a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: nikolas cruz — the teenager accused of killing 17 people at his former florida high school — appears in court. let's go, let's go, let's go! we hearfrom one teacher who witnessed the carnage. other news for you, south africa's new president, cyril ramaphosa, promises to fight corruption after being sworn into office. and fireworks, lanterns, and food. hundreds of millions celebrate the arrival of the lunar new year. hello. with 17 dead in wednesday's florida school shooting, democrats in the us have criticised president trump and the republican speaker

of the house, paul ryan, for refusing to discuss gun legislation. the president reacted to the killings by speaking of mental health and saying school safety would be his top priority, but he failed to address calls from some members of congress for a review of gun laws. the shooting suspect, nikolas cruz, obtained his assault rifle and ammunition legally. from parkland, aleem maqbool has this report. police radio: does he know where the shooter is? for hours, children at a high school found themselves in a combat zone. police radio: 17 julia five, i have the gunshot victim. there was mayhem and bloodshed as a gunman stalked its corridors. shots can be heard close by as these terrified pupils sheltered in their classroom, fearing for their own lives. he went up and down the hallway, just banging and shooting into the classrooms. he shot through my door and broke the window. then all of a sudden we hear one of our student government teachers

say, "run as fast as you can," and we hear a gunshot. 17—year—old kevin mizen, originally from coventry, moved to florida three years ago and is a student at the school. he was barricaded in a storage cupboard for two hours during the shooting. we heard the door to our room being unlocked. we heard somebody say, "police, police". there were two different people. but we didn't know how many shooters there were, we didn't know if it was police. and i remember my teacher turning to me and saying, "what do we do?" that's terrifying. so, she opened the door and the relief when you realised it's these guys in military getup, holding pistols and assault rifles. i have friends who've been killed, friends who've been shot. how can this be real? this is the school i go to. i'm watching video footage and it's my friends coming out with their hands up. police did finally get

to every classroom. the fear palpable. please put your hands up. please, please, please. put your hands up! survivors were ushered through the corridors with hands on their heads, police marksmen watching closely in case a gunman was still among them. the first of those identified as having been killed was aaron feis, a football coach and security guard at the school. in the coming days, we'll learn the details of the young victims too. this is one of many vigils being held for those who died, and shocking here to see the faces of so many young people who yesterday were attending what they thought was a regular day at school, and today are mourning friends who sat beside them in their classrooms. the killer escaped with fleeing schoolchildren, but was soon arrested without a struggle. he's 19—year—old nikolas cruz. a young man known for having a fascination with guns, and who even, it now appears, threatened in a social media post to become what he called "a professional school shooter". are you nikolas jacob cruz?

yes, ma'am. 0k... the leader of a white nationalist militia says cruz had taken part in paramilitary training with them. i have something very important to tell you, you're charged with some very serious crimes. kevin trejos found the girl who'd sat next to him in an english class earlier in the day was one of those who died. he also knew the gunman, who'd been a former student at the very same school he attacked. he's someone who used racial slurs, who was just awful to other people, and i'm sure he was bullied himself by some, but he was the type of person where people were scared to bully him because they knew something could happen. they just didn't think this would happen. it makes me angry because we all knew him, we all knew that there was a potential for something to go wrong. it just sucks that we couldn't stop him. these thoughts are the type with which no children should have to burden themselves. but in a country where there have

been more than 200 school shootings in less than five years, more and more are being touched by such horrors. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in parkland, florida. ivy schamis is a teacher at marjory stoneman douglas high school. she's been describing, in harrowing detail, what happened in and around her classroom. i was teaching a history of the holocaust class actually, how to combat hate, and i was in the end of a lesson and i left my board and all of a sudden, we hear pop, pop, pop, very, very loud. although i had never heard gunshots before, it was unmistakable what that was. the students, they were mostly seniors in the class, were incredible. they instantaneously went down to the ground, they instantly were looking for cover. we had been practising a little bit of these drills but we did not know it would happen the way it did,

and they went to the perimeter of the classroom, trying to hide behind — i had file cabinets, the teacher's desk, anywhere they could hide in. then within seconds, the gunman shot his automatic weapon right into the panel on the door, and shot into the classroom and hit some of my students. when you say hit some of your students, how are they? well, two of them have passed away and several of them were injured. ivy, i'm so sorry. thank you for talking to us about this. as i say, if you need to moan a bit, that is absolutely understandable. i gather the gunman then goes across the corridor, where your best friend is teaching. yes sir, he could have easily put his arm into the panel of the door that he shot out, but miraculously, he did not

