this is bbc news. the headlines at 3:00pm. donald trump describes syria's president assad as an ‘animal‘, and condemns russia and iran for backing him. it follows reports of at least 70 people being killed in an alleged chemical attack. the syrian government has denied involvement as has russia. the foreign office has called for an urgent investigation. rescue workers say it appears that concentrated chlorine gas has been used. we have received many patients who have suffered from symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine gas. ministers deny any link between the rise in violence in london and police cuts. labour have accused them of having their heads in the sand. the foreign secretary borisjohnson describes jeremy corbyn as "the kremlin‘s useful idiot". the labour leader hits back saying mrjohnson has "made a fool of himself" over russia. the authorities in germany say there's no indication of an islamist link to an attack that left two dead

and 20 injured. also in the next hour... northern ireland win their first medal of the commonwealth games. cheering. 18—year—old rhys mcclenaghan gets gold in the pommel horse. olivia breen produced a commonwealth record, to claims wales‘ third gold medal. and, click looks at 56 and the world of computer robotics. that's in half an hour here on bbc news. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. president trump has condemned

a suspected chemical attack on a rebel—held town in syria, saying president assad and his allies russia and iran must pay "a big price". rescue workers and monitors say at least 70 people were killed by what they believe was a chlorine gas attack in the town of douma, but there has been no independent verification. the syrian government has denied involvement, as has russia. the foreign office has called for an urgent investigation. this report from our middle east correspondent martin patience contains distressing images from the start. this was the scene at an emergency clinic in douma. medics hosing down children after an alleged chemical attack. these pictures were filmed by activists on the ground. some children were barely conscious. this baby is alive, but struggling to breathe. the medics are doing what they can,

but they are overwhelmed, working in a war zone without enough medical supplies. we received many patients who have suffered from symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine gas, high concentration of chlorine gas. and their conditions are deteriorating, in a fashion that is not compatible with pure chlorine gas exposure. that's where our physicians are concerned about exposure to nerve gas in low concentration. syrian government troops on the outside of douma. they are closing in. both damascus and its russian ally describe claims of a chemical attack as a fabrication. they are carrying out air strikes. this footage was filmed by syria's civil defence, known as the white helmets.

here they run into the aftermath ofan airstrike. they have found an injured man. he is carried to safety. this is daily life in douma. martin patience reporting. within the past hour, donald trump has been reacting to events in syria on twitter. the president said that many people had died in a mindless attack and that russia and iran were responsible for backing assad — whom he described as an "animal". he said there was no reason for the unfolding humanitarian crisis and called for aid agencies to be allowed access to the area. and in a final tweet, he criticised his predecessor — saying that obama had missed an opportunity to stop the syrian president. a little earlier my colleague ben brown spoke to matthew morris

from the red cross, who has been monitoring the events from damascus. what we can't be clear about is exactly what has happened, but we've seen the same pictures, the same videos, that you've been hearing back in the uk, that you've been seeing and hearing back in the uk. and we are extremely concerned and distressed about these reports. what we can be absolutely crystal clear about is that there is no time and place for any kind of attack with chemical weapons. the use of chemical weapons is prohibited under international humanitarian law. and of course there have been many alleged chemical attacks in syria during the course of this horrific conflict. it's been one of the most gruesome parts of the conflict, in a sense. yes, and depressingly it's been a call we've had to renew, that... what i've just been saying is that this kind of attack is completely unacceptable and illegal. there's no time or place for it, and we have been reminding all sides fighting across syria,

across the different front lines, across different communities, that the use of this kind of attack is unacceptable. we've been seeing in damascus — we've been hearing and seeing — that there's been obviously an increase in fighting since friday afternoon, more violence in and around the city of douma in the eastern ghouta, but also mortars landing within damascus city itself. so another surge in violence and another increase in fear amongst civilian populations, who are clearly not taking part in this fight. and this area, eastern ghouta, and douma in particular, have been so hard fought over in recent weeks, and we have seen some really horrific violence there. yes, and i myself arrived in damascus on thursday, and there have been perhaps ten days to two weeks, of calm,

