you are watching bbc news, i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: another attempt in washington to break the deadlock over the partial government shutdown ends with no sign of a breakthrough. mourners lay candles for the five teenage girls killed in a fire in poland, as safety checks at escape room venues across the country are ordered. officials from the white house and congress have met in a further attempt to end the budget row that has led to a partial shutdown of the us government. the meeting broke up after two hours with no sign of a breakthrough, although they have agreed to talk again on sunday. president trump says he is willing to see the impasse continue until funding for his mexico border wall is approved. kim gittleson has the latest. two hours elapsed from when white

house officials entered congress to speak with democrats and when they left. that time was either productive, in the words of vice president mike pence, or an empty exercise according to president donald trump, who tweeted that not much headway had been made towards ending the now two week old parcel us government shutdown. the strain is beginning to show in the 800,000 government workers who have begun to protest the political deadlock that has cost them their pay cheques. millionaires don't care about the regular people, you know? they are not really sympathetic to what is going on. we are just really fed up right now. we are just so fed up. we need to be funded, because we need a pay cheques, and we need to service the american people. but hopes for a deal us slim given the political calculus at the heart of the impasse. this could go on for quite awhile, because this shutdown works

for both parties, politically. for president trump, he has again backed himself into a corner, he said he wa nts a himself into a corner, he said he wants a wall. for the democrats, they can say to the voters, well, there is no way we are going to get funding for this wall. so a continuation of the shutdown is in many ways were both parties need to do to feed the needs of their bases. while the rum or talks scheduled for this weekend, with the two sides are still far apart, it is hard to see when and how the stalemate will end. let's get some of the day's other news: the federal grand jury being used by special counsel robert mueller, as he investigates alleged russian collusion in the us 2016 presidential election, has had its term extended by up to six months. the initial 18—month term was due to expire this weekend, amid speculation that the probe might end soon. president donald trump has called the investigation a witch hunt. two british special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in an attack in syria by so—called islamic state.

it is understood the two soldiers were wounded by a missile which exploded near the syrian town of deir al—zour, in the east of the country, and were taken to a hospital by american forces. police in california say three people have been shot dead at a bowling alley near los angeles. police say they are working to identify those involved in the shooting, in which four other people were injured. local media said the shooting followed a fight at gable house bowl in the coastal town of torrance. germany's cyber security authorities have been criticised for not alerting police straight away about a mass data attack. it has been revealed the federal office for information security knew about the breach in december, but only notified officials on friday. journalists, celebrities and politicians are among those whose personal information was published online. an appalling tragedy — that is how poland's president has described the death of five teenagers killed in a fire at an escape room, a venue that involves players solving puzzles in order to get out of rooms or situations.

the victims, all 15—year—old girls, were celebrating a birthday. it happened in the northern town of koszalin, but safety checks have been ordered on escape rooms across the country. adam easton sent this report from warsaw. the five schoolgirls had gone for an evening of fun to celebrate a birthday. locked inside the small, seven—metre—square room , the teenagers were trying to solve puzzles to let themselves out. leaking gas cylinders started a fire in an adjacent room. translation: there were four heaters located in the waiting room, which is where the fire started. the fire prevented the employee who was supervising the game's participants from unlocking the door to the escape room. as the fire and toxic smoke quickly spread, the girls had no way to escape. firefighters had to use specialised equipment to break in, but it was already too late. koszalin is in shock.

translation: this is a huge tragedy. it's traumatic for the parents, for those closest to the girls, and it's also a trauma for their teachers. i met with them today, and i saw how they're reacting. translation: these are people from koszalin. they are our neighbours. it's a terrible tragedy. we've come here today to symbolically unite with all those affected by this awful tragedy, and show that we are there to support them. all cultural events in the town have been cancelled, and the mayor has announced a day of mourning. escape rooms have become popular in poland over the last four years. it is estimated there are now around 1,000 venues across the country. the authorities have ordered that all those sites be checked to ensure they meet the required safety sta nda rds. adam easton, bbc news, warsaw. ukraine's new orthodox church has been granted independence, ending moscow's authority after more than three centuries. the ukrainian president,

