welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: the ayes to the right, 306. the noes to the left, 325. the british government survives a vote of no confidence as the prime minister tries to put together a new brexit plan. it will not be an easy task, but mps know they have a duty to act in the national interest, reach a consensus and get this done. islamic state, but the country's vice president insists is has been defeated. and a cold revolution — we'll tell you about the natural phenomenon that's left one us city in a spin. britain's prime minister has begun

discussions with opposition parties to find a way forward on brexit. britain is due to leave the european union in 10 weeks, and parliament is deadlocked. theresa may survived a vote of no confidence on wednesdayjust a day after her government suffered the biggest defeat in british history, a decisive rejection of the brexit deal she's spent two years negotiating. but she's insisting she won't soften her "red lines" to allow a closer relationship with the european union, so it's hard to see room for compromise. mrs may spoke in downing street on wednesday night of the urgent need to find common ground. i believe it is my duty to deliver

on the british people's instruction to leave the european union, and i intend to do so. so now mps have made clear what they don't want, we must all work constructively together one that both delivers on the referendum and can command the support of parliament. this is now the time to put self—interest aside. the prime minister outside downing street just a few hours the prime minister outside downing streetjust a few hours ago. the big question now — what next? british members of parliament are split between some who prepared to see the uk leave the eu without any deal, others favour keeping closer ties with europe, others think the whole issue should be put back to another referendum. seniorfigures in the eu say the rejected withdrawal agreement is not up for renegotiation, but any movement at all depends on the british government coming

forward with a unified position. from brussels, our europe editor katya adler. quite a contrast to the hostility the prime minister can face when she talks to mps about brexit, this is how the eu's chief brexit negotiator was received today in the european parliament, despite his plan's heavy defeat last night. right now, it's too early to assess all the consequences of this vote. we have always respected and we continue to respect the democratic parliamentary debate in the uk, and i will not speculate on the different scenarios. eu leaders are in a bullish mood. in a coordinated media blitz, starting moments after last night's vote, they quickly doused any illusions the eu would now rush forward with compromise solutions. the eu insists the ball is now in the uk's court. translation: it's now up to the uk

to tell us what happens next. we still have time to negotiate, but we're first going to wait to hear from the british prime minister. what ireland does not want to hear from theresa may is a demand for changes to the backstop, that fallback plan in the brexit deal to avoid a hard border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland. some people may seem to believe that a hard border can be avoided just by saying there won't be one. in order to avoid it, you need an agreement on customs and an agreement on regulations, and that's why the backstop is so important. so far, the eu hasn't flinched in its support for the backstop. there are only ten weeks to go now until brexit day, but the eu is still taking the long view. eu leaders say they won't budge now until mps start uniting around one particular alternative to theresa may's plan, and even then, brussels isn't making any promises. you see, there's a growing sense here that mps could still go

for a softer brexit, or even a second referendum, resulting, maybe, in no brexit at all. that's why the eu prefers to let the dust settled now in the uk before they take any action. which could take a while. emmanuel macron is one of many eu leaders assuming the government will now end up asking the eu for more time, effectively delaying brexit. translation: that's what they'll do. i kind of know them. efiaa:7§&=1§;xalx7/f§gfujf .. . 77" .. ”7 . . and eventually, they'll decide it's going to take more time for now in brussels, it's an. exercise, in “latching— ” . . the uk, waiting for change, and hoping eu unity lasts till this brexit process is resolved. our europe editor katya adler with the view from brussels. with so many unanswered questions, our website could help. as well as backgrounders

and jargon—busters, we have this handy guide to brexit. log on to bbc.com./news. let's get some of the day's other news. the democratic house speaker in the us, nancy pelosi, has urged president trump to postpone this year's state of the union address because of the partial government shutdown. she's highlighted security concerns because the secret service hasn't been funded for the last 26 days. but the homeland security secretary, kirstjen nielsen, says the secret service is fully prepared for the address. representatives of farmers in the—hs have warned if the trade dispute with china is not resolved soon. the farm credit council says many are struggling to make ends meet, particularly soybean farmers, who've been hit by high tariffs from china, the main export market. the main opposition candidate in the nigerian presidential election has told the bbc he doubts the polls will be free or fair. atiku abubakar has appealed

