hello, i'm philippa thomas, this is outside source. president putin says russia has developed a new array of invincible nuclear weapons that can "reach anywhere in the world". prompting this response from the pentagon. we're not surprised by this statement. and the american people should rest assured that we are fully prepared. president trump says he'll impose swingeing tariffs on imported steel and aluminium next week. we'll bring you the latest from washington. europe sees some of its lowest temperatures in years , hitting minus a0 degrees celsius in places. and the strange case of a woman who thought god was telling her to self—harm , an illusion that was caused by a brain tumour. welcome to outside source...

we start with the revelations from the russian president's annual state of the nation speech. here's how our moscow correspondent described it and indeed russians will vote on march 18th, an election vladimir putin is widely expected to win. here's what the president had to say to court the soldiers' vote. we we re we were working on the development of weaponry technologies. we've made significant new steps in creating new systems of strategic weaponry. let me remind you that the united states create their dire ballistic

protection against strategic missiles. this is the basis of our strategic weaponry as well as other countries. one element to the speech that was picked up by alec luhn from the telegraph reuters gave this reaction from the us — the pentagon downplays russian president vladimir putin's announcement of new nuclear weapons on thursday, saying moscow's weaponry was long under development and had already been factored into us assessments. to get a sense of what part of the speech was actually important to russians — here's olga ivshina from bbc russia. the whole second half of this

address was really unexpected. when we now look back i sort of see the build—up because russian prime minister was talking about it, you know. various russian ministers were saying we won't step back against the threats. the us is trying to scare us. the threats. the us is trying to scare us. but no no one expected such a performance, they intentionally move this from they intentionally move this from the kremlin which normally happens to another more spacious building. and they brought three huge screens just to show all the graphics of flying missiles for the first hour they were only showing boring statistics and we wondered what the show was about. then when all the missiles started flying around, that's when i understood. you start hearing about invincible weapons, nuclear weapons, and new reality. it's a message notjust for the audience and the voters, but for donald trump for example. audience and the voters, but for donald trump for examplem audience and the voters, but for donald trump for example. it was a

message both for external and internal audience. message both for external and internalaudience. russia message both for external and internal audience. russia was talking to the west for a number of yea rs, talking to the west for a number of years, no one has listen, now you will listen us. when someone is threatening the partners orjust showing the partners military capabilities, the world is going to listen. vladimir putin is going to win the upcoming election, partly because his biggest competition isn't allowed to stand. yes, what is the most prominent opposition leaders, alexey melania is not allowed to stand. even if the opposition manages to get to participate, there's not that much chance. each tv bulletin starts with ten minute long pieces about putin, today he got two hours airtime on all russian tv channels. —— aleksei nevalny.

it's not a fair game to be honest. it's not a fair game to be honest. it would be the shock of a lifetime if he wasn't re—elected. it would be the shock of a lifetime if he wasn't re-elected. the russian electoral committee says there is no mistake, mr putin is not breaking any rules by broadcasting state of the nation address, he'sjust performing his professional duties as head of the country. each time such questions are asked by opposition leaders, each time the a nswer opposition leaders, each time the answer is the same, he's just performing his duties. definitely no one has any doubts about the upcoming election. heavy snowfalls and icy winds continue to batter europe as the region shivers in a deadly deep—freeze that has hit countries from the far north to the southern mediterranean. in some places the temperature dropped as low as minus a0 degrees celsius, and there is little sign of conditions improving. jessica parker looks at the picture across europe. paris freezes over. tourists tread

carefully. it's so cold. in croatia this waterfall has been silenced. there are pockets of warmth. in poland coal burners steam on the streets. but there is no beating this ice blast. in the grip of a siberian weather system europe is seeing some of the coldest temperatures for several years. today's recorded low, minus 41.8 celsius in norway. it brings danger, as this lorry driver in bulgaria discovered. in scotland around 1000 vehicles were stranded on a major motorway overnight. on this road, dash camera footage shows a frightening near miss. in the east of england, the shovels are out. trying to get home. i

phoned to work and said i can't make it, i'm stuck in the drift. trains have been cancelled, airports closed, meanwhile dozens of people, many homeless, are reported to have died across the continent. this weather event has several names across europe. the siberian back, the snow cannon, the beast from the east. different names similar stories. forecasters predict extreme weather will continue to grip the europe into the weekend. it's been a big week for the brexit negotiations and tomorrow it reaches a climax with what's billed as a big speech by british prime minister theresa may. this may be the moment to clarify where her government stands on the uk's future relationship with the european union. if you remember last week mrs may and her ministers spent the day thrashing this out at her country residence, chequers. they reportedly agreed that britain would seek to diverge from some european regulations over time. how much and how, are two of the big

