tighter us gun controls. the event took place a short distance from the school where a former student, nikolas cruz, killed 17 people. there was strong criticism of president trump, for his refusal to consider new firearms restrictions. the us national security adviser says it's time the world held the syrian government accountable for its use of chemical weapons. h.r mcmaster says reports and photos clearly show such weapons are being deployed. the syrian government has always denied using chemical weapons. the mexican defence secretary, has apologised for a helicopter accident that killed 1a people on friday in the southern state of oaxaca. the military helicopter was carrying two senior mexican politicians to the area which had been hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. brendan cox — the widower of the murdered labour mpjo cox — has resigned from two charities set up in her memory after sexual assault allegations were made against him.

the mail on sunday has published claims made by a former colleague when they worked at the charity save the children. mr cox said the allegations against him had been exaggerated, but he admitted he had behaved "in a way that caused some women hurt and offence". our political correspondent susana mendonca has the latest details of the allegations. we understand a former colleague who worked with him back in 2015 claimed that he drunkenly harassed female employees, there is an allegation in the mail on sunday about holding somebody by the throat and making a lurid comment. there are accusations that he forced himself on to a woman during a trip to harvard university in the us. we have had a response from him. he says in terms of the allegations in the us, he doesn't accept those allegations, and in terms of his time at save the children, he says he made mistakes and that he perhaps behaved in a way

that caused some hurt and offence to women. i have speaking to someone close to him saying that he certainly doesn't accept these allegations that he sexually assaulted anybody, certainly the way that he behaved may have offended some women and so on that basis, he is very apologetic for that and has made his public statement apologising. now on bbc news it's time for our world. there are flashing images from the beginning of katty kay's film about gang violence in la. we have a pursuit. sirens wail ..heading eastbound, about 70mph... it's a pursuit. they're on the freeway, they're coming east. the crime situation is high. it's very, very busy for law enforcement.

but, again, it's a very small percentage of people that are causing the problems. all right, bad guyjust crashed. all right. i'm going to get us a little bit off because we have, like, 17 guns pointed in this direction. over radio: ..they are starting to take the occupants into custody. a night patrol with the la sheriffs in the city of compton. two suspected members of the southside compton cripps gang are under arrest. it would be really unsafe for them to be in their rival‘s area

and if they are there they are going to have to have protection, because it's almost expected for them to be armed. police estimate there are almost 4,000 gang members in compton. 0urarea, ourservice area, is ten square miles. fireworks sound fireworks. ten square miles. so for every square mile we have six active gangs. 37 gangs compete for control in a city ofjust 100,000 people. it's always gang on gang, gang on gang. the violence is there, the major, major problem is when we have an innocent person who gets caught in the crossfire, or, and it happens too often, that case of mistaken identity. compton gained its grim reputation

for gang violence during the ‘80s and ‘90s at the height of america's crack epidemic. this is a mad man gun. a double barrel. a man's man gun. a man that goes and kills with this is really mad. out of that mix emerged west coast gangsta rap and one of the most influential groups of all time, nwa. 30 years on, the trauma of that era lives on. yeah, i grew up around here.

this was my childhood home. born and raised right here in this house. i had a history of taking things that wasn't mine. if i saw it and liked it, i would take it. i would protect him by any means necessary. i would protect him the same way. even if it means hurting someone else? pretty much. i mean, ultimately, if i had to hurt someone to keep him from being hurt, ultimately that would be my choice. compton's notorious street gangs, the cripps, the bloods and the pirus, were formed in the late 1960s. their clothes, their tattoos and even theirjewellery all marked which gang they belong to. wearing the wrong coloured shirt would have and still could get you killed.

there'd be all different types of shootings happening in this street. willjoined the cripps when he was just nine years old. i went through this ally, i was going to the store to get some kool—aid and i saw the guy pass me and he looked at me and next thing i hear is a whole bunch of gunfire. right here? yeah, right here, where we're standing. sirens wail trombone music today, compton is on the up. a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, butjobs are coming back and there's

a sense that things are starting to turn around. will works as a community activist, trying to stop youngsters from ending up in gangs. i see you! you know i'm gonna come over there and give you a hug. i love you! i love you too, girl. keep up the good work! this is really nice! i'ma definitely do that. i'm a mother who lost sons and when my kids got killed and other mothers' kids got killed, they came here and he helped us. i didn't have any money. she lost two sons within 60 days and that's where her motivation comes, to get out here. she's also out in the trenches with us. compton's youthful mayor aja brown has made it her mission to transform the image and the economy of the city. in 2013, early into her first term

and after 16 killings injust four months, aja brown decided to hold a crisis meeting. she put a call out to the bloods and cripps to try to bring about a truce. it was rocky at first. you know, we had a few people threatening to leave and i said, the ground rules are we have to stay until we finish. what gave you the confidence to do that? this is my community, i'm not afraid of my own people. it was just really interesting to hearfrom them. but they are very pragmatic. they talked about the need for employment opportunities that they can access, they talked about the barriers to their employment because of their criminal records. but i told them, it's not aboutjust what can i do for you, i told them i'm willing to work with you if you all can make