relative calm, because of the discussions that were clearly going on between the sides fighting, and what that may lead to, but quite clearly what happened on friday was that this all broke down, those talks clearly broke down, and there was this increase in fighting. we could hear the sound of explosions and aircraft overhead and, as i say, mortars coming in to the city, so this conflict is now in its eighth year and there is no end in sight. martin patience is in beirut. he has been monitoring what has been going on in syria. we've had international condemnation of this alleged attack. president trump saint assad, iran and russia will have a big price to pay. does anyone think there will be a strong reaction from america and other

allies? —— president trump said assad. if you looked at his tweets coming he calls the syrian president that animal assad. strong language, a big price to pay. he says the syrian forces are completely surrounding the town of douma, which is true. because access to the town and verification whether or not a chemical attack took place. that tallies with what the us state department was saying before donald trump tweeted. they said an investigation needed to be held to verify whether or not a chemical attack had indeed taken place. and then the syrian regime and its backers, russia, would be held accountable. all of that said, a year ago, accountable. all of that said, a yearago, and a accountable. all of that said, a year ago, and a very similar circumstances, an alleged chemical attack, america decided it was a chemical attack and donald trump ordered air strikes across the country. that didn't change the course of the war, and some would say, if this turns out to be a

chemical attack, some would say the syrian government has not learnt its lesson. as for what is going on on the ground, under the surge in violence targeting civilians, it seems. there doesn't seem to be any end in sight for this conflict. no, there isn't. and whilst there is a lot of focus on chemical weapons and the use perhaps of chlorine or sarin gas, that is not confirmed, but what is confirmed is the air strikes that have been carried out, just as deadly, if not more deadly. air strikes overnight. i was speaking to one woman in the town of douma and she said conditions there were utterly horrific, and she sent me a picture of the next—door neighbour's house, completely destroyed in an air strike. 100,000 civilians and thousands of rebels still trapped in the town. interestingly, many of the civilians and many of those families wa nt civilians and many of those families want the rebels to do a deal with

the syrian government, so at least the syrian government, so at least the civilians can leave with their lives. is there any prospect of a ceasefire, of talks being successful? there is a lot of talk about ceasefires. we have heard this in the last several days, couple of weeks or so. and deals have been done between various rebel factions. the background to all of this, eastern ghouta is a large area and the syrian government, backed by russia and iran has carried out a large scale offensive and have taken most of that territory. douma is the last holdout town with 100,000 people still trapped inside. the only way is essex like this violence will end is whether or not the rebels do a deal with the government to enable the civilians to leave. —— the only way is essex it looks like this violence will end. but many do

not want to leave their homes. it looks like they want to stay while others will leave. some breaking news coming from the german police, who say they have detained four men, one of whom they suspected of planning knife attacks at today's berlin half marathon. that's according to die welt newspaper online. links with a man who stole a trapped into a disgusting, who ploughed into a crowded marketplace, reports coming from germany, detaining four men, suspected of planning knife attacks at the half marathon in berlin today. and and others with links to an attacker at

the berlin marketplace in 2016. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has stepped up his criticism ofjeremy corbyn, over the poisoning of a former russian spy in salisbury. mrjohnson‘s described the labour leader as "the kremlin‘s useful idiot" for refusing to say unequivocally that russia was responsible. labour said mrjohnson had "made a fool of himself" by misrepresenting what he was told by chemical weapons experts. ministers have rejected claims that the rise in violence in london can be linked to police cuts. labour have accused them of having their heads in the sand. it comes as the government prepares to outline a new strategy to tackle serious violence. susana mendonca reports. a high visibility police presence on london's streets after a week that has seen a spate of violent deaths. but the home secretary has rejected claims that falling police numbers are to blame. and she is being backed up by cabinet colleagues. go back a decade. serious violent crime was a lot higher than it is today, but so were police numbers, so for anyone to suggest that this

