welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: a white house meeting for survivors of school shootings, president trump hears the anger of family members. it doesn't make sense. fix it. it should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it! meanwhile, survivors of last week's high school massacre protest in florida, after the state refuses to discuss gun control. the head of the un demands an immediate end to fighting in the syrian enclave of eastern ghouta, calling it "hell on earth". psychiatrists welcome a new review of scientific evidence that says anti—depressant drugs do work after all. 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. we‘ll have more on some of those powerful statements in a few moments. first, jon sopel reports from tallahassee. a school trip like no other. these students from marjory stoneman douglas high school haven‘t come to the florida state capitol to listen. they‘ve come to speak and demand change after 17 of their classmates and teachers were killed last week. chanting: we are msd, we're here to make some history! and they are determined to be heard. no—one needs these weapons that are taking children‘s lives. they should just ban them because all they are used for is destruction and they‘re just not needed. you should go to school feeling safe and be confident

that you're there for an education and a bright future, you're not here to 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: hey-hey, ho-ho, 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 personally 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 up in a ball and refusing to come out to be with the family

for the funeral. then they have the gall not even to discuss the issue, we are very upset. from the white house, small but significant signs of movement and the president has been meeting students and teachers, from notjust the most recent massacre in florida, but from other shootings as well. we aer going to be very 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 this. all these school shootings. it doesn‘t make sense. fix it. it should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it! and i am (bleep)! because my daughter, i‘m not going to see 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. our north america correspondent david willis was watching that meeting in washington. he gave me his thoughts a short time ago. passionate speeches on the part of parents and students and this gathering brought together about a0 parents, students and school officials from not only the florida high school where the attack took place last week, but also from columbine and sandy hook, two places that have gone down in american history for their grim history, as far as shootings of this kind are concerned. president trump seemed visibly moved at times by the accounts that he listened to, including that from one pupil — sam zeif — who lost a close friend in the

florida shooting last week. this is what he had to say. i turned 18 the day after, woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. and i don't understand why i can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war. an ar. i was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an ar—15 with an expired id. how is it that easy? how do we not stop this after columbine, after sandy hook? i am sitting with a mother who lost her son. it is still happening. shortly after that emotional exchange from samuel zeif, president trump said that he endorsed the possibility

of arming teachers and other members of school staff. he said that it took on average between five and eight minutes for so—called first responders to reach the scene of a school shooting. he said that by carefully arming certain staff, that could be cut down and presumably death tolls could be cut down too, in these sorts of cases. he called for an end to gun—free zones here in america and around schools. this is what president trump had to say. a good thing about a suggestion like that, we will be looking at very strongly and i think a lot of people will be opposed to it and a lot of people will like it. the good thing is you will have a lot of people with that, you can't have 100 security guards in stoneman douglas. that is a massive school with a lot of acreage to cover. a lot of floor area, so that would be a situation that is being discussed a lot by a lot of people.

you have a lot of people that would be armed, professionals, they may be marines that left the marines, left the army, left the air force. he conceded that arming teachers was a controversial proposal and that proposal was countered by a man called mark barton, who lost his son in the sandy hook massacre five years ago. his wife is a teacher and this is what he had to say. school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the also responsibility of lethal force to take a life. (clapping) thank you. nobody wants to see a shootout in a school and a deranged sociopath on his way to commit an act of murder in the school, knowing the outcome is going to be suicide, will not care for somebody with a gun. even if there is movement on this

david, so much depends on congress, which blocked all of president 0bama‘s attempts on an control and even though the president is sounding concilliatory — the responses he has come up with is what the gun lobby has coming up with. the answer to violence is more guns? yes, we have initiatives on the part of the president which seem to be looking at some curbs, for example, tighter background checks. he said he will also be backing calls for gun bump stocks, turning semiautomatics into machine—guns. the banning of those. today he seems to be saying the solution to the shooting epidemic here is not fewer guns, but more. president trump also suggested that he might be in favour

of raising the minimum age by which somebody here can buy a semi—assault rifle to 21. it is currently 18, you have to be 21 to buy a handgun. but the nra was swift to condemn that possibility and indeed that is the problem here. the strength of the national rifle association, which is thought to have contributed more than $30 million to donald trump‘s presidential campaign at a time where a majority two to one of americans favour tighter gun control laws, the polls suggest. the un security council is being urged to consider a resolution which calls for a thirty—day ceasefire in syria. the 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. 0ur middle east editor jeremy bowen has more. the syrians deny targeting civilians in eastern ghouta.