a commitment as well. compton has switched from a majority black to a majority hispanic town. but half the gangs are still african—american and it was to these gangs that aja brown turned first. most of the time, like you said, we wouldn't be sitting at a table together, but she did it. it was over... how many of us? 50, 60, 300 in a room together. so you were all there at the first meeting, when everybody got together? to be in there with 300 guys... that's disrespectful. ..that‘s terrible. terrible to sit down and listen. a lot of men wouldn't do it. why is she doing it? she came in the room and it was disarray when she came. and they got it in order

and we got the business. did they listen to her, cynthia? yeah, they listened to her. they listened to her, yeah. because this is a first. this is a mayor where if it's the middle of the night and you need to call her, she'll say, what's wrong? what's going on? she's there. you don't get that, not even in other cities, from people that i spoke with. so you don't get that from a lot of mayors. and then, like i said, in the room with a bunch of men. i'm gang bangin'! i'm in there lookin' at 'em sometimes, thinking, they crazy! don and fred are from rival gangs. don's a blood, fred's a cripp. fred, if you had come across don in the street ten or 15 years ago? well, there would have been a problem. what do you mean a problem? it would have been a fight or a stabbing or a shooting. one of the three. because you are on rival gangs? because, like i said, you know what i'm sayin‘, i was young and dumb.

you know what i'm sayin‘, i didn't have an understanding of life or nothin‘ else. all i cared about was my gang and representing my gang to the fullest and didn't nothin‘ matter but my gang. so you would have heard him? he'd have tried. yeah. he would have tried, you know? is it still the same today? no, it's not like it used to be. it's not... no, it's watered down. it's not like it used to be, but it's crucial. the majority of these guys don't like the way they're living. they don't like having to watch their back, worry about getting shot, can't go here, can't go there. they don't like that lifestyle. they're in it because they're caught up in their comfort zone and they don't know how to go outside of the box. i remember when i was working custody, some of the gangsters, i would see them every day, i had a rapport with them,

a lot of them were so, so afraid of the one thing that you and i love, and theirfear is being out here. one of them, who was a very, very important person when it came to the structure, he told me, "i have a son, i don't know how to be a father," and he goes further and tells me, "i wouldn't know how to survive out there, i don't know how to have a job, i don't know how to be a regular person, all i know is violence and i promise you, if i get out of here, i'm going to hurt someone else, and i don't want to do that anymore, i'm tired of it." regardless of whom is in the white house, there is not

going to be a helicopter that comes and descends into compton to fix all our issues. that is not happening. the height of the crack epidemic saw an explosion in violence as rival gangs fought for control of the drugs market. 87 people were murdered in 1991 alone. in 2017, that figure was 19. will served 12 years in prison for a string of offences, including carjacking and gun possession. in december of 1999, he decided to try to turn his life around. i was significantly depressed, emotionally distraught, i was suffering

from a lot of the traumatic experiences i have suffered, you know. you were thinking of killing yourself? definitely, i was thinking about killing myself. that was the solution to the pollution. i'd decided i needed to go see my mom, it was two days after christmas, i decided i needed to go see her at least one more time, before i came back and did what i felt i needed to do. i sat right on the street around the corner, with an ak—47 to just end it all. he didn't. he went to see a preacher. he basically said, you're not the first one who's felt this way, and you're not the first one who are going through what you're going through. but the difference is that you can make, is to hear what i have to say and make a change.

you will find that a lot of the kids are looking for something when theyjoin gangs, there's something missing. and the gangs have learned to cater to those things that are missing. the steady fall in crime since the '90s is partly due to smarter policing. more significantly, as drug markets stabilised, there were fewer turf wars between the gangs. but there are worrying signs. hi, captain thatcher! how are you? i'm doing great, how are you? have a seat. about 30% less gang shootings this year than we had last year... oh, wow, that is significant.

a lot of your older gang members now, or people who had gang membership in the past, are having a hard time directing the activities of the younger gang members. it's not like it used to be. so they consider the younger gang mebers lawless. —— members lawless. we had an understanding with the gang members as to what was and wasn't within boundaries as to how we treated each other, and we have lost control of that. i appreciate your hard work, sir. crime rates are below the rest of the county, for the most part. well isn't that a great success! laughs. thank you. we are getting an emergency call, it's a vehicle collision with injuries. siren wails. i was driving. you were driving. are you 0k, just a little shaken up?

0k. do you have your driver's licence? as far as the violent crimes, it goes up and down. there are times where gangs will have a truce and they will kind of settle down, and then out of nowhere, like if someone turns on a light switch, they're at it again. the reason why the homicide rate has dropped, it is not because the violence has gone away, someone didn'tjust sprinkle fairy dust on the city and it's gone — it's there, the reason why the homicide rate has dropped significantly is because of the advancements in medical science. doctors right now, more than ever, more than five years ago, they're saving more and more lives. siren wails. why you filming me?

