this is newsday. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: survivors of last week's high school massacre, protest in florida and visit the white house. the head of the un demands an immediate end to fighting in the syrian enclave of eastern ghouta, calling it "hell on earth". i'm sharanjit leyl in london. also in the programme: hong kong pop star denise ho tells us she was barred from playing in malaysia because of her support for lgbt rights. and we'll find out how space research could lead to a 50% increase in some crop yields. it's 9am in singapore, 1am in london and 8pm

in the eastern united states — where the campaign for gun controls in response to the florida school shooting has produced some extraordinary scenes. in tallahassee, the state capitol, students gathered to demand ‘never again‘ and tough restrictions on weapons sales. then at the white house, president trump convened a televised ‘listening session‘ where survivors and their families spoke of their anguish. jon sopel reports from tallahassee. a school trip like no other. these students from marjory stoneman douglas high school have not come to the florida state capitol to listen, they have come to speak and demand change after 17 of their classmates and teachers were killed last week. and they are determined to be heard. no—one needs these weapons that are taking children‘s lives. they should ban them because all they are used for is destruction and they

are just not needed. you should go to school feeling safe and be confident you are there for an education and a bright future, not worry about getting shot. chanting: never again! neveragain! the students werejoined by thousands of others from across the state, noisy, determined and emboldened. chanting: the nra has got to go! the streets are literally echoing to the sound of these young people demanding gun control. but last night, state legislators voted against even opening a debate on semiautomatic weapons. the fight for gun control is going to be an uphill struggle. chanting: this is what democracy looks like! but that decision not even to debate guns in the state assembly has infuriated pupils, teachers, and community leaders alike. i have buried in the last four days, three kids from my congregation. i watched a father want to climb

into the mausoleum with his son. i watched a mother curled into a ball and refusing to come out for the family. then they have the gall not even to discuss the issue, i am very upset. from the white house, small but significant signs of movement and the president has been meeting students and teachers, notjust from florida, but from other shootings as well. we want to be strong on background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health of somebody, and we are going to do plenty of other things. this heartfelt plea from one of the parents. we can‘t forget about it, all these school shootings. there should have been one school shooting and we should have extinct! and i am

(bleep). because my daughter, i am not going to see ken. —— again. these students have captured public attention with their demand for change, but it is a tough journey and winning support is a different thing to winning reform. more on that story in a moment. first, some of the day‘s other news. the un secretary general has demanded an immediate end to fighting in the syrian rebel—enclave of eastern ghouta, describing it as a "hell on earth". more than 300 people have died there since sunday in government—led air strikes. here is some strong reaction from the office of the high commissioner for human rights. the high commissioner for the high commissionerfor human rights is talking about this being a monstrous campaign of annihilation of eastern ghouta, with no regard for civilian lives. how many more children dying we have to see? how many more hospitals bombed and doctors killed we deceit for the international community can come

together with one voice and take resolute action on this situation in syria to bring this violence to an end? also making news today: in nigeria, more than 100 schoolgirls are still missing after an attack by the islamist militant group boko haram on monday. pupils and staff at a school in yobe state fled into bushland during the raid. it has drawn comparisons to the mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in chibok, four years ago by boko haram. a singaporean man convicted in a high profile fraud case has been caught trying to flee the country, one day before his prison sentence is due to start. chew eng han was found in a small boat heading towards malaysia. he and five others were convicted of misappropriating millions of dollars from the city harvest church in 2015. security experts have warned of the risk of artificial intelligence being exploited by rogue states, criminals and terrorists. a report — entitled ‘the malicious use of artificial intelligence‘ — warns of scenarios such as drones using face recognition to attack individuals and hackers manipulating autonomous cars. let‘s take a look at these truly

magnificent pictures. a very soft form of frost, known as rime, has given an aura of fairytale to the landscape of mountjiuhua, in east china‘s anhui province. it‘s caused by a combination of high humidity and very low temperatures. ice crystals coated the tree tops, while a sea of clouds shrouded the mountain. let‘s get more on our main story now. president trump has been meeting survivors of last week‘s school shooting in florida. david willis is our correspondent in washington. 0ne one of the ideas being floated around is to basically give staff and faculty members opens in school

campuses? yes, and donald trump bringing this up, conceded that it was a potentially controversial proposal on his part. but the plan, as it would stand, would be to teachers, some teachers who had training with guns and other members of staff, to be armed on school campuses. president trump said that it took on average between five and eight minutes before so—called first responders to react to reports of a school shooting in the united states. he said that that could be mitigated by teachers and other officials on the school campus being armed. he called for an end to so—called gun free zones. and an end to the concealed carry that exist in certain states here in the united states. but we heard as well from a