petro poroshenko, attended a ceremony at st george's cathedral in istanbul where independence was granted by leaders of the orthodox church. the move has provoked a furious response from russia. jonah fisher reports from kiev. was this the moment that split the global orthodox church? in st george's cathedral, in istanbul, the ecumenical patriarch bartholomew signs what is known as a tomos. the document recognises ukraine's orthodox church, for the first time, as separate and outside russian control. a relationship that has lasted centuries ended with the stroke of a pen. watching on and enjoying a rare moment of success was ukraine's president, petro poroshenko. he has called this the final step in ukraine's independence from russia. translation: glory to god. without his will, this

would not have been possible. i say thank you to metropolitan bartholomew, to his faith. the big questions are about what happens next. the russian orthodox church, facing the loss of millions of followers, has already condemned the decision, and severed ties with the ecumenical patriarch. will other countries now refuse to recognise the new ukrainian church? there will be celebrations over the next few days, here in ukraine, to mark this historic moment. what remains unresolved, though, is the fate of the thousands of parishes and religious sites that are still under the control of the russian orthodox church. this could turn out to be a very messy divorce. jonah fisher, bbc news, in kiev. russia's deputy foreign minister has dismissed speculation over a possible prisoner swap involving the former us marine paul whelan.

mr whelan, who also has british, canadian and irish nationality, was arrested in russia for alleged spying. sergei ryabkov described the arrest of paul whelan as very serious and said that talk of swapping him for any russian detainee was inappropriate, counterproductive, and politically unjustified. the so—called yellow vest protesters are out on the streets of the french capital once again, their first demonstration of 2019. the number of demonstrators has dwindled since president macron granted some concessions on fuel tax, pensions, the minimum wage and overtime last month. but many people are still gathering to protest in the cities of lille and marseille, as well as paris. thousands of anti—government demonstrators have marched through hungary's capital, budapest, to protest against the policies of the far—right government of viktor orban. the demonstrations began in december against a law that extends overtime, but have since broadened.

nick thorpe is in budapest. thousands of people marched through the centre of budapest, in bitterly cold january afternoon, to gather here in front of the hungarian parliament. the main achievement of these protests so far has been the unprecedented degree of unity they've achieved from the left to the right of the hungarian political spectrum. but, as the novelty of the demonstrations wears off, the problems facing organisers is how to maintain this momentum. the trade unions have been canvassing their members, and there is talk today of a general strike, a one—day general strike, in two weeks' time. from the government's side, these protests have been downplayed, and the government media has been denigrating those taking part. there has also been a carrot from the government side, an offer of an 8% wage increase this

year, followed by another 8% next year. set against the government, then, the protest organisers are hoping that this overtime law, this ‘slave law', will act as a catalyst for all the grievances people across hungary feel towards the government. nick thorpe, bbc news, budapest. an attempt by the american television presenter ellen degeneres to convince kevin hart to host the oscars appears to have backfired, with both now facing intense criticism. hart had been due to host the ceremony next month, but pulled out when homophobic tweets he had posted in the past resurfaced. don't forget you can find more on all of the stories we are covering on our website. there is the latest on president trump and the partial us shutdown, and a call for peace from brazil's new far—right leader, following an upsurge in violence on the streets of fortaleza. just go to bbc.com/news, or you can also download the bbc news app. more now on that partial us

shutdown. live now to atlanta, and heather long, economics correspondent at the washington post. thank you very much for your time. first of all, do you see any end in sight for this shutdown? nine. there is absolutely no hope right now. we are on day 15 of this shutdown, and the talks are going nowhere this weekend. the house and the senate, they don't even come back to washington until tuesday, so even though the talks are continuing, we are seeing no movement from the white house. president trump continues to demand $5 billion for that water wall he wants to finish building on the southern border, and the democrats are saying no way. mike pence did tweet that he thought the discussions were productive,

interestingly, even though there doesn't seem to be any resolution. who is to blame here? is it the democrats digging their heels in on something they know donald trump really wa nts, something they know donald trump really wants, or is it donald trump's fault for being too obstinate on this? that's a great question. what really matters is what the american public thinks, what the american public thinks, what voters think, and poll after poll is telling us that overwhelmingly trump is getting the blame for this shutdown. about half of the country blames trump, and only a third blame democrats. the white house understands that dynamic and that's why both president trump and that's why both president trump and vice president pens today have been on kind of a charm campaign, if you will, to say look we are working, we stayed over the christmas and the white house in washington to try to get things done —— pence. they are trying to pin it on the democrats, but so far that sentiment is not shifting. is kind of —— part of the problem here that