'cause you in trouble, that's why. this is handy‘s, i've been coming to this store since i was going to that elementary over there. all this has changed, we got a lot of homeboys getting killed up here, just hanging out, because this was almost a shared store between two rival gangs, and so, in the process of that, a lot of people lost their lives up here, a lot of shooting, a lot of drive—bys would happen here. this is my mom, my beautiful mother deborah... when will's mum saw things getting out of control, she uprooted her family and fled to nearby san bernardino. my uncle lester, he was killed in 1987. woman: in compton. in compton. shot in his face.

we've been victims of the violence too, you know. i think this was our family's first experience of the violence in compton. i'm willing to bet you there's not a family in compton that didn't lose somebody or someone nearand dearto them to gang violence in some shape, form or fashion. we lived through a war. it was a war. it was like a war zone. i seen a lot, and it's weird because, i tell my friends, i'm a nurse now, but i kinda think i seen more death as a child that i have as an adult. there were plenty of days where i'd be playing outside, and we knew, "oh, that car don't look familiar," and we probably had about two seconds to get into the backyard and sure enough, by the time we get in the backyard and lay down, bang, bang, bang. come out, and here come my mama, driving down the street, "in the car, gotta go in the house!" it'd be like, all right. but it became a way of life. itjust became...

it was not normal, but then it was normal, you know what i mean? i know, as a young kid, i didn't show that as much, but i always loved my mom and it hurts, that i know she went through that, to know that she had to suffer, that we put more on her table then she should have had on her table. that's something i have to live with, because the thought occurs every now and then and it makes me cry, it hurts me, even though i've been living like this for 20 years, good, doing good work, great work, it still hurts me to know that 20—something years ago, i took my mom through what she had to go through and suffer, you know, it is something i will have to live with the rest of my life because i can't change that. but it hurts, it hurts, you know? the whole neighbourhood is totally different. it's sad when you see, because you know, that dude used to live over there but he's dead. 0r next door, they all died. it'sjust sad. orthey injailfor the rest of their life. the ones that ain't dead, they injail.

there's only a few that made it out. it's sad. it's really sad. down this quiet street in compton is aja brown's former family home. fi:’::; egg 52; 1:54; no, just my grandmother. she was alone? yes. i don't ever remember not knowing what happened to my grandmother, because i remember my mother at holiday time being really sad, and i would ask her, "mommy, why are you so sad?" and she would just say,

"i miss my mother." no—one was ever brought to justice and the case remains open. the loss of a life is not a moment in time, the loss is for a lifetime, and there are holes that are created that can never be filled, and so it gives me a level of compassion, respect and even insight into what most people are dealing with in my community. when you look at this house in this street, what does it make you feel? it's bittersweet to me. it's nice to be able to know where my family spent a lot of time growing up, but at the same time, it is a place of such despair for my family. it is a solemn place, i would say. the mayor's story isn't uncommon. there's a level of post—traumatic stress in this town that comes from decades of extreme violence. but maybe it's that shared experience that could also drive people

to end the violence. hello there, good morning. it's going to be a bit chilly out there first thing this morning. clearer skies in many areas to follow the sunshine that we had yesterday. but there won't be as much sunshine today because all this cloud that has been filling in the atlantic is going to be slowly heading our way. and we've already seen some of that cloud arriving across wales and the south—west, so not as cold here. less reliable cloud elsewhere means a touch of frost — down the eastern side of england, where we are going

to have some misty, murky conditions and some rain and drizzle. if there is any sunshine, maybe some of these western coasts, perhaps antrim and down, ahead of some more rain coming in northern ireland later. but a mild day — temperatures about 10, maybe as high as 12 degrees or so. but that mild air getting squeezed away. colder air is going to be spilling our way over the coming few days — whether it comes in from the east or from the west. and we start tuesday with some thicker cloud, some outbreaks of rain down the eastern side of england, for a time in eastern scotland. that rain tends to peter out, mind you. more sunshine for northern ireland and for scotland, perhaps some other western coasts of england and wales, but already turning cooler out towards the east underneath all that cloud. and that's the way temperatures are going to be going. it is going to be turning cooler. high pressure building in over the uk — whether it is this one from the atlantic or this one from scandinavia, not a great deal of breeze out there and where you have some breaks in the cloud,

there may well be some frost in the outlook. after a mild start to the week it will gradually turn a bit colder. the chance of some of easterly winds, but it should be turning dry. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika — our top stories: tough words for some us leaders — students from the school targeted in a mass shooting, demand tighter gun controls. if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it is for the victims to be the change we need to see. president trump's national security adviser accuses the syrian government of using chemical weapons, and demands action from global leaders. thousands turn out to show their respects in zimbabwe — as the body of opposition leader morgan tsvangira returns home. also in the programme — can you see anything unusual about this picasso? we'll uncover the mystery hiding behind the masterpiece.