welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: president trump promises a forceful response to the suspected chemical attack in syria. his decision is expected soon. we are studying that situation extremely closely. we are meeting with our military, and everybody else, and we'll be making some major decisions over the next 2a to 48 hours. russia rejects calls for an independent inquiry, but america's ambassador to the un points the finger clearly at syria's allies. we must not overlook russia and iran's roles in enabling the assad regime's murderous destruction. the international community must not let this happen. facebook users are told whether they are among the 87 million whose personal data was misused. president trump has said

it is becoming increasingly clear who is responsible for the latest suspected chemical weapons attack in syria, and he has promised a quick and forceful decision on a response — possibly within hours. there has been sweeping international condemnation of saturday's attack on douma, believed to have killed up to 60 people. there were sharp words at an emergency session of the un security council. russia, which backs syria, said the incident was staged, and warned that an american military strike in response could lead to grave repercussions. our middle east editorjeremy bowen starts our coverage, there are images you may find distressing. most of the casualties in syria's war were attacked with bullets and high explosive, but chemical weapons have a special horror. this is the aftermath of what witnesses said

was a chemical attack, as douma, a town just outside damascus, fell to the regime. we're not showing you pictures we have of dozens of dead bodies with foam on their mouths, which can be a sign of a chemical attack. all this is not evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the regime, say the russians. president trump doesn't believe them. we'll be making some major decisions over the next 2a to 48 hours. if it's russia, if it's syria, if it's iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out, and we'll know the answers quite soon. in seven years of fighting, syria's war has changed from a campaign to overthrow the regime to a mini world war, that is being fought by many of the world's most powerful countries, and looks to be escalating. at the un in new york,

stark divisions over syria and weapons of mass destruction, wmds, are expanding into an even more serious international crisis. translation: russia is being unpardonably threatened. the tone of the way this is being done has gone beyond the threshold of what is acceptable, even during the cold war. the russian ambassador referred to a resurgence of the cold war. this is not the cold war, mr president. in the cold war, there was not this flagrant disregard for the prohibitions that are universal on the use of wmds. a year ago, the americans retaliated after another chemical attack on syrian civilians. it was mostly symbolic. the assad regime, with russian and iranian help, has continued to strengthen its position. from the start of the war, the us,

britain and their allies called for president assad to go, but they didn't back their words with deeds. when the president was vunerable, the us and the uk chose not to act. now, he has the firm backing of iran's supreme leader, ayatollah khamenei, and of course russia's president putin. that makes him stronger than at any time since the war began in 2011. it is hard to see what the west can do to change that. the americans and the british missed their chance. in the last 48 hours, syria's mini world war has been heating up. this is said to be an israeli jet crossing lebanon to raid syria. in february, the israelis had a plane shot down as it hit the same target — an airbase called t4. hitting t4 was not about chemical weapons, but israel's

fight with iran. supporters of president assad took to the streets in aleppo, the city in which the coalition between the syrian regime, the russians and the iranians scored their first significant victory. they still look to be the war‘s big winners, and it is hard to see how western retaliation for the latest chemical attack is going to change that. jeremy bowen, bbc news. the us ambassador to the un, nikki haley, told the security council that syria's president, bashar al—assad, bore responsibility for what had happened. she called him a monster who must be held to account, and also criticised his backers, russia and iran. ms haley said that even if the council failed to act, washington would. who does this? only a monster does this. only a monster target

civilians and then ensures that there are no ambulances to transfer there are no ambulances to transfer the wounded. no hospitals to save their lives. no doctors or medicine to ease their pain. i could hold up pictures of all of this killing, and suffering, for the council to see. but what would be the point? monster who is responsible for these attacks has no conscience. not even to be shocked by pictures of dead children. the russian regime, whose hands are all covered in the blood of syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims. we've tried that before. we must not overlook russia and iran's roles in enabling the assad regime's murderous destruction. the international community must not let this happen. we are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. we are beyond appeals to conscience. we have reached the moment when the

world must see justice done. history will record this as the moment when the security council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of syria. either way, the united states will respond. with that promise of a response by the us, what are president trump's options? here is our north america editorjon sopel. well, we've heard president trump use the words heinous, barbaric, horrible, atrocious — this is a question about humanity. i've spoken to a senior source who said the direction of travel is that something has to be done in the next 48 hours, and that the americans are hoping that the british and the french will be alongside them. now, that is in marked contrast to a year ago, when the president didn't really consult the french or the british at all about that liberty cruise missile strike that took place then.

