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 in eastern ghouta continue. america's gun lobby hits back, accusing its critics of exploiting the florida school shooting for political gain. australia's deputy prime minister is to resign after admitting an affair and denying allegations of sexual harassment. and arrests in argentina after nearly 400 kilos of cocaine is found inside the russian embassy. hello. 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 war planes 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 evacuations to take place as well. the russians are saying we are proposing amendments, we do want a feasible agreement, but these negotiations have been going on for two weeks now. the russians have already 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 years, bemoaned russian obstructionism. britain and america today, again, as they have done for many years, bemoaned 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 do think there will be another attempt to pass a ceasefire resolution tomorrow. the french ambassador put it very starkly tonight. he said a failure to get that

through would be a devastating loss 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 editorjon 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? schools more secure is to train

and arm more teachers, tweeting today: 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 there are — it is a tremendous feeling that we want to get something done. he wants increased background checks on those seeking to purchase weapons, 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. cheering and 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. in some other political news, the special counsel robert mueller has filed new charges against president trump's former campaign aides paul manafort and rick gates. the indictment includes 16 counts related to false individual tax returns. it says manafort laundered more than $30 million in income, with gates‘ assistance. both men had pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges filed against them in october. the charges are part of the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. in the last hour, australia's deputy

prime minister barnabyjoyce announced that he will step down as leader of the national party and as deputy prime minister, on monday. his resignation comes amid allegations of sexual harassment — which he denies — and controversy over an affair with an aide, who's now pregnant. i have asked for the right of the person who has made the allegation andi person who has made the allegation and i have asked for my right of defence that that be referred to the police. but it is quite evident that you can't go to the dispatch box with issues like that surrounding you so i cannot enter it into any discussions about that, as you all understand if it is going to be before the court, it is going to be before the court, it is going to be before the court, it is going to be before the court. but what i will say is that on monday, morning at the party room, i will step down as

the party room, i will step down as the leader of the national party and deputy premier mr of australia. barnaby joyce there. 0ur correspondent in sydney, hywel griffith, has more. barnabyjoyce has been filling the papers here for well over two weeks with damaging revelations about his private life, and now this latest thing being made public, a complaint against him, an allegation of sexual harassment — something, we should say, he strenuously denies, but it made his position untenable, something he accepted a few minutes ago when he spoke before the cameras. for the last two weeks, the details of his personal life have been laid bare — the break—up of his marriage, his affair with a former media adviser who is now expecting his child, and lots questions about his conduct, the potential misuse of public money, but it is that allegation of sexual harassment which has finally forced his hand and forced him to say he'll resign. and there has been, of course, a war of words between him and malcolm turnbull. is this likely to end it or could itjust exacerbate it? well, i think that war comes to an end because barnabyjoyce is no longer, will no longer be

the deputy prime minister — the two men no longer have to pretend even to get on. they are prime minister and deputy, but leaders of two different parties, so you always expect a bit of friction, but when the prime minister critically judged barnaby joyce for his "shocking error ofjudgement" as he called it, in having an affair with a staff member, castigated him for unleashing what he said was "a world of woe" on the women in his life, then clearly barnaby joyce was upset, very publicly upset and called his prime minister inept. that situation, i guess, was untenable, altohugh the two men was untenable, although the two men claimed they'd patched up their differences, but i think it's this latest allegations of sexual harassment that has really made things impossible for barnaby joyce. he said it was "the straw that broke the camel's back". he'll go to the backbenches. he'll fight for his reputation. i would not rule out him making a fight for a comeback maybe in a few years time,

after he's been rehabilitated, but for now, this is the end of what was a very public and, some would say, promising political career. 0ne one of the joys has one of thejoys has made it one of the joys has made it clear he will remain as member of the new england. —— barnabyjoyce. a police drugs operation has led to five arrests after cocaine worth more than $60 million was found in the russian embassy in argentina, hidden in diplomatic luggage. 0fficers 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 complex 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 bag. 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, too. andrew plant, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the legacy of the black panthers — from the streets to the canvas. a new exhibit shines a light on those still in prison. 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 there is no agreement on a un security council let's stay with that story. it's unclear the armed guard, who's now resigned, will now face charges. the county sheriff reviewed footage of two of his deputies during the incident and told reporters one of them clearly was there and failed to act. scott peterson was absolutely on campus through this entire event. he was armed, he was in uniform. but what i saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of building 12, take up a position, and he never went in. earlier i spoke to high school

