russia has announced it's expelling 23 british diplomats. the uk ambassador was summoned to hear moscow's decision — a direct response to the move by london, ordering the same number of russian diplomats to leave britain. us officials say they are investigating allegations that a political consultancy company mishandled facebook users‘ data in an effort to support president trump's election campaign. this week's fighting in syria has driven up to 250,000 people from their homes. 150,000 are reported to have fled the northern town of afrin, while tens of thousands have escaped the enclave of eastern ghouta. and a campaign to clean up mount everest is under way. 1,200kg of waste left behind by tourists and climbers is being airlifted from the world's highest mountain. now on bbc news, witness. hello and welcome to a special

edition of witness to celebrate international women's day here at the british library with me, rebecca jones. we're looking back at five remarkable women who've featured in the programme over the past year. we'll meet the civil servant who challenged one of india's top policemen after he sexually harassed her. a pioneering racing driver. and a member of the women's land army, who helped to feed britain during the second world war. but first, in 2004, the kenyan environmental campaigner wangari maathai became the first african woman to win the nobel peace

prize. wangari maathai spent much of her life trying to protect kenya's forests. witness went to the karura forest on the edge of nairobi to talk to her daughter, wanjira maathai. my mother was often asked, "were you afraid? you were fearless — how can you do all of these things?" she said, "no, i was afraid, but what needed to be done was so compelling that i had to do it." she grew up surrounded by nature, surrounded by the beauty of nature. i also remember her describing her mother being a farmer — her mother grew all the food that they ate. and then she goes away to school, to university, out in the united states, and she comes back and joins the university as a very young member of the academic staff. she was struck by the issues that

were being presented by women who were very much like her mother. they were talking about lack of fuel, lack of water, and lack of nutritious food. and everything they described she felt was connected to a degradation of the landscape, and so, "why not plant trees?" she asked them. the women here till the land, so it is important that they know how to conserve this soil. she founded the green belt movement in 1977 to help women plant trees and at the same time, begin to understand how to heal the land themselves. it's 50 million trees now and counting. very quickly, the green belt movement became more than just about planting trees, because we had an extremely dictatorial government and a one—party system. public land was being parcelled out to the friends of the administration of the day. and so, protecting these spaces necessarily becomes political. karura forest was by far one

of the scariest battles. people are showing a lot of anger because nobody knew the extent to which the forest is actually destroyed. it was vicious. she got very physically hurt, she was in hospital, but she survived. and so, whenever she survived, she knew it was time to go back and finish the work of saving the park. we are here in karura forest, one of the most beautiful urban forests in the world. and it is thanks to the green belt movement and the efforts of my mother at the time that saved it. but she also was a human rights activist, a women's rights activist. i have no idea where these policemen are taking me now. mmm? i have done nothing! to challenge the president and the party of the day, that was gutsy.

file: an ecologist from kenya has become the first african woman to win the nobel peace prize. wangari maathai has spent... she just didn't believe that it was her. i think for a while there, she probably thought "maybe it's a mistake!" i don't know! but it was one of the most amazing moments to see her enjoy the spotlight and the platform which she had never had before. i think the whole day, she sort of spent saying, "i didn't know anyone was listening." my mother died on 25th september 2011. she's left quite a legacy, i think. certainly, for us as kenyans, as women, as africans, to believe in the power of one, i think the fact that one woman from the highlands of kenya could be such a potent force for change, remains one of the most inspiring things, for me. wanjira maathai, talking to witness

in nairobi's beautiful karura forest. in 1988, india's first ever sexual harassment case was brought to court. it divided the country, as the accused was a senior policeman celebrated for fighting militants. rupan deol bajaj told witness how the case came about. she may be educated, uneducated, she may be working class, she may be an officer, she may be a high—ranking officer like me. all women — nobody is immune, and it happens every day. in 1988, i was serving as special secretary finance. i had about 20,000 people under me. 90% were men. there was a dinner party hosted by the home secretary, and mr kps gill, who was the director—general of the police,

was also there, and he called out to me and he said, "mrs bajaj, i want to talk to you about something". he got up and he came and stood in front of me, towering above me. he put the finger on my face like that and he said, "up, come on. up! come along with me. come on! you come along with me". so, isaid, isaid, "mr gill, go away from here, you're misbehaving." and i got out from the gap in between him and me, and when i was going, that is the time when he, er, well, he slapped me on the bottom. that's what he did. always people have considered it to be a very trivial thing. but i could not get over the enormity of it. letting it go meant living with a lowered self—esteem,

gulping down my humiliation, facing that person every day, facing all the other people. the consequences of complaining i had not really estimated at that time. nobody was willing to take up the case for me because they were so frightened of the dgp. he was the highest ranking police officer with all the powers of life and death — no—one wanted to do anything against him. and ifound that no—one had ever filed in section 509, and 354, which is the lesser offences against the modesty of women. 17 years, long years, of my life, all of it was taken up by this, the law courts had quashed the case. they had thrown it out. the case reached the supreme court. and it was the supreme court which called for all the records, reinstated the matter,

and also laid down — they gave the definition of modesty. they reprimanded the high court judge and said, "this cannot be treated as something trivial". all the people in every household, this was the talk between husband and wife. the limelight was not on kps gill. the entire focus was on me. why have i registered a case? must be something wrong with me! i attended the proceedings of the trial throughout, along with my husband. but on the day the verdict came, i specially requested, i said, "i don't want to go there". kps gill was expecting to win, so they had the police band there. and then my husband's driver rang up and said, "madam, he has been convicted on both counts". it's the mindset i fought against.

