this is bbc news. i'm james mendez. the headlines: russia and america fail to resolve their differences over the syrian chemical attack and president assad's future. donald trump says relations with moscow may be at an all—time low. it could be the biggest in 50 years — new zealand braces itself for another powerful storm, just a week after cyclone debbie. borussia dortmund play their big european match after a 24—hour delay. german police say a man with islamist links has been detained over the attack on the team bus. and i'm aaron heslehurst. day of reckoning on wall street — can america's banking giants back their sky—high share prices with sky—high profits? plus, scooter boys beware. why your take—away food could soon be arriving by robot. hello, and welcome

to bbc world news. an all—time low — the verdict on us relations with russia from both president trump and his secretary of state. rex tillerson‘s talks in moscow were never going to be easy, but it now seems clear the kremlin has not budged in its support for syria's president assad, despite last week's chemical attack. the us and russia are poles apart on pretty much everything from syria to the many questions about russian interference in the us election. from washington, laura bicker. president trump is paying a political price for launching these missiles against the syrian government. relations with russia are at an all—time low. vladimir putin said this us attack was an act of aggression. but donald trump said it was in

response to a suspected war crime. the us believes the syrian president was responsible for using chemical weapons against civilians. at a press conference alongside the nato secretary general, mr trump condemned bashar al—assad. that's a butcher. so i felt we had to do something about it. i have absolutely no doubt we did the right thing, and it was very, very successfully done, as you well know. earlier, russia vetoed a un security council resolution that would have compelled the syrian president to co—operate with an investigation into the attack, a response president trump described as disappointing. it would be wonderful, as we were discussing just a little while ago, if nato and our country could get along with russia. right now we are not getting along with russia at all.

we may be at an all—time low in terms of the relationship with russia. this is built for a long period of time. but we are going to see what happens. in moscow, the us secretary of state and his counterpart shook hands, but the welcome was not warm. there is no agreement on who was behind last week's chemical attack. the facts that we have are conclusive, that the recent chemical weapons attack carried out in syria was planned, and it was directed and executed by syrian regime forces. translation: we saw no evidence of this, only that eyewitnesses saw at a base, when the planes took off, there was no sign of chemical weapons present there. the us has said relations with russia must improve, but how? the two countries are on opposing sides in a civil war. a lot will depend on how far russia will go to defend the syrian president and how far the us wants

to push to get rid of him. so where does this leave an already strained relationship? with his assessment, here's our north america editorjon sopel what we don't know, of course, is what the wider strategy is towards syria. we have heard rex tillerson, in his news conference, talking about the assad regime being at its end, and they have brought it all themselves. but does that mean that the us policy is now actively working towards regime change? and if that is the case, how are they going to pursue that? where does it leave relations with russia? we have heard president trump talking about, he still hopes it will be possible there will be a reset in the relations with vladimir putin, but with each day that passes sounding less and less confident that will be possible to happen. i think what's going to happen next is that we will see rex tillerson coming back to the united states and there being a full debrief

on the talks that he had with the russian foreign minister and the talks that he had with vladimir putin. and seeing if there is any way, which is what the americans would love to do, of prising russia away from backing assad and the syrian regime. there's much more on america's relationship with russia on our website, and also this profile of rex tillerson, which considers how his past as an oil—man will affect his dealings with moscow. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the speaker of south africa's parliament has postponed a vote of no confidence in president jacob zuma. first, the constitutional court will have to rule on whether it can be a secret ballot. thousands joined demonstrations around the country calling on mr zuma to stand down, on what was his 75th birthday. in a surprising development, iran's former president mahmoud ahmadinejad has put himself forward as a candidate in next month's presidential election.

he says it's just to support his former deputy, but it looks like a challenge to the authority of the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei. he's told mr ahmadinejad not to run. lawyers for the passenger forcibly removed from a united airlines flight have filed an emergency request in an american court for the airline to preserve evidence. the video of david dao being dragged by security guards has been watched hundreds of millions of times. the head of united airlines, oscar munoz, is insisting he won't resign. police in germany investigating the three explosions that hit the bus carrying the borussia dortmund football tea m carrying the borussia dortmund football team on tuesday have detained a suspected islamic extremist. they are treating it as a terror attack. the match against monaco went ahead on wednesday night, amid shows of defiance by both sets of fans. jenny hill reports from dortmund. after an attack on home ground, this is how the world of football

