welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: america's national rifle association takes legal action against new gun legislation introduced in the state of florida. donald trump strikes a positive tone over a potential meeting with kimjong—un, saying a deal is very much in the making. in syria, an aid convoy successfully unloads its food supplies in the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta. a former us drug company executive who became infamous for hiking the price of a life—saving medicine is sentenced to seven years in prison. welcome to the programme. the bitter row over america's gun laws has resurfaced, with the pro—gun lobby group,

the national rifle association, mounting a swift legal challenge to new gun control measures signed into law in florida. the legislation imposes a 21—year—old age limit and a three—day waiting period on all gun purchases. the move follows a school shooting at parkland, in which 17 students were killed. russell trott reports. for supporters of gun control and the families of those killed in florida's school shooting, it was a simple yet historic moment as governor rick scott signs new gun control legislation into law. the bill raises the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 and imposes a three—day waiting period on all gun sales. it allows school personnel to be armed, subject to school district approval and specialist training. but, most notably, the law doesn't include a ban on semiautomatic assault rifles — the kind that was used

in the school shooting. so after reviewing the entire bill, i had to ask myself "will this bill make a huge investment and dramatically improve school safety in hopes of never seeing another tragedy like this again? will this bill provide more funding to treat the mentally ill? will this bill give far more tools to keep guns away from people who should not have them?" the answer to all three is yes. it was one of the worst school shootings in us history. within the space of ten minutes, 17 teachers and students were gunned down at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. expelled former student nikolas cruz, who is 19, has been charged with murder and attempted murder. chanting: what do we want? gun control! when do we want it? now! protesters took their campaign for tighter gun control to washington... it's an honour to have you here. ..meeting president

trump in the process. governor scott is himself a member of the pro—gun lobby, the nra. it's now filed a federal lawsuit, claiming the bill violates both the second and 14th amendments of the constitution — the right to bear arms and to equal protection under the law. he says the bill is a compromise, balancing individual rights with the need for public safety. russell trott, bbc news. our correspondent chris buckler has been following the story from washington for us. he says they're objecting to the law on a number of fronts. the nra is particularly objecting to the part of the act which stops anyone from the age of 21 from being able to buy a gun. that raises the age from 18 to 21 in florida, and as far as they are concerned, they say it breaches the constitutional rights of americans. they say it is against amendments — the second amendment of the constitution, which is the right to bear arms, and also against the 14th amendment, which is about equal protection. they say simply that anyone

who is aged over 18 should have the right to have a gun, and they say it particularly discriminates against young women who, they say, are particularly unfairly treated by this particular act because, they say, they pose a low risk of being involved in violent crime. if you look at the optics, i guess, the way that all this appears, it would look — it would seem to me, kids one, nra nil. well, certainly what you are seeing over the last while is that you have a huge student body in that parkland area who have been affected themselves very personally by a school shooting in which 17 people died — 17 people who were pupils alongside them or members of that school staff — and they have told a powerful story. they have taken a campaign to the white house and they are planning a march before the end of this month notjust in washington, dc but in

cities across america. and it is true they have a very, very powerful voice and it comes with personal experience. however, at the same time, it is also worth reflecting that the national rifle association also has a very powerful voice in america. it has a huge amount of support and it also has a lot of political sway. although president trump last week said he wanted tighter gun laws, he also reflected that some members of his republican party were, in his view, scared of the nra. and maybe it's also worth reflecting that the day after he said he wanted tighter gun laws, he also met the national rifle association — that might also be an indication of their political sway. reports from california say that ta ke reports from california say that take gunman and three people that he took hostage at a veterans‘ care home have all been found dead. that is according to local law enforcement officials. police were called to the home in the napa valley area at 10:30am local time on

