this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top stories: a white house meeting for survivors of school shootings — president trump hears the anger of family members. psychiatrists welcome a new review of scientific evidence that says anti—depressant drugs do work after all. venezuela was once the richest country in south america, now children like these are growing up hungry and malnourished. judgement day — europe's car industry is on tenterhooks as a court is set to decide whether diesel vehicles can be banned from german cities. we'll be live in germany to find out what this could mean for the rest of europe. a warm welcome to the programme,

briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. and there is one big talking point today following the "listening session" at the white house. will arming teachers stop us gun violence in schools? join the debate and we'll share your comments. just use the hashtag bbc—the—briefing. there've been extraordinary scenes at the white house as survivors and families of victims of school shootings spoke directly to president trump about their anger and anguish. after hearing powerful testimony, president trump suggested

arming teachers could prevent future gun attacks in schools and also promised to tighten background checks on those buying weapons. in tallahassee, florida, students also gathered to demand "never again" — and tough restrictions on weapons sales. barbara plett—usher reports. the people demand a hearing. in florida, telling their lawmakers that they do not want this mass shooting to drop off the political agenda like others have. at the white house, president trump was distinctive it terms of the marjory stoneman douglas high school marjory stoneman douglas high school marjory stoneman douglas high school marjory stoneman douglas high school school attack but also those that came before them. it does not make sense. fix it. it should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it! my daughter i am not going

to see again! she is not here. she is not here. she is at... shoes at king david cemetery, that is where i go and see my kids now. it does not make sense to her schoolmates either. especially the gunman‘s access to a semiautomatic rifle.|j do not understand. i turned 18 the day after and woke up to the news that my best friend was gone... and ido that my best friend was gone... and i do not understand how i can still go in asthall and buy a weapon of war. the president has responded to calls for tougher gun laws with tougher checks but also more guns. it is called concealed carry true teacher would have a concealed gun

on them. they go the special training and they would be there and he would no longer have a gun free zone. there is some support for that argument but students who survived the attack demanding a ban on assault rifles. lawmakers may make it harderfor a teenager assault rifles. lawmakers may make it harder for a teenager to lie one but not more than that. still that is movement in an unmoving debate and students aim to harness that momentum and turn it into a national campaign. the students seem to have ca ptu red campaign. the students seem to have captured a moment, giving a face and voice to widespread anger and frustrations to mass shootings but whether the movement has the power to bring real change will be the story of the coming months. and stay with us because we'll have more on that story later in the briefing. looking at other stories...

a wide—ranging study led by researchers at the university of oxford counters suggestions that anti—depressant medicines can be ineffective. their in—depth analysis of 21 drugs showed they all helped patients manage their condition. andrew plant reports. they are one of the most commonly used drugs in the world with millions of prescriptions for antidepressants given out every year. but for years, there's been debate and doubt over how effective they really are. now, the university of oxford has analysed the data on a huge scale and says every one of the 21 drugs they looked at did help patients to manage their depression. we found that almost, the most commonly described antidepressants work for major depression, and people with moderate to severe depression, and also, we found that some of them are more effective than others

or better tolerated than others. many who take antidepressants say there's still a stigma attached to using the medication. when i first started taking them, the first question i was asked was, "oh, well, when are you going to come off them? when do you — do you just expect to take them — are you just going to take them for a short amount of time?" and it doesn't really work like that. you wouldn't say to a diabetic, you know, "when are you going to wean yourself off insulin?" so i think that there's — people need to sort of realise that the benefits — it's an ongoing thing. the study ranked the drugs according to how effective they were, which could help doctors pick the right prescriptions for their patients. andrew plant, bbc news. an unidentified man has thrown an explosive device at the us embassy in the former yugoslav republic of montenegro. us citizens have been urged to stay