now, the president has not yet spoken to theresa may. that call is expected to happen in the next 24 hours or so. i suppose the american concern will be that theresa may decides she's got to refer this to the british parliament to decide upon. that would upset donald trump, to put it mildly, and i think the americans are hoping that the british will be on board, and they've been given some indications that they will be. but that then brings you to the question of what action. america has the ability to launch whatever sort of strikes it wants. it wants the british and the french there as well. but do you do what you did last year, which was a limited strike on one airfield, and a year later seems to have made no difference, or do you do something much more powerful and forceful in terms of an attack on syria, but which risks destabilising the region still further, and perhaps inflaming the situation, and with russia warning of dire consequences? these are finely calibrated judgements that have to be made.

and one other thing — the president last week was talking about pulling troops out of syria, it's nothing to do with us. is his position now a settled one, or might it change again? more on the us reaction from washington and from michael carpenter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense. michael, i know you worked extensively on syria at the pentagon. you were also director for russia at the national security council. what do you anticipate happening next? well, it is going to be interesting to see whether president trump decides to co—ordinate military action with our allies, as was mentioned in the earlier reporting, especially the uk and france. that would delay a strike, but could potentially have a more robust effect in terms of signalling western unity in opposition to this egregious crime. what i think will happen, though, regardless, is the us will lodge probably a wider set of strikes than last time, where we

just target of one airbase, with approximately 60 tomahawk missiles. it didn't have much of an effect. there were aircraft taking off within hours of that strike. so i anticipate this time something with multiple targets, spread across a wider expands of geography, and potentially also targeting regime command and control and other facilities, besides simply military bases. but of course we will have to see in the coming days what shakes out. so that would be something not so out. so that would be something not so limited as last time, more than a gesture. something more powerful, though, as our north america editor was saying, risks destabilising even further and entire region. well, it does. it also risks a proxy conflict with russia and orion, so in many of these military facilities in syria you have russian split starts, russian advisers, there are iran iams, the israeli strike targeted

the t4 airbase where there were iranians embedded. so when the us did launch those tomahawk strikes, the us gave russia advanced notice that it was going to target the facility that it did, because it was suspected that there were russian officers therein that facility. and so officers therein that facility. and so the question this time is, if as mrtrump so the question this time is, if as mr trump says we are going to incur... there is going to be a bigger price to pay for these chemical weapons attacks, is the us going to warn russia? what are they going to warn russia? what are they going to warn russia? what are they going to do about potential irani and casualties, and the potential for blowback from iran iams in iraq and syria and elsewhere. remember, we have a troop presence in syria. so this gets quite messy quite quickly and it has applications which go beyond the assad regime. and what about the victims? none of this is going to make any difference to the people already affected. is any of it likely to be enough to stop this happening again? well,

clearly the last strike was not sufficient because we are here today talking about this again. but that doesn't mean that doing nothing is the right solution to the problem. because deterrence for assad and his enablers, including lebanese hezbollah, will lead assad to conclude that these sorts of barbaric attacks are simply not worth the price because of what happens next. that didn't happen last year, it didn't happen before, during a bomb ministration. so there isa during a bomb ministration. so there is a rationale for launching a much more robust set of strikes to demonstrate that there are indeed serious costs to this type of behaviour —— obama administration. facebook‘s ceo, mark zuckerberg, has been on capitol hill, meeting with members of congress ahead of two scheduled hearings this week. in the coming days, he will face tough questions on how the data of millions of users got into the hands of the political consulting firm cambridge analytica. facebook has begun notifying the 87 million users whose information was shared in that breach.

our media editor amol rajan reports. in less than a decade and a half, one company has done more than any other to connect the world, and not always in a good way. each time we scroll, share or like something on facebook, we leave a digital footprint. and our personal data can be scraped by developers of apps, or applications, some of whom pass that information on to companies such as cambridge analytica. the british data firm's alleged use of such data has plunged facebook into the biggest crisis in its history. some 87 million users' data ended up in the firm's hands, i million of them british. this mathematician and entrepreneur gave evidence to mps at the same time as a whistle—blower who worked for cambridge analytica. the cambridge analytica story shows that their policies and practices are not sufficient to handle our personal data properly. so i wouldn't trust facebook, or mark zuckerberg for that matter, with our personal data. the personal data is an extension of ourselves.