is caused by police numbers, it is not backed up by facts. tomorrow the government will launch a serious violence strategy to focus on early intervention. it will also unveil a new offensive weapons bill which will further restrict the sale of knives online, make so—called zombie knives and knuckle—dusters illegal to possess and introduce a new offence of possessing corrosive substances like acid in a public place. the move has been welcomed by police chiefs. this is a really essential piece of legislation for policing and for the public and communities. it will allow us to control the purchase by people under the age of 18, and it will allow us to have much more control as to who carries it in a public place, and whether they have good reason to or not. labour says police officer numbers have been cut by 21,000 since 2010 and it would be naive of the government to argue that this has not had an impact, and with many young people involved in recent stabbings and shootings, labour says wider cuts to public funding may also be playing a part. it is notjust about police numbers,

it is about community services as well, youth service, children's centres, social workers and local councils seeing significant cuts to their budgets as well. with more than 50 lives lost in london alone this year to violent crime, the mayor of london is calling a summit this week. it is not yet clear whether the home secretary will attend. susana mendonca, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: donald trump describes syria's president assad as an ‘animal‘, and condemns russia and iran for backing him. it follows reports of at least 70 people being killed in an alleged chemical attack. ministers deny any link between the rise in violence in london and police cuts. labour have accused them of having their heads in the sand. the foreign secretary borisjohnson describes jeremy corbyn as ‘the kremlin‘s useful idiot‘ — the labour leader hits back saying mrjohnson has ‘made a fool of himself‘ over russia.

in sport, northern ireland have their first in sport, northern ireland have theirfirst medal at in sport, northern ireland have their first medal at the commonwealth games on australia's gold coast, coming in the gymnastics as teenager rhys mcclenaghan took gold on the pommel horse ahead of the olympic champion max whitlock. celtic are just one win away from the scottish premiership title after they beat ten man hamilton 2—1, they are 13 points clear of rangers. the final round of the masters later today. rory mcilroy storms to 11 under yesterday, and he's in the final pairing at augusta with patrick reed, trailing the american by three strokes. one premier league match under way at the emirates arsenal lead southampton 2—1 at half—time. we will have an update in half—time. we will have an update in half an hour. german authorities say a man who drove a van into people outside a restaurant in the city

of muenster, was a german citizen with no apparent links to terrorism. two people were killed and the driver shot himself dead at the scene. our europe correspondent bethany bell reports from muenster. the van drove into a crowd in a popular area of the old town of muenster. it was a sunny afternoon and people were out sitting at cafes and restaurants. the driver of the vehicle, a german citizen, died after shooting himself in his car at the scene. he hasn't yet been officially identified. the authorities say there's no indication that this was an islamist attack. translation: the perpetrator who recklessly sped into a crowd of people is, according to our investigations, a german citizen, not a refugee, as has previously been reported. german media reports say the driver had a history of mental health problems. police have searched his apartment. well, this part of town would normally be full of people out enjoying themselves on a saturday

night but now, police have cordoned off the entire area. people who live here have been evacuated and a number of them are spending the night in a theatre just down the road. the incident comes at a time of heightened concern afterjihadist attacks in britain, france and spain. the local police urged people not to speculate and wait for official information. germany's chancellor angela merkel says she was deeply shaken by the incident. she said everything was being done to help the victims and their relatives. bethany bell, bbc news, muenster. canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau says "an entire country is in shock and mourning" after 15 people have been killed in a road accident involving a canadianjunior ice hockey team. two other people are said to be in a critical condition. the humboldt broncos had been on their way to a play—off match

in the province of saskatchewan. tributes have been paid across the country. we'll take that time to recognise our... all of our young men and our coaching staff and everybody change to the constitutional settlement of britain, the foundational law of britain. and what i'm saying is that if we can't go back from brexit, if this is a one—time decision, we need absolute clarity that the decision made by the british people was made fairly and complied with the law. and so if that means we have to go back to the british people and ask for clarification, i think the british people should have a say and make sure that what we are doing is with the consent of people — that's what i'm saying. 0k... i want a democratic mandate for brexit, that's what i'm saying. millions of hungarians are voting in a general election, following a campaign dominated by immigration. the current prime minister, viktor orban, is favourite to win a third consecutive term — what would be his fourth overall.