away from the mission in the capital, podgorica, until further notice. the blast killed the man, but no one else was injured. the embassy was closed at the time of the attack. hungary has slipped down the rankings of a global corruption index. transparency international put it near the bottom of the 28 eu countries with bulgaria coming last within the bloc. its report highlighted a trend towards closer ties between the politicians and business interests. there has been no government response to the report. hungary goes to the polls in 7 weeks time. europe's car industry is on tenterhooks today, awaiting a german court ruling on whether cities are allowed to ban diesel cars. if it's approved, other big european cities are likely to follow suit. in fact some have already made moves. jane foley, seniorforeign exchange

strategist at rabobank, is with me. give us your take on this because many cities around europe are thinking about it and trying to already implemented rules. we know that pollution is a big issue and a lot is not from diesel engines but it isa lot is not from diesel engines but it is a contributor and the nitric oxide within the diesel engine is something we are very worried about any contributes to 400,000 premature deaths every year in the eu. we do have very high levels of pollution. very high levels in polish cities. coal not just very high levels in polish cities. coal notjust diesel engines but this could set a precedent. you

could perhaps create zones, perhaps banning the most polluting cars. that is something going on as well with the mayor trying similar rules, heavy penalties if you come into the capital with a very old diesel car. the other side of the coin is what about the jobs within the industry? in germany, it is very sensitive, given the amount of cars they produce. thousands of thousands of jobs. campaigners say this will promote the car industry to look more towards electric cars but many manufacturers could see jobs going and that is because many would be with dieselgate sales of diesels have gone down and it will be problematic for manufacturers. barrels are trying to limit the

emissions of carbon dioxide. —— that they are also trying. we will go to germany and talk to an environmental group later in the bulletin. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has proposed holding what's being called a "mega—election" in april. it would mean adding legislative, state and municipal votes together. there are already plans for a presidential poll, that the opposition has threatened to boycott. the country is currently in a humanitarian crisis because of a collapse of the economy and what critics describe as government mismanagement. vladimir hernandez is one of the few internationaljournalists who's been able to report from venezuela. singing. they sing, but they are hungry. these are the faces of extreme poverty in venezuela. here, the economic collapse has left an unsettling sight.

extremely thin children that don't know when they will eat next. kimberly has two young children. she says it's never been so hard to find food. this is the medical report for kimberly‘s youngest son. he was taken recently to hospital. what it says here is that he was suffering from diarrhoea, asthma, anaemia, but also from acute malnutrition. there is a whole list of medicines here also for him. i've just asked her and they haven't been able to buy them. this catholic church—run centre offers food to people from these poor communities. what we see here can be disturbing. this young boy looks

like a newborn, but he's two. liliana, looks like she is two, but she is five. chronic malnutrition leads to stunting, theyjust don't grow. in the capital caracas, things are no different. this is what a supermarket looks like. just empty shelves, no food. no food. this is a country that had high levels of obesity. they now lose an average of nine kilos per year. this christian charity offers a free lunch every day and a prayer. even some people with full—time jobs have to come here to get a meal. the venezuelan government says

queues like this one are the result of imposed foreign sanctions promoted by the united states by critics will say that many people now have the stand in line to get a meal because of the mismanagement of the country's wealth. vladimir hernandez, bbc news, caracas. stay with us on the briefing. also on the programme: the waters of the nile are turning sudan's desert green — but damaging relations with the country's downstream neighbour — egypt. we have a special report. 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. you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: psychiatrists have welcomed a new study by the university of oxford which found that anti—depressant medicines are effective despite some claims to the contrary.

and our top story: in an emotional confrontation at the white house, several school shooting survivors have urged president trump to tighten gun control. let's stay with that now. hollye dexter from women against gun violence joins us now from los angeles. thanks for agreeing to talk to us on the briefing. why are you campaigning on this issue? why am i campaigning on this issue? why am i campaigning on this issue? why am i campaigning on the issue? i have personal experience with gun lives in my own life —— gun violence. my brother was seven, he was shot in the head by a troubled teenager in our neighbourhood. he survived but with traumatic brain injury and lifelong problems. after the sandy hook massacre here in the night at

states, i decided that i had to get involved on a full—time basis and do everything that i could to stop gun violence in america. how hopeful are you that this new campaign, or at least the momentum now following on from what happened in florida is stronger and that this could lead to significant change on this issue? you know, i have to tell you, we've seen big uprisings in the past after some of our other horrific mass shootings, but nothing quite like this and i'm always a little bit afraid to get to hopeful, but the enthusiasm, the passion, the intelligence of the youth movement right now is still unbridled and so raw and so real, it really reminds me of the youth uprising about the vietnam war. i think they mightjust be the ones that can get this done.