friday morning. a gunman had entered the premises and taken three people hostage in one room. media reports said that until recently he was a resident at the home, which treats vetera ns resident at the home, which treats veterans suffering from post—traumatic stress disorder. there are mixed messages coming from the white house about what conditions need to be met before president trump can meet the north korean leader, kim jong—un. in a tweet in the last hour mr trump said a deal is "very much in the making" and would be "a very good one for the world." earlier, his press secretary said there were conditions. what we know is that the maximum pressure campaign has clearly been effective, we know that it has put a tremendous amount of pressure on north korea and they have made some major promises — they‘ve made promises to denuclearise, they‘ve made promises to stop nuclear and missile testing, and they‘ve recognised that regular military exercises between the us and its ally south korea will continue. the maximum pressure campaign — we‘re not letting up, we are not gonna step back or make any changes to that. we‘re gonna continue in that effort and we‘re not gonna have this

meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of north korea. the announcement of possible talks follows something of a thaw in relations between north and south korea, that saw them march under a single flag at the winter olympics. the south korean president, moonjae—in, says the planned meeting is "like a miracle." but how has the news gone down in the capital, seoul? laura bicker has been finding out. for months, seoul wondered if it faced the prospect of war once again. today, it woke to better news. the prospect of a stunning trump—kim summit has turned an impending crisis into an opportunity. the horror of the korean war is not forgotten here. the fighting ended with no peace treaty. now, future generations hope these talks will prevent further confrontation. translation: i think this will be a turning point, and through this, our future children will benefit from living in a more free and peaceful world. translation: i think it is a good

thing for both countries, and as a south korean citizen, it's good that the threat of war has reduced, even by a little. translation: even if things turn out well, it won't benefit the people in north korea. in the past, when the south korean president provided aid to north korea, i heard almost none of it went to the common people. so i don't think it's going to turn out well. decades of distrust and suspicion divide north and south. people have learned that hope can be a bad thing. i‘m told it is hard to tell what is real progress, and what is propaganda. a strong word of caution. the road ahead is very long, very complicated, very complex, and there‘s no guarantee that the north will ever give up its nuclear weapons easily, if at all.

these talks are a huge political gamble. presidents moon and trump could be being played by pyongyang, or this peninsula could be on the verge of something it has been searching forfor nearly seven decades — a peace treaty. this statue portrays two brothers divided by the war, in a last, desperate embrace. there is a sense of cautious optimism that this unresolved conflict could now have a happier ending. laura bicker, bbc news, seoul. let‘s ta ke let‘s take a look at some other stories making the news. a visit to the uk by the saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salmanm, has ended with the promise of a massive arms deal. the saudis have agreed in principle to buy 48 fighter jets, in a controversial deal worth

several billion dollars. the royal saudi air force is spearheading an air campaign to dislodge yemen‘s houthi rebels. the un has blamed those air strikes for the majority of civilian casualties. the kenyan president, uhuru kenyatta, and the opposition leader, raila odinga, have met for the first time since last year‘s bitterly fought presidential election. at a joint news conference afterwards, mr kenyatta described his political rival as "his brother." he pledged to begin a process to bring the people together. mr odinga said it was time to resolve their differences. the eu says it may challenge donald trump‘s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium. it claims they are in breach of world trade organisation rules. the british government says, as a close ally of the united states, it would seek exemption from the tariffs. an aid convoy has successfully unloaded its food supplies in the rebel held enclave of eastern ghouta in syria. it was the third attempt this week to get lorries into the area to help trapped civilians.

the red cross says it hopes to get medical supplies into the area next week. so far they haven‘t been allowed. andrew plant reports. food supplies driven into eastern ghouta. on board, enough to feed 12,000 people in an area where 400,000 have been under siege since 2013. humanitarian groups say it is not nearly enough. many like abu kassem are fleeing their homes, taking only what they can. translation: our situation is catastrophic. have no clothes, no underwear, no food. we just have these sheep. we left everything behind. the aid is meant to reach civilians in eastern ghouta, a rebel enclave outside the capital damascus. estimates are that around 940 people have died here since intense bombing began last month, 200 of them children. translation: we heard this aid convoy will arrive. this is not a solution.

