welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: no progress on a ceasefire for syria and the attacks america's gun lobby hits back, accusing its critics of exploiting the florida school shooting for political gain. president trump's former campaign chair is charged with tax fraud and money laundering relating to his work in ukraine. and arrests in argentina after nearly 400 kilos of cocaine is found inside the russian embassy. hopes of stopping the bloodbath in the damascus suburb of eastern ghouta, even temporarily, may be slipping away. attempts at the united nations to secure a ceasefire have stalled. russian diplomats say there's no agreement,

and western diplomats say this delay gives syrian government forces more time to attack the rebel—held area. dozens more people have been killed in a fifth day of strikes which have already killed hundreds. this report from our middle east editorjeremy bowen — it does contain graphic images. more air strikes, more bombs and more casualties. it is not letting up. across eastern ghouta, rescue workers sprint into broken and burning buildings before the dust of their destruction settles. this was another attack a few miles away. a temporary ceasefire is under negotiation, brokered by russia, egypt and turkey. even if it happens, the horror of these days will stay with the survivors for a lifetime.

two sisters, alaa, aged eight and moor, 11, were in their home when it was hit. warplanes bombed our building. now...ghouta. look at home. this was sent to us by their mother. please help us. please save our children here in east ghouta. where is the humanity? i ask you in the name of motherhood, please help us. getting on for 400,000 people, terrified by the sight and sound of aircraft, are thought to be in eastern ghouta, which is the size of manchester. the syrian regime insists it's

targeting terrorists. but it's clear many children are among the wounded and the dead. improvised hospitals have been set up in cellars and basements during the years of war. now, though, the medics are at full stretch. dr amani ballur wanted to send a message to the people of britain. translation: we never wanted the war and we don't want to live under it. for the sake of our children who've been blown to pieces, for the sake of our children who died of hunger, what we're seeing every day has caused us to collapse, both humanely and psychologically. we don't have anything more to offer, we're being bled out. dr amani was treating 12—year—old mohammed, who was dying. his mother had been cooking breakfast for her family when three airstrikes came in.

translation: i am here, waiting for my son to die. at least he'll be free of pain. i pray to god to end his suffering. but where are the arabs, where are the muslims? do we have to appeal to israel? when my boy dies, he will go to heaven, where at least he'll be able to eat. i'd like to die with him so i can look after him. syrians have cried so many tears in the seven years of war. the killing is escalating, not ending. and once again, the world is watching from a safe distance. jeremy bowen, bbc news. nick bryant is at the un and says russia's stance is being blamed for delaying an agreement for a ceasefire. today all it took was the mere

threat of a veto to block a draft resolution which would have called for a 30 day ceasefire, which would have allowed for humanitarian convoys to get into places like eastern ghouta and for medical evacuation to take place as well. the russians are saying we are proposing amendments. we want a feasible agreement. at these negotiations have begun another two weeks. the russians have already been granted major concessions. the western powers a re been granted major concessions. the western powers are saying this is yet another delaying tactic by moscow to grab more time for the assad regime to continue its military offensive and to kill more people. britain and america today, again, as they have done for many yea rs, again, as they have done for many years, owned russian obstructionism. but what they have never been prepared to do is back up those words with meaningful action in syria to counteract russia's influence. so they get to call the shots there and increasingly here. i think there will be another attempt to pass a ceasefire resolution tomorrow. the french ambassador put it very starkly denied. he said of value to get that through would be a devastating loss of credibility for

the security council —— starkly denied. it could even spell the death knell for the united nations itself. nick bright at the united nations. a revelation coming through in the last a few hours. it's emerged that an armed officer assigned to the campus of a florida high school during a deadly shooting last week stayed outside the building during the attack and failed to engage the shooter. the guard has now resigned. it is unclear whether he faces charges. this, as america's all—powerful gun lobby, the national rifle association, backed the president's call to enable specially trained teachers to carry concealed weapons. the head of the nra also accused politicians of exploiting the school shooting in florida to try to impose tighter gun restrictions. here's our north america editor, jon sopel. will the florida school shooting come to be seen as a landmark moment, when impotence gave way to rage, and rage led to action? never again! the vociferous students who have taken to the streets are bringing change. but not always in the way they wanted. the president, making clear that he thinks the way to make schools more secure is to train and arm more teachers.

