welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: president trump calls police officers who failed to confront the florida school gunman a "disgrace" and says he would have acted very differently. i really believe you don't know until you are tested. but i really believe i would run in there, even if i didn't have a weapon and i think most of the people in this room would have done that too. russia orders a daily five—hour ceasefire — to allow civilians to leave the besieged syrian enclave of ghouta. snowball fights at the vatican as a huge arctic storm sweeps europe, bringing heavy snowfalls and dangerously low temperatures. and six months after hurricane harvey, we return to houston and meet the people who still haven't moved back home. hello.

teaching staff have made an emotional return to work at the florida school where 17 people were killed less than two weeks ago. classes will re—start on wednesday. gun control is still very much a live issue in washington, but no specific legislation has been confirmed. meeting governors of more than 35 states, president trump insisted school safety was his top priority, and again criticised police for not confronting the florida gunman, calling some of them a disgrace. i got to watch deputy sheriffs performing this weekend. they were not exactly medal of honour winners. the way they performed was frankly disgusting. i really believe you don't know until you are tested. but i really believe i would run in there, even if i didn't have a weapon and i think most of the people in this room would have done that too. after the president spoke, at the white house, the floor was opened to the state governors.

here's what the washington governor had to say about the proposal to arm teachers. i have listened to the first grade teachers who don't want to be pistol packing teachers. i have listened to law enforcement who have said they don't want to have to train teachers as law enforcement officers. educators should educate and they shouldn't be foisted upon, this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes. i understand you have suggested this, we suggest things and then we listen to people about it and they don't look so good a little later. we need more listening and take that off the table and move forward. earlier i got the latest from our north america correspondent, peter bowes in los angeles. what we have just heard illustrates the huge gap in opinion on this

issue. leaving aside perhaps what president trump thinks he would have donein president trump thinks he would have done in this situation. the exchange there with the governor showing two dramatic sides to this story. people like president trump, the national rifle association and others thinking teachers can be armed in the classroom and in others, including teachers unions and republicans like marco rubio, the senator from florida, republicans like marco rubio, the senatorfrom florida, saying they wouldn't want to send their children to school knowing the teachers had guns. it indicates there is a tough road ahead to agree any legislation, whether it is at a federal level or even at a local level, which some people are talking about perhaps, to eventually put guns in the hands of teachers. what do the chance of movement do you think there is, peter? it seems those devices that turn rifles into machine guns, will eventually be banned. there seems to

be some backing of raising the age limit which people can acquire guns? yes, there had seemed to be some universal agreement on that, perhaps leaving aside what the national rifle association thinks, raising the age from 18 up to 21. the national rifle association is against that. the president does seem to be backing of a little bit from it now and it emerged he had a meeting with the national rifle association on sunday and there is some speculation that maybe they manage to change the president's mind a little bit on that. the press briefing in the white house today, the suggestion was the president hadn't changed his mind and this was simplya hadn't changed his mind and this was simply a matter of debate that was continuing. that would be, as well as the bumps stock issue, that is described as the easy options, not

the big decisions, the big changes some people want to see in terms of the semiautomatic rifles and the availability to people on the streets. those are the key decisions that are going to be even more difficult to make because the national rifle association is dead set on any key changes, changes they say would challenge the second amendment and people say, that will bea amendment and people say, that will be a tough fight and perhaps it will be a tough fight and perhaps it will be easy just to be a tough fight and perhaps it will be easyjust to go for be a tough fight and perhaps it will be easy just to go for those be a tough fight and perhaps it will be easyjust to go for those simpler options like raising the age at which you can get a gun and the bump stocks, at this early stage. for the latest on the campaigns for and against gun control, go to the bbc website. there is more background detail and analysis from president trump for some teachers to be armed. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news: the us supreme court has handed a setback to the trump administration's plans to impose a march deadline on so—called "dreamers". the justices refused to hear an appeal on whether the government

can end the deferred action for childhood arrivals programme, or ‘daca'. hundreds of thousands of people who came to the us as children will now have more time to argue against deportation. the nigerian military has defended its actions in a north—eastern town where 100 girls were abducted last week. it admitted troops were withdrawn from dapchi days before the islamist attack on a school. but it said this was because the area was secure, and it was the job of police to protect it. censors in china have been deleting online criticism of the announcement that president xi jinping could stay in power for decades to come. the communist party has proposed removing presidential term limits. mr xi had been due to leave office in 2023, after ten years in the job. the film studio co—founded by harvey weinstein, says it will file for bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer. the company has been struggling to survive after the sexual misconduct allegations made against mr weinstein. he's denied all allegations