both sides arejust of —— part of the problem here that both sides are just talking to their base at the moment? they are each trying to talk to their own voters rather than perhaps their own country. —— the whole country. rather than perhaps their own country. -- the whole country. that might be part of it, but remember, when this shutdown began on 22 december, just days before christmas, the senate republicans in the senate kratz, they had passed a bill to keep the government opened through seborrhoeic. —— democrats. it was a bipartisan bill, they came together, they thought that it would be fine, it would sail through and they could all go home and the holidays. it wasn't until president trump dug his heels in and insisted on the border wall funding that reaction he went into a shutdown situation. and what we saw again on friday, as democrats tried to say let's try this again, let's see if we canjust let's try this again, let's see if we can just keep the government open, get it reopened, keep it open for at least another few weeks and then see we are —— where we are with further negotiations, vice president pence on friday called house republicans and told them not to ci’oss republicans and told them not to cross lines, do not vote with the

democrats. there is a real personal side to this story, as well. there area side to this story, as well. there are a lot of government workers who are a lot of government workers who are facing real hardship. what are some of the story that you are hearing about how those workers are coping? i am so glad you brought that up. at the washington post we have heard from hundreds of government workers. so 100,000 federal workers in the united states have their pay... they are not getting paid right now, and we are about to end the week three of not having any payment for these workers. we have heard from people who, edo, aren't buying groceries, who, edo, aren't buying groceries, who are very nervous about meeting their mortgage payments. we have heard from people are literally debating whether to return christmas gifts so they can have extra money on hand, or who are currently searching for otherjobs, like maybe being an uber or lyft driver. but the sad stories, in my mind, when we get phone calls from the janitors

and the cafeteria workers in many of these federal buildings throughout washington, dc and in other parts of the country. those people don't work directly for the government. so most of the government workers, the 800,000, money is tight right now, but if the government reopens, they usually get paid. they will get all their money. it's just they may not haveit their money. it's just they may not have it now when they need to pay their bills. but the janitors in the cafeteria workers, they work for third—party companies, and if they are not at work, no work, no pay, and they will not get back pay, in most places. somehow breaking stories there, we will continue to monitor how that shutdown progresses. thank you very much. the family of a man who was fatally stabbed on a train yesterday say he was honourable and would always help others in trouble. lee pomeroy, who was 51, was attacked in front of his teenage son just after they boarded a train in guildford in surrey. a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and a woman detained at the same time is being held on suspicion of assisting an offender. our correspondent

chi chi izundu has the latest. today should've been lee pomeroy‘s 52nd birthday. but instead, his family are mourning his violent death witnessed by his 14—year—old son. in a statement, they said: after a 17—hour man—hunt, at 6am this morning at this property in farnham, police arrested a 35—year—old man on suspicion of murder. a woman was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. police also removed a vauxhall corsa, and forensic teams and officers have been here searching the house. we understand no weapons had been found. i heard the police

shouting the usual stuff. you know, "out your hands up, turn around," and all that sort of thing. and then, you know, it went quiet. they led her out first, put her in a police wagon over there, and a few minutes later, they brought him out, handcuffed, put him in a police wagon here. there were armed police everywhere. lots more police turned up, and that was it. it was yesterday at around 1:00 in the afternoon that mr pomeroy and his son got onto the train at the london road station, in guildford, to waterloo. today, police described the confrontation. both menjoined the train at guildford. more or less straightaway, there's been some conversation between the two men. they've continued that conversation for about three or four minutes, first in one carriage, and then in a second carriage. at some stage then, violence then ensued, resulting in the tragic death of the man yesterday afternoon. specialist officers are supporting mr pomeroy‘s14—year—old son. but police have expressed concern

for those who witnessed this incredibly frightening attack. you are watching bbc news. the latest headlines: talks in washington to break the deadlock over the partial government shutdown end with no sign of a breakthrough. poland orders fire safety checks at escape room venues across the country after the death of five teenage girls at a birthday celebration. smokers and problem drinkers who are admitted to hospital in england will be given help to cut down or quit. the measures are part of a new long—term plan aimed at reducing demand on the health service. nhs england says problem drinkers and smokers cost the health service £6 billion every year. a chief executive of the firm awarded a controversial government contract to operate cross—channel freight ferries after brexit insists the company will provide a good service despite never operating ferries before. seabourne freight, which has no trading history, told a french website it would be ready

