to perdition % 377717,” they are a response to perdition provocation. russia has expelled a 22 british diplomats. the uk had expeued 22 british diplomats. the uk had expelled the 20 russians over the nerve agent attack and salisbury. the authorities here are shutting down the british consulate in saint petersburg added to produce council which promotes a uk culture abroad will now be forced to end all activity in russia. moscow says the language coming out of london was a factor in deciding what sanctions to announce. translation: the british prime minister insults us and threatens us. herforeign minister insults us and threatens us. her foreign and minister insults us and threatens us. herforeign and defence secretaries insult us. they talk to russia as if they are drunk in the public. what the uk bus from us todayis public. what the uk bus from us today is a result from this and

there'd accusations. not so, says theresa may. russia's response doesn't change the fact of the matter. the attempted assassination of two people on british soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable. relations between moscow and london haven't been this fractured synth beat cold war. the expulsion of 20 feet diplomats was expected and traditional tit—for—tat, but the shifting out of a consulate and the activities of the produce counsel, that feels like a challenge to produce government and the russians have said that if britain responds with more measures against moscow, then a russia will respond with more sanctions against the uk. the danger now is a spiral of confrontation. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. and police in salisbury have renewed their appeal for witnesses,

following the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia. around 400 people have been interviewed so far, and investigators are trawling through 4000 hours of cctv footage. health officials say detective sergeant nick bailey, who was exposed to the nerve agent, is making progress in hospital. duncan kennedy has the latest from salisbury. the tempo and scope of the police operation across salisbury remains intense and widespread. today, police issued their first official photo of sergei skripal‘s bmw, whose movements they want to trace. in the most comprehensive timeline to date, police now say the car was first seen at 9:15am on sunday, march 4, in the london road area of the city. at 1:30pm, it is spotted on devizes road. ten minutes later, the car arrives at sainsbury‘s and sergei and yulia go to the mill pub. at 2:20pm, they visited the zizzi restaurant.

then, nearly two hours later, they are found by violently ill on a nearby bench. it is nearly two weeks since they left their home. today, the police revealed the full extent of their investigation. they have interviewed around 400 witnesses, gathered nearly 800 pieces of evidence and are trawling through 4000 hours of cctv footage. today, the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, was in newcastle and repeated his call for more information on the nerve agent. the origins of the nerve gas appear to be russian. that is why i have said the issue should be referred to the big chemical weapons convention and should challenge the russian government on it. the nerve agent was identified bottom down near salisbury. the russians have denied involvement. downing street is now inviting chemical weapons experts to carry out independent tests.

it is likely that a team will come over. theoretically, they could do the analysis at the laboratories. i suspect it is more likely to take samples to the hague. health officials said they welcome the progress being made by sergeant nick bailey, who was affected by the nerve agent. sergei and yulia skripal are in critical but stable condition. duncan kennedy, bbc news. the attorney general in the us state of massachusetts, is to begin an investigation into claims that information from millions of facebook users, may have been used by a data company, during the 2016 us presidential election. a former employee of cambridge analytica, claims that 50 million profiles were accessed. the two companies deny any wrongdoing. with me is our business correspondent, joe lynam. what is the background to all this? it is confusing, so bear with me. it developed to get started with an

application developing at camp at university that harvested facebook profiles and that of their friends. it passed that information to cambridge analytic and facebook awarded that company to give up the information of years ago. facebook says all the information wasn't deleted and ordered all the accounts to be suspended. the whistle—blower has come forward and said that 50 million bits per profiles were used in the us presidential election in order to target very specific m essa 9 es order to target very specific messages into very specific people in favour of donald trump and against hillary clinton. now we have the attorney general of the state of massachusetts is saying their president does deserve answers immediately. in parallel, the information commissioners office here has lost an investigation and says there may be circumstances in which facebook data may have been illegally required in use for la tuque purposes. facebook denies there has been a breach and says the users knowingly provided the information. kaymer title la tuque has also denied any wrongdoing saying that it only receives and two

cambridge analytica has also denied allegations. forecasters say snow could cause further problems, across large parts of the uk this weekend. amber weather warnings have been issued in england and wales, and more than 70 flights have been cancelled today at heathrow. the so called "mini beast from the east," swept in overnight. this was the scene in yorkshire, and the met office says snow showers will become more frequent later, and weather warnings will remain in place until tomorrow afternoon. ireland beat england 24 points to 15, to win rugby's grand slam at twickenham. and in the otherfinal six nations games, there were wins for scotland and wales. joe wilson now reports on a very happy st patrick's day, for irish rugby. if you missed ireland's progress, here's a recap first france. then italy. then ireland beat wales in

