hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. jeremy bowen is right beside me and we will talk to him in a moment. let's look through some of the main stories here in the bbc newsroom. we start in syria, where syria's president has responded to american accusations that he used chemical weapons to attack his own citizens. the united states is hand in glove with the terrorists, they fabricated the whole story. this means we now have three completely different explanations — one american, one russian and one syrian — for how an attack that killed over 80 people came about. our correspondent is inside north korea, amid speculation the country could be preparing for its sixth nuclear test. donald trump has said that north korea is a problem that will be "taken care of". speaking of mrtrump, we'll be taking a look back at the last seven days of his presidency.

he's met the president of china, as well as the general secretary of nato. he's also launched an airstrike against the syrian government. but what does this tell us about how his policies have changed since his inauguration? and more violence has broken out between european football fans — tonight, the start of the match between besiktas and lyon had to be delayed. we'll have the latest in os sport. we can speak withjeremy bowen, the bbc‘s bbc middle east editor now. i'm soyuz all the interview with president assad, what did you make of it? i watched the whole interview andi of it? i watched the whole interview and i read the transcript as well. ina way, and i read the transcript as well. in a way, he is very consistent in the line he has always taken, which is that he is fighting a conspiracy, directed from abroad, that has sent

terrorists, and he never makes a distinction between different groups, hejust distinction between different groups, he just calls them terrorists, who are out to smash the syrian state. this is a line that he has come up with consistently, adapted to different circumstances, since the war started in 2011. but he also contradict in the country which is helping him to be so secure, the conflicting emotions on this? he seemed to me to be an anxious man, a man under pressure. i have interviewed him a couple of times before the war, and a couple of years ago, and at that time, he was under a lot of military pressure, when i spoke to him at the beginning of 2015. but he seemed pretty calm. i thought, it is very ha rd to pretty calm. i thought, it is very hard to tell through a tv screen but i thought that he looked a little bit at bay, shocked, under pressure. and i think that's because things have moved very quickly in the last week or so. if you think back, after

his forces, helped by the russians and others, got hold of the whole of aleppo at the end of last year, he was ina aleppo at the end of last year, he was in a better position than he had beenin was in a better position than he had been in at any time since the war started. and in, well, it is only a week since those american attacks, you sense the thing is unravelling. because once more, the americans are talking about regime change fish before the chemical attack, they we re before the chemical attack, they were saying he could be part of the solution when it comes to dealing with islamic state. talking about regime change, but there is no evidence that mr trump is about to launch further military action, and russia has not moved an inch? no, and while the russians are supporting him, while there are russian forces there, the tempo of military operations is not going to be affected. but i think it is a worry he didn't have. having the americans saying nasty things about you is one thing, but when they are that up by a cruise missile attack,

when in 2013, when there was that big chemical weapons attack in damascus, healing well over 1000 people, 0bama threatened to use weapons against him and he didn't. now, trump has done it. so, the thing about trump's unpredictability is, it puts the uncertainty factor into the minds of his potential adversaries, along the lines of, what on earth is he going to do next coverage something a lot of viewers will be wondering, what are the practicalities of getting into the same room as bashar al—assad? it is complicated. this one which afp did must have happened fairly quickly, bearing in mind... it is another sign that he's worried, he had to get his version out there. when we did it, we had to negotiate the terms of how we would use the material, we didn't accept any restrictions on how we used it with them, although we did say that we would broadcast an uncut version, 23 minutes, so i had to do the interview to time. there is

obviously a lot of security. i did it in obviously a lot of security. i did itina obviously a lot of security. i did it in a different room to the one they used for this, i noticed. but before all the interviews i have done with him, and it has been three, he always gives you a little bit of time, one on one beforehand, ten minutes, where you have a chat. the thing about assad is, trump has been calling him a butcher. when you meet him, he's very polite, rather charming. he stands back when you go through the door, he opens doors for you. he's got rather old—fashioned, courtly manners. but he does sometimes say things which frankly don't stack up when you put the evidence against them and. he denied they had ever used barrel bombs, and isaid, mr they had ever used barrel bombs, and i said, mr president, there's video evidence of it. he still denied it. and the same way he's saying now that those scenes, really shocking scenes, and i have seen all of the video, including the bits which we deemed too horrible to broadcast, it

