this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at one. hundreds of thousands of americans prepare to take part in rallies calling for tighter gun controls. tributes are paid to the policeman who died of his injuries after swapping places with hostages during yesterday's terror attack. president macron says he was a hero. owen smith says he'll continue to argue against brexit, despite being sacked from the labour front bench over the issue. and in half an hour sex, lies and murder on the high seas. we took a look at new evidence shedding light on the porthole mystery. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. hundreds of thousands of people are preparing to take part in marches across the united states, calling for tighter gun controls. the main rally in washington dc will include survivors of last month's school shooting in florida. the protests have been dubbed the march of our lives. it comes as the trump administration said it was planning to ban bump stocks, the devices that can modify semi—automatic rifles to fire like machine—guns. let's go to gary o'donoghue in washington. the organisers expect up to 500,000

people here in washington, dc, bringing the message of gun control to the heart of power where it matters. this is a look at the issues that have brought this about. parkland students have travelled hundreds of miles from florida from the school where their classmates and teachers were killed, a shooting that many of them survived. in washington, they've already been lobbying politicians, and today they'll be joined by tens of thousands of others in a march calling for new tighter gun laws in the us. i'm doing this because i don't want any other student to have to go and attend a friend's funeral instead of their friends birthday party. those who fled the marjory stoneman douglas high school started the campaign that has led to the march for our lives and they have inspired a huge number of others. alongside services and protests, hundreds of sister marches are due to take place today across america and around the world. i can honestly say that prayers do not feel like enough.

we must act. we must act to change current laws that allow profound devastation and heartbreak. despite the strength of america's gun lobby, there are some signs that the white house is having to listen. the usjustice department has confirmed that it is pushing ahead with proposals to ban so—called bump stocks. they are devices capable of enabling a semiautomatic weapon to fire like a fully automatic machine gun. but the students leading this campaign believe that's only a start, and they hope the size of today's march in washington will add to the pressure on president trump. president trump will not be here because he is in florida today and

tomorrow at his estate but the message will be very clear because so message will be very clear because so many people will be here today. this woman has joined the so many people will be here today. this woman hasjoined the march. what brought you here from connecticut? gun-control legislation is so important and the shootings have happened far too many times and it needs to stop. what is realistic? what is realistic is to ask that people who have mental instability is do not have access to guns and people do not bring guns — get zones, it should not happen at all. we should expect every student who walks onto a school campus feels really safe. president trump has an idea of arming teachers. the i do not agree with that, schools should be gun free zones so you should not worry about it at all. is it different this time around? this time kids are getting involved. we are here and we are not going to go away they need to hear that. could

this be an election issue? how old are you? i am 17 so i will vote very soon and there is a whole generation about to be able to vote and we are really mad. is there a change of atmosphere in the country more generally? are they listening to? yes, it is a widespread issue and it is happening everywhere in the country and people need to start paying attention. have a good time event thank you forjoining us. there are marchers elsewhere around the world, of course, in places like london. here is amnesty international talking about that. we have our own incident in 1996 in dunblane and as a country we came together and had a conversation about this and changed our legislation and right now we have not had a school shooting of that sort since and you can see that around the world as well, there are plenty of countries with varying gun—control and own a shot laws. in the us a it is

gun—control and own a shot laws. in the usa it isa gun—control and own a shot laws. in the us a it is a wild west of legislation with different states and cities having different legislation and even in the state with strong legislation you can drive across state lines and bring guns in so we are talking about sensible national controls in terms of background checks. we also want a bad on assault weapons. military grade weapons are being stocked up and used in the shootings and this is the beginning of a big movement and it will take a long time for america to reform their laws but it is important for students to come together across the world and say enough is enough and they do not wa nt to enough is enough and they do not want to live in fear. there has been concrete want to live in fear. there has been c0 ncrete su ccess want to live in fear. there has been concrete success already, those stu d e nts concrete success already, those students in florida from parklands school marched to tallahassee to the state capitol and they put pressure on the governor down there and there we re on the governor down there and there were changes to the law in florida and the minimum age to buy a gun has been raised from 18 to 21 and they

