudging what is us was that they should not be the ones judging what is or is not against the rules, but should be up to the courts or some other regulator. thanks to leo. i will be back in a couple of minutes with the second—half of outside source. more uk weather coming up in half an

hour, now we go around the world to see some of the main weather stories. it has been a troubled build—up to the us masters golf in augusta, georgia, because of the weather. more problems today. bright colours indicating some intense thunderstorms getting closer to augusta, practice interrupted. the players will have to do it for real tomorrow, that is when the severe weather would have pulled through and the threat of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and lightning will be over. a different weather picture of a thursday, the wind will be more of a thursday, the wind will be more of a player for the first day, quite gusty and strong wind, maybe some showers first thing but then it dries up and the rest of the tournament looks dry, the wind is getting lighter. the weekend looks absolutely perfect. for thursday, there is a chill in the wind, it could be gusting around 40 mph, it will absolutely be a factor.

on to australia we are dealing with flooding in queensland from cyclone debbie. it has been impacting new zealand in the past day or so. we have had up to 200 millimetres of rain across parts of north island and the inevitable flooding and disruption as a result, with scenes like this, the situation only getting worse during wednesday. as ever, the rain ends but the water as to feed into the weather systems are you getting packed several days after it has dried up. the weather system is pulling away, an area of high pressure building into new zealand, it is all settling down as the week goes on. turning wet across eastern part of china, with this wet weather starting to move in linked to a weather system that is moved to the korean peninsular and is about to spread through japan. shanghai korean peninsular and is about to spread throuthapan. shanghai will see some rain, notjust on thursday but good comeback at the weekend. the reason we are talking about shanghai, it is all to do with the formula 1 grand prix, the second

race of the season taking place on sunday. there will be some rain on thursday and again at some stage over the weekend, but a lot of doubt about weather it will impact the race itself on sunday, we will keep you updated. this is the picture across europe, high—pressure, fine weather in the west, more unsettled in the east. milderairto west, more unsettled in the east. milder air to the west, more unsettled in the east. milderairto the far west, more unsettled in the east. milder air to the far east into moscow, things will turn cooler over the next few days. if you are heading to european holiday destination, through central and eastern parts of the mediterranean there are some showers and thunderstorms but it is a sunnier and warmer picture across southern france for thursday, lots of sunshine for many in spain and portugal, just a few showers in the far south—east of spain, maybe a few more clouds for thursday in the ca nary islands. uk more clouds for thursday in the canary islands. uk weather in half an hour. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. let's look through some of the main stories here in the bbc newsroom. russia and the west are at loggerheads over

who was responsible for the syria chemical attack that left 70 people dead. donald trump has rowed back on comments made by his administration last week — saying this attack may affect us policy on syria. my my attitude towards syria and president assad has changed very much. in the us, we'll look at president trump's week of big diplomacy. monday was egypt, today he hosted the king ofjordan. tomorrow, donald trump will welcome china's president to his luxury resort in florida. we'll look ahead to that. and in sport, jose mourinho has been attacking some of his players,