to make four round trips daily between ramsgate and ostend in time for britain leaving the eu at the end of march. two stabbings have taken place in east london this afternoon. police were called to church road in leytonjust after 3:30 where a woman was found with stab injuries and two men had suffered slash wounds. the woman, who is in her 30s, is in a critical condition in hospital. and in what is believed to be a separate incident a couple of miles away, a 26—year—old man was found with stab wounds on field road in forest gate. the victim remains in a critical condition in hospital and a man has been arrested on suspicion of grevious bodily harm. a crime wave against banks and shops in the brazilian resort city of fortaleza has continued for a third day as hundreds of troops arrive to restore order. president jair bolsonaro deployed 300 soldiers to the area that has been rocked by violent attacks by criminal gangs.

it's being seen as the first test facing the new president who took up office on tuesday. with me is bbc world service americas editor leonardo rocha. thank you very much the joining us. can you explain what is happening? it started on wednesday evening when the first thing that happened is many public losses were set on fire, shop attacks, even shopping centres, public buildings, and there was a bomb attack on a flyover in a city. it isa bomb attack on a flyover in a city. it is a big city with 2.5 million people, very popular with tourists. we are now at the height of the summer holidays. hundreds of thousands of people from across the field, argentina, italy got to that

region. it is a crucial time for the city. those attacks have been ordered according to the authorities by three very powerful women or gangs that control brazil and they have done that in retaliation against tougher measures from the authorities against the prisons. they got together and ordered their friends outsidejail to they got together and ordered their friends outside jail to stage these attacks, which terrorised the population. there were about 90 attacks across the state since wednesday. the new president, jair bolsonaro, has decided to send troops in. how unusual is that move, and has it worked? it happens when you have a situation ofan it happens when you have a situation of an emergency. it has happened before. i remember reporting on similar attacks last year in the north of brazil when there were

riots in prisons, they seem to take this time of holidays when guards go away, security is a bit weaker, and they launched the attacks, a challenge on the government. but the difference now is we have a government that was elected and just sworn in on tuesday with the law and order agenda. jair bolsonaro is a former army captain who has been calling for the rights of shoot to kill for the police and for the army to give them immunity from prosecution, that is a big test. he had a very difficult first week in government because of his economic measures and all that, but that is what people who elected him voted for, the jair bolsonaro, want to see. they want to see if he will act and is able to stop this rebellion. the local governor is from the opposition, from a left—wing party and they are working together to

seize control of the situation. given this kind of violence is relatively prevalent in brazil, how much ofjair relatively prevalent in brazil, how much of jair bolsonaro's relatively prevalent in brazil, how much ofjair bolsonaro's approach is necessarily going to work? what is being set in other parts of the world is that traditional left wing approaches don't work. that is his view, that is the view of the electorate who voted him, that you have two be able to deal with the gangs that are heavily armed, very powerful, they have lots of money through drug dealing. they have to be addressed in a different way. many people say that, like in mexico, what you can have is the violence increasing, spreads and going to effecting mostly civilians. but the fact is since the troops we re but the fact is since the troops were deployed in fortaleza, there has been an decrease in the violence and it seemed like they are getting things under control. if that

happens, they managed to control quickly, it will be of big big reiferjair bolsonaro in his first week in office. iam sure week in office. i am sure people will be watching how he performs. thank you very much. an independent investigation has begun, into the fatal shooting of a 31—year—old man by police during a raid on a house in coventry. sean fitzgerald died at the scene on burnaby road last night, and two other men are being questioned on suspicion, of being involved in the production of cannabis. sarah campbell reports. this is the man shot dead by police, 31—year—old sean fitzgerald, who a friend today said was the kind of person who went out of his way to help people. no matter how nice a guy is, or how bad a guy is, nobody deserves to get killed. that's number one. and especially from the police, that's the people who are supposed to protect us and keep us safe. few details have been confirmed by the police about last night's raid other than it was part of a long—running, intelligence—led operation.