dublin. we scored four tries to beat scotland. four tries! they've just left twickenham. there they were aiming forthe grand left twickenham. there they were aiming for the grand slam. anthony watson was under it for england, or was he? whose hands put pressure on the ball to the turf? roses for ireland. another try—mac followed. bridgen— zero down, england had to respond. the home side had something. watch stockdale, ireland's super kid. he kicked and us. reached of the ball before the blue line covered in case of snow. england had extended the pitch. perfect for this. stockdale's seventh try of this six nations. that is a record. eddiejones could see his first token in defeat with england coming. england added tries in the second half, but never got close to winning. ireland's grand slam, a perfect six nations

completed here. never better. it's a special day for everyone involved in irish rugby. to be and to come to top it off with winning. this is a fortress, a very tough place to go and it is a sign of a tentative team to come her do that. by now the irish rugby team is the envy of europe. that's because of the scenes. the challenge for these players is to be world champions next autumn. standing here right now, that seems very possible. that's it. time for the news where you are. bye for now. hello. this is bbc news. back now to those amber weather warnings for snow and ice this evening. drivers are being urged to be prepared before setting out on journeys. 0ur correspondent frankie mccamley is in lofthouse near wakefield in west yorkshire. there have been sporadic snow

showers are throughout the day and the snow does seem to be staying care, especially going into the evening. you can't see behind me a lot of the snow on higher ground has stuck. temperatures today have dipped into around —3 in north yorkshire. the met office and say with these heavy winds of up to 70 miles an hour in some places, that could feel like it is going down to -8 could feel like it is going down to —8 and —9 overnight. there are amber weather warnings in place across the northwest, the midlands, london and the southeast. further amber warnings are coming into placed in the southwest and south wales. into sunday morning. there has been a lot of disruption, planes, heathrow has had to cancel a hundred flights today. we understand that has affected around 1500 people. also on the roads in cumbria, there has been a12 the roads in cumbria, there has been a 12 car accident in the snow on the 866. there've also been accidents and or be sure, and in the midlands,

too. —— accident in derbyshire. there is more still to come, especially in wales and the southwest tomorrow. further weather warnings are in place. the advice is to check before you travel and to give your south extra time before you travel and to take precautions. you don't want to be getting stuck in the snow. a reminder, this is dubbed the mini beast from the east, so hopefully it will not be sticking around as long as the last one in things should clear up by tuesday. let's take a look at how this blast of wintry weather is affecting other parts of the country. the east coast is worst hit so far. thank you to sam howard for this shot of the harbour at leigh—on—sea in essex blanketed with snow. everton's theo walcott got a snowy beard as his team took on stoke city at the bet365 stadium in stoke. and there were also harsh conditions for fans arriving at the molineux stadium in wolverhapmton for the championship match between wolves and burton albion. it's been a snowy day for supermarket shopping in salisbury in wiltshire.

and it was bitterly cold with snow at kensington gardens in london. the severe weather has brought with it some extremely high tides — and in norfolk, that's left some cliff top homes in danger of falling into the sea tonight. emergency services have spent the day asking residents in the town of hemsby near great yarmouth to leave. louise hubball has this report. this is just how close these homes are to the cliff edge. this, the most honourable, being check to buy the coxswain of pansy lifeboat. concerns of high tide. this, one of six houses at risks. the owner here left yesterday evening. at the other properties, wejust left yesterday evening. at the other properties, we just constantly visited them throughout the evening and will do this evening to make sure they are safe, that they have

got appropriate measures in place. we've got a grab bag in the event they decide to evacuate up fairly quickly. in 2013, the largest tidal surge in 60 years saw three homes we re surge in 60 years saw three homes were washed away in hemsby and four so badly damaged they had to be demolished. now, a combination of factors have led to fresh fears. there argos sakhir of up to 50 miles an hour. that is damaging. the sand dunes also meaning bc cannot fully received so that when there is high tide, water levels will be even higher than normal. there is a whole stretch of homes across this road, all being visited by police today. 13 properties of there. six of them have got a good chance of into dc. with the weather conditions is staying as they are. we have been deep telling them to get ready to 90, deep telling them to get ready to go, pack a deep telling them to get ready to go, packa bag. deep telling them to get ready to go, pack a bag. morris lives in one of those houses, intending to stay