pa rent of states. but we heard as well from a parent of a young boy who died in the senior took massacre, the school massacre a few years ago. he said, his name is mark bardon and his wife isa his name is mark bardon and his wife is a teacher, he said teachers have quite enough to do in the classroom is already apart from taking on the role of vigilantes and he said this could only lead to shoot outs on school premises. resident trump has promised a range of measures and has said that he will fix this problem. pa rents said that he will fix this problem. parents and students report of this listening session in the white house, what do the others have to say? yes, we heard some displays of raw emotion, as you can imagine, on both the part of the parents and the student. many of those students had seen those classmates gunned down before their eyes just a week ago. we heard from an 18—year—old who

lost his best friend in the florida shooting and he said, quite simply, i don‘t understand how anyone can go into a store and buy a weapon of war. how is it that it is so easy to buy that sort of weapon here in the united states? a lot of raw emotion, a lot of tears at the white house today in front of president trump. thank you so much for that update. david willis in washington. the hong kong pop star denise ho has told the bbc she has been denied a performance permit in malaysia over her views on gay rights. homosexuality is illegal in the country and a minister has said artists have to comply with what he called ‘local values‘. kathryn armstrong reports. denise ho has never been afraid of standing up her beliefs. she was once one of the biggest stars in hong kong, but everything changed when she became one of the faces of the 2014 pro—democracy protests. that saw her blacklisted in mainland china, with some major brands pulling out of promotional projects with.

now she has been barred from holding a concert in malaysia this april for a different reason. we received a call from our co—organiser in malaysia and they told us that our visa was denied and my visa was denied, and the reason that the person from the government gave was that because i was an active supporter of the lgbtq community. the malaysian government minister has not confirmed the ho visa was denied. but the communications are multi— media minister said... homosexual activity is illegal in malaysia and a recent crackdown on the lgbt community has been seen by some as an attempt by the ruling party to appease religious hardliners ahead of election in the coming months. ho came out publicly as a lesbian in 2012, said she is disappointed but the decision is not

a complete surprise. there were several cases where people had been denied visas for concerts and also a year ago, joshua wong, of hong kong, was also denied entry because of his support in the umbrella movement, and so i guess, because of my double taboo identity, because i was also a supporter of the umbrella movement and pro—democracy, somehow we have guessed that maybe i would be denied access. ho said malaysia‘s decision won‘t hold her back and has vowed to continue fighting for the rights of the lgbt committee. you‘re watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we meet the south korean team with a mission to combat one of the highest suicide rates in the world. also on the programme:

is speed breeding the answer to the global food crisis? scientists try to bring nasa‘s efforts to grow crops in space, back down to earth. prince charles has chosen his bride, he proposed two weeks ago and she accepted without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of all its. at the gates of mr marcus ‘s sanctuary, the name itself supplies and one of the cruellest regimes. the world 's first clone has produced of an adult mammal. scientists have reduced a ship called the lift using cells from another sheep. citizens have tried to come to grips with their new freedom. though there isjoy to come to grips with their new freedom. though there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not to 20 years have

locusts being seen in such numbers in this part of africa, some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last time the public will see this pope, very soon for the sake of the credibility and the authority of the next pope. an addict the 16th in his own world will be hidden from the world for the rest of this is newsday on the bbc. i‘m rico hizon in singapore. i‘m sharanjit leyl in london. our top stories: in an emotional confrontation at the white house, several school shooting survivors have urged president trump to tighten gun control. with casualties increasing in syria, european diplomats are calling on the un security council to consider a new resolution for a 30—day ceasefire. and is she? 0r isn‘t she?

