welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name gavin grey. our top stories: moscow makes its move — 23 british diplomats are expelled in the stand—off with the uk over the chemical attack on yulia and sergei skripal. syrians flee fighting in huge numbers — almost 250,000 are reported to have been forced from their homes in the last week. us officials investigate claims that a political consultancy mishandled the data of millions of facebook users to support donald trump's run for the white house. severe weather in britain leaves clifftop homes in danger of collapsing into the sea. 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, and in the skyscraper that joseph stalin built as a symbol of a superpower, the ambassador was told how moscow would retaliate for uk sanctions. a note of defiance when he left. we will always do what is necessary to defend ourselves, our allies, and our values against an attack of this sort, which is an attack not only on the united kingdom, but upon the international rules—based system on which all

countries, all countries including russia, depend for their safety and security. thank you. the ambassador headed into work to tell embassy staff about the russian sanctions. moscow says they are a response to british provocation. russia has expelled 23 british diplomats. the uk had expelled 23 russians over the nerve agent attack in salisbury. the authorities here are shutting down the british consulate in st petersburg, and the british council, which promotes uk culture abroad, will now be forced to end all activity in russia. moscow says the language coming out of london was a factor when deciding what sanctions to announce. translation: the british prime minister insults us and threatens us. her foreign and defence secretaries insult us. they talk to russia as if they're drunk in a pub. so what the uk got from us today is the result of this loutishness, and their groundless accusations. not so, said theresa may.

russia's response doesn't change the facts 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 since the cold war. the expulsion of 23 british diplomats — that was expected, that is traditional tit—for—tat. but the shutting down of a consulate and the activities of the british council — that feels like a challenge to the british government. and the russians have said that, if britain responds with more measures against moscow, then russia will respond with more sanctions against the uk. the danger now is a spiral of confrontation. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. well, as the diplomatic spat between the uk and russia deepens,

the bbc‘s diplomatic correspondent james robbins says britain faces a tough choice when deciding what to do next. well, it's clear that theresa may and her ministers do face a dilemma. she has made clear that they'll consider the issue of possible further sanctions, probably next tuesday when the national security council has its regular weekly meeting. the dilemma is, do they interpret the expulsion of 23 britons from russia as a simple tit—for—tat parity, or do they think the russians have gone too far by adding the closure of the consulate in st petersburg, and perhaps actually more significantly, the complete closure of british council operations in russia. that's significant because it's the way in which britain tries to export its values as well as the english language into russia. it has a huge reach, it reaches a lot of young russians, teenagers and young adults. and it's seen as a way of appealing to the post—putin generation, trying to export to them values that they may miss at home.

so losing the council is a major blow. how will britain respond to that? meanwhile, police in salisbury, in the west of england, have renewed their appeal for witnesses following the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter yulia. detective sergeant nick bailey, who was also 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 theirfirst official photo of sergei skripal‘s bmw, whose movements they want to trace. in their most comprehensive timeline to date, the police now say the car was first seen at 9:15am on sunday, 4 march, 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. and then, nearly two hours later, they are found violently ill on a nearby bench. it is nearly two weeks since the skripals left their home here, and today, the police revealed the full extent of their investigation. they've interviewed around 400 witnesses, gathered nearly 800 pieces of evidence, and are trawling through 4,000 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 russia, yes. that's why i've said the issue should be referred to the chemical weapons convention, and we should challenge the russian government on it. the nerve agent was identified at porton down, near salisbury. the russians have denied involvement. but downing street has now invited chemical weapons experts to carry out independent tests. it is likely that a team will come

over to porton down. theoretically, they could do the analysis at the porton laboratories. i suspect what's more likely is they will take samples away, back to the hague. health officials said today they welcome the progress being made by sergeant nick bailey, who was affected by the nerve agent. sergei and yulia skripal remain in a critical but stable condition. duncan kennedy, bbc news, in salisbury. and just to remind you — for more detail on this story, you can go to the bbc news app or website. there's this summary of what we know so far and details of the uk government's warning to exiled russians about their security. just go bbc.com/news. and staying with russia, voting has begun in the presidential election there, where vladimir putin is seeking another 6—year term. seven other candidates are also standing.