of course mid—term elections aren't far away at all, what do you make of how president trump responded in the white house to the listening session that he called for? and also his idea of arming teachers? that is a dangerous and irresponsible suggestion, and i'll tell you why. on our board of directors we have los angeles police department sheriffs and we get to go behind—the—scenes at the nation's largest crime lab and work with and talk to forensic scientists who work with ballistics and firearms and i specifically talked with them about could a civilian, and armed civilian, stop a mass shooter. what they told me was police, who are highly trained with firearms, have only an 18% chance of hitting their intended target during a mass shooting, meaning they miss their

intended target 82% of the time. that's because our bodies go into flight that's because our bodies go into flight or fight mode, that's because our bodies go into flight orfight mode, our that's because our bodies go into flight or fight mode, our nervous systems... we have tunnel vision, our hearing is impaired, our motor co—ordination is in paired, and you can't be that accurate. now you're expecting teachers, who are already underappreciated and underpaid, and you want them to become america's next school swot team. imagine a large shooting situation where teachers come out of classrooms and they should back and bullets are firing everywhere and the police show up, how do they know who the good guys are and who to shoot at? it's an extremely dangerous and irresponsible suggestion and it came straight from the nra. tell us what your organisation is calling for in terms of change to make this situation better? well, we are calling for a ban on assault weapons

in america. we don't need assault weapons on the streets of america. you don't need those for self protection unless you're expecting 100 intruders per minute. you don't need it for hunting unless you're hunting people. that's the first thing. the second thing is we're getting organised right now to start registering all these young voters. vote like your life depends on it in america because it does. hollye, thanks for talking to us, hollye dexter, on the board of directors for women against gun violence. also, as she mentioned, when she was 14 her seven—year—old brother was shotin 14 her seven—year—old brother was shot in the head by a troubled teenager in their neighbourhood. he survived but he has serious brave injuries —— brain injuries. many of you have got in touch, colin said arming the teachers won't work, it will make them a target and it might end up killing students by accident or by design. there's the issue.

another said i'm shocked, trump's argument is more guns for teachers, arming teachers or mothers to the teeth isn't the answer. keep guns out of reach of children to save lives. thanks for your comments, continue to send them, i will retweet some of them and we will keep this debate going. in the meantime, let's look at other stories. ethiopia, sudan and egypt have set a deadline of the end of this month to try to resolve a long—running dispute over the blue nile, which is threatening relations between the three countries. ethiopia has almost finished building one of the biggest dams in africa to produce hydroelectric power, but egypt is worried it will reduce its water supply when the huge new reservoir is filled up. in the second of his series of special reports on the nile, our africa correspondent alastair leithead reports from sudan which has had to decide which country to back. the grand ethiopian renaissance dam

is almost finished. africa's biggest hydroelectric power station has already bridged the nile. and sudan is waiting expectedly for the cheap power that will soon fizz across its border. but that's not all. the waters of the nile transform the sudanese desert into a land of plenty. first it grew cotton a century ago for british textile mills, and now there are vast circles of high quality cattle feed mostly for export to the gulf. for sudan, the great advantage of this new dam is to regulate the flow of the blue nile. this at the moment is dry season. they're having to dredgejust so moment is dry season. they're having to dredge just so the pumping station can receive water to take to the fields. in the wet season the level is as high as that platform, eight metres higher. that's what the damp's going to change. these are turbulent times. sudan's had a