south korean news media say the sister of the north korean leader, kim jong—un, told officials she was pregnant during her trip to the winter olympics. there‘s no confirmation of the comments, but the speculation highlights the fascination with the north‘s opaque power structures. more on our website. let‘s ta ke let‘s take a look at some front pages from around the world. we‘ll start with the japan times, which leads with the news that the japanese prime minister, shinzo abe, has called for immigration reform. it says the government aims to draw up a plan by summer to allow more skilled foreign workers entry to japan. the philippines daily inquirer focuses on a report by the us intelligence committee branding president duterte a threat to democracy and human rights. the paper quotes the philippine presidential palace‘s denial saying this. "mr duterte has no autocratic tendencies." and the china daily features this

photograph of a mass of travellers leaving beijing railway station on wednesday. they‘re returning from family visits and vacations on the last day of the spring festival holiday. it says around 11 million passenger trips were made on china‘s rail network on wednesday. let‘s stay in china now, where celebrations for the lunar new year are still taking place. it‘s an opportunity for families to spend time together and enjoy themselves. but in the province of hebei, not farfrom beijing, that enjoyment was for hardier souls only, as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. snaking through the mountains of northern china, for some people, this is there idea of fun. the world‘s longest glass suspension bridge has only been open a matter of weeks. this is the first time it

welcomed guests for the lunar new year. a vertical drop of more than 200 metres. it is supposed to represent a dragon flying through the valley. translation: it is like an adventure jimmy. you the valley. translation: it is like an adventurejimmy. you look down and you see such a beautiful landscape —— to me. and you see such a beautiful landscape -- to me. translation: it is scary, very scary. it is four metres wide and made of 1077 glass panels. each one is only four centimetres thick. the whole thing weighs 70 tons. it is designed to ta ke weighs 70 tons. it is designed to take up to 2000 people at a time, but they only let 500 on just to be safe. thousands turn up everyday, evenif safe. thousands turn up everyday, even if the climb up can be a little arduous. fine for all of the family, but only the bravest dare look down. tim allman, bbc news. experiments by nasa to grow wheat in space are inspiring scientists in australia to see

if it‘ll work on earth. by changing how much light plants get, they can speed up crop cycles by over 50%. it‘s of massive importance since the world has to produce up to 80% more food by 2050 to feed 9 billion people. i spoke to dr lee hickey, senior research fellow from the university of queensland centre for crop science to find out how nasa inspired the research. yeah, you‘re right, we were originally inspired by nasa, and they were trying to grow wheat in outer space, i guess as food supply for astronauts. but the way that they were doing it, they were exposing the wheat plans to continuous light so the plants did not sleep and it tricked them into producing seed very quickly, much faster than normal, and we thought "what a cool tool this could be to speed up the rate of improvement of our crops here on planet earth."

now, as you say, it‘s a "cool tool." can you describe this technology and is this something that any farmer can use? well, it‘s certainly a tool for plant breeders who are developing these improved crops for farmers to grow because we need these crops to be more productive, in the face of climate change, so that‘s warmer temperatures, more frequent droughts, rapidly evolving diseases, and even making them more nutritious as well, for humans to consume. but the way it works is that we expose the plants to 22 hours of light, and we can go from seed to seed in just eight weeks, that‘s for wheat. it also works for a whole bunch of different crops like chickpeas, canola, barley, some of the biggest crops that we grow in the world. this technique can allow us to achieve up to six generations of crops per year instead ofjust one in the field. now, you‘re saying you‘re exposing these plants for 22 hours of light so how

about the health of these plants? we know there‘s a lot of controversy still over genetically modified plants, anything that interferes with the natural process of a plant‘s growth. so wouldn‘t reducing the sleep or rest that a plant gets damage them somehow? yeah, well, actually, interestingly, umm, when we first proposed this very radical idea to some of our colleagues, they were very sceptical. they thought, oh, "if we stress that plans out and give them this extra light they will be very weedy, only produce a couple of seeds," but, in actual reality, the opposite occurred and the plants resemble the ones in the field, very productive, and some of our experiments that we just published demonstrate that the plants often grown under speed—breeding conditions are more productive than the plants growing in the regular glass house. so this is very promising, not only for plant breeding and developing crops but also, we suspect, there are some big implications for boosting in productivity in indoor farming systems, like vertical farms.

very briefly, though, of course, we‘re not seeing the sun‘s energy being utilised here, we‘re seeing a lot of led lights, so this is going to take up a lot of electricity. that is certainly one of the main challenges with this technology. for people to adopt it they need the infrastructure, they need these controlled climatic conditions, but, you‘re right, there‘s been huge advancements in terms of lighting technology. we are now using leds that emit these special wavelengths, only the wavelengths that are needed for the healthy plant growth. and so this is saving a ton energy when it comes to cooling or heating the environment as well. speaking earlier to my colleague, sharanjit leyl. south korea‘s in the news for lots of positive reasons at the moment, but like anywhere, it has its social problems. the country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. the problem is so severe there‘s a special rescue team. here‘s more about what they do.