in other news, syrian civilians at both ends of the country have been facing intense fighting over the last few days, and the un says there is likely to be more to come. a few miles from the capital damascus, regime—backed forces have nearly captured the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta, and thousands of people have been forced to flee the area. and in the north, as many as 150,000 people are fleeing a military operation by turkey aiming to push out kurdish forces in the town of afrin. andrew plant reports. 0n the roads out of afrin, civilians now leaving this city — 150,000 over the past few days — on foot, carrying what they can. this area of northern syria the latest battlefront in a country besieged by war for seven long years. translation: we fled

because of the air strikes and bombardment by turkish forces. there is no united nations or international community. they fire at us with warplanes, mortars and bombs. what can we do? we had to flee to safer places. translation: as you can see, there is war and displaced people. our children are hungry and we have been walking for three days, and thank god we have arrived here. further south on the outskirts of damascus, eastern ghouta has been under siege since 2013. in the last month, hundreds have died amid repeated bombings as the government tries to retake the area and drive out the rebel groups hiding here. this temporary shelter now overwhelmed. ahmed bdeiwi says his family fled as the syrian army forces approached. translation: people were hungry. ghouta's women were in good health. now, they became thin. they beg for money.

the rebels have a lot of money, and farms that cost millions. separated by hundreds of miles, these two syrian war zones are causing a mass exodus of civilians. it's thought as many as 12 million syrians have fled their homes. meanwhile, more than 400,000 are dead or missing, many buried beneath the rubble in the dozens of towns destroyed by the conflict. andrew plant, bbc news. police in kent in south—east england have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after a car was driven into a nightclub building in gravesend. police say a number of people were injured. the incident is not being treated as terror—related. 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. our business correspondent joe lynam explains. this is all about protection of personal information and data. it all started with the creation of an app four years ago by the university of cambridge. that app harvested loads of data from facebook users, 270,000, in fact. but in addition to that, their friends‘ as well, so you can see how it gets into millions. that information, which is very personal information, was then given to a company called cambridge analytica — unfortunate that the name is confusingly similar. and facebook ordered cambridge analytica to delete that personal information because it was in breach of their rules. in the last 24 hours, facebook said that you didn't delete all that information, and so we're now suspending you from facebook entirely, pending an investigation. in the meantime, as you've said, a facebook — a whistle—blower has come forward and said that 50 million facebook profiles were harvested from this app and used to target very specific

messages in relation to the 2016 us presidential election — pro—trump and anti—hillary clinton messages. so, we have the attorney—general in the state of massachusetts saying that she is going to launch an investigation. she said that the residents of that state deserved answers immediately. on this side of the atlantic, the information commissioner's office has said that it is also investigating the circumstances which facebook data may been illegally acquired and used for political purposes. stay with us. still to come, it gives a whole new meaning to going green. cities across the globe are awash with st patrick's day celebrations. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter.

more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, fainting, headaches and a dimming of vision, all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. this was an international trophy and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: 23 british diplomats are expelled from russia, its retaliation in the spy row with the uk, but that's not moscow's only move, as it closes a consulate and the british council. aid agencies say almost a quarter of a million syrians have been driven from their homes in the last week, fleeing fierce fighting and air strikes from two separate offensives. australia and south—east asian leaders are meeting in sydney on the final day of the two day summit of the ten country group asean. it's being hosted by australia which isn't a member. the leaders are discussing how to improve economic and security ties and deal with regional issues like north korea. 0ur correspondent hywel griffith is in sydney now. what has come out of the summit?