tonight because of his pets. 0bviously, tonight because of his pets. obviously, i had 90 metres between me and the sea. when i first came here only to make his go. now i've only gotten nine feet. 0bviously, with the wind, i desperately need see defence. with another year, these world disappear, that is an absolute guarantee. other residents told me off—camera they felt safe and were not worried. these aerial pictures show the proximity of some of these homes to the edge, with high tide this evening, text will be made on properties throughout the night. —— checks will be made on properties throughout the night. the headlines on bbc news. russia is expelling 23 british diplomats, in the row over the nerve agent attack on a former spy. the prime minister insists the kremlin must account for its actions. police investigating the murder of a russian businessman in london contact other exiles in britain to discuss their personal safety. facebook suspends a data company which worked for

president trump's election campaign. the former fbi deputy director, andrew mccabe, has accused the trump administration of acting with political malice after he was fired, just days before he was due to retire. an internal review said that mr mccabe leaked information and misled investigators, claims he has denied. president trump called his sacking a great day for democracy. 0ur washington correspondent, chris buckler, reports. as deputy director, andrew mccabe was heavily involved in some of the fbi's most controversial and politically contentious investigations. and it's one of those inquiries that's led to his dismissal. in 2016, as hillary clinton was running for president, she was being investigated because of questions about e—mails she received on a private server when she was the us secretary of state. mr mccabe authorised information

to be given to the media, something the department ofjustice said he was not entitled to do. and an internal fbi investigation found he had not been completely honest when asked about it. firing him, the us attorney generaljeff sessions said, but andrew mccabe says he has been sacked for political reasons, and he claims that president trump brought much of that pressure. in a lengthy statement, he accused the white house of declaring a war on both the fbi and the special counsel's investigation into allegations of russian interference in the election two years ago. it's less than a year since his boss, the former fbi directorjames comey, was fired by president trump. and mr mccabe claims what he witnessed event was another reason for his dismissal. andrew mccabe had served more than 20 years in the fbi, butjust over 24 hours

before his retirement and his 50th birthday, he has been sacked in the full glare of publicity. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. chris bucklerjoins me now from washington. good evening to you. president to top has got rid of or sacked or been responsible for dismissing all sorts of people in the time he has been in office. how significant is this one? technically, of course, this wasn't president trump, his fingerprints are not directly on this dismissal. it was a decision taken by the us attorney general, jeff sessions, although angie mccabe, as he is pointed out time and time again, believes presidential and political pressure was a responsibility for that. —— andrew mckay. he says president trump was pushing for that and he is no fan of angie mccabe. he'd made that clear overs a period of time. on top of that, there is a

feeling from andrew mccabe that this is all being done not to discredit him, but also the fbi and these inquiries that are continuing into alleged collusion and alleged washington interference in the presidential election in 2016. there has been a statement today from president trump's on personal attorney in which he says that following this sacking of andrew mccabe, he would like to see in and to the special console, robert mueller‘s investigation into the alleged interference with russia. thatin alleged interference with russia. that in some ways will only add to the suggestion that president trump somehow put pressure on here, although we should say that donna dodd, the president's personal lawyer, said that the that was his belief as opposed to his client. —— john 0da. belief as opposed to his client. —— john oda. he's talked about keeping notes to bolster what is his

counterattack. it is very clear that this is only the start of a continue to battle between the white house and former, if not current, fbi agents, because he has kept notes of conversations he had with the president, but also, he has kept notes of the events that happened surrounding the firing of his boss, the then director of the fbi, james comey, and he was fired directly by donald trump. you have a really strong words coming, even from a president trump this evening, talking about tremendous leaking, lighting and a corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. andrew mccabe says that is all intended to discredit bonne enforcement agencies and a lot of people. there has been and a lot of people. there has been a response from the former cia director, john brennan, who was in charge of the cia until 2017, says he is scapegoating andrew mccabe and

in very strong languages, describes donald trump as someone who will ta ke donald trump as someone who will take his rightful place as disgraced demagogue in dustbin of tetonic the dustbin of history. this is not the end because james comey, the former director of the beckham has a book coming out in a round of media appearances to go with that. it is called a higher loyalty... today he saysin called a higher loyalty... today he says in response to donald trump that the american people would hear his story very soon and can judge for themselves who is honourable and who is not. interesting times indeed. thank you. a monitoring groups is about 150,000 people have fled a turkish military offensive in the north of syria. in the south, tens of thousands of people have been fleeing the rubble held enclave of eastern ghouta aft side of damascus. it is been

subjected to a syrian government offensive. leaving before it is too late. reports say at least 20,000 people have fled a military offensive in eastern ghouta on saturday alone. leaving almost everything behind, escaping the death throes of syria's last rebel stronghold. we wanted to leave three months ago, but the rebels did not allow us. they starved us. this is just ten miles away from the presidential palace. in the last month, regime forces, strongly backed by russia, have retaken 70% of eastern ghouta. they have slowly carved it up into three shrinking pockets. all held by different rebel groups. translation: according to the information we have, individual units are ready to lay down their arms and leave eastern ghouta, but they are waiting for the command from the western patrons. as ever in this cruel war, civilians pay the price of military action.