unanswered questions. striking a very different note, a former british prime minister the labour politician tony blair today talked about the dangers of brexit. and he called for eu immigration rules to be reformed to encourage british people to change their mind and stay in. let's just remind ourselves of an extraordinary week when the brexit debate became even more heated. labour would seek to negotiate a new, combrinck sieve uk— eu customs union. a customs union would remove the bulk of incentives for other countries to enter into comprehensive free trade agreements with the uk. with fair and equal access to a very large, rich eu market, if you're going to give that up market, if you're going to give that up for the promise of some bilateral deals with markets that are much less important to us is like giving

up less important to us is like giving upa less important to us is like giving up a three course meal for a packet of crisps. the island of ireland will be protected and a hard border will be protected and a hard border will be protected and a hard border will be avoided. ireland has to be covered by the union customs caught. draft legal text the commission has published, if implemented, reckons the constitutional integrity of the uk. let parliament to decide. or put theissue uk. let parliament to decide. or put the issue back to the people. having a second referendum or whatever, i haven't listened to john a second referendum or whatever, i haven't listened tojohn major's speech, does seem rather absurd. european leaders share the responsibility. to lead us out of the brexit cul—de—sac. responsibility. to lead us out of the brexit cul-de-sac. it is an inevitable side—effect of brexit by nature. that uncompromising message from eu commission president donald tusk was reinforced by chief brexit negotiatior michel barnier , in a speech to business leaders. here he is. the uk government wishes to read the

game sturridge regain its autonomy following agreements. it has indicated its intention to leave the customs union. and this choice, this choice, has consequences. being outside the customs union always involves customs procedures. one fantastic source for brexit news is the bbc‘s brexitcast podcast — for the latest programme adam fleming ends up in tony blair's hotel room. speaking of adam — here's his view of today. stay with us on outside source — still to come. find out why this magazine cover is causing controversy in india. you may be surprised that the reason. drivers have been stranded on road

while people still wait for flights out of glasgow airport and are getting ready to bed down for another night after it was closed again. lorna gordon has more. you've been here a good 17 hours at the moment. they've moved about 100 metres. this storm was forecast well ahead of time. but despite warnings, people did still venture out. now after waiting nearly 18 hours on this stretch of motorway, it looks as if, finally, the traffic might just be about to start moving again. you're watching outside source live

from the bbc newsroom. the us government says it is fully prepared after president putin revealed russian is creating a new arsenal of nuclear weapons in his state of the nation address mr putin said the weapons included an underwater drone and cruise missile that could reach anywhere in the world. some of 7:73: about 31:5; about bbc,, e about bbc ! today, other stories about bbc news today, bbc mundo reports the catalan separatist leader carles puigdemont is withdrawing as president of the catalonia region in favour of a jailed activist, jordi sanchez. you'll be arrested if he returns to barcelona to be sworn in, he is currently in exile in belgium. marine le pen says she will be silenced after being placed under formal investigation for treating a graphic image of violence by the so—called islamic state. she says

she had simply been condemning the group's atrocities. the bbc world service is covering that story. a lot of you're watching online with those freezing winds sweeping across europe this video offering tips on how to keep warm in the cold. bbc collea g u es how to keep warm in the cold. bbc colleagues in chilly climes, it's proving very popular. president trump said america will impose substantial tariffs on steel and aluminium imports next week, after meeting industry bosses in washington. tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports are expected next week. the action could provoke retaliation, but china is by no means the biggest steel supplier to the us. china is the 11th biggest exporter of steel to the us, less than 2% of us imported steel is chinese. that compares with the 16% of steel imports from canada or the 7% from turkey. barbara plett usher is in washington. donald trump

campaign strongly on that protectionist note. that's right, he's always been eager to follow up on that campaign, so eager he has made this announcement between the details had been worked out. it has to be signed next week. he has to rebuild america's steel and aluminium industry which has struggled to compete with china dumping cheap steel on the market. he is backed up by this because his administration is determined this is administration is determined this is a national security threat. says america needs to have a domestic supply for defence purposes. really i think this is about donald trump wanting to deliver on those campaign promises to protect american workers. there has already been some concern about what this could mean in terms of cost to american business. that's right, this is popular with the steel industry but