the solution is to stop the air strikes. we are bringing in food to eat but if people are dying, what use is that? some militants have been given permission to leave, syrian state tv here showing what it said were rebels and their families being driven away. hospitals and health centres have been destroyed in the bombing. doctors say a mass resupply of medicine is urgent. but the convoys can take in only food to prevent rebel fighters from accessing treatment. meanwhile, it is thought there are around 700 civilians who are injured. a daily five—hour pause in fighting was agreed in principle last week but isn‘t sticking. translation: every day we liberate new areas, every day enemy fighters are collapsing. they don‘t have what it takes to face the men of the syrian arab army. there are reports that shelling resumed even as these aid trucks delivered theirfood on friday, the third time they have

tried this week. the hope is more can get through in the coming days but only a break in the bombing will allow that to happen. andrew plant, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, a symbol of oppression or a sign of empowerment? why increasing numbers of young british muslim women are choosing to wear a headscarf. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts.

god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what‘s it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much do you think? i don't know really. i've never been married before. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: america‘s national rifle association is taking legal action against a gun safety bill in the state of florida which was signed into law earlier. britain has drafted in the military, following the nerve agent attack

on a former russian spy and his daughter in the city of salisbury. they will help remove vehicles and objects from the scene which may have been contaminated. sergei and yulia skripal are still critically ill in hospital, while the policeman who tried to help them remains in a serious condition. tom symonds reports. it began with unprotected police officers dealing with an unexplained medical emergency. this evening, the military was called in at salisbury hospital. troops, trained to tackle chemical warfare, supporting a british police investigation. their mission includes securing possibly contaminated evidence — painstaking work. the stakes are high. as ministry of defence, we‘ve been supporting the police in their investigations, through the work of military scientists at porton down. we‘ll continue to do that. another task — dealing with contaminated vehicles. this police car may have been driven to the hospital after the incident. 180 troops will be involved in this phase of the investigation.

they have all the chemical agent monitors, the personal protective equipment, respirators etc, that allow them to safely. and they‘ll probably take this kit to porton down, or perhaps winterbourne gunner, where it can be decontaminated effectively. they are also expected to secure sergei skripal‘s car, and there are ambulances which may have traces of the nerve agent. across the city, scenes that might have come from a disaster movie. this isjust a graveyard, but it contains the graves of sergei skripal‘s wife, and his son alexander. he died last year. again, no official explanation for all this. the dates on alexander‘s grave may be relevant. last week, before the nerve agent attack, was the anniversary of his birth. did his father and sister visit the grave at some point? the home secretary was the first senior government representative to come to salisbury this morning.

ministers have stressed the importance of getting to the bottom of the alleged plot before pointing fingers. she met and praised those who have helped the victims and decontaminated the area, including these firefighters. i am in awe of their sympathetic approach and professionalism as they engage with these people. and now as they reflect, you know, they are quite concerned sometimes for themselves and their families, but they‘ve all said to me they wouldn‘t have done anything differently. then to the hospital, continuing to provide the highest level of care to three victims. detective sergeant nick bailey, exposed to nerve agent during the incident, is now making good progress. he is an officer who has been widely praised. always really easy to speak to, and he delivers effectively and efficiently. and he‘s always got this sense of humouraround him, so he does it easily, and nothing is ever too much

trouble for him. sergei skripal remains in a critical condition, his daughter yulia the same, but she is responding better to treatment. salisbury has become a multi—location crime scene, a city of disturbing images and unanswered questions. who wanted to kill them? why? how did they do it? what will happen next? tonight, the evidence is being gathered. tom symonds, bbc news, salisbury. the former us drug company executive martin shkreli, also known as ‘pharma bro‘, has been sentenced to seven years in jail for defrauding investors. shkreli was ordered to pay a fine of $75,000, in addition to a previous order that he forfeit over $7 million. sophia tran—thomson has this report, and a warning — it contains some flash photography. martin shkreli‘s familiar smirk has been making headlines for years. the 34—year—old‘s notoriety made it