a monitoring group say that more than 1400 civilians have been killed in the region in the past month. on saturday, dozens were reportedly killed by air strikes in one town. 250 miles north of eastern ghouta in the turkish controlled conclave of afrin, another incident. it may technically be the same country, but it has become a very different war. here, it is turkey flexing its muscles. its military has waged a nearly two—month long offensive in the area, slowly pushing us—backed kurdish militia out. it says they have links to kurdish groups inside turkey which ankara has fought for decades. now civilians are rushing to use the only escape route open to the south. reports say violence here has displaced more than 150,000 people. ——reports say violence here has displaced as many as 150,000 people.

translation: as you can see, there is war and displaced people, our children are hungry and we have been walking for three days. thank god we have arrived here. translation: there are deaths and the war is raging, you cannot sleep or eat and people are afraid. we cannot sleep because of planes and artillery. this week, the syrian conflict entered its eighth year. translation: there are deaths and the war is raging, no foreign power has been able to stop the violence. the fact that so many foreign governments are protecting their own interest here means it has now become their work as well. harry darkins, bbc news. police have launched a murder investigation after two women were shot and killed at a house in st—leonards—on—sea, in east sussex. two other women — including one who's pregnant — were taken to hospital suffering from shock after the shooting. a 35—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. temporary chief superintendent, jason taylor from east sussex police made the following statement. i would like to begin

by saying our thoughts are with the family and friends of the two victims who tragically died following a shooting at a house in bexhill road, st leonards, last night. 0fficers responded immediately to a reporting of a shooting shortly before 7:45pm. two women died at the scene. two other women who were also at the house were led to safety by police officers and were taken to hospital for shock. they are being supported by specially trained officers. a 35—year—old man who was known to the victims was arrested on suspicion of murder and taken into custody where he remains. a firearm has been recovered. officers and staff from the major incident team are leading the investigation supported by local policing teams. we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the murders but are appealing for witnesses to contact us by ringing 101 and quoting operation winlock.

time for a look at the weather. so to ben rich. will it go on, this snow we stuff? not for too long. that we can remains wintry for some. asi that we can remains wintry for some. as i was a you moments, the coming week will bring quite a significant rise in those temperatures. today, temperatures have really struggled to rise very much. we had a strong easterly wind across the country and has bought some stuff. that's how i looked in north yorkshire. this is a little earlier on further weather watch and can't. i will show you the radar picture. the gal many showers have been blowing in from the east. lots. lots and lots of snow showers. that's why some places have seen quite a lot of snow and noticed down here, so more persistent 0biang to develop. that's why we have a mets office amber be prepared warning for parts of the southeast. there is another one across parts of

yorkshire. by the time we get into tomorrow, southwest england and the southeast of wales, also covered by a met office amber warning because, although just about anywhere we are likely to see further snow showers to the night, it is this area of more persistent snow drifting its way westward so that brings us most cause for concern. by— ten cm, maybe, from this, but perhaps a bit more over high ground in the southwest. temperatures are dropping well below freezing, there will be a frost. into tomorrow morning, then, if you had travel plans across the southwest and wales into the west midlands, as well, we will see the snow falls continuing. blowing around ona snow falls continuing. blowing around on a strong easterly wind, particularly over high ground, we could see significant at the two militias of snow. some of the sauers blowing in across northeast england. some showers into northern ireland. mostly western scotland seeing fewer snow showers more in the way of

sunshine. western scotland will stick with skinny skies at times that the date. —— sunny skies at times into the day. it will turn bright eventually in the southeast, but all the while, d snow continues down across the southwest of england. it is the longevity of the snowfall, if you like it, that brings us more cause for concern. a cold and windy day. high—pressure brings its way down from the north into monday. that pushes the snowfalls away and gets rid of a cold easterly wind. they get stuck with more of a northerly wind, it will not be a warm wind direction, but it will not be as cold. monday should bring some spells of sunshine at time. the temperatures around 5-7d. as at time. the temperatures around 5—7d. as you can see, in the forecast for the week ahead comedy temperatures continue to climb up into double digits, but it will eventually turn a more unsettled. that is all for me for now. i will hand you back tonight.