not many other constituencies, especially industry is that consume steel, things like industries that make autoparts and oil parts. this is going to increase their costs and mean they have less profits and possibly also affect jobs mean they have less profits and possibly also affectjobs in these industries. early reports that exxon mobil, this could impact its plans to expand a major oil refinery. it could have implications for steel consuming industries. broadly speaking its more unpopular beyond that. the republican party, even members of mr trump's own administration have warned against this move. blue peter leave my watching the markets. how have they reacted to this tariff boost? —— yogita. the dow jones reacted to this tariff boost? —— yogita. the dowjones has ended down after that ray teret announcement. earlier in the day when we didn't

know whether a firm announcement was coming from the trump administration, use a steel company stocks rise. once the announcement was made stocks of companies from sectors that barbara was talking about earlier, for example the auto sector, which is a big consumer of steel, leasing company stocks beaten at the markets today. that is why we are seeing markets, all of the major us industries, actually, ending about a percent, one and a half percent down. donald trump says he's doing this for the us steel industry. can that industry provide all the steel american business wants? can it be saved at this point? it's certainly true tens of thousands of steel industry workers have lost their jobs in the us over the past many decades. can it be rolled back that it can deliver the domestic demand

in the us? that is what a lot of manufacturers here are concerned about. a group of many factors has even written to the administration saying, please, before this announcement was made, please reconsider this, please do not impose heavy taxes on steel and aluminium imports. it's notjust those sectors that are worried, people in the us are also worried about what reciprocal action could be taken by the countries affected. for example if you've got china, which as you pointed out is not the one most impacted by this move. if you have a reciprocal reaction and they decide they want to slap ta riffs they decide they want to slap tariffs on soya bean exports, soya bean imports from america, what happens to soya bean producers here? there is worry in business beyond people who are even connected to steel or aluminium. who wants a trade war? thanks for getting us up—to—date on a significant announcement. severe weather conditions have put a strain on gas

supplies here. the national grid warned that it may not have enough gas to meet the current demand and has asked suppliers to provide more. it says large gas users , such as industry and some businesses , are being asked to use less. household supplies are not expected to be affected. our business editor simonjack explains. you add surging demand to cuts in supply and get a potential deficit. a gas death warning is set at five o'clock in the morning. it's basically the national grid vein, we're not sure there is enough gas in the system to meet that demand. does that mean you're going to turn on your cooker or central heating and it's not going to work? no. it's the first early warning shot of a number of measures. but they can then take to bring the supply and demand back into balance. it includes for example asking heavy users to use less. in fact, a big chemicals company has been asked by national grid and they've agreed to dial down their usage by 20%. lets turn to india where this magazine cover has

split public opinion. the headline reads ‘moms tell kerala— don't stare, we want to breastfeed.‘ now there are two issues here — both breastfeeding in public and the two people in the photo. the magazine used a model, not a mother — on the cover. inside, though, the baby's real mother is pictured breastfeeding her child — next to the model. this is how it's seen in india blogger anjana nayar "that point at which you decided to push a real mother actually breastfeeding her child into the inner pages and portray a model holding a baby to her bare breast on your cover is where you delved into cheap sensationalism and exploitation'. but supporters are calling the front cover courageous, bold and path—breaking. the model told us this — "i was expecting a lot

of criticism, but i decided to take it all on with pleasure for the sake of all mothers who want to breastfeed with pride and a sense of freedom,". a journalist in kolkata says @shreyateresita ‘to some it's gross, to some it's a free show. to a child, it's unquestionably simple and necessary. to anyone smart enough, it's natural. good work'. i've been talking to gita aramuvadan, a journalist and author in bangalore who has praised the magazine's decision as groundbreaking. in india, fora in india, for a long time, until the last generation probably, people weren't feeding their babies in public. feeding a baby in public was not something to be ashamed of. and people would put their babies on in trains and buses. in the open. at

family gatherings. i know that in ourfamily family gatherings. i know that in our family gatherings there would be young mothers feeding their babies. what changed to make it such an unusual image today? the british in a way bought some kind of victorian morals and it was considered correct for you to close your dress. in cowler for existence, women were walking about with breasts bared until the early 20th century. —— in kerala. in most of south india it's very hot, women would just where the sari and cover their breasts, but not wear a blouse or anything. so feeding a baby in public was not something which was unusual. what do you make of the critics who say the breasts on the front cover of a magazine with a baby on the end of it is sexualised and somehow

