this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 11:00 — the bbc has learned that police have found traces of the nerve agent that was used to attack sergei and yulia skripal at the zizzi restaurant where they ate. this investigation is about protecting safety, what cobra was about, and collecting all evidence so we know where attribution will lead. no more changes to exams, and a reduction in teachers‘ workload — the education secretary promises to make changes as he attempts to resolve the school recruitment crisis. talks between the eu, japan and us on president trump's —— police said they are taking reports of hate mail extremely seriously after more than one people gci’oss seriously after more than one people across the country are sent letters about "punish a muslim" day. syrian government forces make gains in ghouta, encircling its main city and splitting the territory held by rebels.

also in the next hour, ireland win the six nations championship. they beat scotland by 28 points to eight while in paris, england lose to france with 16 points to their rivals‘ 22 points. ken phoenix stars a private investigator who uncovers a conspiracy while trying to the kidnapped daughter of the us senator in the vigilantes thriller you were never really here. find out what mark kermode made of that and the rest of the top cinema releases in the film review ——joaquin phoenix. good evening and welcome to bbc news. police have identified more than 200 witnesses and are examining around 240 pieces of evidence

in the investigation into the attempted murder of a former russian spy and his daughter. sergei and yulia skripal are still in hospital in a critical condition. the bbc understands that traces of the nerve agent used in the attack have been found in the pizzeria where they were eating last sunday afternoon. our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani has the latest. is this the key location in the hunt for whoever attacked the pair? tonight the bbc has learned a trace of the merge agent have been found in the pits around whether at last sunday. —— pizza shop. the localised trace was found, but there is no suggestion anyone else who was there last sunday is in danger. it isa it is a crucial piece of evidence in —— that is not involving a huge operation. this was the thing at aberdeen station as chemical warfare

vessel is arrived earlier today. a vehicle designed to save lives now posing a grave risk to the public. detectives called on the military to help make it safe. this is the second major military operation in salisbury in the last 2a hours. last night, we saw them take away a police car from the hospital and today, they are now taking away ambulances which were potentially contaminated last sunday. everyone in this city is watching and waiting to see when this emergency will end, and the nation is watching and waiting to find out who is behind this crime. ministers are being briefed on the unfolding investigation. committee, —— today was the second meeting in a week of the emergency the emergency committee, cobra. this investigation is focused on making sure that we keep people safe as a priority, that's what the cobra meating was about. and also making sure that we collect all the evidence so that when it comes to attribution, we will be absolutely clear where it should lead. the main cemetery is one of five sites under investigation. it has been closed to the public

as officers examined the graves of mr skripal‘s wife and son. today, there was no change in the condition of him and his daughter — still critical and still in intensive care. wiltshire police has released a statement on behalf of detective sergeant nick bailey. he was the third victim of the nerve agent. salisbury is a proud city. it is trying to get on with normal life. shoppers are out in the market. officials are drawing up a plan to help businesses affected by the police operation. with more barriers going up tonight at the park bench where the emergency began, it may be weeks yet before it is all over. 0ur correspondent dominic casciani says the challenge for police is to establish how the nerve agent was administered. what i think is interesting to note

is the fact that now that we understand the traces of the nerve agent were found in zizzi here in the centre of salisbury, that narrows down potentially the window, the investigatory wind of the detectives. the skripals were in salisbury for about three hours last sunday afternoon and we now know that after the eight four after the 80 zizzi, they had traces of the nerve agent on them and that suggest they would have already have been infected, contaminated, before they went off and did other things in the city which will be key to the police in trying to drive the investigation forward because we have to work out how this was administered and if they can work out how that was administered, it will lead them to who did it. the education secretary says he wants to resolve a recruitment crisis in england's schools by cutting the workload of teachers. damian hinds told a conference of head teachers that the government would "strip away" pointless tasks so their staff can "focus on what actually matters".