of non—consensual sex. russia's defence ministry has declared there will be a daily five—hour pause in the fighting in rebel—held eastern ghouta in syria, to allow civilians to leave. pro—government forces are still pounding the damascus suburb, despite a ceasefire brokered by the un security council. the first five—hour pause is planned for tuesday. tom donkin reports. it is not what the un agreed but russia's version of a ceasefire is the best chance of survival for those who call eastern ghouta home. more than a week of shelling has led to the deaths of 500 people, but from tomorrow russia will order a daily pause in the shelling so civilians can escape. yet another sign ofjust how much sway russia has in syria's war. this enforced truce will take away the focus from the security council earlier resolution, which,

with no exact start date, looked over before it had begun. security council resolutions are only meaningful if they are effectively implemented. that is why i expect the resolution immediately the resolution to be immediately implemented and sustained, particularly to ensure the immediate safe and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services. from tomorrow, this is what civilians in eastern ghouta will be trying to escape. this footage shows the apparent aftermath of a suspected chlorine attack. it shows a young children struggling to breathe. using chlorine gas as a weapon is banned under international law. this is a part of the country where the rule of law is difficult to implement and harder to enforce. russia dismissed earlier allegations the syrian government was responsible.

hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped without food or basic medicine are surrounded by syria's forces and they are closing in. if they are allowed to leave, their future will be far from secure. next month marks seven years since violence first erupted here in syria, and still the calls for peace are being drowned out by the blasts of war. tom donkin, bbc news. climate scientists say the unusually cold weather affecting parts of europe is linked to freak warm conditions in the arctic. temperatures around the north pole are estimated to have risen 20 degrees above normal for the time of year, pushing cold air further south. wintry conditions and storms have now hit many parts of europe, as laura westbrook reports. the beast from the east is making its presence felt. this was london.

more snow is expected today and with it, plummeting temperatures. the charity ‘glass door‘ decided it was too cold to turn anyone away overnight. the homeless are at greatest risk. i was walking up and a snowflake just dropped in my eye. i am just dreading what it's going to be like tonight. those living on the streets in moscow were taken to special shelters because temperatures there are expected to drop to —24 in the coming days. the effects of this weather front are being felt across the continent. in rome, snow covered the city's landmarks. its biggest snowfall in decades, closing schools and disrupting public transport. but there is always someone making the most of it. this was st peter's square next to the vatican, where priests joined in a snowball fight. even the french riviera wasn't spared.

a blizzard blanketed cannes. temperatures in france are expected to drop to minus ten, but feel much colder. you may have heard about sudden stratospheric warming. the result of that what goes on high up in the atmosphere is what we are seeing across europe. you can see the blues, the cold air spreading from siberia, russia and much of mainland europe and into the united kingdom. the cold front means travel disruption for millions. hundreds of trains and dozens of flights have already been cancelled in the uk. gritters have been deployed to keep routes clear in preparation for the days ahead. scientists say two—thirds of the population of king penguins could disappear or have to re—locate by the end of the century due to global warming. they say climate change is shifting the ocean currents that the king penguins depend on for food, away from their traditional breeding

grounds near the antarctic. the researchers say this will cause serious disruption, meaning some major nesting sites will have to be abandoned. stay with us on bbc news, still to come... we visit the resting place of millions of damaged korans deep inside these pakistani mountains. prince charles has chosen his bride. he proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she said without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. outside the gates of the sanctuary. the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of the modern asia. the world's's first clone has been produced. they have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell

from another sheep. citizens are trying to come to grips with their new freedom. there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not for 20 years have locusts been seen 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 credibility and authority of the next pub, and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi, will be hidden from the world the rest of his life. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump has again criticised police officers who failed to confront the florida school gunman and said he would have tried to help, even if he wasn't armed. russia says there'll be a daily five—hour pause in the fighting in rebel—held eastern ghouta in syria from tuesday. saudi arabia's king salman has sacked several of his top military commanders in a series of late—night royal decrees. the heads of the air and grounds forces are among those dismissed,

as the war in yemen, where a saudi—led coalition is fighting houthi rebels, nears the end of its third year. the founder of the arabia foundation gave me his thoughts. it's not as dramatic as some of the late—night quotes. some of them are normal retirements. but i think the new appointments particularly are significant in the sense that they are part of a programme to reorganise and reenergise the military. you have to remember that the saudi military was a bit of a parade ground military for the last 20, 30 years. it hadn't really gone to war by itself. so this was a steep learning curve that has been taking place for the last two years. and this was the culmination of a really well thought out programme. because, i suppose, an outside observer might suspect that these figures were taking the rap and the crown prince himself has