could not have been faked, even i think with a full hollywood crew and with steven spielberg directing, it was incredibly graphic. and those kids were not acting, those ones who i saw pictures of, suffocated to death in the back of pick—ups, with foa m death in the back of pick—ups, with foam coming out of them mouths, and they're foam coming out of them mouths, and they‘ re eyes, foam coming out of them mouths, and they're eyes, showing signs of people suffering from exactly that, the experts say. jeremy bowen, the bbc‘s middle east tadic —— middle east editor, thank you very much. on saturday, north korea celebrates the anniversary of the birth of its founder, kim il—sung. it's known as the day of the sun. foreign journalists have been invited — though their every move is decided for them. he was right — the big event turned

out to be the north korean leader opening a street. john sudworth was there as well. people are coming in their thousands. you can see the senior army officers, people are carrying balloons and flowers, all here to celebrate the opening of this new development. but the message, of course, is about economic resilience, about a north korea that

is surviving against the odds, a message that the young leader is bringing these sorts of benefits to his people, and everywhere you look in this city, there are these small signs of economic reform, the wing shoots of private enterprise. of course, all of this goes hand—in—hand with the nuclear brinkmanship of the sense of crisis, but the two messages go together. they are all about regime survival against the odds and they are sent to the outside world to anybody whom he be thinking of changing this by force. a reuters journalist quoted the north korean premier, who spoke at the event, as saying this opening was, quote, "a very significant, great event, more powerful than the explosion of hundreds of nuclear bombs on the top of the enemies' heads". interesting that he should mention bombs.

analysts think north korea may be planning its sixth nuclear test as part of the celebrations on saturday. if it happens, it'll be at mount mantap, where all nuclear tests are conducted. this is 38north, a website run by korea experts. they've been looking at satellite images and they've noticed a wide range of activity around mount mantap in the last few weeks. of course we have no idea weather that actually means anything will happen this saturday. we shall have to see. time for some sport. last night, there were violent incidents between leicester supporters and spanish police in madrid. tonight, more issues. we can bring in mark edwards from bbc sport. the game is between lyon

and besiktas. it is in lyon in france. the game was delayed for 45 minutes due to some crowd disturbances. it started in the city beforehand, and sadly the hooliganism reared its ugly head once more, violence breaking out behind the goal. reportedly, besiktas fans in the top tier launching objects down below. even the lyon president had gone into the crowd to try to calm things down. both sets of players stayed in the middle of the pitch, applauding all four sides of the lyon stadium to try and calm the stadium down. they kicked off 45 minutes late. besiktas ended up scoring in the first half, ryan brobbel, the ex—liverpool man scoring. hooliganism rearing its ugly head once again. —— ryan babel. this is mo harkless.

he plays for the portland trailblazers in the nba. he's just pocketed a cool $500,000. and he did so by not shooting a single three—pointer in the final regular season game. i'll explain. there is an article from the washington post. at the start of the season, harkless was told he would get a $500,000 bonus if he finished the season having made 35% of his three—point attempts. he begun the last game with a percentage of 35.1 — meaning if nothing changed, the money was his. of course, the easiest way to do that was by not attempting he posted this picture to instagram afterwards — with the caption, "i guess dinner is on me " another sport for you this evening that doesn't get as much coverage as it probably deserves.

kite surfing. these are pictures we've got in from a world kiteboarding league event being held in the south of france right now. many will be familiar with the sport. for those of you who aren't, it involves competitors strapped to specially designed boards, who use use giant kites to pull themselves through the water, and as you can see, out of it as well. the location for this event is known for its strong winds. that makes it hard, but you can aim for bigger tricks. this event runs for a few more days, so hopefully we can bring you some more pictures. if there's a sport you want us to cover, let us know. inafew in a few minutes, we will talk about

president trump's last seven days. a record number of people who went to a&e departments in england this winter had to wait at least four hours to be admitted. almost 200,000 people had to wait much longer than they should for a bed — a big rise on last year's figures. here's our health editor hugh pym. spring is here, but the nhs won't forget this winter in a hurry. more patients coming in, problems moving them out, even if they were medically fit, and intense, relentless pressure. hospital managers here, like many others, say it could have been even worse. it has been very difficult.