and he kept going, but unfortunately, he went across the hall to my friend and he did the same thing in her classroom, and some students were injured and deceased as well. and then he shot in the hallway, our coach and security specialist aaron feis, and then he made his way to the hallway and continued there. you just mentioned aaron feis. he later threw himself in front of students and was killed. yes, i understand that's what he did. what went through your mind? i was very frightened in front of my students. we were trying to be very quiet, because we were afraid he was going to come back, so we were holding on to each other

and the students were extremely mature. they were incredible. i just want everyone to know how unbelievable our students were. they held onto each other, they were consoling each other, they were telling each other to be quiet, the ones who were injured were being helped by other students in the corner, they were shielding themselves with textbooks and laptop cards, they did anything they could to protect each other, and we were very, very frightened, kids were shaking. there are people, as i'm sure you know, who say that all this actually is an argument for more guns, gun sales go up when this kind of thing happens. there are people who say that teachers should be armed, should you have been armed? oh my gosh, no. i don't think anyone should have guns and i think this kid should have had an assault rifle either, so no.

morning and went on through much of the day, over 30 pounds of chemicals, which taken together in certain combinations constitute explosive precursor materials, were recovered. christian and tyler toro were taken to the 49th precinct, where they were taken into custody by the fbi and charged, as you see in the complaint, with possession of explosive precursors and giving explosives to minor. the charges have to do, as is outlined in the complaint, with allegations that at least two

students who were present in the toros‘s apartment emptied explosive black powder from fireworks, harvesting them from fireworks, and then putting them into separate containers. as well as the explosive materials and what appeared to be simulated weapons, that were found in the course of the search, there was a diary appearing to belong to toro's brother, that had notations in it about something called operation flash. statements contained in the diary about discarding and doing away with physical evidence. let's briefly round up some of the other stories making the news. president trump's former chief adviser, steve bannon, has again refused to answer key

questions put by the house intelligence committee, investigating russian interference in the 2016 election. he did answer 25 pre—written questions, approved by the white house. some democrats have threatened him with contempt proceedings. the brazilian president has signed a decree to send emergency resources to help venezuelan migrants. around 40,000 have fled across the border to escape a deepening economic crisis. they are living on the streets. and venezuelan authorities are co—ordinating a security plan with their colombian counterparts to deal with an increased number of venezuelans taking part in attacks by colombia's eln rebels. the former oxfam worker accused of paying for prostitutes while he worked in haiti and chad has written an open letter, clarifying his involvement. roland van hauwermeiren describes how he handled situations in liberia, chad and haiti. he denies paying for sex and said an event he attended in haiti was not — as alleged — a sex party. south africa's new president, cyril ramaphosa, has vowed to crack down on corruption, a day after his predecessorjacob zuma was forced to resign.

mr zuma faces numerous allegations of improper dealings, which he's always denied. the new president is tasked with rebuilding his country's economy and uniting a fractured political system. our africa editor fergal keane has more. in the place they call the mother city of the republic, exaltation at what they felt was nothing less than deliverance. and inside, the words that signalled the arrival of a new and very different order. i declare the honourable cyril ramaphosa duly elected president of the republic of south africa. he knew this moment was coming, but he had seemed abashed. in his first words as president, the tone was consciously humble. when one is elected in this type of position, you basically become

a servant of the people of south africa, and i'll seek to execute that task with humility, faithfulness, and with dignity as well. this is the story of a political triumph long deferred. cyril ramaphosa was mandela's chosen heir, after leading the anc in the successful negotiations to end apartheid. but ramaphosa lost out to party politics. the bleak years of jacob zuma were the eventual result. for now, his party enemies are defeated and the country is broadly behind him. but cyril ramaphosa has stern critics, those who accuse the wealthy businessman of being out of touch with the poor. this incident in 2012 when 3a striking miners were shot by police at marakana haunts cyril ramaphosa,

who was a director of the company that owned the mine. but tonight, as he was being sworn in before ministers and family... so help me god. there was a genuine sense of optimism. and so, there you have it. the final step in bringing cyril ramaphosa to the presidency of south africa. and you can hear them now beginning to sing one of the songs of the liberation struggle, about a previous leader. it's cyril ramaphosa's hope to bring the movement back to the idealism of those founding fathers. after years of corruption and misrule, south africans are daring to hope. much more to come, including this. the biggest show on earth. the chinese tv spectacular that welcomes in the lunar new year. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home.

the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm was murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morality of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flowed down to the sea on the east of the island — away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir, the russian for peace. this is bbc news.