offensive? it's a very bold kind of picture. perhaps not the way a mother might feed her baby, or it might be, breast—feeding is normal. there is nothing wrong about it. you don't have to do it in a particular way, you don't have to be coy about it. you can go out in the open and feed your baby anyway you want. it's as natural as anything else. men have said it's very eroticised and have said it's very eroticised and have said, you know, having a model, especially the model who is an unmarried woman, and is a model, and the baby is not hers. people have raised objection to that. a model is the model. she's only representing something. she doesn't have to be the person who actually performs that action. now to a surprising medical case in which a woman thought god was telling her to harm herself — all because of a brain tumour. the case arose here in bern in switzerland, where in late 2015, a 48—year—old, we'll call sarah, checked herself into

the psychiatric emergency service. sarah had stabbed her own chest several times — deep wounds. she told the doctors she'd been following direct orders from god. melissa hogenboom is a features writer for bbc future and has been looking into sarah's case and described how the doctors first viewed the case. she showed delusions, voices, these hallucinations and she was really manic. when you probed deeper, you thought, this lady isn't withdrawing from social contract, she's not taking time away from her family. this doesn't quite fit. that's exactly what he thought. he did a routine brain scan, which they tend to do with patients like this, and found a significant brain tumour in a very particular area of the brain.

it's really important for how we process sound. the thalamus, the area you are using right now listening to me speak, interpreting what i say, sending it to the right pa rt what i say, sending it to the right part of your brain to understand what i'm saying based on your previous knowledge of the world. if this area is broken bits if any patient is often thinner than this brain tumour was encroaching on the area. it messes with how we experience sound. i know you are talking to me and not inside my head. sarah couldn't quite tell who was standing next to her and who she was standing next to her and who she was imagining inside her own mental universe. precisely right, she couldn't differentiate between voices in her head and what was going on in the real world so to her these voices were as real as what you can hear i'm doing now. what was interesting is it wasn'tjust these voices which had distrusting sounds, the neuroscientists bought the brain tumour itself had caused the initial interest in religion and that is the

really interesting thing. she'd had interest in religion going back yea rs, interest in religion going back years, kind of spurts of enthusiasm for spirituality. she'd shown manic spurts of interest. because this was a very specific type of brain tumour. it grows very slowly over time. the brain can adapt that particular kind of stress so each time the tumour would grow and then g rosjea n time the tumour would grow and then grosjean this area important for hearing sound, it would distress her brain and make her think she was hearing voices. then when her brain managed to adapt to the tumour because the tumour remained static for long periods, the voices would go away. that was what was unique. much more to come here an outside source. do stay with us. could easily. certainly not the best

night to be out and about. disruptive and in places, dangerous wintry weather continues. so much so the met office has issued a red weather warning across parts of south—west england and south wales. heavy snow, strong winds, blizzard conditions. this is the radar picture from earlier. snow spreading up picture from earlier. snow spreading up from the south. particularly setting in across the south—west and southern half of wales. snow showers continuing further north and east. still a met office amber be prepared warning for north—east scotland, down into north—east england. it warning in force for the south—eastern corner of northern ireland. snow feeding in here. it is the south—western corner where we will have the most disruptive weather overnight. an amber warning. some of that coming to the south—east of wales, covered by the red warning. a lot of snow piling up. sunspots seeing 15, 20 centimetres, maybe 40 or 50 over the high ground. some of that snow fringing into parts of northern

ireland as we go through the night. we keep snow showers across parts of northern and eastern scotland. the far north—east of england. these areas particularly at risk of disruption overnight. across the far south—west of the snow may begin to turn back to rein in places. if that happens the rain is likely to fall on cold surfaces. it brings a significant ice risk to take us into tomorrow morning. travel disruption very likely indeed. a dry spell perhaps for the south—west and wales through the first part of tomorrow. then looks like snow will return from the south. heavy snow at that. could be snow in other southern areas. still a lot to play for with that, some uncertainty in the forecast. snow showers into northern and eastern areas. fine weather with sunshine in between. when we consider the strength of the wind this is what it'll feel like through tomorrow afternoon. sub zero in many areas. but a slight change in the feel of the weather through the next few days. looks like we'll bring

