welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: north koreans want to make peace. donald trump tells his supporters it's time to talk. moves to ban rapid—fire bump stocks — the trump administration makes a first attempt at gun control. syrian government forces advance in the rebel enclave of ghouta, reportedly splitting the territory into three. and british police investigating the poisoning of a former russian spy find traces of poison in a restaurant. president trump has been back on the campaign trail, telling crowds at an election rally in pennsylvania that steel mills are re—opening or expanding because he's imposed tariffs on imports. the rally was held in support

of a republican candidate in a threatened congressional seat. he also defended his plan to hold talks with the north korean leader kim jong—un. from washington, chris buckler reports. proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free. resident trumpian the pittsburgh the campaign ahead ofan trumpian the pittsburgh the campaign ahead of an election for a single seatin ahead of an election for a single seat in congress at the packed out rally looked and sounded much more like the start of a presidential campaign. he even unveiled the slogan is 20 20 run to the campaign for white house. a new slogan when we start running in, can you believe it, two years from now, is going to be keep america great! keep america great! but another country was very

clearly on donald trump's mind. he has now accepted the invitation to meet the north korean leader kim jong—un and while in recent days it has appeared the white house has been dampening down some of the expectations are that encounter, the president seemed to talk up the potential of some kind of peace deal. hey, who knows? we may sit down and make the greatest deal for the world and for all of these countries, including, frankly, north korea, that is what i hope happens. this was a speech intended for was called base, from rate the possibility of the death penalty for drug dealers and talked tough on trade, describing tariffs is his baby. and he again threatened to tax ca i’s baby. and he again threatened to tax cars imported from the eu. open up the barriers and get rid of your ta riffs the barriers and get rid of your tariffs and if you don't do that, we are going to tax mercedes—benz, we are going to tax mercedes—benz, we are going to tax mercedes—benz, we are going to tax b&w. are going to tax mercedes—benz, we are going to tax saw. the

president's words will again raise concern and potentially even anger overseas but these are the people he wa nts to overseas but these are the people he wants to hear. donald trump is the master of the art of the deal the week and look at it from a variety of respect this, this is getting the conversation going. the years the united states has been dumped on. these supporters may have a new slogan but with his protectionist policies, this was a president determined to show that he is not changing. mr trump made those remarks after trade talks in brussels between the eu, japan and the us, which ended without any agreement to exclude them from president trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium. the eu trade commissioner, cecelia malmstrom, has tweeted, saying there was no immediate clarity on the us side as to the exemption. our business correspondent joe lynam has the background to the international efforts to avoid a trade war. the meeting between the us trade representative robert lighthizer and his eu and japanese counterparts, cecilia malstrom and miroshige seko respectively, have long been in the diary. but following the formal imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium

by the us this week, the meeting took on some urgency. neither the eu, nor the japanese, are the biggest steel exporters to america but they don't want their producers to pay a 25% tariff, either. but international trade minister liam fox travels to washington next week to seek exactly that. we will be, of course, looking to see how we can maximise the uk's case for exemption under these particular circumstances but we'll want, over the next few days, to look at them in great detail. if europe gets a carve—out from the american tariffs, they willjoin an ever—growing list of nations who won't be paying. the australian prime minister malcolm turnbull met donald trump on friday and removed his country from the list. canada and mexico have already been exempted. i was very pleased the president was able to confirm that he would not have to impose tariffs on australian steel and aluminium and, of course, now the legal paperwork, the proclamation process under the executive order will take its course to put that direction into effect. so that was a very good

and productive discussion with the president. america's other key allies, including japan and south korea, will also want to be spared. in the end, it might only be russia and china paying the us tariffs. that bill might be enough to start a trade war between two of the world's biggest exporters. joe lynam, bbc news. well, china's commerce minister says beijing will continue its discussions with the united states over washington's decision to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium. zhong shan said a trade war would be in no—one's interest. he added such a conflict would bring disaster to china, the us and the world. in the next few hours, china's national people's congress