do we really want to sell it, just like we would sell an organ, maybe? so there's — we have to be very careful there. this evening, facebook started pushing out notifications to users. one was sent to all users, showing them how to remove apps they would rather didn't have access to their data. other notifications are being sent specifically to those targeted by this is your digital life. it was this app which an academic used to harvest information that was sent on to cambridge analytica. a third notification was sent to the friends of those who had downloaded this app. not so long ago, most of us kept our most personal information in something like this, in hard copy. if you lost it, or if someone took it, then maybe one person would have access to that precious information. but now, most of us leave

such information online, and there such information can be scraped, shared or marketed to thousands of people. and, once you lose control of it, it is very hard to get it back. tonight, mark zuckerberg arrived in washington, issuing his usual t—shirt and jeans. as chief executive mark zuckerberg prepares to testify before us congress this week, the recent changes to their privacy settings and today's notifications are a recognition that trust in their brand has been seriously damaged. amol rajan, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news: president xi jinping is expected to announce major economic reforms when he gives the keynote speech at the annual boao forum for asia in a few hours. mr xi is also likely to address the issue of a potential trade war with the us. the retrial of the actor and comedian bill cosby has got underway in pennsylvania. he is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his mansion 14 years ago. jurors at his first trial, lastjune, couldn't reach a verdict. the 80—year—old has faced claims of assaulting almost 60 women over five decades. he denies any wrongdoing. the fbi has raided the offices, home

and hotel room of president trump's personal lawyer, and seized his cellphone, computer, and documents potentially related to payments to the porn actress stormy daniels. she claims she had a sexual encounter with mr trump shortly after his wife melania gave birth to their son, and says she was paid to keep quiet about the affair. president trump has described the raid as a disgrace and a witch hunt. more from david willis. what we know is that officials raided the office home and apparently in a hotel in which michael cohen, president trump's personal lawyer, had been staying in. and they recovered various documents, financial documents relating to some of his clients, including president trump. they confiscated his mobile phone, it's been reported, and a computer. and they found amongst the documents, reports suggest, some relating to a 2016 payment to the adult film star stormy daniels, who has alleged that she had a sexual affair with donald trump several years ago. mr trump, of course, denies this. now, michael cohen's lawyer,

a short while ago, said that the action on the part of the us attorney's office in new york, they're the people who carried out this raid, was undertaken by way of a referral from the office of the special counsel, robert mueller, the suggestion being that robert mueller and his team, who are looking into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia in the run—up to the 2016 election, came across something that they thought constituted potential criminal action, and they forwarded that information to the local officials there. now, president trump, as you mentioned, has said that this is a disgraceful situation, an attack on our country, as he put it. and asked by a reporter, will he now fire the special prosecutor, robert mueller, he said, many have said that i should fire him.

we will see what happens. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the global shipping industry under the spotlight, as a major generator of carbon emissions. 25 years of hatred and rage as theyjump up on the statue. this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power, power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future, the day when we heard the line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's works were beautiful,

they were intelligent, and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump says a major decision is coming within 48 hours, after a suspected chemical attack on a rebel—held syrian town. an emergency meeting of the united nations security council criticises syrian leader bashar al—assad, but russia defends its ally. dalia dassa kaye is director of the center for middle east public policy at the the rand corporation. she's in santa monica, california.

good to talk to you again. what is most likely to happen now? given the statement of the president and what occurred at the un the prospects for the us responding in a military fashion a high right now. there is some speculation and this would be prefera ble some speculation and this would be preferable is that it would be done in conjunction with the french military. that's all i know right now the prospects of some kind of us military response are quite high. what kind of scale of response and what difference might it make? that is hard to know that i think what we do know, and we have seen from a year ago, when the us launched a limited air strike, it made very little difference in the occasion on the ground. —— in the equation. bashar al—assad has consolidated his power. most countries nearby believe

that assad has one. it didn't stop assad attacking his own people with chemical weapons. so what are the objectives of another us military strike regardless of its scope? it is nothing short of threatening the assad regime itself, and most people think the united states is not interested in a full—fledged war against the assad and then russia, what is the objective of the mission? a lot of the observers are concerned about that policy. how do you think a new national security adviser factors into all that? you think a new national security adviser factors into all that7m you think a new national security adviser factors into all that? it is certainly concerning. secretary bolton is known to quite hardline statements. i think the likelihood of response would be high but i think that probably just of response would be high but i think that probablyjust ensures that it think that probablyjust ensures thatitis think that probablyjust ensures that it is likely the trump administration will feel the need to

ta ke administration will feel the need to take some kind of action. given the limited impact that was on the ground, but all the very difficult questions and dilemmas of assyrian wall, there is no easy way out and the president has indicated he wants to get out of this war. i think we have a lot of questions about what will be the consequences of this attack, even whether or not secretary bolton is in place or not. thank you very much. international shipping generates more than 2% of global carbon emissions — that's higher than germany — and it's a figure that's projected to increase rapidly. talks are now being held in london to try to clean up the industry. but there's a deep division between countries that want to see urgent action — and those that fear limits could damage their economies. our science editor david shukman reports. at felixstowe docks, britain's largest container port, the staggering sight of a ship that stretches for roughly the length of four football pitches. the vessels that handle global trade have grown massively.