responded, dortmund's fans and their monaco rivals in unison. security fears put aside, for a match which mattered. we want to show that we don't care for the terrorism. we want to see football. we want to see a good match. and that's important, i think. this was, police believe, a targeted attack on the dortmund team. three explosive devices, packed with metal pins, planted along their route to the stadium, explosives with a range of 100 metres. investigators have yet to establish a motive, but they're examining letters found at the scene. translation: three letters were found at the site. they suggest a possible islamist background. among others things, they demand the withdrawal of german tornados from syria, and the closure of ramstein air base in germany. these letter are being investigated

by islamic experts. the dortmund team arrived earlier tonight, without one of their defenders. marc bartra posted this picture earlier, following surgery on his wrist. a policeman was also injured in the attack, though not seriously. translation: we were all appalled yesterday when we heard about the attack on the bus of the bvb players in dortmund. we sincerely wish the injured, the player marc bartra, and also the policeman, full recovery, and we all agree that we are dealing here with a disgusting deed. dortmund's defeat tonight may have disappointed some. that the match was played at all was, for most here, the real victory. the european union is threatening

legal action against the hungarian government's crackdown on higher education and asylum seekers. thousands of wind areas have in protesting in the capital, budapest, against laws which could close a prestigious university. —— thousands of hunger aryans. —— hungarians. for the fourth time in ten days, thousands of hungarians took part in anti—government protests in budapest. there were minor scuffles with police as demonstrators gathered in hero square. they're angry about what they see as a crackdown on free thought and education. translation: every day, something happens that somehow damages democracy. this sometimes accelerates, sometimes slows down. recently it has accelerated again. i don't know how far things can go. in the centre of this political storm is the central european university. a new law signed earlier this week could force the prestigious institution to close. its founder is hungarian—born billionaire george soros, a sworn enemy of the right—wing government. but the education minister defended

the new law and said it was trying to protect students against unverified institutions issuing fake diplomas. the hungarian government doesn't want to close any university, neither hungarian university nor any of the universities belonging to mr soros. protesters say prime minister viktor orban has declared a war on liberalism, increasing his influence over the media and judiciary. there's been growing international criticism of his policies, including plans to forcibly house asylum seekers in shipping containers surrounded by barbed wire. the eu has threatened to take legal action. recent developments have led to publicly voiced concerns from a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside the eu. questions have been asked about the compatibility with eu law. the gulf between budapest and brussels appears to be widening

and, despite the warnings under protest, the government shows no sign of backing down. time for the business. aaron is here. good morning. is the trump bubble about to burst? a pump or a dump, that is what we are about to find out. this is an important day, we have seen wall street absolutely soaring, but now the companies have to tell us if that soaring has been justified. we start on wall street, where it's a hugely important day for investors. now, we know the share prices of banks have soared in the months following president trump's election, led by america's biggest banks, which are up by almost 25%. but in recent weeks doubts have been creeping in, rattling the markets. today we get first quarter results from the biggest us bank, jp morgan chase, and later from its rival citigroup.

they're the first of a barrage of reports from america's biggest companies. will they be good enough to justify the trump rally — or confirm those fears that it's a bubble waiting to burst? president trump has famously promised to throw out the mass of banking regulation brought in by the obama administration after the financial crisis, the dodd—frank act of 2010. but he's been struggling to pass other legislation like healthcare reform. so this is all up in the air. still, the banks have had a boost from rising us interest rates, which have now hit i% and are expected to hit 3% in the next two years. this means more profits, because it helps their lending margins.

that's the difference between the interest rate they offer to savers and the rate they charge to borrowers. so what are we expecting? we will have full analysis for you in 20 minutes' time. look at this! are you happy to have your food delivered by robot? that's the question being asked of take—out food customers in san francisco — it's the first full scale trial of technology that could mean the end of the road for scooter delivery riders. this is going around san francisco, delivering food. amazing. you can follow me on twitter. new zealanders are bracing themselves for more severe weather,

just days after cyclone debbie. this time, it's what's left of cyclone cook — now downgraded to a tropical storm, but still packing enough destructive power to cause concern. the storm is expected to hit land in the next hour or so. tauranga, new zealand's fifth—largest city, is in its path. a state of emergency has been declared in some areas. many schools have been closed and flights have been cancelled. ben noll is a meteorologist at the national institute of water and atmospheric research in auckland. wendy you think it will make landfall? in the next two or three hours. we will have pretty significant wind gusts and damage along the coastline. what sort of wind speeds are we talking about? unofficially just offshore we just saw a gust of 209 kilometres per