difficult to find an impartialjury for the trial. he was dubbed the most hated man in america after his company raised the price of the life—saving aids drug daraprim by 5,000%, from $13 a pill to $750, in 2015. at the time, he said he was using the profits to develop other life—saving drugs. if there‘s a company that was selling an aston martin at the price of a bicycle, and we bought that company and we asked to charge toyota prices, i don‘t think that that should be a crime. we are simply charging the right price, that the markets missed, and we are doing something very good with those profits, putting them right back into patient care. though the price hike had nothing to do with this trial. shkreli, who called himself a supervillain, was also indicted for securities fraud charges in 2015. and, in august last year, a jury found him guilty of defrauding investors

in two hedge funds he ran, by sending them fake account statements and concealing huge losses. before he could be sentenced, his bail was revoked following threats he made to hillary clinton on facebook. his lawyer argued it was a joke, but he was unsuccessful, and ended up going straight to prison. now, shkreli has officially been sentenced to seven years in jail for defrauding investors, and ordered to pay a $75,000 fine. that is on top of the $7.3 million he had already been ordered to pay following his conviction. a normally smug martin shkreli broke down in tears in court. his attorney, who had described him

as a mildly autistic, self—taught genius, said the sentence was too long. i‘m disappointed. i thought the sentence should have been less than seven years. but, you know, martin‘s fine, and he will be fine, and obviously it could have been a lot worse. though the judge said it was justified because his crimes were not an isolated lapse injudgement, but a pattern of conduct. sophia tran—thomson, bbc news. increasing numbers of young british muslim women are choosing to wear a hijab or headscarf. it is not without controversy. women in some muslim countries, like iran, are campaigning against it as a symbol of oppression. but here, some women are taking the opposite view, seeing it as empowering, even a feminist statement. it is increasingly evident in the world of fashion and social media, and a major modelling agency has just signed its first british catwalk model who wears a hijab. nomia iqbal investigates.

the spotlight is on the hijab. many muslim women choose to wear it proudly. for some, it is an act of modesty. for others, in countries like iran, forced to wear it, it is a symbol to remove in protest. it may divide opinion, but the hijab is going high—fashion. 20—year—old model shahira yusuf has been signed up by storm, the agency that found supermodel kate moss. shahira is one of the first british models with a hijab taking to the catwalk. yeah, i definitely don‘t want to be considered a token girl. i don‘t want these models, like ethnic models or models from different religious backgrounds, to just pave the way. i want the way to stay there,

you know, to become the norm within society. because it is the norm outside of the modelling sphere. shahira is becoming the face of modest fashion. at this show in london, muslim designers have come from all over the world to promote their clothes. the market for modest fashion is on course to be worth billions. i grew up in a muslim family and none of the women in my family wore the hijab. none of my muslim friends wore it either. but now, more and more young women are wearing it. the reason why i wear it is to, number one, cover my hair. and number two, to be honest, i actually really enjoy wearing. the hijab. i enjoy covering my hair, i enjoy — like, the head—wraps i have today, i feel like it makes a statement. it‘s part of who i am, it‘s my crown. the hijab to me is empowerment and it's feminism, and it's taking control and ownership

of what i choose to show to the world. being online has given some women a powerful platform. social media star mariah idrissi has a huge following on instagram. the hijab is a part of me, it‘s a part of my career, and it‘s representation. you know, we shouldn‘t be ashamed or shy to represent who we are. if you‘re a model wearing a hijab, and you‘re on instagram and you‘re having thousands of people following you, aren‘t you doing the opposite of what the hijab is supposed to be about? the mainstream media, the western media, isn‘t representing muslims on tv, in fashion, anywhere. and the only time we are represented is for something bad. so i just saw this as, you know what? i‘m going on the news, and i‘m talking about something that‘s not about terrorism, not about women being oppressed, i‘m talking about fashion. some campaigners for muslim women‘s rights think the hijab‘s popularity is a political statement. they feel uneasy about its use as an expression of identity. modest does not mean you need to wear the hijab. modesty goes beyond that, in your behaviour and your