something slightly less cold from the south, particularly into southern areas. the weekend we can see that for many it will remain cold, less cold towards the south. still the risk of some snow. hello, i'm philippa thomas, this is outside source, and these are the main stories here in the bbc newsroom: president putin says russia has developed a new array of invincible nuclear weapons that can "reach anywhere in the world", prompting this response from the pentagon. president trump says he's spoken with attorney generaljeff sessions about bringing a lawsuit against companies involved in the opioid business. it came after a summit he hosted at the white house to try to tackle the nation's opioid addiction problem. the administration will roll out policy within the next three weeks,

and it will be very strong. an exclusive report from southern yemen, where government forces have pushed out the houthis, but at a cost. get in touch. #bbcos is the hashtag. welcome to outside source. war in yemen between the ousted government, supported by saudi arabia, and houthi rebels, supported by iran, has raged for nearly three years. a un—brokered peace process has all but failed. the country is in economic ruin and its people are on the verge of famine. the bbc‘s lyse doucet is the first international journalist to gain access to beihan in the south of the country, where yemeni government forces have pushed out the houthis. celebrations are central to yemen's

intractable war. a victory on this in hostile terrain. it has taken more than two years to get this far. now yemeni troops and tribesman controlled the southern of events. —— province. the commander says who thes are hitting civilians here. house is over there and over there. the front line in yemen's brutal war are starting to slowly shift, but it still seems like a war without end. everybody talks about a political solution but nobody believes it will happen, not wild horses on both sides still believe they can keep gaining power. but victory can be

fragile. it is dangerous here, the soldiers shout. the houthis have us in oursites, we soldiers shout. the houthis have us in our sites, we must move quickly. beihan is the biggest town in the province and back in the army's hands, a strategic town and a vital supply route. only weeks ago ghouta had it but beihan is broken by years of strife and health services have collapsed. there is only one hospital here and only two specialist doctors caring for tens of thousands. many staff left when the ghouta came on the salaries stopped, but the patients keep coming. hassan's house was hit by a mortar. it is not clear who fight it. they took my whole family, he

says, all three children gone. there we re says, all three children gone. there were 11, six and two. there isjust me and my wife left, he says. in intensive care, a young man shot through the chest on the front line. he had to travel for hours to get help, but had to stand a fighting chance in conditions like this, the only surgeon here does his best against the odds. next door, what seems to be an empty room. it is not. a tiny baby, alone, struggling to survive. we are told he has septicaemia. even doctors are targets. this doctor tells me, the houthis sent him to prison, accused of being a spy. they are taking information by hitting us, by

electric shocks. we are really suffering. when you are seeing people here suffering, no matter who is in charge, they are still suffering? there is no salary. there are many problems. they are thinking of their daily life. he wanted it. in beihan's main market, people tell us they are worried. they say they need everything, schools, jobs, security. some expressed relief that the houthis are gone saudi led coalition has stopped bombing here. i asked, did coalition has stopped bombing here. iasked, did many coalition has stopped bombing here. i asked, did many die in the air strikes? not many, this man says. others disagree. a lot of families died, some shout, five, says man. an entire family was killed in this home. more than 13 people. the

minister of information wants to make sure we see this. what the houthis did, he says. he says they do not want to wipe them out, they are yemenis, but they should give up their guns and seek power to elections instead. noble thoughts, but a brutal battle rages across this fractured land and, for yemenis, the battle simply to survive. the white house is clearly trying to address the opioid drug crisis, which claims 115 lives in the us every day. the screening of potential drugs traffic has been part of the border protection legislation the president has signed and today, along with first lady melania trump, the president hosted a summit. here's what he had to say. the administration will roll out

policy over the next three weeks and it will be very strong. i have also spoken withjeff it will be very strong. i have also spoken with jeff about it will be very strong. i have also spoken withjeff about bringing a lawsuit against some of these opioid companies. what they are doing in the way the distribution, you have people that go to a hospital with a broken arm, they come out and they are addicted to painkillers, and they do not even know what happened. they go in for something minor and they come out and are in serious shape. anthony zurcher is in washington. it has been very well documented, this appalling crisis which is hitting a lot of middle america. right, and as donald trump discussed just there, a lot of this started because of drugs companies and doctors prescribing these is painkillers. i was in kentucky a few weeks ago and met with a woman who

