welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america on pbs and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: underfire — president trump's plan to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium is condemned by trading partners including canada. the integrated nature of our supply chains means that there would be significant disruption in canada, obviously, but also in the united states. war crimes are being committed on civilians in the syrian region of eastern ghouta, says the un. it calls for those responsible to be prosecuted. snow blizzards bring chaos across europe. at least 60 people have died in sub—zero temperatures. and britain's prime minister sets out her hopes for brexit — eu officials say her speech lacked details. this is bbc news.

the international monetary fund has joined global condemnation of president trump's plan to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium. it says such a move will not only hurt other countries, but also those of the united states. stock markets have fallen since the announcement. our washington correspondent chris buckler reports. steel is essential to america's economy. but inside the us for many yea rs, economy. but inside the us for many years, it has been an industry in decline. president trump believes in cheap imports, however he is proposal of paris has sparked fears ofa proposal of paris has sparked fears of a trade war and led to increasingly heated languor from many of the us‘s trading partners including china, mexico and canada. we are impressing upon the year

american administration the unacceptable american administration the u na cce pta ble nature american administration the unacceptable nature of this programme which will hurt them as much as it had us, and we will be able to defend canadian industry. the president announced his plan for 2596 the president announced his plan for 25% tariffs on steel and 10% for aluminium at meeting of industry executives. but it came as a prize to many, including apparently some inside the white house, where details of the policy are still being worked out. many companies who relied upon metal as well as some of the president's own republican supporters are worried about the potential impact on the us economy, securely with the grave threats of international retaliation. european leaders have made a point of singling out the most american products. translation: we will impose tariffs on harley—davidson, on bourbon, on bluejeans, levi's bluejeans. this on bourbon, on bluejeans, levi's blue jeans. this is on bourbon, on bluejeans, levi's bluejeans. this is a highly reg retta ble. bluejeans. this is a highly regrettable. we are not wanting to start trade wars, we would like to

have a reasonable relationship with the united states of america but we cannot simply bury our head in the sand. president trump himself doesn't seem worried, tweeting: words probably not intended for the international community, but instead communities in the former industrial heartland of the us, where some old steel mills while derelict. it is here that president trump found huge support with his america first message. however it is the modern supply of steel that worries many businesses here and abroad. they are concerned that costs will rise with tariffs, and that could prove to be a hard truth of this protectionist policy. tori whiting covers this for the heritage foundation, a conservative policy think tank based in washington. thank you forjoining us. first of all, what is so bad about imposing

tariffs, what's so bad about president trump trying to save american steelworkers? the simple story is that the tariff is a tax, and attacks that has to be paid by americans when they go to buy anything that will be made of steel and aluminium in the united states will not whether it is something domestically sourced or whether it is imported from abroad. tariffs will allow domestic steel producers and aluminium producer to raise their prices, which will in turn result in higher costs for things like cars, lawnmowers, grills, anything you can think of that is a basic consumer product made from these materials. raising prices also means that there will be more of an incentive for the industry to grow and for investors to get into the industry? not necessarily. right now we are looking at the president choosing or proposing to impose ta riffs choosing or proposing to impose tariffs on imports that are produced by industries here in the united

states, steel and aluminium, steel in this case only employs roughly 140,000 americans, but the industries in the uf that used those materials employed almost 17 million americans, it is about 6.5 million in steel using manufacturing and about 10 million in construction. so you are about 10 million in construction. so you a re really about 10 million in construction. so you are really seeing the government not looking at policies that are going to help all americans, but really just select few. going to help all americans, but reallyjust select few. can you understand where president trump is coming from, he did promise he would try to fix america's trade deficit with many countries around the world, he did not mention china specifically for trade and aluminium, but many think that is who he was referring to, that he has promised is trying to deliver? the trump administration has already been delivering on progress economic manager in the united states when it comes to tax reform, and the amazing push to deregulate the us economy, making it easier to do business in

the united states, and these tariffs will act in the opposite direction to those efforts. they have done a greatjob and this is going to have negative consequences that could even outweigh the benefits of the reforms that have already happened. considering the backlash that has happened over the past 24 hours, as the policy has not been formed, do you think there is a chance that this will all be put aside?” you think there is a chance that this will all be put aside? i am not so sure about being put aside, but i can say that with the amount of changes and announcements that have happened over the last 24 hours or so, i would happened over the last 24 hours or so, iwould not happened over the last 24 hours or so, i would not be surprised to see things change in the next week, over the next week, that could be a change in tariff rate, it could be a change in tariff rate, it could be a change in tariff rate, it could be a change in potentially exempting some countries, some of these countries but our largest importers of steel are places like canada which is one of america's longer standing allies,