hour. along the shore may be up to 170 kilometres per hour, enough to do some damage. what does that mean in terms of storm surges, waves and so in terms of storm surges, waves and so on? is that what you're keeping anion? so on? is that what you're keeping an ion? we expect swells of up to five or six metres. —— eye on? it will coincide with high tide, about four hours away. there could be flooding at the immediate coastline in the northern portion of new zealand this evening. new zealand has had a pretty bad in the last few weeks when it comes to extreme weather, hasn't it? yes, some locations in auckland included the upper north of the island. the wettest calenda r—year upper north of the island. the wettest calendar—year on record. we had three storms in quick succession. the remnants of cyclone

debbie that last australia a few weeks ago. that came through new zealand last week and now this. so a bit of a rough start to the year here in the southern hemisphere. bit of a rough start to the year here in the southern hemispherem it one of those things, where you get a particularly wet year, or are you able to say that this might be the result of climate change, one of those more extreme events that scientists talk about? certainly there is natural variability, but with climate change no 1's storm necessarily caused by climate change, but every storm is influenced by climate change. we live on a warming earth and that means more moisture in the atmosphere. but the fuel behind cyclones and what's going on in new zealand right now. many thanks. that was a meteorologist speaking to me from new zealand. that cyclone is set to land in about two or three hours. stay with us on bbc

world news, still to come: turkey prepares to go to the polls, in a referendum that would change the constitution, and provide a boost to president erdogan's pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers is reported to have died of natural causes. he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia where playboy has gone on sale for the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust. the magazine's offices have been attacked and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's only contest was with the clock and as for a sporting legacy, paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing her new world best time for years to come. quite quietly but quicker and quicker, she seemed just

to slide away under the surface and disappear. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: president trump says us relations with russia may be at an all—time low. two hours of talks fail to persuade moscow to drop its support for syria's president assad, over the idlib chemical attack. a state of emergency has been declared in some parts of new zealand, as the country braces itself for tropical storm cook, just days after cyclone debbie. a verdict will be given today on whether the russian government should have done more to prevent an attack on a school in southern russia in 200a. over 300 people were killed in the siege in beslan, including 186 children. the applicants who brought the case

to the european court of human rights also argue that the state didn't do enough to protect the hostages and blame the way russian special forces stormed the school for most of the deaths. translation: as a mother, it is terrible to bury your children. translation: as a mother, it is terrible to bury your childrenm shouldn't be this way. have you felt this pain? i can't let anyone else suffer the same way. we have to do everything we can so that nothing like this is ever repeated. if there is no investigation and no one is punished, then there will be more terrorist attacks, more children will die and people will suffer. i can't let that happen. that verdict is due in a few hours' time. we'll bring you full coverage throughout the day here on bbc world news. it's just three days now until turkey votes on whether to boost president erdogan's powers. the constitutional change

would scrap the post of prime minister and allow the president to choose ministers, the most seniorjudges and issue decrees. security is one of the main concerns among voters after two years of terror attacks, which have also had a severe economic impact. 0ur turkey correspondent mark lowen reports. widowed at 33. she tries to care for her seven children alone in one cramped room. her husband was killed when a truck blew up, carrying explosives thought to belong to the pkk kurdish militants. for turkey, another victim of terror. 0r them, their father stolen —— for them, their father stolen —— for them, their father stolen —— for them, their father stolen. translation: they identified him by his left finger. i had lost my mind. the pkk took away a father in the prime of his life. now i will vote for those he supported us, for erdogan. 16

we re he supported us, for erdogan. 16 were killed in this impoverished kurdish village. across turkey there are hundreds more. almost two years of attacks by kurdish militants and so—called islamic state have devastated this country, destroying the sense of safety. in the south—east, turkish soldiers battled militants. the old town in ruins. security dominates sunday's referendum on boosting president erdogan's powers. it has prompted a clampdown on the pro—kurdish opposition. they are defiant but 13 of their mps have been imprisoned and the fear and emboldened president. translation: if erdogan wins it will legitimise his policies against the kurds and he may create against the kurds and he may create a totalitarian regime, leading to dictatorship. if not he will see he can't succeed without the help of kurds. there will be a chance to return to peace talks. solving the kurdish problem was to

be erdogan's legacy. but now kurdish media is shut down, people jailed and the conflict has returned. some blamed the government, the other is the pkk. the question now is whether there will be a backlash against the president for the two years of turbulence. mr erdogan says a stronger presidency will allow him to face down terror. his post as overwhelmingly dominate. the no side has been squeezed and campaigners attacked, but polls suggest it is still tight. all the more so because something his own party oppose it for giving him too much power without checks and balances. echo of the old ottomans. no institution or no person has any say on him. it is the opposite direction of the process of democracy. that's why am against that. turkey has navigated