tweeting today, "if a potential sicko shooter knows that a school has a large number of very weapon—talented teachers and others who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will never attack at school. cowards won't go there. problem solved." he first floated the idea at an emotional white house meeting last night, with victims' families. one of those in attendance was a pupil at the parklands school, sam zeif. how is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? afterwards, he was dismissive about the president's plan. arming teachers is just not what we need. you know? this is a problem because guns were brought into our school. why would it make sense to bring more guns into school? and the president has held another white house meeting today to discuss the issue, promising action that will win the support

of many of the students. i think we are making a lot of progress, and i can tell you it is a tremendous feeling that we want to get something done. he wants increased background checks on those seeking to purchase weapons. to ban bump stocks — this is the device that turns a semiautomatic rifle into a machine—gun. and he backs raising the minimum age for buying a rifle to 21. to those arguing for comprehensive gun control measures, what donald trump is proposing might seem like teeny—weeny baby steps. but any measure will have to get congressional approval, and doing that is never achieved without a fight. and no—one fights for gun rights like the national rifle association. today, in a rare public appearance, the leader of the nra spoke out, and he was in no mood for compromise. lean in, listen to me now, and never forget these words. to stop a bad guy with a gun,

it takes a good guy with a gun. applause thank you very much. in other words, what america needs is more guns, not fewer. the president is being pulled in one direction by the nra, another by the students. if past form as a guide, there will only be one winner — and it won't be the students. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. another developing story. new charges have been filed against the former head of donald trump's election campaign, paul manafort, and his business partner rick gates. the 32 charges relate to the alleged filing of false tax returns and fraud. let's speak to the bbc‘s peter bowes, who joins us live from los angeles. how significant does this seem to be? well, it is certainly significant for these two men facing

these charges. this is a 32 count indictment. many more charges than they were previously facing for allegedly trying to hide millions of dollars in income on the american tax authorities, allegedly trying to fraudulently get bank loans. this all relates to work they were doing for pro— russian politicians in the ukraine. significantly, though, this all happens before they were working for donald trump and the election campaign of 2016. it was close, by a period of months, but it was before. most significantly, these indictments do not include any allegations that there was any collusion between the campaign of donald trump and the russians. that isa donald trump and the russians. that is a separate allegation and separate matters. in terms of significance for the president, perhaps it is not important. the significance for many people might be that it looks like an attempt to

exert pressure on mr manafort by the fbi in orderfor him to flip, as the phrase goes, perhaps in order to give evidence against more significant people in the trump campaign. you are right. he may flip. there are many other characters involved in this as well. they could experience the same cold of pressure. if the pressure mounts on them as individuals in terms of the charges and the potential of many years injail if the charges and the potential of many years in jail if found the charges and the potential of many years injail if found guilty, they could start to talk and the investigation would perhaps unravel ina investigation would perhaps unravel in a different direction. in that respect, it is significant. another respect, it is significant. another respect where it is significant is it simply shows what a forensic investigation that robert mueller is carrying out. he is leaving no stone unturned. that applies to this, you could am a statesman of allegations

that have come out of the broader allegations that potentially be trump campaign is facing. it shows how big and how serious robert mueller is taking this. thank you very much for that. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. an apartment complex in california is on fire, with around 100 firefighters at the scene. the building in pico rivera in southern california appears to be a multi—storey, and the fire seems to be affecting multiple apartments. the fire department says the building has been evacuated, and that one patient has been transported to a local hospital. there's no word on other casualties yet. haiti has suspended 0xfam's operations in the country for two months, while it investigates allegations of sexual misconduct by some of the charity's staff. seven 0xfam workers in haiti were dismissed or resigned in 2011, while working in the country following the earthquake. haiti's government said the charity had made a ‘serious error‘ in failing to inform them at the time. a letter reportedly addressed to prince harry and his fiancee meghan markle is being treated by police as a racist hate crime. scotland yard say it was delivered

along with a package containing a substance which they tested and found not to be harmful. a sting operation has led to five arrests, after 800 pounds of cocaine was found in the russian embassy in argentina, hidden in diplomatic luggage. police tracked the smuggling operation halfway round the world, after secretly replacing the cocaine with flour. andrew plant reports. a suitcase full of cocaine, almost 400 kilograms discovered in diplomatic luggage in a school attached to the russian embassy in argentina in 2016. diplomats became suspicious and the bags were investigated. it led police to unravel a conflict operation and confiscate cocaine with a street value of millions of dollars. translation: the shipment of cocaine

travelled as part of a diplomatic pouch in a plane belonging to russian security. it was worth around 50 million euros. after discovering the drugs in the embassy, police replaced the cocaine with flour and placed a tracking device in the back. it allowed them to follow the cocaine as it was smuggled abroad, ending up in russia, where officers were standing by as the shipment was collected and the police swept in. a former embassy official has now been arrested, a suspected insider, and a policeman from argentina as well. andrew plant, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: looking back on a life of artistic controversy. 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 asia. 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: russia has said he is no agreement

ona un russia has said he is no agreement on a un security council resolution to bring in a 30 day truce in syria. it's emerged that an armed guard on duty at the school in florida where 17 people were shot dead did not act confront the gunman. the county sheriff has reviewed footage of two of his deputies in the incident and he talked to reporters and he said one was clearly there and clearly failed to act. scott peterson was absolutely on—campus through this entire event. he was on, he was in uniform. what i saw was a deputy arrived at the westside of building 12 take up a position and he never went in.