the latest headline: nikolas cruz, the teenager accused of killing 17 people at his former florida high school, appears in court. earlier i spoke to vic micolucci who is anchor and reporter for the florida tv station wjxt. he has been covering the shooting in parkland. i mean, we asjournalists seem to be going through the drill again and again and again. not too long ago, i was in orlando, florida, for the pulse nightclub shooting. 49 people lost their lives there. we heard the rhetoric, we heard everybdy say "don't let this ever happen again. we are going to push to change the laws. we're going to this country safer. we're going to make sure that we don't see tragedies like this happen again". unfortunately, that isn't the case. we had a mass shooting in las vegas, we've had so many other mass shootings, and yesterday afternoon, we had that horrific news not only

that there was a mass shooting, but that the targets were innocent children —14,15,16 years old — as well as the administrators at the school. we're hearing an assistant football coach, he died a hero, jumping in front of the gunman to catch some of the bullets to save his students, also the athletic director. and as you said, mike, it is just absolutely so heartbreaking that we are going through this process again and again and again. me ms a journalist, it's like deja vu. you see the same people from all over the world descending on the heartbreak to cover the tragedy and it is something that, personally, idon‘t want to do any more. and yet, in this case, vic, as you know, there were flags, weren't there? there were warning signs. there were students saying we all knew him, he had threatened other students, he had been banned from the campus in effect. his social media feed is full of guns, violence and hate. he was reported to the fbi. the fbi investigate up to a point but essentially, what the fbi seem to be saying — correct me if i'm wrong — is actually, this is not unusual.

yeah, that's what we heard from the fbi. they were rather mum about the details on the investigation but it appeared they didn't have enough evidence, according to the agents who spoke with us, to pursue any charges, to pursue a big investigation. and we are also hearing, mike, that they never even interviewed the suspected shooter, nikolas cruz. they never even asked him questions about what he was doing. but it didn't take long for us to go on social media, look at his instagram account. he had pictures of an arsenal of high—powered rifles. he was shooting animals. he was looking through the sights of the gun. he was talking about an uprising. in fact, there's a youtube post that's linked to him right now where he said he wanted to be a professional school shooter. all of these things, red flags. it goes back even further, and it isn'tjust on social media. i spoke with so many students here in south—east florida and they told me they saw this coming. one said "everyone predicted it". the question is why didn't anyone stop it? the lawyer for the mexican drug lord

known as el chapo says he's not interested in cutting a deal with the us government and will instead go to trial. joaquin guzman is accused of leading the sinaloa cartel, a group responsible for smuggling massive quantities of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine around the globe. katie silver reports. arriving at brooklyn federal courthouse in the dark of the early hours, a motorcade believed to be prime sporting the most notorious drug lord of modern times, el chapo, fronting court rehearing ahead of his trial. he faces 17 charges including employing sicarios, or hitmen who carried out hundreds of a cts hitmen who carried out hundreds of acts of violence including murder. he's not interested incorporating, he is not interested in cutting a deal with the government, he is interested in having a trial and a

fair day interested in having a trial and a fairday in court interested in having a trial and a fair day in court which is all he has ever asked for. he is accused of playing a central role in a decade—long mexican drug war where more than 100,000 people have died. he has escaped prison in mexico twice, once in a laundry basket —— basket and after, through a tunnel in his maximum securityjail cell. he was recaptured two years ago when mexican marines raided his home and later, extradited to new york where he is being held in solitary confinement. but his lawyer says the prison conditions are affecting his health. translation: he is locked up 23 hours a day. if we don't visit him, he has contact with no one else. obviously it is affecting him psychologically. at the hearing, the judge ruled when it comes to the trial, which is scheduled to start in september, the jury will be anonymous for their own safety. if

convicted, joaquin guzman, or el chapo, will likely spend the rest of his life in a maximum security us prison. katie silver, bbc news. more than a million people have signed a petition asking snapchat to get rid of its latest redesign. the new layout attempts to stop fake news by separating out message from people's friends from posts from publishers. it was aimed at broadening snapchat‘s appeal — but has sparked a backlash among some users with many saying it's confusing. a short time ago i spoke to technology commentator charlie brown who told me the big problem is snapchat has upset its core demographic — those aged 18 to 25. these are the customers who made snapchat what it is today and they are the ones who have made the service get a multibillion—dollar valuation when they floated it at the issue that snapchat management has is it isn't about that group of customers at the moment. they were already appealing to them that is if they want to keep growing the service

and improving the valuation. but this petition is fair and square in the core group and that is why it is so troubling. so many young people use snapchat because they don't want anything to do with facebook because people my age are all over that! there is a problem that if you split off your friends from the so—called social influences, those influences have far less influence? exactly right. those influencers are largely those guys who have bought a lot of equity and value to snapchat, like the nightclub, a lot of people want to go to a particular nightclub because the cool kids go there and as soon as the cool kids don't want to go there any more, neither does anybody else. the other issue for snapchat is it makes things difficult for them, yes they need to make the service more appealing but every time they do a really good feature or add something cool that people like, facebook goes and adds something similar to their service