made other changes to background checks as well. they believe, the stu d e nts checks as well. they believe, the students now believes, that this kind of political pressure can work, evenin kind of political pressure can work, even in places like florida which is pretty pro—gun in many other ways. the question is whether or not congress will do anything more broadly. there have been changes included in the spending bill passed yesterday, funding for school security and improvements to background checks but nothing like the students here believe is necessary , the students here believe is necessary, they want bands on things like assault weapons and once you get into that sort of area you get into incredibly controversial and partisan politics and you get into the area where powerful organisations like national rifle association put their whole weight behind trying to stop things like that happen. as things stand a great achievement these students brought about is to keep this in the headlines and in peoples minds and they will continue to do with events

like this and school walk—outs next month. there is a question of whether it translates into national legislative action and at this stage thejury is legislative action and at this stage the jury is still out on that. back to you in the studio. it sounds as though they were just beginning to tune up from the start of the demonstration. the french president, emmanuel macron, has paid tribute to a policeman who died after switching places with a hostage during an attack on a supermarket in southern france on friday. lieutena nt—colonel arnaud beltrame was shot by the gunman in the small town of trebes, where gavin lee reports. tributes to the hero who secured the release southern french town of trebes where dozens of shoppers

were held by an islamist extremist gunmen. during the siege, two people were shot dead, 60 were injured. 0thers told reporters how they escaped. i went in the freezer with a dozen other people. then we opened a door at the back, there was a small room. an anti—panic room. we pushed it and we were out. he ran after me. why he didn't shoot, i don't know, maybe he ran out of bullets, i don't know. after two hours, the gunmen exchanged the remaining hostages with the police officer who switched from negotiator to hostage and left his phone open which allowed special forces act. when they heard shots, they moved in to kill the gunmen. this morning the french interior minister confirmed arnaud beltrame had died overnight, adding that france would never forget his bravery and sacrifice. forensic teams are working

here inside the supermarket and as the investigation begins into yet another terrorist attack on french soil, we are starting to learn more details about the attacker, a 25—year—old, a moroccan national living locally who had been in the sights of french intelligence services but ultimately they didn't consider him a terrorist threat. the immediate focus will be on determining whether he acted alone or had been to syria and had links to so—called islamic state. three other victims of the attack are expected to be named later today. news that the officer had died emerged at about 5:20am this morning with a tweet from the interior minister. social media is flooded with tributes to the french police officer, arnauld beltrame, including from the french president, emmanuel macron. on twitter, mr macron says he's sending his sincere condolences to the police officer's

family and calls on everyone in france to honour his memory. a policeman has been killed in a car bombing in the egyptian city of alexandria. the interior ministry said the bomb targeted the city's security director, whose vehicle was passing by at the time. he escaped unharmed but four other people were injured. the attack comes two days ahead of the presidential election. the information commissioner's office says it will assess material gathered after its staff searched the headquarters of cambridge analytica, the company accused of taking data from facebook users without their consent. the commissioner is investigating claims that personal information was used for political purposes. cambridge analytica denies any wrongdoing. ben ando reports. after a week of waiting for a warrant, last night the inspectors called. theirjob — to search the offices of cambridge analytica for evidence that data gathered via a facebook personality test from around 50 million americans in 2014 was not destroyed and whether, if cambridge analytica used the data, it had an impact on the election two years later that put donald trump in the white house. that seemed to be the claim of its