his nationalist fidesz party has a substantial lead in the opinion polls, but it's thought a high turn—out and tactical voting could limit his majority. our correspondent nick thorpe's in the hungarian capital budapest and sent us this update. a note on the turnout, 42% by one o'clock here, well up on previous years. we might end up with something like 70%. the reason that is important is, on the whole, viktor orban and his fidesz party have been appealing in the past weeks to their core supporters, pushing the issues that he thinks are very popular, things like keeping migrants out of hungary, and maintaining their national sovereignty, fighting for a kind of european union in which national sovereignty and the national parliaments maintain or win back a lot of their power. the opposition fighting on a very different platform, arguing about emigration,

young and middle—aged hungarians leaving to work in countries like britain and other countries in the eu. also widespread allegations of corruption against this government. we will wait to see when we get the final result how much that has hurt the prime minister and his party in this election. at the commonwealth games in australia there have been more medals for the home nations including northern ireland's first gold for rhys mcclenaghan in the pommel horse. joe lynskey reports. no way! i can't believe it. it takes a special touch to raise a teenage champion. this is northern ireland's first gold of these games. rhys mcclenaghan called it his proudest day, and at 18 he'll hope it's just the start. his poise on the pommel was enough to beat his idol, max whitlock settling for silver. i honestly have no words. i know that is very cliched to say that i have got no words, but now, the sensational of feeling i have at the minute is unbelievable. though whitlock missed out, his

england team—mates made up for it. there was gold on the rings for courtney tulloch, while georgia—mae fenton won the uneven bars. they will hope it lifts them to olympic glory. while in the pool, the scots are up and running. the scot could win this! this is going to be very close indeed! duncan scott on the last stroke, i think he's got it. yes, he has got it! duncan scott sealed their first swimming gold this week. he had to beat chad le clos to do it. the south african‘s father feels the painjust as hard, while england's siobhan—marie o'connor dominated the medley. a new champion on the 200 metres individual medley, it's siobhan—marie o'connor of england. a very good swim indeed. on the first day of athletics, wales won their third gold in the long jump, olivia breen leaping to glory. while in the hammer, england's nick miller heaved his way to gold. a new british record took every emotion. it is more sedate on the bowling green, but it means just as much to scotland.

a win over australia gave the triples team gold. no basketball medals are decided yet, but england have been giving out gold. at full—time, jamell anderson proposed on court. the way to make a winning match even sweeter. joe lynskey, bbc news. this tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the good friday agreement in northern ireland. the deal brought an end to the troubles in northern ireland and began power sharing at stormont. however the uncertainty over the irish border as a result of brexit and the current political deadlock between the ruling parties has cast doubt over the legacy of the good friday agreement. on the eve of the anniversary commemorations bbc northern ireland's political editor mark devenport spoke to tony blair — british prime minister at the time of the agreement — and asked him if he was concerned the achievements of the deal were in peril as a result of recent developments. we are celebrating the anniversary of the good friday agreement,

the belfast agreement, and ijust think it's important that people remember what things were like before we had the peace process, before we had the agreement. i'm of a generation, you are pretty much of a generation that remembers those times, remembers waking up every day to the tales of violence and extremism and murder and terrible things happening, deep divisions and sectarian hatred. now, the truth is the agreement was never going to simply, the day after, usher in a brave new world and everything was going to be fine. but where we are today should be compared not with the ideal world but with where we were, and when you compare that, you realise that it was a huge achievement of everyone concerned to bring about the agreement, and secondly, it's worth keeping. and it would be dangerous and foolish to put it at risk.