we will come back to that in a moment. i'm joined now from salt lake city by one of the founders of that hashtag, english high school teacher, brittany wheaton. good to talk to you. why did you start the hash tag, what it is and what kind of response you have had? when 0livia what kind of response you have had? when olivia and i launched the #armmewith movement, we had one goal in mind, that was to have the teachers' and voices heard and to present logical solutions to the awful events that have been happening in our schools. there's been a lot of talk about arming teachers and if you're an educator you know that's simply not a logical solution. so we've launched the movement and they just solution. so we've launched the movement and theyjust checked and over 6000 teachers have raised their voices and they have proposed different solutions that actually can makea different solutions that actually can make a difference in our schools. and what are some of those

solutions? mine was arming with the resources and funding to help stu d e nts resources and funding to help students experiencing mental health issues. i believe this is a start to creating a solution and with school funding being cut yearly here and just an increase in mass shootings, it's so important that we recognise that the rate of the problem is so much deeper and it's not going to be fixed overnight. so giving our stu d e nts fixed overnight. so giving our students access to professional mental health advisers and providers who can actually diagnose and properly provide therapy for our stu d e nts properly provide therapy for our students is one example. from the responses you're getting to the hash tag and from your own experience, i know teaching high school students for five years or know teaching high school students forfive years or so, know teaching high school students for five years or so, how strongly do you and your colleagues feel? do you have colleagues that would simply give up teaching if teachers we re simply give up teaching if teachers were to be armed and there were guns in the classroom, even concealed, and if there was an end to gun free

zones and if there was an end to gun free zones around schools, as the president suggests? yes. the teachers i know, - is a lot, we teachers i know, which is a lot, we feel very passionate about this, about not arming teachers and finding a different solution. i know some of the very best teachers would feel uncomfortable being armed in the classroom and i think that you would see a lot of teachers leaving the classroom if that were the case, canl can ijust can i just ask can ijust ask you for a absolutely. can i just ask you for a brief response if possible to the news that there was an armed guard at the florida school who, it seems, for whatever reason, failed to act. the nra has bought a long time said to stop a bad guy with a gun all it ta kes to stop a bad guy with a gun all it takes is a good guy with a gun. there was a good guy in florida but he didn't act. yes, that's a great example of why providing more opportunities for guns in schools is

not a logical solution and it won't work. brittany, i expect we will be talking to you again. thank you very much indeed for that. thank you much indeed fgr'thatr” ' unicef is almost unicef is - almost three quarters of a million rohingya children face huge risks and for yea rs children face huge risks and for years to come. in a report to mark six months since the start of the crisis, unicef says hundreds of thousands of children are still trapped in makeshift camps, denied education and are at risk of disease and violence. we are reaching now one of the worst points in history for the rohingya. altogether the children who are coming since august the 2017 and the children who are there in the makeshift camp and the makeshift camps prior to 2017, we're not talking about nearly half a million children, who are in a very

difficult situation in the camps in cox's bazar. a policeman has died during violent clashes between rival football fans in the spanish city of bilbao. at least 500 police were deployed for athletic bilbao's europa league match against spartak moscow on thursday evening. supporters launched fireworks at each other and at least five arrests were made. the police officer who died reportedly suffered a heart attack. uefa has strongly condemned the clashes. teresa may, the prime minister and senior british government ministers have spent thursday trying to agree on what relationship they want the uk to have with the european union after brexit. the talks at the prime minister's country retreat at chequers saw ministerial cars arrived earlier, the key issue is whether the uk should seek to align with the eu and what turns the uk should accept in exchange for access to the european market. foreign secretary boris johnson to the european market. foreign secretary borisjohnson was on one side of the event, looking to

diverged from eu rules and regulations. the chancellor philip hammond is on the other side, wanting britain to align more closely. the prime minister's drop is to find common ground. let's hear the closest she has come to getting common ground. they will be areas of policy and recognition that should be straightforward. there will be areas that affect our economic relations where we and our european friends may have different goals, all where we share the same goals but want to chief them through different means. there will be areas where we want to achieve the same goals in the same way is because it makes sense for our economies. the artist tracey emin, famous for her autobiographical installations, including an embroidered tent naming previous lovers and her own unmade bed, is being honoured by mtv‘s staying alive foundation for her long—standing support of hiv and aids charities. the former turner prize nominee has been discussing art and gender equality with our arts editor will gompertz. your subject is you.