will vote on the proposal to end term limits for the country's leadership. if the vote passes — and no—one's expecting it not to — then the current president xi jinping will effectively be able to rule for life. let's cross live to beijing and speak to the bbc‘s stephen mcdonell in tiananmen square. stephen, this feels like a very significant moment here for china. i mean, does it effectively lead that president xi is there for life? this is definitely a very historic day for china. these changes presumably will be passed because the national people's congress has never actually rejected any proposal in its entire history from the communist party leadership and don't think they are going to start to do it today when the decision is in front of them as to whether or not to allow xijinping

front of them as to whether or not to allow xi jinping to continue on as president beyond two terms. now of course the kelly, it does not mean he will be president for life at it just means mean he will be president for life at itjust means in theory he can stay on, well, for as long as he wa nts. stay on, well, for as long as he wants. you know, he didn't really need the presidency to tell the truth to stay on as the effective leader in china because as head of the central military commission, as chairman of the communist party, he oi’ chairman of the communist party, he or he has both positions and doesn't need to leave them so he could have stayed on but obviously he wants to have a title of president as well and if they bothering to change the constitution in order to allow him to stay on, i think it is fair to say that is exactly what he is going to do. stephen donatella is a little bit about criticism. is there any? i mean, there must be some. and how is the states dealing with it? sure, i mean, look, in social media, those sorts of things, there is kind of, you know, jokes about this and a bit of criticism but, you know, there is

nothing along the lines of a public debate about this, he wouldn't be anything on television that even questions the sensible nature of this decision. like, it is going to go through and basically the only way in which it is never mentioned it in the most positive of ways. but to tell the truth but they have really done is kind of downplayed it. you know, they will talk about a few constitutional changes, national people's congress, i don't think for many chinese people it has been spelt out to them as clearly as you are going to have xijinping for ever from now are going to have xijinping for everfrom now on. are going to have xijinping for ever from now on. so you are going to have xijinping for everfrom now on. so you know, there isn't a debate along the lines of what you would see in other countries. behind closed doors, sure, there may have been some kind of discussion but again, xi jinping is so powerful you cannot imagine anybody putting their hand up and saying i do not think this is a good idea because you know, 1.5 million communist party members have been punished under his anticorruption

crackdown and the power that has been drawn around him is already absolutely enormous. stephen, thank you, we will let you get back to monitoring that congress at a hugely significant time. thank you. there's been some move towards gun control in the united states. the us department ofjustice has taken the first step towards banning bump stocks, which allow rifles to fire with the speed of machine guns. the devices were used last year by a gunman in las vegas to kill 58 people. the definition of machine guns, which are banned, will also be changed to include bump stocks. monitoring groups in syria say more than 1,000 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. 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 air 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,

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 bloodier than what's come before. martin patience, bbc news, lebanon. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news: voting is under way in a controversial by—election in hong kong that's being held after six pro—democracy lawmakers were disqualified from its legislative council. the election is expected to be bitterly fought with the pro—democracy camp keen to regain its crucial one third veto bloc in the legislature. four of the six vacant seats are being contested. a venezuelan military court has ordered nine army officers to be jailed on charges of treason and instigating rebellion against president nicolas maduro. all eight men and one woman

were sent to prison. their defence attorney said they had been arrested at the beginning of march by military counter—intelligence agents. the lawyer said there was no concrete evidence of wrongdoing. president trump's former chief strategist steve bannon has told a conference of the far—right national front party in france that it is part of a global anti—establishment movement that will win many victories. in a wide—ranging speech, mr bannon took aim at banks, what he called the "globalised elite", and the mainstream media. he also spoke of a growing wave of populism across europe. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as eruptions from a japanese volcano become more violent, people living nearby are warned to wear hard hats. 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 8—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. president trump has told supporters that american steel mills are re—opening or expanding because he has imposed tariffs on imports of the metal. the united states federal government has taken the first step towards banning bump stocks, the accessories allowing semiautomatic rifles to fire continuously. here in the uk, traces of a nerve agent that was used to attack a former russian spy and his daughter in salisbury last sunday have been found in the italian restaurant where they had eaten. sergei and yulia skripal were found collapsed on a bench nearby and remain critically ill in hospital. the substance was found in one part of the city's zizzi restaurant during a continuing forensic examination. no—one who was in the restaurant at the same time is thought to be in danger. andy moore has the latest. 0ne