to the international community to help ensure the credibility of next month's poll. meanwhile, president muhammadu buhari has assured voters that he is not too old or ill to seek a second term. kenya's red cross says 45 people are still unaccounted for following the end of a hotel siege by militants in nairobi. it is now known 21 people have been killed. a british man and a us citizen are said to be among the dead. the somali militant group, al—shabaab, has claimed it was behind the attack. our senior africa correspondent anne soy reports. it looks like a normal afternoon outside a restaurant, but this man has a deadly plan. in a matter of seconds, he detonates his suicide vest. at a different location in the dusit complex, his accomplices open fire before enteringthe buidmg then everything is thrown into chaos. as panic spreads, those who can flee.

are we safe here? yes, we are very safe here. others are trapped inside. this man told me he hid in the toilet for 12 hours. at one point, he gave up hope of living and tweeted a farewell message to his family. you start to wonder who will take care of your children if you are not there. who would pay their school fees? who would be there in their special times, like them finishing high school. starting university, getting married. as the first funeral takes place, the death toll continues to rise. the attack has hurt and angered many. a terrorist does not have a religion. it is an international phenomenon, which we have to confront all together. in the aftermath of this attack,

hard questions are now being asked: how could heavily armed militants and how can attacks of this nature be averted in future? president kenyatta announced the end of the operation 19 hours after militants struck. we will seek out every person that was involved in the funding, planning and execution of this heinous act. another al—sha baab attack carried out in the same style ee the siege five geere egg; , ~ .,, .,,,. the islamic state group has said it carried out a bombing

in northern syria, which killed four us nationals, including two service members. kurdish media says more than a dozen locals also died in the attack, which took place in the kurdish—held town of manbij. this comes amid confusion over president trump's decision last month to pull us troops out of syria. at the time, he said that so—called islamic state had been defeated, a claim his vice—president this latest attack. . . . v ,. .«— .—;—,,, —— — in. syria te eur ceelitieeeettqees- fighting is continuing in several parts of the country. the latest attack happened in manbij in the north of the country. this report comes from cbs correspondent charlie d'agata in the village of ash shafah in eastern syria. there's not much left of the villages on the way

to the front line here, but the isis fighters who held them only days ago remain a lethal threat, launching counter attacks in areas thought to be secure and lacing the only road in and out with explosives. it's an isis tactic to plant roadside bombs in the overnight or in the early morning. all that we can hope is that they've been cleared or that we don't trigger one. tractors and truckloads of residents fleeing the closer we got to the fighting. in ash shafah, where we found america's kurdish—led allies launching a barrage of mortars, locked in a fight to the end against the remaining pockets of isis in syria. but they're not the only ones here. not more than a few hundred yards away is where you'll find an american position fighting right beside forces here, and they've been firing mortars in that direction essentially since we got here. how important is it for you to have american forces on the ground, fighting right beside you?

"they're playing a very big role," this commander told us. "their forces have been very effective. "we give them coordinates for isis locations and their air force "and artillery do all they can." the coalition reported 575 air strikes on 1,100 targets during the first two weeks of this month alone. but while these ground forces are making progress, on the sharp end of this fight, no—one here is talking about isis being defeated. you've been on the front lines. can you describe what it's like there? "they are still putting up strong resistance," rudi hassan told us. "ieds, firefights. they still don't want to surrender." as we left, we saw up close the destruction caused by some of the fiercest fighting this region has seen since the battle against isis began. this is what an isis retrieve looks like —

between heavy artillery, american and coalition air strikes, hardly a building is left standing. and for all the talk of withdrawing american troops, as we were on oui’ way out, a convoy of us—led coalition forces was on its way in, headed straight for the front line. one commander here said isis is now fighting for their very existence, a fight that is far from over. charlie d'agata, cbs news for bbc news, ash shafah, eastern syria. lieutenant colonel daniel davis is retired from the us army and is now a senior fellow at defense priorities. he's in washington. i know you ran combat teams in afghanistan and iraq. out of it feel on the ground where there are these kind of mixed messages coming from on high? you are right, there is a mixed message and they need to stop.