since suspended boss when recorded by undercover reporters. some believe it's time to ask what we want from the web. we can act collectively and think carefully and deliberate meaningfully about what matters to us in terms of a digital environment and a digital world and impose appropriate constraints upon what is done with our personal data and where we think the boundaries ought to be. others are already voting with their keyboards. elon musk, the founder of spacex, has revealed that he's the most high profile user yet tojoin the so—called delete facebook movement by culling his company's profile pages. the inspectors left in the early hours of the morning. what we know about the information commissioner's investigation is that it is looking into how data can be used for political purposes. both facebook and cambridge analytica deny any wrongdoing. ben ando, bbc news. a former classmate of the russian spy poisoned in salisbury has claimed

that his friend wanted a full pardon from president putin. vladimir timoshkov told bbc news that sergei skripal regretted becoming a double agent. a little earlier i spoke to our correspondent in salisbury where the attack happened. she said russia was continuing to deny any involvement. of course, they have also repeatedly denied having anything to do with the poisoning of the skripals and the poisoning of the skripals and the latest denial of that comes in this letter that was sent to ds nick bailey who was taken ill following the poisoning and was discharged from hospital on thursday. it is a letter from the russian ambassador to the uk basically wishing him a speedy recovery, but also claiming that they have nothing to do with what he describes as this rex tillerson incident. he said he was

relieved to hear who was released from hospital and reunites with the family and the wishes of full recovery and hopes it will be able to return to normal life as soon as possible and a lot of the russian response has been described as insincere by the british authorities, borisjohnson said last week that all he is hearing is smug sarcasm week that all he is hearing is smug sarcasm and this letter is the latest on that. ds nick bailey not reacting to that specifically as yet but we do know that after he was discharged from hospital on thursday he said his life would never. what advice is being given to people on the ground? it might strike people that it is surprising advice still needs to be given. yes, it was surprising when the first lot of public health advice came out almost two weeks ago now. i am standing in front of a park where the bench where the skripals was found was situated. it was removed yesterday in what has been called one of the largest and most complex counterterrorism investigations. it was removed and taken for more

forensic examination but what we know is that anyone who was in the vicinity of the restaurant on the afternoon off 11th of march until monday closing time, that or the pub just around the corner, they were told one week later that they must wash their clothes and clean any possessions off in case of a further risk to health. there was no imminent risk but repeated exposure might cause a risk. they also said that if you have any clothes that cannot be washed such a special clothes or dry clean items they should be double bagged anchored somewhere safe and now the latest line from the council is that if you have that anywhere that you should contact the council because they will come and pick it up and destroy those belongings. some people are asking if that was the case why was it not said a while ago? the headlines on bbc news: hundreds of thousands of americans prepare to take part in rallies calling for tighter gun controls. president macron leads tributes to the policeman who died after swapping places with hostages

during yesterday's terror attack. he's described as a hero. 0wen smith says he'll continue to argue against brexit, despite being sacked from the labour front bench over the issue. sport now, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's sarah. hello. let us begin with the boat race as 0xford hello. let us begin with the boat race as oxford and cambridge universities go up later in the annual boat race. 0xford are just behind in the overall standings when it comes to the men's race but cambridge have dominated in the women's race. john watson joins us live from the course. what can we expect today? i think the organisers will be pleased that conditions are set there because this race has not

a lwa ys set there because this race has not always gone without a cup. last year you might remember that a piece of world war ii 0rdinance washed up on the banks in the race nearly didn't go ahead and two years ago there we re go ahead and two years ago there were terrible conditions with the cambridge women's boat almost thinking. it is fair today so exciting times. helen gloverjoins me now to preview the race. sarah was saying there that cambridge i wa nt was saying there that cambridge i want top. let us start with the women's race which goes first. looking at the conditions on thames behind you, is it perfect conditions forbid rowing today? it is about as perfect as it gets today so we are very lucky and it means good races hopefully. cambridge are ahead in the number of races won for the women and they won last year in a record time so it will be hard for them to top that this year? it is but i think they are looking incredibly strong. i think that they are clear favourites and oxford have to come out and really be ready for