obviously it did deliver peace, and that was the main aim. but in terms of the political system it set up, that seems to have been prone to deadlock, we have no assembly, no executive. do you think it is time to reform it, do a nuts and bolts review? when i look at the issues that are currently interrupting progress at stormont, they seem to be the very types of issues we were dealing with all through my ten years as prime minister, and after the good friday agreement, i was constantly involved in every single stage of the negotiation and process and probably in the ten years i was prime minister i must have visited northern ireland probably more times than all my predecessors put together since partition. so it was never going to be a situation in which there weren't constantly going to be issues that divided, that still had a deep cultural significance for example,

and would require constant working on, but nowadays i see a lot of what is happening in different parts of the world and you realise that wherever there is a peace process, the work doesn't end at the moment you have an agreement, it carries on probably for a generation, maybe two generations, but it is better to do that then go back to the time of conflict. the comedian peter kay has made his first public appearance since cancelling a tour in december because of what were described as "unforeseen family circumstances". he appeared on stage last night at the blackpool opera house, which was screening the final episode of his comedy series, car share. the show will be broadcast on bbc television next month. not many bollywood stars can claim that they got the acting bug by watching coronation street with their mum in south wales, but it was the first step on the road to fame

for banita sandhu. she's a rising star of bollywood — the indian movie industry — despite growing up 5000 miles away in newport, where her love of acting was sparked by soap operas. haroon rashid went to meet her. this is one of the most talked—about bollywood movies of the year. october stars one of the highest grossing actress in bollywood, varun dhawan. but it's a fresh face on the screen that's got everyone talking, and she lives 5,000 miles away from mumbai. hello. how are you? well, thank you. banita sandhu is born and raised in the uk and i've come to her home near newport to find out more about her and her transformation into a bollywood star. i grew up in wales in a small village and when i was 18 i moved to london for university and it was a strategic move on my part, i have to say,

because obviously i was studying but i knew at the same time, london being the hub of all film and television in britain, it was a great place to do castings at the same time. banita would fly around the world to shoot commercials during her holidays from studying english literature at university, hoping eventually it would lead to her big break. it was during the making of this advert that she first met the director of october, shoojit sircar. unbeknown to me, shoojit, that ad we did together, it was kind of his way of auditioning me for october. mum, i'm on the tv! banita has dreamt of being on screen since she was ten, and her mother was more than happy to help her achieve her ambition. banita first showed interest in acting when we were watching coronation street together. we were snuggled up and she was watching it with me and said, "mum, that's what i want to be — i want to be an actress." i'm good, how are you? banita has come to cardiff to meet herformer agent and drama

coach for the first time since she went to india. she looks good on camera and she's got a natural ability. that's the ticket, quite honestly. so this one, my sister and i... banita shows me some of the bollywood films she grew up watching, and says being home keeps her grounded. i still don't feel like i'm famous. i'm so outside of that world. even if i do get "papped" — i hate that word — but even when that does happen i come back to this safe haven where nobody knows me and it's kind of nice to lead two lives. action! with the offers already flooding in ahead of october's release, and banita on course to graduate this summer, it looks like she'll be swapping newport for mumbai more often. most of us got to see at least some

pleasa nt most of us got to see at least some pleasant spring weather this weekend, but it wasn't all plain sailing. some fabrics of rain down to the south—east and this cloudy and damp weather will continue to sit around as we go through the night. elsewhere, some clear spells but the potential for quite dense fog patches to develop across northern ireland, seth wescott and, come into law england and maybe the west midlands as well. if this skies stay clear enough across scotland for long enough, there could be a touch of frost but most places will stay above freezing. into tomorrow, grey and stamp across the south—east once again with patchy rain fringing west into the midlands and east wales. brighter skies in west wales with an tubic is for most of us up into double digits once again. through the week ahead, it will stay mild generally but chilly for north sea coasts with the wind off the

sea. some rain at times but some spells of sunshine as well.