decades long deal with egypt but it's now at odds with its northern neighbour over how much water the country can use. this man is sudan's richest man. he owns a golf course in khartoum as well as the cattle feed farms. for sudan it is wonderful, it's really the best thing that's happened for a long time. i think the combination of energy and regular water levels is a great blessing. cheap power to keep his cows cool and to bring faster development to a sudan and merging from decades of crippling us sanctions, but egypt is firmly against the dam. the regional rivalries go back as far as the pyramids. the sudanese pyramids. egypt was once ruled from here 2000 yea rs egypt was once ruled from here 2000 years ago. powers on the nile rise and fall, and ethiopia's influence is growing. water is generally

becoming highly politicised, not only in this region but elsewhere. but i think there is always, as in our case between the three countries, if the political will is around involving the high up authorities in three countries, i think it will work out. but the diplomatic row is far from settled. where the river's two great tribute meet in khartoum, the blue nile from its european supplies 85% of the water. so the dam and its ability to control the flow is making downstrea m control the flow is making downstream egypt nervous. alistair lee purdey, bbc news, sudan. —— alastair leithead. and tomorrow we'll hear why egypt is so concerned about the dam that's being built in the last of our special reports on the nile. a senior north korean general will attend the closing ceremony of the winter olympic games this weekend. a case of mixed

fortunes for austria. they celebrated gold after anna gasser came out on top in the big air snowboarding final, finishing ahead of america's jamie anderson. but marcel hirscher, the overwhelming favourite, crashed out of the men's slalom skiing. he missed a gate early in his first run. he was aiming to become only the fourth skier ever to win a third gold at a single olympics. happier news for the usa's david wise, who won gold in the men's ski halfpipe final. to keep up to date and take a look at the medals table, go to the bbc sport website. so, we have business briefing coming up so, we have business briefing coming up next. we will have the decision about diesel cars in germany in a court decision today. in the meantime, i want to mention more tweets from people who have been

sharing their views on guns. billy says of course it's not the answer to have teachers armed, it is trump defending the millions he got from the nra. take the guns away is the correct answer. thanks for your thoughts. keep sending them in. i'll see you soon. it is starting to feel a little bit colder but the big freeze is still days away. in fact, temperatures won't start dropping away properly until after the weekend. in the short term, the weather does not look bad at all with a bright day on the way on thursday with some sunshine. here is the high pressure giving us the settled weather, building from russia and across scandinavia into western parts of europe, stopping any atlantic weather fronts coming our way. now close to our shores, in fact, still a southerly wind here across ireland and the very far west of scotland however for most of us it is the easterly wind that is winning and first thing in the morning on thursday it will be chilly.

a couple of degrees above freezing in city centres, a couple of degrees below outside of town. here thursday with a lot of bright weather around inevitably there will be some clouds stuck in this area of high pressure because that is what high pressure does. it is never clear in them. a little cloud with light wind floating around. a bright day for some of us, cloudy for many of us and a fairly sunny day. starting to feel colder. four degrees in norwich. here is the easterly wind keeping the weather fronts out to be there come out in the atlantic. and those temperatures will continue to differ away. 4—5 degrees still for some of us on friday, around seven in belfast. at least the weather is looking mostly bright. having a look at the weekend, the high pressure really starts to strengthen and when it strengthens that means that the winds are rounded start to blow a little harder and with more intensity ringing that colder air in our direction. i suspect even these temperatures here, belfast, cardiff, london, they could drop a couple of degrees below freezing by the time we get to sunday. next week, that high—pressure stretches all the way from northern and central parts of russia, from siberia.

we are in for a real blast and the cold spell is most certainly on the way but still a little uncertainty as to exactly where that cold air will go, whether cold as the ba will go. it could go south or a right across the uk. the indication is that next week across many parts of the country will stay below freezing during the course of the day and well below freezing at night. we know there is snow on the wayjust not when and where. this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. judgement day — europe's car industry is on tenterhooks as a court is set to decide whether diesel vehicles can be banned from german cities. share markets from wall street to asia drop as the us central bank sends a strong message that multiple interest rate hikes are on the cards. this is how markets are trading now

injapan and hong kong with last nights close on the dow — shortly we'll be live to our team in singapore for the latest.