here's elaine dunkley. this is passmores academy in essex and, like so many schools, it's struggling to recruit teachers. it has had to use innovative ways to attract staff. we even offer housing. that is one of our school houses, so you can come and live cheaply while you pay off your student loan. the difficulty in recruiting means many classrooms across the country reply on agency supply teachers to cover permanent vacancies. the government keeps missing targets about recruitment into the profession. we've got 4,000 fewer teachers than we need, and especially in the shortage subjects, key subjects in the curriculum — english, maths, science, all those sorts of things. the issue isn't just about recruiting new staff but stopping existing teachers from leaving the profession. over the next five years in england, pupil numbers are expected to increase, along with pressures and demands on teachers. jake rusby left the profession after three years. i would work 65—70 hour

weeks with planning, marking, the assessments you're doing. the actual teaching part probably took up the least time of everything! so that was one major factor, but for me, i got out of the education system thinking and feeling that the whole thing needed to be turned on its head. today, at a conference for head teachers, the government promised to address these issues. but there was little talk of extra funding. for the rest of this parliament, there will be no new additional statutory tests or assessments for primary schools, no further changes to the national curriculum, and no more reform of gcses and a—levels. stability in schools was the message. the government accepting it needs to work harder to relieve pressures in the classroom. 3x, is it plus or minus 21? but head teachers say extra funding is the missing part of the formula. elaine dunkley, bbc news. we can speak to the deputy head

teacher at st peter's primary school in portishead in north somerset, she joins us via our web cam. think of joining us at this late hour. what did you think of damian hinds‘s speech? i was really pleased, he covered a lot of the issues we have been worried about in school and i think we have got to a crunch point now where accountability is being increasing in school and that has increased workload and there have been massive changes in the curriculum that have not been implemented into school and again, that has increased teacher workload and also the cuts, notjust in education but across other agencies such as social care mean that teachers are picking up more and more of that side of things, class sizes have grown substantially, it is very differentjob teaching 36 children in a class than it is 30, so children in a class than it is 30, so funding does need to be increased to make changes and there are definitely quick and easy wins that we can do in schools, as school

leavers ourselves, to make that better but we also need to change an ethos and culture in the department of education. how you think he should go about reducing that workload because it sounds thrown off but obviously some interest to give. absolutely. ithink off but obviously some interest to give. absolutely. i think what teachers need to do, and school leaders, and we are the best people to do this because we are professionals, we need to look at what we are doing that doesn't have impact on children and doesn't hinder their learning, we have done that in our school by looking at marking where our teachers were spending up to 30 hours a week marking books but actually it wasn't having any impact to we changed it toa no having any impact to we changed it to a no written marking policy that less tha n to a no written marking policy that less than half the time that teachers have spent marking and actually standards in teaching has improved at st peter's. so very quick wins like that. when you say you are not marking the books, however children then getting the feedback? they are getting that within the lesson so assessment within the lesson so assessment within the lesson so assessment

within the lesson, formal assessment within the lesson, formal assessment within the lesson, has increased and we have done work with an assistant head captain has worked hard with teachers to make sure that they are up teachers to make sure that they are up to speed and there formative assessment is brilliant so the children response then within the lesson to the teachers assessment rather than teachers marking at home late at night. we are hearing about this recruitment crisis, i presume you are a teacher, you are seeing this, if you were to enter the profession now, would you?” absolutely ward. it is certainly the bestjob in the world, an absolute privilege to educate other people's children, i think you have to be really realistic about the workload and choose your school carefully. some school leavers are braver than others, the leaders have looked at what their teachers are doing and making sure they are only doing the things that have an impact on children's learning and have dropped those things aren't. unfortunately, not all school leavers in the

position or courageous enough to do that. 0k, janine, thank you. the european union says trade talks with the us have ended with no immediate clarity on whether it will be exempted from tariffs on steel and aluminium. the two sides had been trying to reach a deal following president trump's plans to impose tariffs. britain has said it will seek an exemption. our business correspondent joe lynam reports. —— well, a little earlier today, our brussels reporter adam fleming gave us this update. european commission has published a statement after the end of this meeting between the european commissionerfor trade meeting between the european commissioner for trade cecilia mileham strong, the us trade representative or slight highs and the japanese trade minister who has invited as well. but the four who was. talks between brussels and washington will continue next week because there is a lack of clarity over web —— how this process of granting europe and exemption from the tariffs may work. cecilia says