its way through the toughest times. but now more than ever a shaken country needs to find a steady course. this will be the biggest political choice in its modern history. for more on the referendum, go to bbc.com/turkey, where you will find an extensive piece on erdogan's turkey. it asks how much the country has already changed under the president's leadership. sport now and the defending champions real madrid look well—placed to reach the semi—finals of the champions league. cristiano ronaldo scored twice as they won 2—1 at bayern munich in the first leg of their quarter—final. on a bad night for bayern they had javi martinez sent off with the score at 1—1. seth bennett reports from the allianz arena. after a ll after all of the talks about security concerns prior to kick off, the fans were delighted to finally be able to focus on foot all. the

two giants of european football at that. bayern munich shaded the first half. vidal giving the home side lead with a powerful head. he could have doubled the advantage. but real madrid came back in the second half. zinedine zidane's side were powered by cristiano ronaldo. the portuguese scoring twice to give real madrid a slim advantage going into the second half. it will be uphill now for bayern munich if they are to make it through to the last four of the champions league. but real madrid will be delighted to take the most slender of advantages are: for the second leg. elsewhere, antoine griezmann scored the only goal of the game as last season's runners—up atletico madrid beat leicester city, and monaco won 3—2 at borussia dortmund in a match that was was re—arranged from tuesday night, following the attack on the dortmund team bus. now to new york where the financial districts latest landmark is causing

a bit of a stir. here you can see the newly installed fearless girl statue facing down the famous charging bull of wall street. now this was only meant to be a temporary instalment but proved so popular she's been kept. but not apparently popular with the sculptor of the bull. creator arturo di modica has complained to the city that the placing of the girl has changed the meaning of his original work and breached his copyright. before we go, the main story. donald trump has asserted that us relations with russia may be at an all—time low after moscow refused to drop its support for the syrian leader bashar al—assad after last week's apparent chemical weapons attack. two hours of talks failed to persuade moscow to drop its support for syria, after that chemical attack in italy province. —— idlib province. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team

on twitter — i'm @james menendez. it looks like it will be on the cool side for the easter weekend. more on that in a moment. quite chilly early this morning across the eastern side of the uk. in ruralareas, across the eastern side of the uk. in rural areas, temperatures not far from freezing. early sunshine across lincolnshire, east anglia and the south—east. the tendency for things to cloud over from the west. clouding the south—west england and wales already. it could be thick enough to give some rain and drizzle in the north—west england. eastern scotla nd in the north—west england. eastern scotland dry and brighter, with sunshine. quite a cloudy start, with drizzly here rain and there across northern ireland. see how the cloud spills it would through the day. at the same time we open up a few gaps in south wales. those could spill is the woods across southern england. the best of the sunshine in the afternoon. most places will be dry. disappointing temperatures. still a

little light rain or drizzle around western hills. into these the weekend, temperatures don't get any higher. about average at best. a lot of cloud around the easter weekend. a little rain, but no great amounts and certainly not a washout. the weather systems coming our way quite weak, although as we head into friday this weather front moving southwards across england and wales will begin the cloud. it will bring pockets of light rain or drizzle, so it will be dull and a bit damp. maybe across scotland and northern ireland something right. at the breeze and sunshine and showers. by the chilly feel. 9— 10 degrees. possibly 16 in the south—east of england, in between the damp and grey skies. the complicated weather fronts tend to move away as we move into saturday. we are left with a north—westerly airstream on easter saturday and so it is going to be brighter. we have sunshine around, probably dryjust

brighter. we have sunshine around, probably dry just about everywhere, but temperatures still only ten in the central belt, towards 15 in the south—east. easter day, more cloud again and looking at whether bronze the coming from the atlantic again —— weather fronts. rain and drizzle in the northern half of the uk. further south, likely to be dry, but again temperatures disappointing. 0nly nine degrees in scotland, the midteens at best in the south. this is bbc world news. the headlines: president trump has said relations with russia may be at an all—time low. his secretary of state has failed to persuade russia to stop backing president assad of syria, despite nearly two hours of talks in moscow about last week's syrian chemical attack. a state of emergency has been declared in some parts of new zealand, as the country braces itself for tropical storm cookjust days after cyclone debbie. authorities say it could be the worst storm in 50 years. hundreds of schools are shut

and numerous flights cancelled. borussia dortmund have played their delayed champions league game against monaco. it was postponed for a day, after the german team's bus was hit by debris from three explosive devices. police have detained a man with islamist links. the russian government is due to find out whether the european court