first got prescribed opioids because she said she had complications with pregnancy, another man who came back from the military was given the injuries. so there are millions of opioid drug addicts because of local prescriptions. the opioid addiction has shifted since then. there has been less prescribed by doctors, more and more is coming from these people becoming addicted finding them illegally on the streets or even ordering them abroad from manufacturers in china. so what is the white house pink can do about that? what they want to try to do, andi that? what they want to try to do, and i have been government studies of this already, is improved screening of incoming mail. we are talking about millions of pieces of mail coming in every day, more than 3 million a year coming through. what they want to try do is track individual pieces of mail by getting data on it from de schepper, so it is coming from china, they get

information on where it came from, then they can target the screening. donald trump also mentioned something opioid manufacturers which is what number of states are going. that is something the federal government could get involved in. so far, the trump administration is focusing on cracking down on illegal sales and increasing penalties. but less on treatment. millions of people are addicted. people i talk to on people are addicted. people i talk toona people are addicted. people i talk to on a local level have as much concern is dealing with addicts out there right now, treating them than punishing drugs companies or sellers. now bill gates has added his voice. "right now, cryptocurrencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs, so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. anthony, you just wrote this piece that's on the bbc website. anthony with a little more on this

story about the opioid crisis. we have heard so much about it from the white house today. don't forget, you can get much more detail on our top stories, the syrian red crescent says that this elderly pakistani couple have been evacuated from the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta. they're the only civilians known to have got out of the area since a russian—backed humanitarian pause in fighting was supposed to take effect on tuesday. here's cbs correspondent seth doane, who's managed to get close to eastern ghouta. this is one of four humanitarian

borders that have been set up here to allow civilians in rebel held besieged eastern ghouta in that direction to come here in the government—held territory. you can see there are ambulances lined up here and also buses to help evacuate people, but this is the number three and, as you can see, these humanitarian corridors, this one here, is empty, and both sides are blaming the other. the government is saying that rebels inside eastern ghouta have held hostage some civilians there and also that the rebels are bombing and targeting these humanitarian crossings. the rebels on the other hand are accusing the government of making it difficult for them to cross. they say they worry that they will be arrested once they get here. it is

impossible for us to cross into eastern ghouta so we reached out to one doctor by telephone to ask in what was like working there. what is most difficult for you? everything. evacuating patients for icu. the doctor told us that his hospital has been prompt and, since then, he has been prompt and, since then, he has been performing are doing surgery on the ground. we asked him why he stays. i don't want to go out. it is my home. meanwhile, aid agencies are ready to go into eastern ghouta, a lead is prepared, ready to go, but they say these humanitarian pauses are not long enough to be effective. more than a week after the 19th february attack, 110 schoolgirls from dapchi in north—eastern nigeria

are still unaccounted for. the girls were kidnapped by the islamist militant group boko haram. the attack is chillingly similar to the 2014 abduction of 276 girls from chibok in 2014, which is 275 kilometres from dapchi. many have taken to social media to condemn the attacks. julia gillard, the former australian prime minister and now with the un, said, "the abduction of schoolgirls is a deplorable attack on education and human rights. it is our obligation to keep schools safe." a founder of the bring back ourgirls group, said, "today is world book day. painfully, 112 of our chibok girls are almost four years as captives of terrorists. infuriatingly, 110 of our dapchi girls were failed by their government. we say to president muhammadu buhari, where are our girls? we need answers now!" the bbc‘s stephanie hegarty was in dapchi and filed this report.

this is where fatima ran when the militants attacked her school. it was 7pm and she was in her dormitory. they were just about to eat their dinner when they heard gunshots. translation: one of our teachers told us to come out. we saw bullets flying in the air, like fire. there was confusion all over the school, students screaming and rushing towards the gate. but the gate was locked. then we saw the militants' trucks, and they were shooting and calling us to get into the trucks. they were pretending they would help us. during the attack, fatima managed to run away from the militants twice, but she was with her best friend, zara, when they were attacked and they got separated.