a battle. anything can happen on race day so i am sure they are up for it. does it give you more incentive after being beaten last year, oxford abbot point approved by kaymer just so strong year, oxford abbot point approved by kaymerjust so strong and it will be a huge motivation. it is tough to describe confidence and winning streak like cambridge on the masses when they had last year, they want to prove the point again but sometimes it is more fun to be an underdog because you never know what you can do and for oxford that will be the approach, they will go out there and see what they can do. now there and see what they can do. now the men's race. oxford have four out of five wins in the last five races by cambridge looked stronger and they are more powerful with a stronger boat. will that play into their hands? think the men's team could be the closest race for a long time. they are really similar, the two crews. oxford have a little more disruption in the last week or so so it could tip the balance. i think

cambridge may be edging it but with a really good race. we look forward to it. thank you for that. the women's race goes off at 4:31pm and the means at 5:32pm and it is all set here on the historic section of the times from putney to mortlake. all the details will be across the bbc this saturday. formula 1 is back and lewis hamilton isjust getting better and better. he will start tomorrow's australian grand prix on pole position after producing a lap he said was as close as he could get to perfection. the reigning champion clocked the quickest i've ever seen in qualifying at albert park. the gap to the ferrari cars of sebastien better land kimi raikkonen was a massive one of more than half a second. it was a record seventh win in australia for hamilton which surpasses ayrton senna. rain wiped out virtually the entire third day

play in the first test between new zealand and england. 17 balls were bowled four runs scored this morning as the hosts in proved their lead. henry nicholls had time to reach a half—ce ntu ry henry nicholls had time to reach a half—century but umpires decided to abandon play and the kiwis will resume on day four on 233 for four. the international footballing weekend continues this afternoon as northern ireland take on south korea and kick off at 2pm and after coming so close to reaching the world cup in russia and michael o'neill says he is looking to the future. we are playing against a composition that isa playing against a composition that is a very big challenge for us but it is all part of the learning curve for the younger players that are coming into the squad and potentially into the team so we have nine games between now and march that are of vital games for the

preparation the growth of the team in the next period of time. thank you very much. the former shadow northern ireland secretary, owen smith, has said he will continue to oppose labour's stance on brexit after he was sacked for calling for a second referendum on the terms of the final leave deal. mr smith said he believed jeremy corbyn wanted to adopt a more eurosceptic approach, which he believed would damage the country's economy. he said he was speaking up for the majority of labour party members on the issue of brexit. (tx sor next) labour members have been speaking out strongly. we passed a resolution at conference last year that was frankly exactly the same as what i said in my article. members across the country had been contacting me before and after my sacking to say that this is what they believe and the vast majority of labour members support is taking a much tougher sta nce support is taking a much tougher stance against brexit and that is what i thinkjeremy corbyn in the leadership of the labour party need to do. let's talk to the labour

mp for derby north, chris williamson. thank you for being with us this lunchtime. do you understand why owen smith is saying something that diane abbott has also said and it leads to owen smith is sacked from the shadow cabinet but diane abbott remains? owen smith wrote an article that was against the labour party's settled position now in relation to brexit and i think on that basis, if you are to speak against the collective view of the cabinet, the shadow cabinet, then you have to go on to the backbenches. i stepped down from the front bench myself a couple of months ago because i wa nted couple of months ago because i wanted to speak on a wider range of issues and i was not able to do that whilst being on the front bench and soi whilst being on the front bench and so i decided to be an outrider on the backbenches and that is what owen smith can now do. he decided to speak up for the things he feels

passionate about. when you take on a front bench role you have to accept collective responsibility. that is a normal process but why have diane abbott ‘s remarks not be regarded as a sacking offence when these are? lemi compared to your benefit, you've probably read all of this, but our people watching probably will not have done, owen smith wrote, we have the right to keep asking brexit is the right choice for the country and we should ask that the country has a vote on whether to accept the terms on the true cost of that choice once they are clear. diane abbott wrote a letter to her constituents which was not a private communication and it was made available widely by the person who received the letter, i will argue for the right of the electorate to vote on any deal that is finally agreed, they seem to be saying the same thing.|j is finally agreed, they seem to be saying the same thing. i have not seen that letter, i have heard reports of it. i am holding it in front of me. it is on social media.