the tariffs may work. cecilia says the eu is due to an exemption because we're a close security and trading partner of the us to the ta riffs trading partner of the us to the tariffs should apply to that. eu rostar tariffs should apply to that. eurostar is —— europe is worried about the effect on the industry of course, what that means jobs. they are also worried about the knock—on effect of exports that were destined for the us arriving in europe, forcing down the price and making the situation even worse. they are preparing measures to deal with that. also preparing measures that they could apply to the us, for example, new tariffs on iconic products like florida orangejuice and harley—davidson motorbikes. but european sources pointing to some good news, this meeting today was long planned to discuss other trade measures where the us, japan and the eu could collaborate. those measures have been agreed. eu sources say it is proof the two sides can still get along despite all of this. maybe the

us rhetoric is much tougher than it actual actions are in a world. adam fleming bare. the mp for bradford west, naz shah, has spoken out about a spate of hate mail targeting people in her constituency and other parts of the country. the mp says letters titled "punish a muslim" have caused distress to those who have received them and the wider community as a whole. speaking to me a little earlier, our correspondent simonjones. this is surely quite concerning. a bit of a shock. tell us more. i have spoken this evening to be mp who raised the issue on her facebook page because she felt people needed to know about it and she says it is very worrying, so worrying that not only did she mention on social media but this afternoon, naz shah contacted the police about it in your area and says she has been told by the police that they are taking it extremely seriously and it has been looked at why the counter

terrorism unit. you have any idea of how widespread this is, i spoke to one of the organisations which aims to prevent violence and attacks on muslims and set in the past 48 hours alone they have heard of 15 people who have received these letters. it isn't just who have received these letters. it isn'tjust in the bradford area but also in london, leicester and cardiff. now saying it doesn't appear to be high profile figures who are being targeted like a mp who hasn't received one herself, but it almost seems like a random people with muslims sounding names that are receiving these letters in both the mp and the organisations say people have received them have been left extremely concerned and it is also causing a lot of anger and fear in the community as a whole. very quickly, the letters themselves, they are titled punish a muslim, are they threatening or are they a guide? itjust—i they threatening or are they a guide? it just—i don't they threatening or are they a guide? itjust—i don't know, have you manage to look at one...” guide? itjust—i don't know, have you manage to look at one... i have looked at one and it seems to give points were specific things to do

against muslims, i won't go into the details of what the letters say that thatis details of what the letters say that that is why they are considered to be so threatening. the police are taking it seriously and say if anyone receives any of these letters they should contact the police on 101 immediately and the chief co nsta ble of 101 immediately and the chief constable of the police force in the area covered by the mp has tweeted that people need to stand together to address this sort of hatred. simonjones, to address this sort of hatred. simon jones, thank you. the headlines on bbc news: the bbc has learned that police have found traces of the nerve agent, that was used to attack sergei and yulia skripal, at the zizzi restaurant where they ate. the home secretary said the investigation has identified more than 200 witnesses. no more changes to exams and a reduction in teachers‘ workload — the promise of the education secretary as he attempts to resolve the school recruitment crisis. police say they are taking reports of hate mail ‘extremely seriously‘ — after more than a dozen people

across the country are sent letters about ‘punish a muslim day‘. sport now and a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre. good evening to use. starting now with rugby and our big story of the day. ireland have won rugby union‘s six nations championship with a game to spare. they made it four wins out of four by beating scotland 28 points to eight in dublin. that put extra pressure on the reigning champions england. they had to match the ireland result to keep the title race alive but they came up short against france, losing 22—16. 0ur correspondentjoe wilson reports from dublin. this afternoon we didn‘t know how it would stop. 0nly where it would start. aviva stadium, dublin. scotland waiting. this way. scotland‘s style, fast and loose. when it fails it can hand tries to the opposition. jacob stockdale for ireland.

few players have ever made a try scoring starts to a career like stockdale. this was his sixth of the tournament this year. early in the second half, a scotland move finally worked, completed in the corner by the youngster blair kinghorn. sean cronin got ireland‘s fourth try, not only ensuring victory but also a bonus point. ireland had done all they could possibly do here in dublin. now, england had to match that performance in paris to keep their title hopes alive. england needed four tries but they were defending desperately. high tackle from anthony watson, sin—bin for him and france got a penalty try. things were not going to plan — understatement. a try came but what england produced in the 74th minute was what they had needed in the first. not enough.