a brave korean rescue team. any christian wherever they are in the world, will have heard of billy graham, the evangelist who‘s died at the age of 99. he invented a certain kind of stadium preaching, and influenced millions, from american presidents to the british queen. our religious affairs editor, martin bashir, looks back on his life and work. there are problems that face us tonight that never be solved unless we bring them to the lord jesus christ. charismatic and handsome, billy graham preached a simple message that he took around the world, speaking to more than 220 million people, in 185 countries. london first felt the force of his evangelism in 195a. we‘ve come here at the invitation of these churches to help lead you in a crusade to win into jesus christ. i want you to get up out you have your seat right now. he would lead a17 crusades, often in major sporting stadiums, from new york to nigeria. i don‘t believe anybody

is here by accident. he was god. he was also man. it was at an earl‘s court rally in 1966 that cliff richard publicly declared his christianity. # he‘ll do foryou...#. he was even invited to preach before the queen and other members of the royal family at sandringham, in 1984, and said afterwards that he did not change his message, but simply pointed to jesus. my my own son came tojesus christ through him. he does not put his own ideas into his message. his son franklin graham, who‘s also an evangelist, described a recent conversation. i said, "daddy, what do you want on your tombstone?" he thought, he said, "just preacher. " that‘s it.

that's it. god loves you. unlike so many american preachers, billy graham was never caught up in any kind of scandal and insisted that his financial affairs were transparent and audited by others. it was the simplicity of his message and the sincerity of his life that will be his legacy. the american preacher, billy graham, who‘s died at the age of 99. you have been watching newsday. stay with us. thank you for watching. a very cold spell of weather is on the way, it is just a little too early to say whether it‘s going to be particularly exceptional for the end of february and early march but one thing is for sure, it looks like temperatures could struggle to get above freezing, some

time next week and there is snow on the way as well, just uncertain exactly how deep and where. but this high pressure continues to build as forecast, from scandinavia across western parts of europe. so the forecast so far is going according to plan. those easterly winds are starting to strengthen and they will keep strengthening as we go over the next few days. by the end of the night, early on thursday morning, not too cold, not at this stage. temperatures in towns and cities will be around about zero, maybe a little below. outside of town a good frost on the way. in these situations when we get an area of high pressure, there is always a bit of cloud floating around so not everybody is going to get the sunny skies but on balance it is going to be a bright day for most of us and it is starting to feel a little bit colder now. those temperatures will be struggling in the east. four degrees in norwich, briefly during the day. most of the day it will be lower than that. still relatively mild

in belfast, around 8 degrees. this is thursday‘s forecast across europe. these are the daytime highs. minus 10 in moscow — the big freeze has hit that place. minus 2 in warsaw. not quite across western parts of europe. still in a relatively mild air but the wind will start to feel stronger and colder as we go towards the weekend. just a hint briefly of a southerly, maybe just around ireland and the western isles but that is pretty much it. so the temperatures will keep on dropping away by day, by around a degree or so. as we go through the weekend, that high—pressure continues to strengthen and build from russia, and when high—pressure strengthens, the winds around it strengthen as well and they keep pushing in the colder air, straight out of russia. so the temperatures will keep on dropping away during the course of the weekend. i suspect even those values here are too high, it could be even as low as a couple of degrees above freezing, by sunday, in some major towns and cities. then the high—pressure gets even more intense and, yes, there are snow showers developing. you can see those blobs of white effecting almost any part of the country. so the big freeze is on the way, it is just too early

to say where the coldest of the air is going to go. it could actually sink towards more southern parts of europe and into france, or it could go straight over us, or, as we have been talking in the last two days, it could engulf the whole of europe. so for npow, we do know that it is going to be cold next week with widespread frost, possibly by day as well, a bitter wind and snow for sure. i‘m sharanjit leyl with bbc world news. our top story: president trump has heard emotional appeals for gun control during a televised ‘listening session‘ at the white house. the meeting brought together young survivors of school shootings and members of theirfamilies. mr trump heard from students, who said they simply wanted to feel safe at school. the un security council is being urged to consider a resolution which calls for a thirty—day ceasefire in syria. the move comes as international concern grows over the syrian government bombardment of a rebel—held area on the outskirts of damascus. and this video is trending on bbc.com. if you‘ve been following the winter

olympics, you‘ll know how the sport of curling has captured the imagination. so here‘s a few people trying it at home. they look like they‘re having fun! that‘s all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the government has published proposals for how it wants to work with the eu during the brexit transition period.