what has come out of the summinm the first day we had the signing of an agreement, really all around terror and security laws stop in particular and agreement between the ten countries to work closely together and harmonise their laws and then with australia, who isn't a member but is keen to see the countries work together notjust on trade but security. there was a key focus on the world of digital terror, the fact that these days and a smart phones and body can receive m essa 9 es a smart phones and body can receive messages and instructions from anywhere in the world, encrypt m essa 9 es anywhere in the world, encrypt messages that are very hard for security services to filter and defiance. therefore there is a need for these countries to be up—to—date and to work together. bearing in mind that australia is not a member, why is it hosting the event? there have been questions in a shower and

some of the asean nations that it would like to be a part of the club if it could be 11 members and not tender. —— australia. realistically it wants to do work closely with asean but not be a part, primarily because it wouldn't want asean to speak on his behalf when it speaks to the eu or to the us. australia wa nts to the eu or to the us. australia wants its independence there, it wouldn't want to be down by some asean decisions but malcolm turnbull is very much a fan for working with these countries in an age where we are seeing a nationstate, he believes in multilateralism and believes in multilateralism and believes multicountry is have benefits. amnesty international held a protest about the presence of aung san suu kyi and the treatment of rohingyas and the canadian leader said he would eat any protesters. —— cambodian. there have been protests

against those leaders, no fisticuffs so against those leaders, no fisticuffs so faron against those leaders, no fisticuffs so far on the street. cambodian ex pats so far on the street. cambodian expats have demonstrated but no retaliation as problems. in terms of aung san suu kyi, her presence here is controversial and expectedly the plight of the rohingyas was raised on the stage by the malaysia prime minister. that is unexpected because it is sort of an unwritten rule in a asean that you don't meddle in a neighbour ‘s business, they don't talk about the domestic problems each has. the plight of the rohingya was raised by the malaysia prime minister about the possible threat and that potentially these people are in such a terrible plight and they could be prone to radicalisation and there could be a future terror threat from the area.

we have heard nothing yet from aung san suu kyi and we don't know whether she will speak as part of asean but she will remain in australia for the next two days to speak directly to the government and on tuesday they are expected to go toa on tuesday they are expected to go to a panel. she will have to face some vital questions over the plight of the rohingya people. thank you. severe weather across the uk has brought with it some extremely high tides and in norfolk, that's left some cliff top homes in danger of collapsing into the sea. emergency services have been asking residents in the town of hemsby to leave. robbie west reports. knowing the tide was living in, lifeboat crews help move people with oui’. lifeboat crews help move people with our. when stephen chadwick woke up, is garden was all but gone are. beautiful sea views and now the sea has taken it away. woke up this morning, had a cup of coffee at the

back door and was and the. went. earthquake and the cliffjust went. terrible shock, watching people taking my hausa parts. i don't think there will be here tomorrow. five yea rs there will be here tomorrow. five years ago free homes were washed away, following a storm surge of. this time, a fortnight of high tides and easterly wind have resulted in the coast‘s attribute fences being washed away. houses close to the sea and just inches from falling in the. probably five properties that are at highest risk. the one we are at now is teetering on the edge of the cliff and it wouldn't take much for it to start to fall into the sea. it is twisted at the back. it is quite a high risk. as the tide reached its peak, the road was closed. earlier on this evening we were just down there behind us and now the police have moved us on because the weather has turned so bad. houses are still standing, but they are now perilously close to the edge. this

morning, people will return to find out if there are homes have been lost to the sea. robbie west, bbc news. an orchestra has become the first in the world to form an ensemble of disabled musicians, led by a disabled conductor. james rose — who has cerebral palsy, uses a baton attached to his head as he doesn't have control of his arms. bournemouth symphony orchestra hopes to prove disabled people can and should be more involved in classical music. james ingham has been to meet them. music, james says, ignites a ball of fire in his stomach. it is a passion he was always determined to pursue as a profession to prove his disability is no barrier. james rose is on a unique training placement with bournemouth symphony orchestra where he's fulfilling a long—held ambition — creating and directing his own group of musicians. one of james's mentors is roger preston