one week after the attack was a nerve agent, the police investigation continues behind a barrier at the pizza restaurant where the skripals eight. they were filmed on cctv leaving the restau ra nt filmed on cctv leaving the restaurant and shortly after that they were found on a park bench fighting for their lives. 0ne they were found on a park bench fighting for their lives. one of the vehicles that took them to hospital was removed by specialist military teams for fear it may also contain traces of the nerve agents. the pair are critical —— critically ill and russia has denied any involvement. after chart —— chairing a second meeting for cobra, it was said that the investigation was meeting at speed with over 240 witnesses. the investigation was meeting at speed with over 240 witnessesm the investigation was meeting at speed with over 240 witnesses. it is a really painstaking and detailed investigation is the police go through over 200 pieces of evidence, huge amounts of cctv. they are absolutely committed to making sure

we do that in a completely professional way. the third victim of this attack, detective sergeant nick bailey is seriously ill though able to talk to his family. he released a statement saying he did not consider himself a hero was merely doing hisjob. the celebratory shooting of bullets into the air is a common tradition in many societies, particularly in the arab world. but what comes up must come down, often with deadly effect. to now, a lebanese ngo has come up with a novel way of getting revellers to before they shoot. what you can do is select people to

shoot for you. you can select also the type of guy and. you have traditional clothes. at the end we talk about our campaign. i asked them what they would do if a bullet came down on his daughter. a random bullet. that is how my son

died. my my son ‘s death, death by a random bullet, i do not believe in it. absolutely not. people living near a volcano injapan have been warned to wear hard—hats as its eruptions get more violent. mount shinmoedake is ejecting rocks and smoke several kilometres into the air. it's the volcano's fourth eruption this century. andrew plant reports. night—time in south—western japan. high above these houses, the red glow of one of the country's most active volcanoes. this is mount shinmoedake, awake again after seven yea rs. in 2011, locals were evacuated. it is now being watched very closely. smoke is rising more than 3000

metres into the air. high winds blowing ash across the towns nearby. these schoolchildren now wearing protective hardhats, with authorities warning of the risk of flying rocks up to four kilometres around the volcano. deep in the south of japan, it is part of a long volcanic range in a country with more than 100 volcanoes. in 1967 it was made famous on the big screen in the james bond film you only live twice as the location of the secret rocket base for the mysterious villains of the spectre organisation. the volcano has been spitting smoke and lava since the beginning of march, and with ground tremors and more than ten eruptions per day, experts are watching to see just how violent this volcano will become. in 1997 the world's most famous

woman, diana princess of wales, called for an international ban on landmines. she was visiting angola where she caught global attention by walking through a live minefield. paul heslop, from the british de—mining organisation the halo trust, was with diana during her iconic walk. he's been telling the bbc‘s witness programme about the impact of princess diana's campaign which took place just six months before she died. good morning. good morning, ma'am. when she arrived, she was very nervous. she had landed in one of the most shot—up parts of the world, it was dangerous, and there was this fat yorkshireman basically saying, "you need to listen to me. i'm going to give you a safety briefing." these are the things that have been killing a lot of the children. "and if you don't listen to what i say, you could get killed or seriously injured."

which is probably not the best opening line to a princess. newsreel: the princess got straight down to business, publicly endorsing the red cross campaign for a worldwide ban on landmines. it is my sincere hope that by working together in the next few days, we shall focus world attention on this vital but until now largely neglected issue. myjob was to be the programme manager for a british charity that specialised in clearing landmines and the other detritus of war. this was probably the most famous woman in the world so for me, it was going to be an opportunity to highlight and show off the amazing work we did. i had absolutely no idea what was coming in terms of the amount of media that came off planes. i was expecting a fewjournalists. i think there was something like 90 following her around. she threaded her way along a safe corridor cleared by british

de—mining teams in the former rebel stronghold of huambo. as you can see, they have been working away here and they've excavated out and they've uncovered a mine. the actual five or ten minutes we were in the minefield, my mind was just in overdrive, trying to make sure that i wasn't going to be the most famous person in the world the next day for blowing up the princess of wales. firing. explosion. the princess says the row over her support for the red cross campaign to ban anti—personnel mines is a distraction that wasn't needed. ma'am, a government minister at home has said you're a loose cannon by supporting this campaign. do you have any reaction to that? i'm only trying to highlight a problem that's going on all around the world. that's all. she was caught out quite badly by that question. she was very upset, and i think she was really caught off guard by how political it became. my impression is that she was genuinely there because she was wanting to make a difference and use her celebrity