explosions. these, they say, are precision strikes against artillery that has hit central damascus. screaming. but the evidence from inside the enclave is that civilians are getting hurt and dying. the suffering of civilians could have a political effect, putting pressure on the rebel groups in eastern ghouta to make a deal. the lives of their children against strategic frontline territory near central damascus that the regime wants to get back. this activist says helicopters are hovering over us here in eastern ghouta. "god help us, we‘re being exterminated." i was able to cross from government—controlled damascus to eastern ghouta several times at the beginning of the war. even then, it was very badly

damaged by regime bombing. morale among the rebels was high and dozens of young men were joining what they believed was a revolution. what do you think will happen to assad? killed. must be killed. when the war started, the regime was under severe pressure. it lost control of a crescent of suburbs around damascus. eastern ghouta is the last of them that has not surrendered. in 2013, eastern ghouta was hit by a chemical attack that killed hundreds. the americans threatened a military strike against the regime and then decided against it. it was a turning point in the war. after that, the regime lost its fear of western intervention. in september 2015, russia intervened, decisively,

on assad‘s side. now, he‘s more secure and he‘s emboldened, more so than at any time since the war started. and the russians are becoming the dominant foreign power in the middle east. in northern syria, the president has just sent militia men to join a fight against a turkish incursion. he wouldn‘t have the confidence to move against a nato power without the russians. and it suggests he won‘t listen to foreign condemnation of the attack on eastern ghouta. jeremie bowen, bbc news. the un‘s human rights agency says decisive action is needed. the high commissioner for 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 do we have to see? how many more hospitals bombed? how many more doctors killed do we have to see before the international committee can come together with one voice and take resolute action

on the situation in syria to bring this violence to an end? as we were saying to diplomats at the un are considering another attempt at a 30 day ceasefire. the concern is whether russia, a strong ally of bashar al—assad, will veto any attempt. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. there is confusion in northern nigeria about the fate of dozens of teenage girls believed to be missing after their school was attacked by boko haram militants on monday. officials in yobe state say security forces have rescued an unspecified number of girls. more than ninety children were believed to be missing after pupils and teachers fled into bushland outside the town of dapchi during the attack. the opposition coalition in venezuela says it will not take part in fraudulent illegitimate presidential elections. it has called for changes to the conditions of the vote which has been brought forward to april, a move which has been internationally condemned. president maduro, who has banned two

of his main political rivals from taking part says the elections will take place with or without the opposition. save the children has apologised to three female workers who complained about inappropriate behaviour. justin forsyth resigned from the organisation when he was accused of sending unwelcome texts. they have admitted proper procedures were not followed while the complaints were being investigated in 2015. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: it‘s a long way down and across. huge crowds celebrate lunar new year with a walk across the world‘s longest glass suspension bridge. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside

the gates of mr marcos‘s sanctuary, malacanang, the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern aaia. the world‘s first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly, using a cell from another sheep. citizens are trying to come to grips with their new freedom. though there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not for 20 years have locusts been 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 authority of the next pope. benedict xvi will, in his own words, be hidden from the world for the rest of his life. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: in an emotional confrontation at the white house, several school

shooting survivors have urged president trump to tighten gun control. breaking news. an unidentified man has thrown an explosive device at the american embassy. this is in montenegro. people are being warned to stay away. the blast killed the man, but no one else was hurt. the embassy was closed at the time of the attack. we will have more on that as soon as we have it. earlier, i spoke to christopher ingraham, a journalist with the washington post. i pointed out that it wasn‘t often

we saw mr trump simply listening. he is not known for listening as he is for talking. the sight of him sitting there, listening to the survivors and families of survivors going around and venting their anger and grief and sadness, it was really quite a performance. it‘s not something you see every day from this white house. what did he make of it and what impact might it have? he made all kinds of promises to gun owners and took huge amounts of money — $31 million from the national rifle association in campaign funds. you‘re absolutely right. the interesting thing from a policy standpoint, the ideas he was most energised by coming out of that meeting was the idea of arming teachers in classrooms, giving them firearms and firearms training and perhaps arming volunteers to go into schools to protect students. that‘s definitely going to be a controversial issue, i think. you ask the american public if they want to see more guns in their schools, and they want to see less. so this is a really odd proposal for fixing school shootings. i talked to a lot of gun researchers