she says five of her closest friends are missing and she knows many more girls who were taken away. this is zara, she is 14. she said business was her favourite subject. yes, business. her sister is 25 and went to the same school. she was close to zara. it was three days before the government admitted that there had been a kidnapping. sara's father was repelled by

gunfire and when he got back to his compound there were hundreds of schoolchildren taking shelter. he searched through the night to find his daughter but by morning he realise she had been taken. last week, the authorities claimed the girls had been rescued, then they said that claim was false. for zara's mum, that was the hardest moment. nigeria's president has said that the military and air force are searching for the girls, but the parents are not reassured. translation: in this school, there are no children of government officials. the students are the daughters of poor people. now the school is eerily quiet, sandals discarded by running children littering its paths. the scene is chillingly similar to the aftermath of the kidnapping of the schoolgirls in chibok in 2014. it was three years before most of them were released, and over 100 of them are still missing. the parents of dapchi are afraid

that they will also wait years to see their children again. italians head to the polls this sunday to elect a new president, and the race is between three main parties. let's take a closer look. firstly, the centre—right forza italia, headed by a very familiar face — former prime minister silvio berlusconi. the 81—year—old billionaire was forced to resign in 2011 at the height of the debt crisis. next, the 5 star movement, started by comedian beppe grillo in 2009, and now one of europe's biggest populist movements. and finally, the ruling democratic party, led by former prime minister matteo renzi. now the elections have also seen a resurgence of extreme parties. karin giannone is in rome and spoke to leaders of the main fascist and communist parties. what does it represent? for

italians, it represents the last alternative against traditional politics. both on a national and european level. what does power to the people represent? power to the people is a new project. it started in novemberand is people is a new project. it started in november and is made up of associations, social centres, who pushed for new policies on employment, women's rights and of element in the south. it is about rebuilding italy. what is it the's biggest problem at the moment? we have multiple problems, both internally and externally. regarding security, we have a huge problem with immigration that adds up to a deeply rooted corruption in the public administration in italy. italy's problem is jobs, public administration in italy. italy's problem isjobs, especially for young people, but notjust about them, it is about workers in the

south, the fact that jobs are in extremely unstable. they have had their rights taken away from us and we are forced to work on ridiculous situations. we could be filed with no protection whatsoever so this is where we need to start from. is there any kind of immigration that is acceptable? yes, it believes that refugees who are really escaping war should be welcomed. we have legislation in place for people from libya, eritrea and somalia. what about the rest? adders need to go back home and contribute to the development of the nation, like we did in ourcountry development of the nation, like we did in our country in the past. many people say immigration is an issue, notjust the far people say immigration is an issue, not just the far right. it people say immigration is an issue, notjust the far right. it is easy to use immigration as a scapegoat. the real issue is that the reception of migrants in italy is badly planned. we are constantly in a state of emergency. do you condemn the use of violence in politics,

given the recent attacks? violence is never acceptable, above all in politics, but we have to bear in mind that the party is a victim of attacks from antifascist groups and we need to defend ourselves. attacks from antifascist groups and we need to defend ourselvesm attacks from antifascist groups and we need to defend ourselves. it is ridiculous. it's tradition has aways been to attack political opponents as well as the lgbt community and migrants. it is absurd, what they say. so you condemn violence? i think we need to put things into context. if a black person slaps a memberof the kkk, context. if a black person slaps a member of the kkk, what is the problem? it is not the existence of the kkk in the first place? i believe it is the existence of fascist organisations that are legal in italy and should be banned. italian politics is extremely polarising. here's karin giannone's take on it. we heard that the left saying that

the neofascist group should not actually be allowed to exist legally. the italian constitution outlaws fascist parties but the party has taken advantage of a loophole. they openly saying the media they support mussolini, they admire him and are in favour of fascism, they have not written it down anywhere in the manifesto therefore they have not been outlawed as the left say they should be. there is also the theme that many of the things the far right are saying are not just many of the things the far right are saying are notjust coming from the far right. we heard silvio berlusconi recently from the centre—right coalition allied with for the right parties saying 600,000 migrants without documents needed to be deported. so many ideas, notjust from the mainstream, filtering further to the centre of italian politics and the mainstream. and karen will be following the story of the italian elections through the weekend for us on bbc news.

oscar—nominated films with a woman in the starring role are more profitable than their male—led counterparts. bbc analysis has found that female—led films earn higher box office returns — they usually have lower production budgets. on average, every dollar invested in a female—led film earns back $2.12. for male—led films, this figure is $1.59. in fact, oscar—nominated films with a clearly definable female lead were 33% more profitable than male—led films when comparing us box office take and production budget. clara guibourg from the bbc‘s data journalism team can tell us more about where these figures came from. we collected the information from the movie website imdb. we looked at production budgets and us box office figures for all the films nominated