absolutely. i don't know, you are telling me it is a genuine letter and it may or may not be. she was asked about alaska and she didn't suggest it was a fake. fine, there isa suggest it was a fake. fine, there is a difference between a private communication and a public document oran communication and a public document or an article such as owen wrote. clearly a win will have been making his feelings known inside the shadow cabinet and the shadow cabinet comes toa cabinet and the shadow cabinet comes to a collective you abide by it. writing in a private capacity, as it were, to a constituent is somewhat different to writing an article in a newspaper. in a sense was owen smith being provocative because he must have known whether or not you think the substance of what he said was any difference and i accept the context that you are offering to try and explain it as see it. by going

and explain it as see it. by going and publishing an article and presumably not clearing it with the leader ‘s office, in the sense that he was asking to be sacked, inviting to be sacked. i don't think he left the leader with any choice, to be honest. people from right across the political spectrum inside the labour party ta ke political spectrum inside the labour party take that view. john mann and myself and look acres have all accepted that owen's remarks were unacceptable and work contrary and in contravention of collective responsibility and on that basis jeromy had no choice it seems to me. he has now been replaced by an excellent new shadow minister who i am sure will do a greatjob and i am sure owen willjoin me on the backbenches and continued to make his argument in the way that he has been constrained by doing when he was in the shadow cabinet. the

politicians made the decision to hand this choice about brexit to the public rather than parliament to decide whether or not we stay in the european union and the public gave their decision and we are eyed democracy said the majority, regardless of being big or small have one and that is what we are doing. do you think that is the end of it now? regardless of the deal the government comes back with, would you like to see the deal somehow endorsed in a public way by the public or is it something the public should leave to mps? the public should leave to mps? the public made their views known and there was a referendum and i was campaigning for remain in the city centre of derby but in the end of the public reacted in the way they did and we have to accept that. the choice is now a choice between a ha rd choice is now a choice between a hard brexit and the people's brexit

and we are campaigning separately now for a brexit the works in the interest of the majority are not the few and we want to insure that britain is not turned into a deregulated tax haven and we want to make sure that we can have access to the single market tariff free and we talked about establishing a bespoke eu and uk customs union. we have set forward tests which need to be satisfied before we will vote for the government proposition and that will be a meaningful vote which will ta ke will be a meaningful vote which will take place in the houses of parliament. chris williamson, sorry to cut you off. thank you for being with us. let us nowjoin lucy on the balcony where she is the mistress of all she surveys on the bbc weather map. good afternoon. it didn't look promising in derby this afternoon. what are the prospects around the country? thank you. it is not looking too bad this weekend. it turns increasingly like spring for many of us but today we have mixed

fortu nes many of us but today we have mixed fortunes in terms of the amount of sunshine. the further south you are the more clout and outbreaks of rain and drizzle but further north we see brighter conditions. there was more in the way of blue skies this afternoon as the bright interval speed into north and west. still seeing showers in the northwest and their is cloud across central england and were. it will clear south—east tonight and there are more clear spells feeding in behind a wintry showers persist in the north—west but it will be cold where there are clearer skies and it gets below freezing in spots. milder in the south of england and we hold on the south of england and we hold on the cloud. a few patches of missed but it brightens up and there are good spells of sunshine and a risk ofa good spells of sunshine and a risk of a few showers particular northwest scotland. this is bbc news,

our latest headlines: hundreds of thousands of americans prepare to take part in rallies calling for tighter gun controls. president macron leads tributes to the policeman who died after swapping places with hostages during yesterday's terror attack. he's described as a hero. owen smith says he'll continue to argue against brexit despite being sacked from the labour front bench over the issue.