who's been a cellist with the bso for nearly 40 years. he recently became disabled as a result of cancer. while he still plays in the main orchestra, he is also part of the new ensemble. we don't want to be thought of as we're successful because we are a disabled ensemble. we want people just to listen to our music making and think, "oh, that's really good." probably most disabled people, even if they could perhaps play a bit, would discount the idea of taking it further. it would be great to see a few more amateur orchestras incorporating other disabled people, but if disabled people have performed their own ensembles or orchestras as well, great. the ensemble's professional musicians like siobhan clough, who's partially deaf, have all fought hard to get where they are today. they're united in wanting to inspire others. all through my career, i was told that i couldn't be a professional violinist, and it was something i wanted to do. and now i am doing

exactly what i want to. so for me, this is just reinforcing the point that it is possible. it just takes perseverance and encouragement. ensembles and orchestral situations have been inaccessible mostly because of the need to sight read. this means that i get the opportunity to actually work, as in professionally work as a musician in a professional setting with other professional musicians. james says he's always ignored people who've told him he can't do something. he hopes to break what he sees as fixed ideas in professional classical music that have limited him and other disabled musicians in the past. he's got the drive and determination to do absolutely anything he wants. and he's got the musical talent to do it. i think he'll do extremely well. finally — there have

been festivities to mark saint patrick's day in cities around the world. from new york to nanjing, landmarks turned green and fans of irish culture turned out to celebrate. bill hayton reports. new york city claims to have the oldest st patrick's day and march 17 is the day in chicago, that means dying the river bright irish green. a secret formula turns the water emerald for the festivities — something that's now being copied in the warmer climes of florida. meanwhile, one famous irish—american crossed the galaxy to be the very first

international guest of honour at the parade in dublin. the great—grandmother of star wars star mark hamill was born in ireland in 1873. he saw a show that was big on myths and legends. legends were centrestage in other irish towns and cities too. according to the story, st patrick drove the snakes out of ireland. he had a bit of trouble driving this snake through the city gates of derry. in london, the duke and duchess of cambridge made the traditional presentation of shamrocks to members of the irish guards, and that included the regimental mascot — an irish wolfhound called domhnall. as night fell, green covered hundreds of international landmarks from niagara falls to nanjing in china, they all had a drop of the irish. a reminder of our top story.

23 british diplomats are expelled from russia — its retaliation in the spy row with the uk — but that's not moscow's only move as it closes a consulate and the british council. plenty more on our website. 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 these showers piling in from the east, but then an area of more significant,

persistent snow that developed across the south—east. that continues to drift westwards and so we have three different met office amber warnings in force, one towards the south—east and 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 its way 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's all about the snow across these western and south—western areas during the first part of sunday, let's take a closer look. 9am, you can see the snow falling across devon, dorset, somerset, the bristol area, into east wales and the west midlands. that snow really 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 as well. further west, the western side of scotland not seeing as many 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 appearing towards the south—east later and the snow will pull away from wales but will keep falling across the south—west, 10—20 centimetres over high ground. windy for all and a bitterly cold feel. but we will lose this area of snow during sunday night. high pressure starts to build down from the north and we have a subtle shift in the wind direction as well. the easterly winds 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 to between 3 and 7 degrees with some good spells of sunshine. not a bad day. temperatures will continue to climb as we head deeper into the coming week, but after a dry start to the week, things will then turn

much more unsettled. this is bbc news. the headlines: russia's responded to the expulsion of 23 of its diplomats from the uk by giving the same number of british officials a week to leave moscow. it's also closing a british consulate and the british council in russia as the row over the chemical attack on a former russian double agent and his daughter continues. this week's fighting in syria has driven up to 250,000 people from their homes. 150,000 are reported to have fled a turkish military offensive in afrin in the north while tens of thousands have escaped the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta in the south. us officials are investigating claims that a political consultancy misused facebook users' data in order to support president trump's election. an ex—employee of cambridge analytica claims 50 million profiles were accessed. the companies deny wrongdoing.

facebook has suspended cambridge analytica. now on bbc news, click.