the hospital has been functioning most of the time at 100% occupancy. and that has put a huge strain on the services. i think it is important to note that this was a mild winter. we haven't had a large flu epidemic. and despite that, it has been very tough. the latest figures for england show longer waiting times over three months of winter. 135,000 people had to wait longer than four hours to be found a hospital bed from a&e last winter. thatjumped to 196,000 this time. for planned treatment, including routine surgery, 264,000 were waiting more than 18 weeks in february 2016 but it was 367,000 waiting in february this year. in recent years, hospitals have noted that the pressure never eases off in the summer. there's a constant flow of patients. and in the months ahead, there could be an extra challenge in the face of possible industrial action by nurses. the shape of possible

industrial action by nurses. the largest nursing union is consulting members on whether they're prepared to go on strike over a 1% pay offer, which is the same in every part of the uk. most nurses are unhappy with their income. so, they're working harder than ever. but there's been years now of absolutely no pay increase. and then this whole cap of 1%, when we know all their bills are going up — they're actually struggling to pay the bills. the department of health says it's going along with an independent pay review body's recommendation, and it can only offer what's affordable. thus argue that with all the pressure on the nhs, patients won't get the right care from a workforce that is short on numbers and low on role. on numbers and low on morale. this is 0utside source live from the bbc mewsroom.

0ur lead story... syria's president assad says reports of a chemical attack by his forces last week are "100% fabrication", and there was no order to carry out any attack. let's just pause to consider the last seven days of the trump presidency. there are always differences between what a politician says on the campaign trail and what they do in and say in office. the differences though are not always this pronounced, and don't always come this thick and fast. wall so, let's consider the significant actions and the huge shifts in policy. last thursday, mr trump began a summit with the president of china. and he launched a strike on a syrian government air base. something he'd warned president 0bama not to do many times in the past. mr trump also called for bashar al—assad must go.

a week before this, sean spicer saying... "with respect to assad, there is a political reality that we have to accept." then there's china. "once again, 0bama fails to classify china as a currency manipulator. he just helped china steal even more jobs and money from us." about tweet was sent while president 0bama was still in the white house. but then, in an interview in the wall streetjournal fter meeting xi jinping... "they're not currency manipulators." and remember this is an interview with a german newspaper recently. "nato is obsolete." but this is what the president said in a press conference with the nato secretary—general

this time yesterday. i complained about back a long time ago and then made a change. and now they do fight terrorism. i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. so, that has changed. mr trump is heading to mar—a—lago, his resort, for the weekend. he would often attack president 0bama over similar breaks. president @barack0bama's vacation is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. unbelievable! but look at this graph from the washington post. donald trump is set to outstrip the travel costs of president 0bama's entire presidency, in one year. at this current rate, mr trump will reach the equivalent expenditure by the end of his first year in the white house. lastly, this is from 2013.

"let's get out of afghanistan. 0ur troops are being killed by the afghanis we train and we waste billions there. nonsense! rebuild the usa." that's what mr trump said. well... today, the president dropped the largest non—nuclear bomb the us has in afghanistan. it's the first time it has been used. let's bring in the bbc‘s jane 0'brien, live from washington, dc. the speaker, all politicians change positions, but in the last seven days, there have been some remarkable turna rounds? days, there have been some remarkable turnarounds? yes it is quite a litany. it is like donald trump has dipped his toe in the pool of foreign policy but has not quite made up his mind which direction to swim in. really, even though he seems to be changing his view and changing his mind, we're still not entirely certain to what. because

there hasn't been any clearly articulated policy on any of these issues. take syria, for instance. suddenly, the assad government matters to him, and he orders a strike on an airbase. danny hasn't said what else he's going to do, but we do know that he did want to send a message to russia, whom initially he said he was cosying up to and wa nted he said he was cosying up to and wanted to be friends with, but now admits that the relations between the us and russia are at an all—time low and that the element of trust has completely disintegrated. but where do we go from here? and that's what's missing in this whole piece. jane, i wonder if this is partly because mr trump is an instinctive operator, during because mr trump is an instinctive operator, - during the egg,” 7; we... 2: 75 . 7; v; x,: 3 l. 7 and he's continued to and bu continued to beé strength, and he's continued to be spontaneous, responding to events, since becoming president? yes. very much so. and we know that television affects him, we know that he goes with his gut, in his own words, and

that seems to be the motivation behind his decision to strike the syrian government's airbase. saw pictures on television of the victims of a chemical gas attack and that's what spurred him to action. and he continues to refer to that. but it doesn't explain why he would suddenly change course on nato, saying that nato was once obsolete but just a saying that nato was once obsolete butjust a a few days later, it isn't any more, and it is thanks to him. he did not say why it was thanks to him, what he suddenly did you make nato relevant. jane 0'brien, thank you very much. one of the mr trump's biggest promises was to reform healthcare. you may remember that a republican plan to repeal and replace 0bamacare failed to make it through the republican controlled house a few weeks back. that was largely due to the freedom caucus who said the plan didn't go far enough — leading to a split in the republican party. laura trevelyan has been to lima, 0hio, a district represented by one of the freedom caucus,