france won and so did ireland. saturday night in dublin came with the knowledge that ireland could not be caught and the belief that they can beat england next saturday. now, would that be st patrick‘s day? we‘re going to win it! come on, st patrick‘s day! england women‘s hopes of a second successive six nations title took a major blow as they lost 18—17 to france. both sides were unbeaten going into the match, butjessy tremouliere‘s dramatic late try inflicted england‘s first defeat. france are now four points clear at the top of the table with one game to play. to the day‘s football action, and there were ugly scenes at the london stadium as struggling west ham lost 3—0 to burnley. the game was repeatedly interupted during the second half when a number of west ham fans took to the pitch to protest at the clubs owners. both the fa and the premier league have condemned the disturbances,

and say they will be seeking observations from west ham. the club has also launched an inquiry. the defeat leaves the hammers just three points above the relegation zone. the atmosphere was horrible. 0bviously the atmosphere was horrible. obviously we have had fans run on the pitch and, to be honest, we know a lot of it is not aimed at the players, it was all other reason is that we need to be able to play in that we need to be able to play in that atmosphere and it is hard to dig especially when you have 50 or 60,000 people saying they are not happy with how the club is. so the players out there take the brunt of it. elsewhere, manchester united beat their great rivals liverpool 2—1. marcus rashford scored both united goals in his first league start since late december. united stay second, 13 points behind manchester city who play on monday. west brom problem continues.

multiple goals saw them sink further into trouble. and chelsea have closed the gap on fourth—placed tottenham to two points — thanks to a 2—1win against crystal palace. the blues opened the scoring through willian midway through the first half. the hosts doubled their lead in fortunate circumstances. the ball ricocheted in off wayne hennessey and finally martin kelly — giving palace a mountain to climb in the second half. the visitors did pull one back though, through patrick van aanholt. palace remain in the relegation zone, one point from safety. here‘s a full rundown of the premier league results then. there was also good wins for everton and newcastle. huddersfield drew 0—0 with swansea. west brom are deep in trouble at the bottom after they were beaten 4—1 by leicester. in the scottish premiership, top—of—the—table celtic and rangers play each other tomorrow, aberdeen have closed the gap on second—placed rangers but only by a point after a 0—0 draw

with partick thistle. elsewhere, stjohnstone were comfortable winners over dundee, hamilton beat motherwell 2—0 and kilmarnock beat bottom club ross country 3—2 but they had been three nil up. that‘s all the sport for now. we‘ll have more for you on bbc news throughout the evening. monitoring groups in syria say more than a thousand people have been killed, since government forces stepped up their bombardment of eastern ghouta, three weeks ago. soldiers loyal to president assad, are reported to have made significant advances, and are believed to have cut off the biggest town in the area, douma, and isolated another. 0ur middle east correspondent martin patience reports. this is where the un calls hell on earth. today an injured man is scrambled to safety. but war planes are overhead. there‘s no escape. the syrian army has now reportedly surrounded the main town of douma.

syrian jets are pounding the besieged enclave. there are rebel fighters, some extremist, but hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped inside. the united nations calls these as strikes collective punishment. syria and its backer, russia, are not listening. the syrian army is advancing. eastern ghouta is the last major opposition stronghold close to the capital. this commander seems confident of victory. the terrorists, as he calls them, are on the run. but civilians are caught. they have nowhere to run. an aid convoy reached them yesterday delivering food supplies. but international organisations say it‘s

nowhere near enough. the battle for eastern ghouta appears to be entering the final stage. but the end could be more bloody than what has come before. martin patience, bbc news, lebanon. the usjustice department has moved to tighten restrictions on guns, with plans to ban so—called ‘bump stocks‘. there‘s been growing pressure on president trump to tighten gun laws, after last month‘s florida school shootings, in which 17 people died. speaking to me a little earlier from washington, chris buckler gave us more details on the nature of the new legislation. we should probably explain exactly what bump stocks are. they can be used to modify semiautomatic weapons and increase the rate at which bullets can be fired and effectively