foran figures for all the films nominated for an oscar figures for all the films nominated foran oscar in figures for all the films nominated for an oscar in the last five years. stripping out things like documentaries and short films. that left us with 155 films to look closer at. what we found was that actually oscar—nominated films that have a woman in the lead role are quite a lot cheaper to make and also earn back a little bit more at the box office compared to films with the male lead role. when you put those two things together, it means that films with a female lead role are actually quite a bit more profitable. despite that, there still seems to be a perception in hollywood that women won't bring in the same amount of money as men. for every dollar invested into oscar—nominated films during the last five years, 76 cents went to films with a male lead. clara's been looking at those figures too. when we crunched the numbers on this, we also found that, actually,

just 28% of films nominated for an oscar in this time period have female leads, just over a quarter of the total. actually, if you look behind the camera, if you look at directors and producers and writers, the gender split is even more skewed and people i have spoken to in the industry have said that basically the perception in hollywood that women are bad box office is hard to change. sometimes this can have consequences that are almost absurd. the geena davis institute has done research in the crowd scenes and found that, even here, the gender breakdown is often very skewed. they found that the average crowd scene inafilm found that the average crowd scene in a film usually consists of less than one in five women. so it does not really reflect real life at all, the way things look now. in time to bring in one more tweaked from the

editor in chief of media post. ahead of the week and's oscars, time magazine examines the new era in hollywood, you know, the female one. thank you very much for being with us. this is the time when we look at the forecast for the longer range period forecast for the longer range period for the next ten days, and we will do that but i want to focus first of all on the next few hours. we have had this met office red warning in force across south—west england, south east wales, expiring through the early hours of friday morning. another warning enforced though across parts of the southwest and northern ireland, north—east england, northern and eastern scotland. those warnings show where we are most likely to seek disruptive snowfall through the first part of friday. northern and eastern scotland seeing snow showers continuing. after a quiet period, snow will return later in the day. a

lot of uncertainty about how far north that snow will get. another cold day, particularly when you factor in the strength of the biting easterly wind. the vast majority of places will feel subzero. but this snow could well be troublesome for friday's rush hour. uncertainty about half an author will get and how much snow will bring the birmingham, london, cardiff, bristol, but that when the system will limp its way further north as we move our way into saturday, the snow tending to weaken. low pressure still in charge down to the south—west, and we will see a southerly wind attempting to bring us something a bit less cold. i hesitate to use the word milder because it will still feel decidedly chilly through this weekend, but particularly down to the south a bit less cold than it has been. and still the risk in some places of snow. this is saturday. that weather system limps northwards. very patchy

snow drifting across northern england, northern ireland and southern scotland. snow showers into the north—east, rain, snow and sleet into the south—west, chilly but not as cold as it has been, and that is as cold as it has been, and that is a trend that continues into sunday. we could see in the area of patchy snow drifting northwards, uncertainty about the positioning of that. snow showers in the eastern scotla nd that. snow showers in the eastern scotland and we nudge those temperatures up by another degree or two, 2—8dc at best. in the monday, low pressure still in charge but not too many white lines or isobars on the chart. that means relatively light winds but, with those light winds, a full costing headache to work out where the weather systems will move. we are likely to have patchy snow drifting its way across northern areas but, down to the south, temperatures up to nine celsius, but still below average for this time of year. tuesday, dry

weather around, sunshine, any showers that paul at low levels most likely to be rain and sleet at this stage, but still the potentialfor snow over high ground, particularly in the north. later next week, the jet stream remains to the south of the uk leaving us in the cold air, but this dip in the jet stream approaches from the west and likely to bring an area of low pressure. exactly where this is low ends up will be crucial in determining temperatures in the end of next week. if it moves its way northwards, it will bring in milder air, but if it's lighter weight of next week. if it moves its way northwards, it will bring in milder air, but if it slides away to far as temperatures go next week. tonight at ten — thousands of motorists are stranded on roads in england and wales, as more snow and blizzards sweep in. these cars on the a31

in hampshire haven't moved since 5pm this afternoon. conditions on many other roads are treacherous. we live in devon, where there is a severe red won warning tonight and people are being told not to drive. —— red warning. and what hope for the homeless — we report on how they're coping with the bitterly cold temperatures. i've been shivering for about three weeks, do you know what i mean? if it weren't for people coming along with blankets then i would be dead in a doorway. the met office has weather warnings in place for most of the uk tonight, with up to 50 centimetres of snow expected in some places. also tonight. america first — president trump says he'll tax imported foreign steel to protect jobs.