this is bbc news, i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 11:00pm: syria's president assad says claims that his forces launched a chemical attack killing dozens of civilians earlier this month are 100% fabrication. translation: 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. the american military has dropped its biggest non—nuclear bomb, on a series of caves used by so—called islamic state in eastern afghanistan. new grammar schools in england should to do more to help ordinary working families, says the education secretary. and coming up on newsnight: the us has dropped the biggest conventional weapon it has ever used today. is thatjust a way of blowing up isis tunnels, or is us it telling us something about america's willingness to flex its military muscle? good evening and

welcome to bbc news. syrian president bashar al—assad says claims that his forces were behind a chemical weapons attack on a rebel town are a 100% fabrication. instead, he has claimed the united states worked hand in glove with terror groups to stage the attack as a pretext for american missile strikes, and he questioned whether the tv images of dead children were real. tonight, international investigators said allegations of a chemical attack last week were credible. our middle east editor jeremy bowen has this report. it contains distressing images. the attack on khan sheikhoun produced terrible images of children poisoned by nerve gas, and rescue workers struggling to help. hosing victims down

to try to wash it away. president trump said he was so shocked by what he saw that he went from being prepared to deal with the assad regime to calling the syrian president a butcher. bashar al—assad denies every accusation against him. there was no order to make any attack. we don't have any chemical weapons. we gave up our arsenal three years ago. even if we had them, we wouldn't use them, and we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history. there is credible evidence, samples, not just pictures, that chemical weapons were used in khan sheikhoun, according to the organisation that supervises the international ban on them. but these scenes, president assad insisted, could have been staged, to discredit his government. we don't know whether those dead, the children, where they killed in khan sheikhoun? were they dead at all? who committed the attack,

if there was an attack? what material — you have no information at all, nothing at all, not investigated. the fakery, he said, included the white helmets rescue teams, al-qaeda men disguised as heroes. we have the proof those videos were fake, like the white helments, for example. they are al-qaeda, they are al—nusra front, who shaved their beard, wore white hats, and appeared as humanitarian heroes, which is not the case. the same people were killing syrian soldiers, and you have the proof on the internet anyway. the american cruise missile attack a week ago has changed a great deal for the regime. for the first time, it has been hit by the us. america's next moves are not clear, but the rhetoric has switched to regime change in syria. the american attack, president assad said,

played into the hands of al-qaeda. our impression that 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. britain's prime minister was inspecting newly commissioned officers at sandhurst, and keeping up the pressure. british scientists have analysed material from the site of the attack. they're very clear that sarin, or a sarin—like substance, was used. and, as our ambassador to the united nations made clear yesterday, like the united states, we believe it's highly likely that that attack was carried out by the assad regime. president assad insists he has nothing to gain by attacking syrian civilians. he will be relieved if all he faces in the next few months are more words of condemnation. the us military has dropped the biggest non—nuclear bomb, for the first time, the so—called mother of all bombs, on a tunnel complex used by the islamic state

group in afghanistan. the attack has been strongly condemned by the former afghan president hamid karzai, who said it was a misuse of their country as a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons. the tunnels were located in the remote achin district of eastern nangarhar province, close to the border with pakistan. here is our north america editorjon sopel. this is the gb u 43, also known as a moab, a massive ordnance air blast, oi’ as moab, a massive ordnance air blast, or as it is more commonly known, the mother of all bombs. and today, for the first time ever, it was used in combat. the largest non—nuclear weapon ever deployed. the target, so—called islamic state in afghanistan. we targeted the system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target

us military advisers and afghan forces in the area. the united states ta kes forces in the area. the united states takes the fight against isis very seriously, and in order to defeat the group, we must deny them operational space, which we did. defeat the group, we must deny them operational space, which we didm is turning out to be a busy time for the commander—in—chief. is turning out to be a busy time for the commander-in-chief. we are so proud of our military, and it was another successful event. and no one can say it is not what he promised during the campaign.” can say it is not what he promised during the campaign. i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me. i would on the (bleep) out of them. the tunnels and caves that were used by the taliban over 15 years ago are now being used by is. this bomb was dropped on a complex tunnel network in nangarhar province, close to the pakistan border where a member of us special forces was killed last week. this shows the seriousness with which this administration takes isis moving from the middle east to afghanistan. at the actions brought

a furious tweet from afghanistan's former president, hamid karzai. it is not just it is notjust the dropping of a massive bomb on afghanistan. injust over a week, president trump has ordered the missile strike on syria, a naval battle group to head to the korean peninsula, and he has restated his commitment to nato. some of donald trump's supporters are asking, whatever happened to the isolationist, america first president of the inauguration. authorities in new zealand have declared a state of emergency in parts of the country, after a powerful cyclone made landfall in north island. landslides and falling trees have left many roads blocked, as authorities order the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. gusts of close to 90 mph have left hundreds of homes without power. let's get more of an idea of what is happening in the aftermath of this storm. daniel corbett is a weatherman for nztv. he joins us via webcam now.