you, your life, your experiences. has that over the years become something which you feel is an endless seam which you can mine, or something that you think, "god, it's become a bit of a cage, i want to get out of it and explore something else"? well, if i was to think like that, i'd be dead, wouldn't i? i don't know, would you? yeah, or i'd just stop making art. i don't have to make art. no—one made me make art, but i do have a physical compulsion to do it. it's within me. i've done nothing else all my life. looking at the subjects you've explored about yourself, there's the rapes and the abortion and the sexual abuse. do you feel, looking at what's going on now and all the me too and time's up and harvey weinstein and all the rest of it, do you feel that you were incredibly prescient and that in fact, you were trying to say something but no—one was listening to you 20 or 30 years ago? yeah, but no—one was listening to anyone, was they? so i wasn't the only woman that was not being listened to.

it takes women en masse to be able to say something. but this was something you were speaking out about and getting criticised for. yeah, i was, a lot. yeah. but i was also being criticised for being vivacious, precocious, quite sexual. but at the same time, i was saying, "i'm allowed to be like this and i'm also allowed to say it's not on to rape someone, it's not on to abuse someone. listen to what women are saying". but no—one did. but now what is good is that lots of people are listening. what's changed ? i think, being the most optimistic i possibly can, i think a lot of men have changed. there's a younger generation of men out there that would find it, like, unbelievable to be abusive or sexually prevalent towards a woman, especially someone in their place of employment. they'd find it horrific. if you could pick one work, and you've made thousands, if you could pick one work, which is the most important work well, i might not have said this a few years ago,

but i think i've got to go with the bed. really? yeah. because? because it's so me. it's like a three—dimensional version of my paintings. tracey emin of course with will gompertz. there's full background and analysis plus video and audio content. go to bbc.com/news. just briefly the main news again. there's no movement on thames at a ceasefire in syria. the attacks the damascus suburb of eastern ghouta go on. “— damascus suburb of eastern ghouta go on. —— attempts. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, thank you for watching. hello there.

we have been talking for several days now about how colder weather is on the way. over the next few days, i think you will really start to feel the effects of that colder air. some of us have already seen a little bit of snow and as we get on into next week, there could well be more on the way as we increasingly tap into this bitterly cold pool of air currently sitting across siberia. but actually, you may well think it is cold enough already. certainly as we start friday morning with a widespread frost, you can see the blue colours on the chart indicating temperatures down below freezing — that is because skies have been clear overnight and that translates into sunny skies as we go on through the day on friday. some areas of cloud floating around as well, particularly across parts of england, but we could even see just the odd light shower here at times through the day. if we take a closer look at 3pm on our high resolution weather model, you can see large areas of clear skies expected, quite a lot of sunshine

across scotland, northern ireland and north—west england. some extra cloud across the eastern side of england, but through the midlands into wales and the south—west, it should be largely sunny through the afternoon the wind is starting to strengthen, particularly in the south. that will continue into the weekend as this area of high pressure strengthens its grip across scandinavia, squeezing its way southwards, squeezing these strong easterly winds in our direction. saturday, a chilly feeling day, quite bright though. some good spells of sunshine around. some areas of cloud floating around here and there. temperatures on the thermometer, four, five, six degrees, but remember, the strength of the wind — it will feel a little colder than that. into sunday, more of the same essentially, but a greater chance at this stage that it will bring some cloud in from the north sea towards parts of eastern scotland, north—east england and that cloud could start to produce some snow flurries at this stage. quite a chilly feeling day, to say the least. as we get into the start of the new week, that is when we really begin to bring this very cold air

sitting across siberia in our direction on this strong easterly wind. so, through monday and tuesday, temperatures will struggle. the temperatures i show you here are the daytime highs — the absolute highs. temperatures for a good part will be lower than that and notice even by day somewhere like norwich will struggle to get above freezing. as we continue to tap into that colder air, there certainly is the chance for some snow in places through next week, very tough to predict exactly where at this stage — stay tuned to the forecast. this is bbc news. the headlines: russia says the un security council hasn't been able to agree on a humanitarian ceasefire for syria. it said a draft resolution put forward by sweden and kuwait needed amendments. but western diplomats have said it's a delaying tactic to allow the syrian government to continue its offensive. it's emerged that an armed guard was at the florida school where seventeen people were shot dead last week, but did not confront the gunman. the admission comes as president trump expressed support for arming teachers to provide protection —

a suggestion that's been criticised by the teachers' union. new charges have been filed against the former head of donald trump's election campaign, paul manafort and his business partner, rick gates. the 32 charges relate to the alleged filing of false tax returns and money laundering. manafort‘s spokesman said his client maintained his innocence. now on bbc news — thursday in parliament.