two men, both aged 26, were arrested and are being questioned about involvement in cannabis production. investigators from the independent office for police conduct have spent the day at burnaby road. contrary to initial reports, the watchdog has said there is no indication that mr fitzgerald was shot in the back. body—worn video has been examined and there will be a full forensic postmortem, and the findings of that will form part of the independent iopc investigation. neighbours have expressed their shock at what has happened so close to home. i've lived here for 21 years. i've never seen anything like this, that bad. you always think, "ooh, it's never going to happen where i live," and when it does, it's a bit of a shock. the house in which sean fitzgerald was shot continues to be searched. close by, there are a growing number of tributes to him. sarah campbell, bbc news. dashcam footage sent to police has led to more than 600 drivers being fined and prosecuted across wales over the past year. police received more than 2,000 films and the incidents caught

on camera include having pets on drivers' laps. a similar scheme is now being set up in england, as rebecca john reports. dangerous overtaking. a familiar theme in the footage being sent to police by drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians across wales. recorded on dashcams and mobile phones, more than 2,300 films were sent to police over the last year. and action was taken in more than 650 cases. as well as dangerous driving and using a phone behind the wheel, two drivers were caught with dogs on their laps. in that it's letting us survive near misses out there. and resources that policing unit deal with many fatalities. i've seen quite a few submissions come through the stop so easily resulted in one of those fatalities.

operation snap was rolled out across wales in 2017 after a successful pilot scheme in north wales. it aims to tackle bad driving and reduce the time it's previously taken to process the footage. we're very proud of the fact that now we've got a few safe and secure way that the public can send us theirfootage, and that we're able to do it effectively. before operation snap was in place, there was a 28—point process for the police, which meant they had to go through many steps in order to collect footage and bring it back to arrange interviews. by allowing the safety camera process, we've now got that down from about 16 hours of officer time to about half an hour to 1.5 hours for more complex cases. som that is around 3,000 officer hours saved across wales every month. depending on the seriousness of the motoring offence, drivers have been fined, sent on awareness courses or prosecuted in court. a similar scheme is now being set up in england and police from hong kong and japan have also met go—safe staff to learn more about the project.

more than 100 people a year die on welsh roads. operation snap aims to act as a deterrent, to encourage responsible driving and improve safety for all road users across wales. some extraordinary footage there. time for the weather with darren bett. hello there. sunshine was in short supply on saturday and it will be again on sunday. we still have high pressure in charge of our weather, but it is essentially filled in with cloud. coming into the high pressure, a weakening weather front, it has been bringing a bit of rain and drizzle, but that's petering out. but the weather front gets as far south as northern england and then starts to move northward again. for north—west england, perhaps southern scotland, northern ireland, it could be damp and drizzly. still a lot of cloud to the south of that. if you want the sunshine, you need to be across the northern half of scotland, where temperatures are back down to 7 degrees.

but elsewhere, it should be a milder sort of day, i think, despite all that cloud. that high pressure is going to start to get squeezed on monday as a deep low pressure rushes towards our shores, really picking up the winds and packing a punch in northern scotland later on in the day, with severe gales developing. and we've got a bit of rain around too. it's mainly for scotland and northern ireland as that band of rain moves southwards again, it tends to peter out. we get some sunny spells following for northern ireland, later, northern england and southern scotland. but it's the strength of the wind that's the main story of the weather. stronger winds for all of us. much windier as you head further north. northern scotland seeing gusts of 70 miles an hour or more. at least it should be a milder day on monday. temperatures widely in double figures. it stays very windy overnight, mind you. the storm, the area of low pressure, sweeps away into scandinavia and then the wind direction changes. we draw down our air from the north or north—west and that means it's going to get a bit colder. it does mean there is more sunshine on the way on tuesday,

although the sunshine turns a bit hazy in the north—west later on. there'll be a few showers running into north—west scotland, down those north sea coasts as well. but a lot of places are going to have a dry day. the winds for a while touching gale force down those eastern coasts, lighter winds further west. temperatures will be a bit lower on tuesday. we're back down into single figures. it will feel a bit chillier, but at least there'll be more sunshine around. we could start to lose a bit of that sunshine for the middle part of the week. high pressure still never too far away, toppling around it that weather front is going to increase the cloud. but ahead of that, we've got a slice of clearer skies from scotland down towards wales, the midlands, central, southern england where we're likely to find a touch of frost. but the best of the sunshine on wednesday. still a bit more cloud for eastern parts of england.