turn those weapons into fully automatic machine—guns. they were used to horrendous effect in las vegas last october when gunmen used to kill 58 people and injure hundreds close to the las vegas strip. at that stage there was a lot of concern about bump stocks and their use and president trump himself has said that he would like to do something to try and ensure that bump stocks cannot be sold in future. what we are seeing here through the department ofjustice is an attempt to do that by changing existing legislation by widening what a machine—gun is defined as, putting bump stocks into that category and effectively making them illegal sale. we are in a position where, first of all, this needs to go through a whole lot of hoops before it is made law and there is a chance of legal challenge. the nephew of the actress liz hurley, has been stabbed repeatedly in a street

in south london, by a group of men. miles hurley, who‘s a 21—year—old model, was one of two men injured in the knife attack on thursday. he remains in hospital. police say his condition isn‘t life—threatening. the cathedral of notre dame in paris attracts around 13 million visitors every year — and is one of paris‘s leading landmarks. but for how much longer? parts of the 850—year—old gothic masterpiece are starting to crumble, because of pollution eating away at the stone. hugh schofield reports from paris. because actually the parts of the pinnacle have fallen down... 0utside on the roof above the back of the cathedral, this is the part of notre—dame that visitors don‘t get to see — fallen chunks of stoneware, gargoyles replaced by pvc pipes, a flying buttress held together with metal staples. this jewel of gothic architecture is becoming unstable. so, i think if there is no repairs, the risk is that the stone begins to fall down, and the risk is also

that the structure itself of the walls, of the nave of the cathedral, for instance, will be in danger. parts of the cathedral could fall, and this is a big risk, yes. you get a real sense of the dilapidation of notre—dame cathedral when you come here, it‘s a little private garden just behind the cathedral, off—limits to the public, and this section is what they call the cemetery. these pieces are all bits of gothic masonry which are in such bad repair they simply fell off. some examples of stones that have been recently damaged... the problem is pollution, combined with the cold and rain, which together are eating into the limestone — eventually, it crumbles away. the only solution is to replace the masonry block by block, but that is a massive job, and the french state can‘t afford it.

that‘s why the cathedral has launched an international plea for private funds aimed principally at the us. on this very roof, after all, once cavorted the hunchback of disney fame — oh, yes, and the book. it‘s a unique jewel at the worldwide level, so i think not begging, but asking for help is the best thing to do, because it‘s not a french monument, it‘s not a paris monument, it‘s a worldwide monument. time, the elements and the petrol engine have exacted a heavy toll on notre—dame cathedral. today, the imaginative genius of its mediaeval craftsmen is being eroded into annihilation. without urgent help, much more will be lost. hugh schofield, bbc news, paris. that does look grim. time now for the weather. for most of us, it was noticeably

milder on saturday as the rain band continued to clear northwards and skies brightened up across england and wales. top temperatures around the mid— teens. this is the low pressure system responsible for the mild airand the pressure system responsible for the mild air and the rain, ringing mild airfrom spain and portugal. as we head into sunday the rain will be confined to this far north of scotla nd confined to this far north of scotland and the northern isles to kill wintry over high ground. showers will run into southern parts of england and this feature will bring summery and the south—east of england and to east anglia. elsewhere a clear and cool night with the chance of some mist and fog. don‘t be surprised if you wake up fog. don‘t be surprised if you wake up to things like this across the country during sunday morning. some will be quite dense and slow to clear but it will and there will be sunshine around. this feature rain will gradually push away into the north so it will turn dry here through the afternoon. for england and wales showers will develop into

the afternoon and some could be heavy and perhaps thundery. the best of the dry bright weather will be scotla nd of the dry bright weather will be scotland and northern ireland. milder day for you. not so mild across england and wales on saturday. into monday, this feature will bring some wet and really whether to england and wales. an area of low pressure moving through the english channel. further north and west should be largely fine and dry. for monday, this is the picture. for much of northern ireland, parts of scotland we will see the best of the sunshine through the day for england and wales, more cloud around and also showers to get even longer spells of rain. a caulfield two things generally single figures digits again across the north, reaching eight or 10 degrees for england and wales. tuesday promises to be a better day for most of the uk. 0riginal high pressure building and will settle things down. it could be a chilly start with mist and fog around but we should see sunny spells. a couple

of showers developing across the south and south—west. a caulfield to things, not as mild as the weekend. looks at it becomes unsettled once again with more cloud and outbreaks of rain. picking up more of a breeze in the east and south—east as well.