way of dressing. and i don‘t need to prove to anybody what i am. but, in the hijab, you are singling yourself out, and proving something unnecessary, especially in the western world. the hijab means different things to different people. shahira believes you can wear it and be a successful model. her dream — the cover of british vogue, wearing her hijab. nomia iqbal, bbc news. 0ur our top story this hour: america‘s national rifle association is taking legal action against a bill signed in florida earlier. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i‘m @nkem|fejika. hello there.

very different feel to the weather this coming weekend. looks like we‘ll see some very mild conditions for most of us, compared to what we had last weekend. a big area of low pressure moving up from the south—west, feeding in this mild air, but also a lot of cloud, and also quite a lot of rain, too. rains continue to move northwards during the overnight period. not really reaching the northern half of scotland, so here it will remain chilly. but much milder airfeeding into england and wales, and by saturday morning, we‘re looking at 10—11 degrees the overnight low here. whereas further north, again, cold across central and northern scotland, with some frost to start to the day. the weekend is looking mild, both saturday and sunday, for all of us, that mild air spreading to scotland as well. there will be a lot of rain at times, and it will be quite cloudy.

but, given some sunshine, that‘s where you really will feel the mild weather. 0ne weather front moving northwards will be followed by another one which will follow later in the day. so quite a messy picture to start saturday. the rain will be lying across northern ireland, northern england, pushing north into scotland. a little bit of snow over high ground there, as it encounters the cold air. central parts of the country will see a slice of dry weather, before this next band of showery rain pushes up from the south. some of this could be quite heavy. for 0rkney and shetland here, it will be a cool day. temperatures in single figures, with some sunshine. same, too, across the far north to scotland. but through the afternoon, it will be turning much wetter for the scottish mainland, into northern ireland and for northern england as well. the showery band of rain will continue to move north. but notice the temperatures — 14—15 degrees, you could even see 16 celsius, given some prolonged sunny spells. now, the drier weather across the south—west will continue to advance northwards during saturday night, so actually not a bad end to the night on saturday. into sunday, though, it looks like it‘ll be a bit of a cloudy, damp start. but there will be some brightness

across the northern half of the country. further south, we‘ll start to see some showers developing. some of them could be quite heavy, maybe even thundery. again, it‘s going to be mild. 12—13 degrees in the south, but even for scotland, double—figure values there, ten or 11 celsius. for lerwick, though, still in low single figures. this is the pressure chart into monday. this area of pressure will bring some showery rain to the southern half of the country, fairly strong winds at times, too. so some heavy rain for england and wales. showery bursts of rain. a little bit of brightness moving into the afternoon. the best of the dry and bright weather will be for northern ireland and parts of scotland. temperature—wise, again on the mild side, double figures for most, with a high of 12 or 13 across the south. set to stay mild for most of the week. this is bbc news. the headlines: the american pro—gun lobby group, the national rifle association, has filed a federal lawsuit over gun control legislation that had just been signed into law in florida. the nra says the law,

which raises the legal age to buy guns, violates the second amendment, the right to bear arms. president trump has tweeted that a deal with north korea is, as he put it, "very much in the making." earlier his spokeswoman said a proposed meeting between the president and the north korean leader, kimjong—un, would not happen unless washington saw concrete steps or actions by pyongyang. an aid convoy has successfully unloaded its food supplies in the rebel held enclave of eastern ghouta in syria. it was the third attempt this week to get lorries into the area to help trapped civilians. a proposal to impose a so—called latte levy on throwaway coffee cups has been rejected by the government.