teacher, brittany wheaton, from salt lake city — one of the founders of hashtag #armmewith — where teachers are posting selfies and messages of the non—violent items they would like to see in their classrooms. she explained what prompted the idea. when olivia and i launched the #armmewith movement we had one goal in mind, that was to have the teachers‘ 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 i just checked and over 6000 teachers have raised their voices and they have proposed different solutions that actually can make a difference in our schools. and what are some of those solutions? for example, mine was arming

with the 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 students access to professional mental health advisers and providers who can actually diagnose and 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 forfive years or so, how strongly do you and your colleagues feel? do you have colleagues who would 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 around schools, as the president suggests? yes. the 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, 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 for a long time said 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. when it comes to sport

in ghana, football is king. but now rugby is aiming to make seious inroads. the country‘s rugby union has launched a major drive to promote the sport in schools. and it seems girls are increasingly taking up the challenge. thomas naadi reports. this girl started playing rugby last year and she plays one game of short format, seven aside every year and she plays one game of short format, seven aside every week. year and she plays one game of short format, seven aside every week. i wa nt to format, seven aside every week. i want to play. i want to play in the international level for top my pa rents allow we need dresses, birds and be able to play. there are only four female teams in the country and they play

in the national rugby league. promoting the sport in school is pa rt promoting the sport in school is part of a programme from rugby designed to increase the number of players, coaches and referees and expand the sport globally. this development officerfor expand the sport globally. this development officer for the gun by development officer for the gun rugby union has been promoting the sport in schools. for a few years to come we want rugby to be a dominant sport in ghana. right now all we are trying to do is we are going to school and within communities, sometimes in my case, i was moving through the marketjust passing the ball. we do have a lot of challenges in terms of the outfits the training, logistics fortraining, support in terms of motivating the players. right now we are trying to groom and the players from their basic level, from the grassroots

level. the players are between ten and 15 years old. the bad pitch is not discouraged them from pursuing theirjune. rugby is a male dominated game but these girls are about to change that. they have to become the next generation of rugby stars in the country as a rugby union promotes their sport nationwide. a lot more resources will be needed to develop the sport in ghana. the legacy of the black panther movement of the 1960s and 70s in the us is one of black empowerment, and armed struggle. these young, african—american men made headlines by calling for black liberation, and clashing with police. now, an exhibit in new york focuses on 20 former black panther members who remain in prison. nada tawfik reports. it‘s been half a century since the black panthers marched through the streets, with upraised fists, crying out power to

the people in their black berets and jackets. many of the black nationalist movement‘s most controversial figures remain in prison today. they are the subjects of this new exhibition by sophia dawson. i think it is really powerful to have somebody whose story was supposed to be forgotten or buried under a rug, to have them on the outside larger—than—life in front of the people who may be encountering their story for the first time. sophia says this is a project of both passion and protest. for the last eight years she has written and visited former black panthers still incarcerated. those letters feature in many of the portraits. even the technique is a nod to black empowerment. i start off all in black. it is actually an act of protest, a political statement and solidarity with the panther movement and embracing that the colour black is beautiful. i thnk it‘s really fun to have these colours on a black surface. power to the people.

they were black revolutionaries who openly carried weapons. they said it was for armed self defence against police brutality. to the fbi the panthers were armed militants. to others they were freedom fighters. i did not know that free health clinics i did not know free breakfast clubs did not exist before the panther movement. under constant pressure from law enforcement, the movement faded. this exhibition weaves very personal stories with the larger societal issues the panthers were fighting. since sophia started painting her subjects, a number have actually been released. they say that the same injustices they saw so many years ago remain. sekou 0dinga was a leader of the black panthers in new york. he served his time for charges of attempted murder following an armed conflict with police. he maintains he was given a heftier sentence for his ativism and political beliefs. the media always projected us

as being some kind of terrorists, some kind of wild, violent bunch. unprovoked attacks on police. they never talked about how many black men, women and children were dying at the hands of the police every day and still do. the fight against racism and inequality is once again demanding public attention. the upraised fists, athletes taking the knee, the black lives matter movement. sophia believes understanding of how past activists fought will help today‘s activists pave the way forward. more on that on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i‘m @bbc mike embley. 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 with temperatures around five or six degrees. 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 17 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. australia‘s deputy prime minister barnaby joyce is to australia‘s deputy prime minister barnabyjoyce is to resign from his post and athlete of the national party. he has admitted an affair with a member of staff and has faced allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies. now on bbc news, hardtalk.