europa moscow this evening. it the europa league is important for us, everybody knows that, and we are at the stage where of course we focus on it, because in the premier league we have a very, very slim chance to get further up. but the europa league is of course one of the big targets of the season now. yes, of course, victory in the europa league could take arsenal intermix is an's champions league, all those quarterfinals taking place this evening, and they all kick off at five past eight. that is all from sports day, thank you forjoining us, we will have more sport for you throughout the evening. let's return to syria, and the question of whether military action will be agreed by the us and allies, and what form it could take. earlier, simon mccoy asked the bbc diplomatic correspondent paul adams to answer viewers' questions. my my impression is that this will happen soon, my impression is that obi surprised if it doesn't happen in the next 48 hours. when it comes

to what sort of military action, essentially i think it is anything in syria related to the production oi’ in syria related to the production or deployment of chemical weapons. this is all about chemical weapons. so army bases where there has been evidence of chemical weapons use recently or in the past, research facilities, there is onejust outside damascus that has been hit several times over the course of the syrian war by the israelis, that seems to be high on everyone‘s list. defence manufacturing, possibly even industrial sites associated with the production of chlorine, because that seems to be the weapon that was used in the attack in duma. some will have been wondering why it is this has all been advertising far in advance, and there is reporting suggesting that the syrians and russians have been moving, particularly syrian aircraft and helicopters, to russian bases. i think that is probably not surprisingly i don't think the

western powers have any intention of putting russian facilities. if the syrians want to keep the equipment out of harms way, it is entirely logical they would be doing that. out of harms way, it is entirely logical they would be doing thatm follows the alleged chemical attack at the weekend. this room and drew in ipswich, how our nation is going to verify that chemical weapons had been used as opposed to the possibility of propaganda by rebels? the answer is very unsatisfactory. we are not going to know exactly what happened in duma. a couple of nights ago at the un security council, you had this battle of resolutions, the americans proposing one mechanism for investigating what happened, the russians purposing two other mechanisms, vetoes were wielded, the end result, no investigation, theresa may said yesterday that no un investigation was possible. so frankly it ends up who do you believe? do you believe russia and syria, who say no chemical weapons were used ?

russia and syria, who say no chemical weapons were used? although the russian narrative does seem a bit convoluted and at times contradictory, or do you believe the us, france, the uk, germany and others, who say the evidence is very strong? i would say to those who are instead in pursuing this further, there are open source is, citizen journalists, who examined the sort of thing. there is one by the website name beliingcat, who has done extensive research of what happened last weekend. his research is available, you look at other on the internet, and i willjust read you his conclusion. he is an independent journalist and analyst with quite a good track record of analysing, for example, the crash of the malaysian airlines that was allegedly shot down by a russian surface to air missile and so forth. his conclusion, based on the available evidence, it is highly likely that the 34 plus victims killed in the attack on the apartment building in duma were killed as a result of a gas in the field with what is most likely

chlorine gas king dropped from a helicopter originating from the syrian air base. that is his conclusion, it is certainly the conclusion, it is certainly the conclusion of the british, the americans and others. we have had a tweet, not from him, but from our seal on telly, who says what political strategic objectives would be served by attacking syria again? good question, again. at the risk of repeating myself, we need to see this through the prism of chemical weapons. this is not, and i really emphasise this, this is not an attempt to influence the outcome of the syrian conflict. that moment has come and gone. everyone knows that president assad with his russian and iranian backers, is winning the war in syria, and there is very little appetite in the west to change that reality. however, following the events in salisbury, and the events in douma last weekend, there is a growing consensus around the nation and the west that the use of

chemical weapons, whether as an satiation —— session isn't all anything else, it is becoming normalised, it has happened frequently in syria, so frittelli that we have stopped paying attention until now. maybe because of salisbury we are paying more attention now than we otherwise would have been but certainly i get the feeling that is how british and other officials want us to see this, as an opportunity to say notjust syria but perhaps more importantly to russia of this normalisation of the use of chemical weapons cannot go on, and from now on there will be a prize, a heavy price, to anyone who does that. that was paul adams speaking to simon mccoy. time for a look at the weather with ben roach. plymouth crew it has once again been a real struggle to lift the gloom in many places, grey skies persisted overhead for this weather watcher

close to leicester, misty and drizzly as well. but very different across the scottish highlands, our weather watcher capturing those guys and some beautiful spring flowers, some or of that to come actually later in this forecast. but for the time being, this evening and tonight, it is all about the cloud, some showery rain and parts of the midlands, northern rain into scotland, some misty and murky condition once again, at least the temperature is not trotting to far. there will be mild under the cloud. fabrics of rain in northern england and scotland, further south something dry but still generally cloudy, to something a bit writer into the far south, a late burst of sunshine along the south coast. still breezy across the north—east of scotland, but the breeze easing a little for the north sea coast of england. temperatures for the likes of hull and norwich perhaps higher than they have been over the last few days, and that trend of rising

temperatures continues more generally as we go into the weekend. there will be some sunny spells, it will be breezy though, and still the chance to some heavy showers. saturday should be mostly dry, a lot of cloud around, yes, but it should break up to give some spells of sunshine, certainly more in the way a brightness than we have had over the last few days, and higher temperatures as well, you can see the slightly warmer air pushing up from the south. that is a trend, this area of low pressure squashes infor this area of low pressure squashes in for the west, more of a southerly wind bringing more of that warm air but that wind will be quite brisk. it will actually turn quite windy across northern ireland during the day on sunday. some outbreaks of rain perhaps into the west, this is where we have the risk for some hefty showers breaking out elsewhere. still some spells of sunshine, and those temp ajer 70 degrees in london, perhaps 15 in edinburgh. we will continue to feed that warm air in from the south as we go on into next week. i want to show you the seven day forecast for

oui’ show you the seven day forecast for our four show you the seven day forecast for ourfour capital cities. show you the seven day forecast for our four capital cities. as you show you the seven day forecast for ourfour capital cities. as you can see, the temperatures will be rising wherever you are. in fact in parts of the south, the low to mid 20s with some sunshine as well. you're watching beyond 100 days. there could be strikes on syria sooner, later or whenever. with one tweet the president throws the timetable up in the air. in london, theresa may chairs an emergency cabinet meeting to analyse options as the french president said he has proved the assad regime used chemical weapons. us generals briefed the white house on military options. we are looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation. and we'll see what happens, folks. we will see what happens. i'm in the lebanese capital, beirut. just over two hours from there it is

damascus, the capital of syria, which is where president