you may recognise him from his many happy years at the bbc. good to see you, daniel. tell us what has been happening in new zealand. in new zealand we have some wild weather, and it has certainly been the case. this is after several days of tropical rain feeding across the country. we have had soggy ground, places in the north of the country where rivers have burst their banks. towns have been under water and then all of a sudden you throw in this tropical cyclone. it formed in new caledonia and it was doing what it was doing, came down as category 2, went extra tropical, became amid latitude cyclone, i call it a big, mean ugly win back and it wrought strong gusts across in the bay of plenty, as it made landfall in the bay of plenty, the northern part of the north island yesterday evening,

loads of rain, damaging winds, we have parts of the east of the north island, some 15,000 homes without power, loads of slips. there are places that are cut off. it has wreaked havoc across the country. it is at least, now, drifting to the south and east of the south island, and things are slowly improving in the sense of the storm. as you say, you get a lot of mixed weather where you get a lot of mixed weather where you are, but on the scale, this is quite unusual, isn't it? it is. it is pretty much like mother nature saying i am going to make a kick, and she takes all the ingredients, mix them together, makes it nasty, makes it mean, and meteorologists here have been calling this... comparing this to a storm, the great white heaney storm back in the late 19605, white heaney storm back in the late 1960s, which sunk ferry ship in cook strait. that gives you an idea of the length and breadth of the severity of the storm, on top of what has been a very, very wet april where parts of the country have seen

two, three, even four times their normal monthly rainfall in the span of just days. normal monthly rainfall in the span ofjust days. so now the priority is clearing up for people, presumably, and sorting out power and other supplies that are currently being jeopardised. yes, exactly. you may remember, as well, a couple of months ago we had our earthquakes. that region is still very fragile, as we call it, so to have wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometres per hour, and the incessant rain, it is really taking its toll on that region as well. so the main route, for instance, are still impassable so for instance, are still impassable so there is an inland route that they use, and as i say, other parts of the country, because of the slips, are impassable as well. so it isa slips, are impassable as well. so it is a case ofjust slowly clawing back and getting going. this is a long weekend, and easter weekend, so for everybody it is a case of hunkering down instead of enjoying the easter weekend. indeed, hunkering down instead of enjoying the easterweekend. indeed, good hunkering down instead of enjoying the easter weekend. indeed, good to

see you. thank you very much indeed. the education secretary, justine greening, has defended plans to introduce new grammar schools in england. there are already 163 grammar schools. ms greening said the new grammars would support young people from every background, not the privileged few, and they'd help what she called ordinary working families, those with two adults, two children, and a household income of £33,000 a year. critics say there is little evidence that academically selective schools improve social mobility. in a speech this morning, ms greening hit back at the critics. i believe that selection in new, 21st—ce ntu ry i believe that selection in new, 21st—century state grammar schools will add to the options available to young people, to truly help make the most of their talents. i don't accept the arguments from those who critique grammars and selection, while simultaneously ignoring the views of parents. 0n the one hand

they call for no new grammar schools, on the other hand they've got nothing to say about grammars that we do have, and they certainly aren't listening to the choices of pa rents, aren't listening to the choices of parents, when we know how oversubscribed grammars r. well, we are listening, and many parents from ordinary backgrounds believe in the chance to send their children to a grammar school. 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 fora bed, a big rise on last year's figures, and nearly 100,000 more people had to wait longer than 18 weeks for planned treatment. russia failed to protect the hostages in a siege at a school in 2004, in which more than 300 people died. that is the verdict of the european court of human rights. it said officials knew about the attack in beslan, but failed to act, and that russian forces used excessive force in ending the siege. chechen rebels stormed the school in 2004, demanding that russian troops pull out of chechnya.

the russian government says it will appeal the ruling. we are getting reports of four people having been shot at west lake railway station in atlanta, in the united states. the condition of the victims is unknown. a suspect is in custody and emergency services are at the scene. the station has been temporarily closed. the man who was dragged off a united airlines flight in chicago on sunday has been released from hospital. david dao's lawyer said he suffered concussion, a broken nose and lost two front teeth during his ordeal. dr dao is now considering suing the airline. his daughter crystal pepper said the incident had left the whole family distressed. what happened to my dad should never happen to any human being, regardless of the circumstance. we were horrified, and shocked and sickened, to learn what had

happened to him, and to see what had happened to him. we hope that, in the future, nothing like this happens again. let's have a quick look at some of tomorrow's front pages. the sun's headline is mother of all bombs, after president trump ordered us forces to drop the largest non—nuclear bomb ever used, on is fighters in afghanistan. the telegraph leads with suggestions that government no longer sees prisons as places for punishment according to an investigation by the times, staff at one of the world's leading drug companies discussed destroying supplies of life—saving cancer medicines. the i has new claims that more british youngsters than ever are caught in a so—called age of anxiety. holiday costs fall by 20%, is the headline in the express. the paper claims summer breaks in europe are now the cheapest they have been since 2012. and the mail says nasa has revealed what the paper claims is the strongest evidence yet that alien life may exist. now on bbc news, it is

time for newsnight. 10,000 kilograms of bomb, the biggest no—nuke ever deployed, —— non—nuke deloyed by the us, dropped onto the tunnels used by isis in afghanistan. is america trying to tell us something? we are so proud of our military and it was another successful event. did you authorise it too? uh, everybody knows exactly what happened, so what i do is, i authorise my military. it was a device like this. it seems the us military made the decision to use it. we'll ask if it's a sign of a military more willing to flex its muscle? meet the jams. we've been hearing for ages about the squeezed middles