if the president has given instructions, that needs to be the mission and not to continue to fight and try and stay as long as they can, because just imagine the troops going out that your correspondence mentioned heading into a battle when they know the commander—in—chief has given instructions that they are not supposed to be doing that any more and the question comes in, to what end? any time the military gauges, they have to have an objective and attainable outcome. right now it looks like the only outcome they are being given at the tactical level is to conduct operations as resort tragically early yesterday, for americans have sacrificed their lives. and you have to ask what purpose. an emacs a secret or apology for yours or —— support for president trump, that he declare the policy that surprised everyone, abandoning the kurds and then his national security adviser publicly rolls it back and then his vice

president restates it straight after an attack that has killed 1a people including four us nationals but doesn't mention that attack.|j including four us nationals but doesn't mention that attack. i would challenge the characterisation that we are abandoning the kurds because there is never any expectation that we would stay there forever. we were there to do a job to ride —— rid isis and it is now winding down. there is the expectation that we are supposed to leave. i do concede there are some big problems when the president gives one order and his advisers seem to roll it back and thatis advisers seem to roll it back and that is an area of concern. i think the president needs to be more firm on the president needs to be more firm o n exa ctly the president needs to be more firm on exactly what is policy is, and then the action needs to follow. you would absolutely stand behind getting us troops out as soon as possible still? absolutely, because the mission has been accomplished. if you leave troops there, there has to be some critical threat to the

united states security, and there isn't one. we have two withdrew —— withdraw the troops because this is the civil war and you have the russians, iranians, syrians and our ally turkey that is engaging in there and there is no —— nothing for us there and there is no —— nothing for us to gain staying there militarily. there are interesting to talk to you. thank you very much. stay with us if you can on bbc news. much more to come, including this: what's in a name? why a confidence vote in greece is having a big impact across its northern border. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attacks since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry, and it's one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected.

huge parts of kobe were simply demolished, as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she'd been given no help and no advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws passed by the country's new multiracial government and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 9,610th performance of her long—running play, the mousetrap. when they heard of her death today, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. very glad to have you with us on bbc news. the latest headlines this hour: the british prime minister has narrowly survived a vote of no confidence in her government.

she's begun consulting other party leaders over a new brexit plan. dozens are still unaccounted for following the attack on a hotel in kenya. at least 21 people are now known have died. —— to. the united nations has called for a thorough investigation into the deaths of hundreds of people in the democratic republic of congo. the un says nearly 900 were killed during three days of inter—communal clashes last month in the western town of yumbi. caroline rigby reports. the democratic republic of congo is one of the largest united nations peacekeeping missions in the world, but despite the un's presence, violent incidents continue. and now, the un has revealed it has credible reports indicating at least 890 people were killed in just one region over three days last month. it's believed ethnic violence erupted between two communities in the north—west of the country, over the burial of a tribal chief. centred around four villages in yumbi territory, the clashes also destroyed hundreds of homes,

as well as hospitals and schools, and forced around 16,000 people to flee to the neighbouring republic of congo. we are going to try to interview these people and to try to figure out exactly what happened. there are some allegations that there may be state officials who are complicit, but we have not been able to look into these allegations yet. what we are going to do is to continue our investigation. we understand that the congolese government has also initiated an investigation. last month, the country held its long delayed presidential election, the results of which are disputed. the polling was postponed in several regions, including yumbi, because of unrest and the ebola outbreak. it's not yet clear whether this latest violence was related to the vote. caroline rigby, bbc news. the greek prime minister, alexis tsipras, has narrowly survived a confidence vote in parliament, after his governing coalition broke down in a row over the renaming of macedonia. the result clears a major hurdle in gaining approvalfor a deal