for the work that i do, and when you ask them, how do we stop mass shootings, how do we take a bite out of gun violence, none of them are saying, "we need to put more guns in classrooms." it is a strange idea, but given the president‘s background, his tight connections with the nra, i suppose it is not too surprising. for many republicans, guns, immigration and abortion are just the key issues. for republican lawmakers who really, many of them only really face a challenge from the right. if they look shaky on any of those key issues, they could be out of a job. they could. the interesting thing about this debate here though is that

if you poll republicans, you poll even gun owners, many of them are actually very much in support of a lot of these policies that experts are recommending. universal gun background checks, that we do not have in this country is supported by 97% of american. even something like an assault weapons ban which we have had before and lawmakers have found very controversial, we see something like 67% of the public support that policy, even 53%, more than a majority of gun owning households, support policies like that. so when you see that much public support for these pretty straightforward policies and you compare that with what political leadership coming out of the white house is promoting, this idea of arming teachers in classrooms, it‘s really quite a striking difference and i think that speaks a lot to the power of the nra and these gun lobbying groups that have very close line to the president and leaders in congress. you know that people are not that optimistic given that nothing changed congress, even after sandy hook, all those very young children killed.

how possible is it that president trump, faced with this raw emotion, and these high school students, very articulate and soon—to—be voters, how possible is it that that could be a game changer? well, the difference between now and, say, sandy hook, or some of the other mass shootings that we have seen is now we have both a republican president and a republican congress, and in the name ofjust getting a political win on this issue, you may see those groups come together and say, "0k, we‘ll put in place some sort of modest background check bill and modest ban on something like bump stocks." i would not be surprised to see some kind of movement at the margins of the policies that could affect these issues. whether we‘ll see any larger change, i think that‘s largely going to be a function of who vote both in the coming november, but also in the elections in 2020, and whether these energised young people,

whether they can take their energy to the ballot box later this year and beyond. christopher, thank you so much. a top executive at the ford motor company has become the latest high—profile american figure to be sacked following allegations of sexual misconduct. raj nair, president for the carmaker‘s north america division, left the firm after a review found he had breached an internal code of conduct. no further details were given. the american evangelist billy graham has died at the age of 99. he invented a certain kind of stadium preaching and influenced millions, from american presidents to the british queen. 0ur religious affairs editor, martin bashir, looks back on his life and work. the 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, in1966, that cliff richard publicly declared his christianity. # he‘ll do foryou...#. he was also a pastor to presidents, from nixon to clinton, but he never took sides. 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. i don‘t actually think we‘ve had somebody who simply says the bible says, the bible says, the bible says and doesn‘t intrude his own ideas into the message. so he‘s being real on message and i don‘t think

we‘ve seen anybody of that character, apart from saint paul. 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. dying at the age of 99. let‘s head to 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 their 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‘s supposed to represent a dragon flying through the valley. translation: it's like an adventure to me. you look down and see such a beautiful landscape. translation: it's scary, very scary. it's too high for me. the bridge is four metres wide and made of 1077 glass panels. each one, only four centimetres thick. and the whole thing weighs 70 tons. it‘s designed to take up to 2,000 people at a time, though they only let 500 on just to be safe. thousands turn up every day, even if the climb up can be a little arduous. fun for all of the family, but only the bravest dare look down. tim allman, bbc news. my

my legs are going just looking at it. the grime artist, stormzy, has taken two of the top prizes at the brit awards, the biggest annual event for britain‘s music industry. in a controversial closing performance, he attacked prime minister theresa may for her response to the grenfell tower fire disaster. stormzy won best british male solo artist and british album of the year. dua lipa won two awards, including best british female solo artist. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i‘m @bbcmikeembley. 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 now, 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. this is bbc news, the headlines: at a meeting broadcast live from the white house, survivors of school shootings and relatives of victims have told president trump of their pain and anguish, appealing to him directly to bring in new gun controls. mr trump said he was considering arming teachers and banning gun—free zones around schools. with concern growing over the syrian government‘s bombardment of the rebel—held area

eastern ghouta, on the outskirts of damascus, diplomats at the un are considering a new attempt at a 30—day ceasefire. it‘s not clear whether russia — a major supporter of the assad government — will veto. a new study from the university of oxford has found that anti—depressa nts are effective. researchers analysed more than 500 clinical trials and included previously unpublished data held by drug companies. the findings refute recent suggestions that some treatments don‘t work. now on bbc news stephen sackur is here with hardtalk.