represents 60% of us steel imports, so the us needs to take into consideration the impact of these tariffs, and i am looking forward to having the next week to try and change their minds. thank you very much forjoining us. the united nations' top human rights official says war crimes are very likely being committed in the syrian region of eastern ghouta and there must be prosecutions. hundreds of people have been killed in the rebel—held enclave just outside the capital damascus in the past 12 days. and despite the un calling for a ceasefire nearly a week ago, the violence has not stopped. 0ur middle east editorjeremy bowen is in damascus. so far the united nations security council resolution, calling for a humanitarian ceasefire for 30 days right across syria, that exist on paper — it does not exist in reality. here in eastern ghouta, not farfrom where i am in damascus, there are great humanitarian needs and the un is ready to send in 45 trucks with food for 90,000 people.

however, that has not happened and it may not happen for a few days more. right across the country there were hopes among some people towards the end of last year that the war may ratchet down. however, i think the evidence of this year is that the war may have changed its shape but it has also escalated. large parts of europe have endured another day of freezing conditions as a siberian weather system continues to bring chaos. we'll have more on that shortly, but first, here in britain heavy snow is causing crashes, closing schools, stranding rail and air passengers as well as motorists. the army has been called in to help. danny savage has more. for the last 24 hours, the m62 between west yorkshire and manchester has been a disaster zone. multiple pile—ups

litter the carriageway. 0ne driver filmed this early today. dozens of vehicles written off. i'm trying to get to an old people's home to get the heating on. i've been stuck out here since three o'clock this afternoon. there was some respite at this local petrol station that helped people through the night. we don't usually get snow here, not like this. snowploughs tried their best but made little progress because of the trapped vehicles. from yorkshire to the scottish border, nearly every route linking east and west was closed. even the gritters aren't venturing out this far. this should normally be a busy dual carriageway over the pennines but it has been shut for days. it probably won't open for days yet and it's all because of these gale force winds just blowing the snow constantly across the carriageway. police are patrolling the roads to discourage people from ignoring the closures. these conditions are some of the worst i've seen

for many years. the a66 is always one that's a problem area. as you can see today, this is particularly bad. trying to get this open is impossible at the moment. in hampshire, the 17:05 waterloo to weymouth train last night unintentionally turned into a sleeper service. passengers were stuck on board for 13 hours as the train lost power. the heating then failed in the freezing conditions. delivering supplies by any means possible will be normality in much of britain this weekend. there's no obvious sign of a thaw yet. across europe the sub—zero temperatures have claimed at least 60 lives in the past week. the latest victims are at least four skiers — who have died in an avalanche in the french alps. the severe weather has also wreaked havoc for transport, countless schools have been closed and tens of thousands of people are without power. janey mitchell reports. the southern alps near france's

border with italy — a frozen wilderness popular with off—piste skiers but now after heavy snowfall, the location of the deadliest avalanche of the european winter so far. translation: six people were involved in this accident, all six have been found. but unfortunately four of them are dead. our thoughts are with the victims and their families. the brutal weather has claimed the highest number of victims in poland, where temperatures plunged as low as —27 celsius. here in cracow, the emergency services searching for a man who fell into the icy river. in croatia, it was not the snow causing problems, but freezing rain. leading to multiple road accidents. even switzerland, an old hand in dealing with snow, struggled. geneva feeling the

strain of another ten centimetres on friday, on top of the 15 which blanketed the city the previous day. almost 350 flights were cancelled on friday from dublin airport, which will remain closed into saturday. not quite sure how i am going to feed these two. irish racing stable owners battled to feed their horses. tens of thousands of people in ireland are without electricity, with a red alert snow and ice warning extended for eastern parts of the country into the weekend. as always, there are those making best use of the conditions, and capturing the magic of the late winter idyll. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: as hollywood prepares for the oscars this weekend, one of its top stars on sexism in the movie business. first the plates slipped gently off

the restaurant tables, then suddenly the tables, the chairs and people crashed. sideways add downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched on her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans have successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i heard the news earlier and so my heart went bang, bang! the constitutional rights of these marchers are their rights as citizens of the united states, and they should be protected, even in the right to test them out, so they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states?

well, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump tweets that trade wars can be good because america is losing billions of dollars in existing deals. he's announced a plan to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium. war crimes are being committed on syrian civilians in eastern ghouta says the un. it calls for those responsible to be prosecuted. theresa may has outlined her vision of britain's future relationship with the european union. the british prime minister warned that both sides would have to accept "hard facts" and that no—one would get everything they wanted. she said the uk would have to pay money into some eu agencies to maintain access to them. and she repeated her commitment that that the britain's would not be part of the eu's single

market or customs union. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg has more. roll up, roll up. a hot ticket for a certain kind of audience. looking forward to the speech. ministers and diplomats arriving for a speech. can you unite the party, sir? that will affect us all. oh, and it matters to her survival, too. with controversy never far away. the first message — no more promises that after brexit, we can have it all, to trade just as we do now, or be completely free from the european courts. i want to be straight with people because the reality is that we all need to face up to some hard facts. we are leaving the single market. life is going to be different. in certain ways, our access to each other‘s markets will be less than it is now.

the second hard fact is that even after we have left the jurisdiction of the european court ofjustice, eu law and the decisions of the ec] will continue to affect us. out of the single market and the customs union, she confirmed, yet no new answer to one of the hardest parts. we don't want to go back to a hard border in ireland. we've ruled out any physical infrastructure at the border or any related checks and controls. but it's not good enough to say, "we won't introduce a hard border. "if the eu forces ireland to do it, that is down to them". we chose to leave and we have a responsibility to help find a solution. but we can't do it on our own. it is for all of us to work together. more details on how she wants much of the economy to stay closer to the eu, but the prime minister wants the right to pick and choose when and how. the commission has suggested that the only option available to the uk is an off—the—shelf model.

we both need to face the fact that this is a negotiation and neither of us can have exactly what we want. the fact is that every free trade agreement has varying market access, depending on the respective interests of the countries involved. if this is cherry picking, then every trade arrangement is cherry picking. last, an answer to claims her plans are too vague and unreal. we know what we want. we understand your principles. we have a shared interest in getting this right. so let's get on with it. thank you. applause. do you accept now that we can't have it all as we leave? and secondly, you have outlined today you want to pick and mix, even though the eu has repeatedly rejected that approach. what is it do you think you can say

to your eu leaders that will actually change their minds? i'm confident as we come and sit down together we will be able to show that mutual interest and mutual benefit from the proposals i have put forward. after weeks of internal tory wrangling, the prime minister has made gathered tory grandees content. this is about finding a way through that will work for everybody. why have you spent so long saying we can have everything? you said we could have the exact same benefits? i said that is the aspiration. the point we are aiming at here, and what the prime minister said clearly, is that we want to have a complete tariff—free arrangement. thatis that is very good. we want to have mutual recognition. all those things, not just in our interest, they are in europe's interest and that is why we will get them. what happens if the european union says no? to all of this? the invitation that was made through the speech the prime minister made was to apply a cool head

to some very important, mutual problems, but also opportunities. an outbreak of tory unity? the foreign secretary was grounded by snow but gave a thumbs up, and brexiteers and remainers followed suit, for now. governor, were you happy with what you heard? others, like the bank of england governor, less keen to give their verdict. the opposition, unimpressed. i think it will be judged as yet more confusion on the road to complications. what we need is a set of objectives which means we can protectjobs in this country. number ten has pressed its case with more detail and realism than before. that could make a difference to the next steps of this lengthy tangle. but there are plenty of audiences making demands of theresa may, who will still demand yet more. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. there have been protests across slovakia after the killing of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. jan kusiac‘s work alleged links between the italian mafia and figures close to prime minister robert fiso.

he denies any wrongdoing. the biggest demonstration was in the capital bratislava, from where our correspondent rob cameron sent this report. they came in their thousands, braving subzero temperatures, united in grief at the killing of a journalist. this was the largest protest here for many years. a sign that what began as a local tragedy has become a national crisis of leadership. the moral responsibility for the deaths is the government, for sure. they should have resigned straight after as it happened, but they haven't so far. i think that shows us that something is not right. i am mostly afraid of what will become of my country, because it is turning into something i do not want it to turn into. that is also why i'm here. the authorities are still working

to find out who pulled the trigger on the gun that killed jan kuciak and his fiancee. the young journalist had begun to untangle a complex web of business and personal connections that led from the calabrian mafia right to the prime minister's door. this week, a number of slovak newspapers published jan's unfinished final article, still missing its ending, in a show of solidarity and defiance. after these murders, i think it is a completely new situation and a completely new country. slovakia is a different country than it used to be years ago. the most serious question is if this country is a mafia state and it is up to the prime minister to prove it is not. prime minister fico denies his government is in any way connected to organised crime. he is trying hard to control the political fallout from the scandal