look at the tiny figures on the quayside. but as the industry has expanded, so has the pollution it causes. so far, shipping has been exempted from international climate agreements, but that is now changing. many of the most modern vessels like these are far more efficient than older generations, but if you add up all the greenhouse to clear up. in london today, more than 100 countries started to talk about cutting emissions from shipping. for some, like the small island states, vulnerable to climate change, this is a vital chance to head off the most damaging effects of global warming. we can talk about the bottom line. we can talk about profit, corporate profit. we can talk about economic development and prosperity, but if your very survival is really at stake, nothing else matters, right?

a blast of fumes at dover. the shipping industry does accept it causes pollution, but also says trade is essential. countries like brazil say they can't afford to lose out. brazil sits in a faraway location in terms of its destination export markets, so we have to really look with care any measure that would eventually be adopted that could discriminate against brazil. so, what can be done? well, the simplest option is for ships to go more slowly, to burn less fuel. further ahead, fleets from developing countries might be given more time to modernise and become cleaner, and richer countries might help fund that change. and the technology is advancing all the time. already, this very in norway is battery powered. and japanese researchers want to go back to sales. harnessing wind power

to reduce the use of engines. back at felixstowe, we watch one of the massive vessels setting off for asia. it's due at the suez canal by friday, when negotiations are due to finish on what to do about the industry's rehouse gases. and no—one is certain of reaching agreement. david shukman, bbc news, in felixstowe. the us senator tammy duckworth has given birth to a daughter. she is the first senator to give birth in office. she had a crash in the rock wall and was injured. the other babies have all been born to members serving in the house. —— in the iraq war. hello again, good morning.

west wales, the far south—west of england saw the best of the temperatures and sunshine on monday but for many other parts of the uk, it was rather dull and misty. we saw rain developing more widely across england, pushing into wales and that will continue to work its way northwards and for most of us, disappointing temperatures this week. a lot of cloud, some rain at times. easterly winds are setting up so it's always going to be better towards more western parts of the uk. at the moment, our weather map is dominated by a large area of low pressure which is not really going anywhere at all, picking rain up from iberia and pushing it towards france and heading it towards our shores. so the rain that's been developing continues to work its way northwards through the day, away eventually from northern england up into scotland apart from the far north—west. some wetter weather later for northern ireland. some cloud behind that, rather misty in the hills as it brightens up across the southern parts of england. and as we get some sunshine, it will get a bit warmer but it could trigger some heavy showers

around too and will continue into the evening. overnight, that rain moving away from northern ireland and scotland. the next area of rain comes in around our area of low pressure, originating from germany, moving across the low countries and heading towards england and wales. some uncertainty about exactly where the rain is going to be on wednesday. at the moment, it looks more likely across the midlands, wales, possibly into northern england. should be drier for scotland and northern ireland. again, not too bad for the north—west of scotland but across eastern scotland, north—east england, higher and fret, low cloud, mist and drizzle really low temperatures as well. get some sunshine again across southern counties of england, those temperatures getting into the midteens quite easily. stronger winds in an easterly wind, always going to be stronger across the northern half of the uk, high—pressure blocking things off from scandinavia, low pressure across france maintaining that easterly flow. not much wind, though, further south across the uk, so we get a bit of sunshine, it shouldn't feel too bad. some heavy rain developing in the south—east later on and further north, it's always going to be the eastern side of scotland and north—east

england which will be dull and damp, still quite cold as well. still the same sort of weather pattern, low pressure to the south of us, high pressure to the north and across scandinavia, keeping the stronger easterly winds this time, more for northern and eastern areas of scotland where we'll see some more rain developing, probably on friday, pushing across northern england for a time. a little bit brighter further south. some warmth when the sun does come out but still the potential for some showers across england and wales. so quite a range of temperatures for most of us. a disappointing week ahead into the weekend. it's more likely to be wet and windy for northern and western areas of the uk. warmer, drier and brighter in the south—east. this is bbc news. the headlines — the united states says it will take action against syria for the suspected chemical attack regardless of what the united nations decides. president trump said a major decision will come within 48 hours. russia has warned that us military action in syria could cause "grave repercussions". there's been sweeping

international condemnation of the suspected chemical attack on douma in syria. the us ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, told an emergency meeting of the security council that syria's president, bashar al—assad, bore responsibility for what had happened. president trump says a raid on the office and home of his personal lawyer is a disgrace. fbi agents seized documents from michael cohen which included files relating to the payment of $130,000 to a porn star, stormy daniels. the washington post claims mr cohen is under investigation for finance violations. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.