been the driver of this war, after promising that the houthis in yemen would be defeated within weeks. i don't remember that promise. in fact, i'll tell you something interesting. there is a misconception that says the saudi leadership thought that the houthis would be removed or defeated within weeks. you have to remember that the saudis have actually fought the houthis three years before, four years before that. and it had been a very difficult fight. and that had been before the iranians had got their hands into the houthi organisations and started helping them. so i think the saudi leadership had no illusion that this was going to be a long haul and a difficult fight. and they had no illusion that this was going to finish within a few weeks. just very briefly, if you don't mind, earlier this evening we've had russia vetoing a draft resolution from britain at the un that would have pressured iran over failing to block supplies to the rebels. now, the un security council is extending sanctions on him in. is extending sanctions on yemen.

what do you make of that? well, the russians are trying to balance their traditional relationship with iran with a growing relationship with saudi arabia. it is disappointing. but they are playing the balancing act. and they felt that the british draft was too strong and there is talk about coming up with another draft. but obviously the russians are running into this for their remaining allies in yemen. tu rkey‘s turkey's president has been criticised for us telling a young girlshe criticised for us telling a young girl she would be honoured if she died. the speech has been described by some as child abuse. the bollywood superstar, known simply as sridevi, died of ‘accidental drowning' according to a forensics report. sridevi died late on saturday in a dubai hotel where she was attending a family wedding. hundreds of fans are waiting outside her home in mumbai for her body to be repatriated from dubai. suranjana tewari has more. here at one of her family

homes, people have been coming to pay respects. dubai police produced the postmortem results but said her actual death was drowning in the bathtub of her hotel apartment. that was different from earlier reports which said she died from cardiac arrest while attending a family wedding in dubai. her body was allegedly delayed because of the results of the report, that is what local media were reporting in dubai. politicians, fellow celebrities and fans have been reacting in shock at the news of her death. she is described as bollywood's first female superstar. since starting acting at the age of four, she acted in more than 300 films and it wasn'tjust bollywood she acted in, she was a star of many regionalfilm industries across india.

one of the real appeals of sridevi, especially since she came to bollywood in 1978, was she was seen as one of the few she was seen as one of the few female stars who was able to carry a film and deliver box office success without the need for a male co—star. celebrities have been coming into the night to pay their respects here at this family home and her funeral is expected on tuesday and there will be plenty more people coming to pay their tributes to this great actress for her final journey. islam's holy text is believed by muslims to be the word of god, spoken through the prophet muhammad directly to mankind. for that reason muslims must dispose of their old korans with great respect. the problem is especially thorny in pakistan — with great respect.

the problem is especially thorny in pakistan — as our correspondent, secunder kermani, reports from quetta. they read underneath this mountain in pakistan, hundreds of thousands of copies of old korans. muslims in pakistan believe eu cannot throw away old or damage muslims in pakistan believe you cannot throw away old or damage copies of the holy book, so they are brought here from around the country. the tunnel stretch for over two miles and they are lined with these sacks, each containing around eight or ten korans. most like this one are completely filled in and you cannot walk along it. abdul has been helping run the project for the last 25 years. his brother set it up. translation: my older brother loved korans. he used to collect them from gutters and put them into his car. some of his friends joined him and then all this was established, with god's grace. each day, more copies of old korans are sent here. workers separate out

what can be preserved and what needs to be disposed of. translation: some books like this one are only a bit damaged. so we repair them and give them away. but when pages are torn like these, we bury them in the tunnels. to keep up with the demand, they are constantly building new tunnels. but cutting into the mountain hard work. translation: to dig a tunnel of four or five feet takes five months. some days we only take around six inches because the rocks are very hard. in pakistan, disposing of the koran is a sensitive subject. people have been lynched for not treating it respectfully. the project here is calling for anyone in the country with a damaged copy of the koran, to send it to them. six months ago the world

watched as a massive storm hit houston, texas. hurricane harvey killed more than 60 people, and 40,000 had to flee their homes as the water poured in. the devastating flooding led to many questions — not least, did officials do enough to prepare. laura trevelyan reported from houston during the storm and has been back to see how the city is faring. houston underwater. this was the catastrophic flooding caused by hurricane harvey as record rainfall saturated the city, deluging neighbourhoods, turning lives down. you are ready. you know you are home. we are home, baby. it is an emotional moment for gloria, clutching snoopy as she shows us where she was rescued from as the floodwaters rose. it was devastating. ijust couldn't believe it. i'm still looking at and it's still hard.