to highlight a problem. the red cross is working here to help the casualties still claimed each day by the estimated 15 million unexploded landmines that litter the country. princess diana really did engage. and you could see from her facial expressions and some of the questions that she was very moved by what she was seeing, she was very engaged on the issue. within the treatment, do you cope with the psychological side of it as well? she was a mother, and when she saw children who had been blown to pieces and were missing limbs... every six months, she must have a new one? ..it moved her, and you could see it moved her. i think that diana's involvement in the support of the ottawa treaty banning landmines led to a huge increase in public awareness of the problem of mines. and then ultimately, with her death six months later, it made it very hard for the british government and a number of other

governments not to ratify the treaty. you know, you say a picture paints a thousand words. for her to be wearing the body armour and walking through the minefield, that image has been, you know, an iconic image of the 20th century. a reminder of our top story. president trump says that north korea wants to make peace and that he believes yon yang. mr trump says the proposed meeting with north korea could lead to the greatest dealfor the world. there korea could lead to the greatest deal for the world. there you can find me on twitter. you are watching bbc news. well, despite the rain,

what most people noticed on saturday was how mild it got through the afternoon once the rain band continued to clear northwards and given some sunshine across parts of england and wales, we saw temperatures touch the mid—teens celsius fairly widely, but thoroughly wet across many northern areas. that rain was persistent and heavy at times later in the day across parts of scotland with some snow on the hills. as we head through the early part of sunday, this was the area of low pressure responsible for bringing the milder air to our shores as the weather front continues to move northwards. continuing to bring a bit of snow to the higher ground of northern scotland to the end on sunday morning and becoming confined to the northern isles and the far north of the mainland by the end of the night. a few showers running into southern counties of england, this feature bringing some rain to east anglia and the south—east, but elsewhere, a dry and chilly start to sunday. don't be surprised if you see scenes like this with some mist and fog patches around, some

of which could be quite dense and stubborn to clear. but eventually, they should do. the rain as well across east anglia and the south—east, back to the london area, gradually easing away through the course of the morning. we should see the rain clearing away from the far north of scotland as well. the northern half of the country should stay dry with some sunshine around but for england and wales, scattered showers will develop into the afternoon, some could be heavy, maybe thundery. not quite as mild across england and wales, ten or 11, but a milder day for scotland, temperatures here ten or 11. as we head on into monday, this area of low pressure comes into play across england and wales and will influence the weather quite a lot through the day, bringing more cloud around, more breeze and also outbreaks of rain. does mean it's going to be a fairly cool start again in many northern parts of the uk. northern ireland probably getting away with seeing the best of the sunshine through monday. for scotland, variable cloud, a few sunny spells. england and wales generally cloudy with outbreaks of showers or even longer spells of rain at times and a cooler feel across the board, temperatures of 7—10 degrees.

tuesday promises to be a better day — in fact, we've got a ridge of high pressure coming in, so after a chilly start, maybe a bit of mist around, a fine, dry day for most of us, sunny spells, variable cloud, one or two showers developing in wales and the south—west and cool, eight or ten or maybe 11 celsius. then beyond tuesday, it looks like things turning more unsettled. more cloud around on wednesday and thursday with outbreaks of rain and it also looks like the winds will start to pick up from the east or the south—east. this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has told supporters that north korea wants to make peace. he said he believed pyongyang when it said the country was not firing missiles anymore. mr trump said that a proposed meeting with the north korean leader kim jong—un could lead to the greatest deal for the world. government forces in syria are reported to have advanced into rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta, splitting it in three. the rebels have denied the claims. monitors say that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the three weeks since the government

launched its offensive. the bbc understands that traces of a nerve agent poison used to attack a former russian spy and his daughter in a british city have been found in a restaurant the pair had visited. now on bbc news, it's time to look back at the week in parliament.