to find out what his constituents make of his decision. the sound of an economy that's growing. pallets move goods around america, shifting everything from soap to motorbikes. and at the lima pallet company in north—west 0hio plans to expand are tied to the reform of 0bamacare. the family started it in 1977. 0wner tracy sanchez can't employ more people until the cost of health insurance comes down and she was frustrated to see the republicans botch their first attempt. i was a little disappointed that we'd had eight years to work on this, and i would hope that the republicans in eight years could get it done. your representative here in lima was very opposed to the bill, and the president now is blaming him and other members of the freedom caucus for the failure, is that fair? i don't think it's fair. we know they are working on it on a daily, if not hourly, basis. i really feel confident, as most of us in this area do, that they'll get the job done. you're not ever going to get all you want, but if you push, he's a conservative republican, a member of the freedom caucus group who helped torpedo the white house's

attempt at health care reform. the president directly singled outjim jordan with his furious tweet storms, but the congressman is unmoved. tweets and statements and blame don't change facts, and the facts remain that there are concerns with this legislation, real concerns that we have, and we're trying to make it better. lima is in a county where more than two thirds of the electorate voted for both donald trump and congressman jim jordan in november's elections. the message from republicans here is loud and clear, time for the party to work together and deliver on its promises. at lima's qp diner, they've served burgers and shakes since the depression years. and the regulars are keen observers of politics. i really don't understand why they're fighting. if it's to help the american people, help them. quit this crap about the republicans and democrats.

we're all one nation. trump's not a politician, i want to tell you, but he's going to make some changes. good or bad? i don't know yet. back at the pallet factory, they're outgrowing their surroundings. tracy wants to build a new warehouse and provide affordable health care for the new workers she is itching to hire. she's relying on president trump, who has a construction background after all, to lay the political foundations. sometimes he flies off the handle a little too quick, but they'll get the job done. i think things are coming around and i think they'll work together and i think it'll all happen. thanks for watching 0utside source this week. i will see you next time. just before the top of the hour,

there will be a detailed look at the uk forecast. first, a look at the weather from around the world. we saw a tropical cyclone taking down trees in value are too. then it'd journeyed to new zealand over a cool waters, losing its energy, but it is still intense. it came ashore with winds up to 100mph. eventually it will clear away from the south—east of new zealand, but we're not done with the rainfall yet. there is more coming in from the west. the rain really is the big rob over the next few days. up to 100mm of rain for many. some places could even get up to 300mm. flooding is more than likely. in the bay of bengal, this isa likely. in the bay of bengal, this is a cluster of thunderstorms which is a cluster of thunderstorms which is gaining and may have a look into a tropical cyclone. it could take a

few days, but it is one to keep on eye on. some rain associated with that. we will see some heavy showers in sri lanka, but for the bulk of india, it is fine and dry, hot and sunny. especially in the north—west. and we have temperatures in the 40s in muscat as well. not too far behind that in riyadh as well. this cluster of thunderstorms also has the potential to develop into a tropical depression. it is drifting towards the philippines. and we'll see a few showers in seoul. in hong

kong it should be fine and dry. some heavy downpours in bangkok and down towards kuala lumpur and singapore. some heavy rain in some parts of south america, particularly the further north you go. very wet in parts of ecuador and colombia and the north of peru. back in europe, it looks pretty good for good friday across much of the iberian peninsula and the south of france and into italy as well. further north in europe, we have some cloud and rain. back on our shores, there will be a fair bit of cloud and breeze and rain edging southwards. tonight at ten: president assad says claims his forces launched a chemical attack on a rebel town are completely fabricated. he said syria doesn t possess chemical weapons and the west made up the story — so america could justify the missile strike on his country.

the west — mainly the united states — is hand in glove with the terrorists. they fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack. it's his first interview since the chemical attack which left almost 90 people dead. also tonight: america confirms it has for the first time dropped its largest non—nuclear bomb — seen here in tests — on so—called islamic state in afghanistan. we are so proud of our military and it was another successful event. a new generation of grammars in england — the education secretary justine greening sets out her plans