gloria's home of nearly 20 years was uninhabitable and she didn't have flood insurance, like thousands of others in houston. now gloria is living in a hotel, paid for the federal emergency management agency, but she doesn't feel safe. i have to barricade myself in here every night because there is so much going on out there. prostitution every night. guys driving by here. one night, they shot about eight times towards this hotel and i had to get on the floor. gloria, what impact has it had on you being out of your house for these past six months? i am on medicine for depression. i have got to the point where i really want to die. ijust ask god to take me home. volunteers from a houston charity helping to rebuild her home. hopefully she can return in march. mother nature did what she did and we are helping people recover as quickly as we can.

federal officials are trying to help the a500 houston families like gloria's, get back home. people do expect someone to fix it. we want to help everybody, everywhere we can, as quickly as we can. but in doing that we have to be mindful of the taxpayer dollars we are spending. here is how this well—to—do suburb, west of houston looked and i was in august. the neighbourhood was submerged as officials like water out of the nearest reservoir to stop it overflowing. this couple didn't have flood insurance and they are still trying to rebuild. six months on, we are not home yet. we wonder do we want to be in this house, or do we just want to start over somewhere else? it is the roller—coaster of emotions. it was the horror of being flooded and evacuating your house with two small children and a new dog.

it is the craziness of the last six months, trying to rebuild your life. as houston recovers from the impact of harvey, the next hurricane season is only four months away. this is a sprawling coastal city, vulnerable to flooding. is anything being done to defend houston against future hurricanes? this is a storm which did not discriminate, whether you are poor or affluent. the waters came and you were adversely impacted. the mayor of houston knows only too well how exposed his city is. protecting it is a long—term project. it is important for the city to take steps to mitigate the risk of flooding, which means if they are living near the river, the river needs to be expanded. 0r there needs to be more detention bases put in place. that is little comfort to gloria, still waiting to go home, traumatised by hurricane harvey. looking up at the clouds,

i get scared. i say please, god, don't let it flood again. hurricane harvey destroyed homes and lives. though houston is rebounding, the road to recovery is a long one. laura trevelyan there. president trump has said he would have run into the high school where 17 people were shot dead earlier this month, even if he wasn't on. he has criticised police officers who didn't confront the gunman, calling them a disgrace. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. hello.

winter refuses to relinquish its grip across the uk, but notjust the uk, across the whole of europe at the moment. with that high—pressure still entrenched across scandinavia and the siberian air spilling right across europe, having such a dramatic impact. yes, we have got snow around at the moment and yet we still have at the moment and yes we still have weather warnings in force. those affected areas will be the far north—east of england and stretching down across the essex, kent and sussex coastline. we could see significant accumulation starting to develop towards storm. to develop towards dawn. the met office as issued an amber weather warning for these two areas. we could see as much as five or ten centimetres of snow could affect the commute into the london area and have an issue if you are driving or taking the trains across the north—east of england. stay tuned to your bbc local radio stations first thing, but it looks like the snow showers, being driven along by a brisk,

north—easterly breeze. perhaps in the afternoon a lull in proceedings across the south—east, but it will have an impact throughout the day. it is going to feel bitterly cold for all of us, with those temperatures really struggling. but the best of the sunshine reserved for further west. as we move into wednesday, we have still got met office amber weather warnings and be prepared for disruption, but this time the emphasis changes into the north—east of england and affecting eastern scotland. we could see five, ten centimetres and maybe more in some places. there could be blizzard conditions and it may drive the snow showers a little bit further inland. the winds swing round to a south—easterly direction so it may mean the south—east escape the worst of them but another bitterly cold day for all, with those temperatures struggling. add in the factor of the wind, particularly as it will strengthen, it will feel well below freezing.

as we move into thursday, we still have a frequent rash of showers across the north but i want to draw your attention to what is happening to the south. an area of low pressure as it is set to move in and it will bring uncertainty. it is moving up from iberia, across france as it bumps into the cold airfor a time across central and southern england and northern ireland we could see some significant snow. you're watching bbc news. the headlines: president trump has claimed he would have run into the florida high school where 17 people were shot dead, even if he was not armed. he again criticised police for not confronting the gunman, saying the way some officers responded was "a disgrace". russia's defence ministry has declared there will be a daily five—hour pause in the fighting

in rebel—held eastern ghouta in syria, to allow civilians to leave. pro—government forces are still pounding the damascus suburb, despite a ceasefire brokered by the un security council. the first pause is planned for tuesday. wintry conditions have hit much of europe — rome has had its heaviest snow in many years. climate scientists say the unusually cold weather is linked to freak warm conditions in the arctic. it's estimated temperatures around the north pole have risen 20 degrees above normal — pushing cold air further south.