i never fought against kps gill. i fought against the mindset of a society. people have started saying now, offences against women are increasing. they are increasing. no. now more women are speaking up. and rupan deol bajaj is now retired from the civil service. next, we're going back to the second world war, when thousands of british women signed up to work on farms to grow vital crops for a country under siege. they became known as the ‘land girls‘. and mona mcleod was one of them. i can look back on the war and know that what i did was worth doing. creating food was essential. and we didn‘t starve. file: down on the farm,

the land girls are doing their bit, and a bit more! and you should see their calves! i was 17, studying, i thought, to go to cambridge. and i knew nothing about the land army. my father appeared one day and said, "i want to talk to you". and he said, "i believe i have always have done, about the importance of the higher education of women, but first, we should concentrate on winning the war". and so i said, "yes, daddy". and a week later or so, i had left school and i was on the train for scotland. file: the war has taken most of the younger men away from scotland's farms, leaving the farmers without enough help to produce our vital food supplies. they treated me very nicely and it was a dairy farm, about 65 cows. and the first week,

i was sent into the dairy. and i was told to hand milk the difficult cows. and i‘m sorry to say that at the end of the week, they‘d all gone dry. and the dairyman said he thought i ought to be sent to the stables. fortunately, i loved horses, and the horses and i got on very much better. the work was very hard and we had no protective clothing, and the uniform we had was absolutely useless for keeping you warm in winter. so the first winter, i had chilblains on my ears and my hands and my knees and my heels and my toes. and until i got my brother‘s cast—off tweed jackets and i got some wonderful woollen knickers that came down to my knees, i discovered you didn‘t have to be freezing. but when i first went out,

i thought this was, you know, "you‘ve just got to suffer to win the war". the land girls i knew all worked quite separately on different farms. i never met a girl who worked in a gang. all the girls i got to know were isolated, totally and absolutely. one girl on a farm. and the nearest girl to me, ever, was four miles away. file: women have proved themselves able to undertake the most skilled work. all thanks and honour to the land girls, who are doing this magnificent job. i neverfor one moment thought of giving up. i didn‘t expect the war to go on for five years. but the idea of stopping wasn‘t thinkable. you just went on, went on and on. and mona mcleod went on to write

a book about her experience as a land girl. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all our films, along with more than 1,000 radio programmes, in our online archive. just go to the bbc website and look for witness. in 1977, racing car driver janet guthrie became the first woman to compete in the prestigious indianapolis 500 motor race. she talked to witness about taking part in a male—dominated sport. file: race drivers are a special breed of american folk hero. they have always been men, untiljanet guthrie. i had no house, no husband, no jewellery, no insurance, i had one used—up race car. i was playing in a millionaire's sport from the very beginning. and not having been born with a trust fund, i learned how

to build my own engines and do my own body work. i thought there was a reasonably good chance that i would be successful at it, because i wanted it a lot. i loved the sport. it was the passion of my life, really. part of the fun is to accept the risk, and deal with it gracefully and well. you have to have an interest in what it's like out there at the limits of human capability. i was saying to myself, "you know, you really must come to your senses and make some provision for your old age!" and that was the point at which the phone rang and a voice completely unknown to me said, "how would you like to take a shot at the indianapolis 500?" it was sometimes said that the indianapolis 500 wasn't

the most important race, it was the only race. and that's how most of the united states feels about it. over 400,000 people showed up. you can't imagine how many people but is until you see them in person. when i got my big chance at the top levels of the sport, it made a huge commotion. they simply hadn't had the experience of running against women, and they were sure i was going to kill them all. all i had to do at the beginning was open up a newspaper and there was some other driver saying that his blood was going to be on the officials' hands. seriously, when i say commotion, it was big! oh, i was so happy. i was happy that i had put a car in the field for the indianapolis 500.