but there are signs that the public mood is turning. the people who have been filling squares across slovakia today were motivated by two emotions. there was sorrow at the death of a young journalist, murdered in his prime at the age ofjust 27 along with his fiancee. but there is also anger here, fury at the slovak authorities at their failure to protect him. it's been a tumultuous year for the film industry following the accusations against producer harvey weinstein. the actress heather graham is one of a number of women who accused him of inappropriate sexual behaviour. she's just written and directed her first film about sexism in hollywood. 0ur arts editor will gompertz has been speaking with her. why are we sitting around talking about how sad our lives are? we should be talking about how great we are. half magic is a romcom, in which three women decide to start asserting themselves,

to take a stand against the men who are undermining them. i am so relieved that you find me attractive, but when can you read the script that we wrote? heather graham plays a junior film executive whose career is being frustrated by a mean, sexist boss. your boobs are too big. whose interest is focused on her body, not her mind. i wrote this movie because years before that i worked on developing movies that i wanted to get made, women's stories that i wanted to act in and produce and i couldn't get them made. so this movie was my reaction to that. why couldn't you get them made? people would say that i wasn't a big enough star, that no—one cares about women's stories, that women's movies don't make money. they would say if you want to get a movie made, write about a man. let's make a pact to be with good guys only, guys who treat us great like we deserve. if you think about how many levels that a woman has to get through to get a movie made and seen, you have to go through so many levels of male—dominated businesses. first of all you have to have the idea that you can ever do this, which there's not a lot

of role models out there. then you've got to get someone to finance it, which is usually a man. then you have to get someone to distribute it, which is usually a man. then when it comes out, you have to get a bunch of male journalists to not say that the movie sucks. so that you can get to your audience, which is women. so all the different steps that you need to get through to get to women, which hopefully men will watch it too, but you are mainly going for women. you have to go through like walls and walls of men to get your project out in the world. why did you break up with me? all i wanted to do was love you and mentor you and help you achieve your true potential. i'm sorry, i don't know what to say. i had a business meeting with a guy. i sent in the script. i said, "i want to get this movie made, i want to empower women". we had this business meeting, he doesn't finance the movie. i run into him ata party and he said, "oh, that was so fun when we had that date the other day." the lunch meeting where i asked him to finance my movie.

i said, "that wasn't a date, that was a business meeting." how long ago was this? this was like two years ago. and do you think if that happened today it would be different? i think today men are starting to think about their behaviour and they are starting to question if, you know, how they should treat women in the workplace, which is a good thing. will gompertz, bbc news, hollywood. the spanish prime minister, mariano rajoy, has led tributes to the conductorjesus lopez cobos, who has died in berlin. he was 78 and had been suffering from cancer. born in the small town of toro, lopez cobos went on to lead many of the world's top orchestras in europe and the united states. work on a new underground station in rome had to come to a temporary halt after an ancient military barracks was unearthed under the streets of the italian capital. archaeologists say the dwelling, described as a commander's house, was built some time around the early second century during the reign of emperor trajan. it's said to be the first discovery of its kind. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @nkemifejika. hello again.

there is not as much snow falling now and attention turns to the icy conditions. it is still quite treacherous out there for many of us. gradually over the weekend, we should slowly see it turn milder, less cold from the south. there will still be a wintry mix of rain, sleet and some snow. that really cold air with high pressure across scandinavia and siberian winds, that has moved away. instead, our weather will be coming in from areas of low pressure spinning to the south of the uk. ahead of that, we still have the cold easterly wind for a while across scotland but gradually, we will replace it with something a little less cold from the south or south—west, but still bring a wintry mix nevertheless. that is what we have at the moment. it is still cold out there, still frosty at the moment with a widespread frost, and given the snow cover and some snow falling in places as well as that earlier freezing rain, it will be very icy indeed. as we move through saturday, there is still snow falling for awhile across northern england and northern ireland. that peters out.

north of that, snow showers in scotland on that cold easterly wind. the winds are lighter to the south with some sunshine and wet weather developing in the south. focused towards the south—west and into wales, mostly rain but some snow over the hills of wales. at least those temperatures are just getting above freezing. still cold but possibly six or seven across southern parts of england. this is where we have the focus of the wettest weather on saturday evening. rain for the most part but there will be snow over the hills of wales, developing through the midlands over