as well so differentiation between other social media outlet is also getting harder. just briefly if this redesigned sucks, there will have to be a compromise, is there? you would hope so but at the moment the ceo of snapchat has said that he is hoping that the customer base becomes comfortable with it over time and that mayjust happen. but if it doesn't, if people continue to install these workarounds, as they call them, and not use the official snapchat application, i think you would have to find a compromise very soon because of the medium term you may see the customer group start to leave. let's take a quick look at what's been happening on day seven at the winter olympics in south korea — and we'll start with some alpine skiing. austria's matthias mayer has taken gold in the men's super g, breaking a norwegian stranglehold which dates back to 2002. korea's yun sungbin came first in the men's skeleton just ahead of russian athlete nikita tregubov. great britain's dom parsons took bronze — the first medal for team gb at these games. to keep up to date with all the action —

go to the bbc sport website. it's the beginning of what could well be the biggest annual celebration worldwide — the lunar new year, also known as the spring festival. more than 1.4 billion chinese people around the world marked the official entry into the year of the dog with lanterns, banquets and colourful celebrations. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. in china, this is how most of the country sees in the lunar new year — state television spring festival gala. by some estimates, the most watched entertainment programme on earth. around 700 million viewers for a 11—hour spectacular of colour and sound. low key and subtle it is not, but this has become a new year tradition. some decided to celebrate in their own way with fireworks

and sparklers in beijing. the sound of firecrackers, young and old enjoying the noise and the spectacle. translation: i hope this year of the dog, the children keep growing up in good health and our elders keep well, and i also send our new year wishes to everyone. away from the fireworks, there's food. entire families gathering together to make and consume dumplings and noodles — a tasty way to welcome the year of the dog. at this buddhist temple in shanghai, people prayed for good fortune. they burned incense, looking forward to new opportunities. and it isn'tjust china celebrating — this a sea of red lanterns in kuala lumpur. plenty of dogs were present — some symbolic, some real. hundreds of millions of people coming together to say goodbye

to the old and hello to the new. tim allman, bbc news. democrats in the us have criticised donald trump and paul white the refusing to discuss gun legislation. the president reacted to the killings by speaking of mental health and saving school safety would be his top priority. he failed to call for a review of gun laws. the suspect, nikolas cruz, obtained his assault rifle and ammunition illegally. the president said he will be visiting the area and the school. much more on all of that and the news at any time on our website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. the weekend is fast approaching

and the weather is looking mixed. a little mixed through the weekend. friday, for most of us, is looking absolutely fine. a lot of clear skies out there so there is plenty of sunshine on the way. but friday is going to start off pretty frosty. here is the satellite image. we have got some snow clouds across scotland right now. there's a cold air stream coming all the way from the arctic regions — from greenland, from iceland, tucking into scotland, so here we could see over the next couple of days or so quite a bit of snow. but that is going to be mostly across the hills. so the towns and cities and coastal areas will be mostly getting rainfall. the rest of the country, the early hours, look absolutely clear, england and wales. even around plymouth the temperatures will be around freezing or below. barely above freezing. around +1. here is the pressure map for friday. this is an area of high pressure, the closer you are to this area of high pressure today the better the weather will be.

for places like hull, norwich and london and southampton will have plenty of sunshine and actually a lot of sun further north as well. across scotland, more cloud and rain in the western isles, slightly stronger wind and thicker cloud also for northern ireland. it won't be cold, around about 10 degrees in the south and in the north, newcastle eight degrees, aberdeen around seven. that's friday daytime. let's look at friday night. into the early hours of saturday and the weather front is approaching, thick cloud on the tip of cornwall through wales into western scotland there will be some rain around too. snow mostly across the hills, first thing on saturday morning in the north of the pennines, the highlands as well. then saturday itself we have weather fronts grazing northern parts of the uk, so this is where we are most likely to have the thickest of the cloud, there will be some, again, wintry showers around across scotland but for most of us the weather on saturday actually doesn't look too bad at all. some hazy sunshine around and those temperatures will be just about double figures in the south,

seven or eight in the north. a lot more cloud in the atlantic. that will be coming our way, so come sunday, thick cloud right across the country here, a very different day, out of the two days, saturday is the sunnier day, sunday will be more cloudy with outbreaks of rain getting into cardiff, birmingham, belfast. maybe a bit of brightness in the north—east of scotland and east anglia for a time.