i think a lot of drivers would tell you the first time you make the field at indianapolis is a moment you will never forget. of course then you figure out that what you really want to do is win the thing! you're thinking, "who's behind you, what are their driving habits? who's ahead of you? what mistakes are they likely to make? " 0n the first lap, you just really want to keep yourself out of any trouble. in that race, i had a mechanical failure. when we finally decided the car was not going to be fixable, i left the pits and headed back to the garage. there was a lot of enthusiasm in the stands at that point. janet is not a newcomer to car racing... my best finish at indianapolis was ninth in 1978 with a team i formed and managed myself. my best finish in indycar racing was fifth at milwaukee. i wasn't racing to prove anything about women, because the fact that i was a woman

in my opinion had nothing to do with it. a racing driver was what i was, right through to my bone marrow. and in 2006, janet guthrie was inducted into the international motorsport hall of fame. and finally, we turn to 1964, when the windmill theatre in london‘s red light district soho closed its doors. it had become a national institution because for a long time it was one of the few places in britain where it was possible to see naked women on stage. but a change in the law on nude performances meant a decline for the windmill‘s fortunes. jill millard shapiro was one of the windmill girls. a particular blend of glamour and sweat... something seedy yet also

touching and innocent... it was a national institution. there was nowhere else like it, there never can be. what ever it was, it has a great story... it was by accident. i was walking along archer street and i saw the sign saying windmill theatre, stage door. so i walked in, i don‘t know why. and i said to the stage door man, can i have an audition, please? and so he phoned upstairs to the office and i was sent upstairs, and vivian van damme didn‘t audition me but hejust said, "i like you, i‘m going to take a chance on you." what he didn‘t know was that i was 14—and—a—half years old. he signed the contract and then realised my age and told me to go home and come back when i was 15—and—a—half. so i did.

i didn‘t realise it was naughty. so, the audience could sit there all day. the proudest years of the windmill were during the second world war. it allowed nothing to interfere. they were the only west end theatre open throughout the london blitz. really brave girls who stood there while the bombs landed all around them. the house manager came out onto the stage and asked the audience if they wanted the performance to continue, and almost every time the answer was yes. one of the most important things,

the thing the audience would come to see, was the nude poses at the back of the stage. it was the obscenity laws, and you were not allowed to move in the nude on a london stage, or on any stage in the country. it was censorship. you can‘t be sexy if you stand still. although i don‘t know! so, the lord chamberlain‘s office, they‘d come, very happily! they were very pleased to come to the shows and say, "that‘s a bit too much, you can‘t say that." but they always tipped us off when they were on their way! 1964, by then, soho had changed a lot with all the strip clubs. our little friend miss fifi la boomboom was three streets away!

where we weren‘t allowed to move, she could shake it all about as much as she liked. so, we lost a lot of the audience, people who perhaps wanted to see more, they could go to the clubs, whereas we were still a theatre. and we found we felt it was better to close while we were still respected, than to even attempt to change, and the girls wouldn‘t have done. so, we closed with our heads held high. we‘re all friends to this day, those of us who are still living. i think we were very lucky, we were privileged to have been windmill girls. jill millard shapiro at her home near london. that‘s all from this special edition of witness celebrating international women‘s day at the british library. we‘ll be back here next month to bring you more extraordinary moments of history and the remarkable people

who witnessed them. but for now, from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. hello there. winter has returned with a vengeance this weekend. strong, cold easterly winds have already brought snow in places, our weather watchers have captured the scenes, this one from west yorkshire, this weather watcher picture from essex. and there is some more snow to come. let‘s look back at how things developed during saturday evening, from the radar picture you can see all of the showers piling in from the east, but then an area of more significant,

persistent snow that developed over the south—east. that continues to drift westwards and so we have three different met office amber warnings in force, one towards the london area, one across parts of eastern england and the north midlands and one for the south—west of england and the south—east of wales. these areas most prone to seeing disruption from significant snowfall. this is how we start off the day, with this area of more persistent snow continuing to drift across england and wales, some snow showers elsewhere, widely down below freezing, so not only frost but ice to take us into sunday morning. but it is all about the snow across these western and south—western areas during the first part of sunday, let‘s take a closer look. 9am the morning, you can see the snow falling across devon, dorset, somerset, the bristol area, into east wales and the west midlands. that snow piling up and blowing around this strong easterly wind, could be some drifting snow in places. all the while, a feed of snow showers across the eastern side of northern england particularly, one or two clipping

into the south—east of northern ireland and some showers across the eastern side of scotland aswell. further west, the western side of scotland not seeing as much showers, more sunshine, that is the theme as we go through the day. many of the showers in eastern areas will slowly but surely fade away, could be some brightness towards the south—east later and the snow will pull away from wales but will keep falling across the south—west10—20 centimetres over high ground. windy for all and a bitterly cold feel. we will lose this area of snow during sunday night. high—pressure will start to build out from the north and we have a subtle shift in the wind direction as well. the easterly wind from the weekend will become more like northerly winds. northerly winds are never warm by any means, but they will be slightly less cold. so monday sees temperatures rising between 3—7 degrees with some good spells of sunshine. not a bad day. temperatures will continue to climb as head had deeper into the coming week, but after a dry start to the week things will then turn

much more unsettled. hello and welcome to bbc news. i‘m gavin grey. russia says it will expel 23 british diplomats in response to britain‘s decision to throw out the same number of russian officials, following the nerve agent attack in salisbury. the british prime minister, theresa may, says the government had anticipated the kremlin‘s move, and is considering its next steps. 0ur correspondent steve rosenberg reports from moscow. he had been expecting the telephone call, and today it came. britain‘s ambassador was summoned to the russian foreign ministry,