to end the 27 year name dispute. the bbc‘s nick thorpe has the story. almost exactly four yea rs since his syriza party came to power, this was a vote alexis tsipras had to win. his government has surprised many by lasting this long. and in his final speech before the vote, mr tsipras set his sights on elections due later this year. translation: i ask with honesty and clarity the reaffirmation of the national assembly's confidence in this government, a government which led the country out of the bailout programmes, led the country out of the crisis, and can give a future prospect to the greek people. a version of events fiercely rejected by kyriakos mitsotakis, leader of the largest opposition party, new democracy. translation: the title of this parliamentary debate is vote

of confidence in the government, but it is in reality the last act of a performance played for four years at the expense of the greek people. in the end, alexis tsipras and his government live to fight another day. 151 votes to 148, a simple majority. now he can press ahead with his main challenge, ratification in the greek parliament of the name northern macedonia. that's deeply unpopular with greeks, who feel the name macedonia belongs only to them. and it's also controversial in skopje, where many macedonians turned up to protest, even as their parliament was ratifying the deal with greece last friday. 27 long years after the republic of macedonia declared independence from yugoslavia, tonight's vote in the greek parliament brings a solution to the naming dispute one decisive step closer, despite continued opposition in both countries. nick thorpe, bbc news, athens.

now, this is a weird one. a huge ice disc has formed on a river in westbrook, in the us state of maine. the 91 metre disk is slowly rotating and locals have been braving the freezing temperatures to see this spectacle. an ice disc is a natural phenomenon that occurs at bends in rivers, when fast moving water breaks off a chunk of ice and keeps it turning, grinding it against surrounding ice to form a perfect circle. ethan gutmann is a hydrologist with the national center for atmospheric research in boulder, colorado, and hejoins us now. to tell us that this is even the alien the spaceship all the lending side. but this is a natural phenomenon, is it? that is right. i'd love to tell you is more unusual than that it is. they do not occur often but they are natural. the almost perfectly circular nature of the makes us think there must be something more to them, but it is

the kozlov changes of current across the kozlov changes of current across the river, they just the kozlov changes of current across the river, theyjust kind of get nicked on the edges as it moves around on anything that sticks out gets not dob in eventually, you have this perfect disc. so the river freezes, but it is not completely frozen. what i think and has formed in this place? if you notice in some of the videos you can see online of this disc, there isjust a little bit of a curve in the river and a change in geometry which causes the flow of the river to shift over the one size and that causes just a gradient in the forces acting on the ice as the water flows back, flows underneath it, and therefore starts turning. it is pushing a little harder on one side of this ice on the other, which helps it to them. ifi the other, which helps it to them. if i understand you write, it would not form in lakes, there have to be differentiation and occurrence. not form in lakes, there have to be

differentiation and occurrencelj not form in lakes, there have to be differentiation and occurrence. i do not know that this has ever been observed in a lake. all the videos i have seen have been in rivers and streams, this is by far the largest i have ever seen violent. kennett wander off or is it contained by the ice? it is sort of contained. -- i have ever seen. otherwise, ice? it is sort of contained. -- i have everseen. otherwise, it ice? it is sort of contained. -- i have ever seen. otherwise, it would probably start fracturing and falling apart. if you look at the videos, it can see just a little bit of ice that kind of sticks out from the shore and kind of trucks that red is, so it has to be caught in the perfect position, with things around it, so it can't move too fast but not too many things so that it can actually start spinning like this. what you expect to happen to it eventually? it depends a lot on what happens with the weather. if it gets a lot cold all of a sudden, really ha rd gets a lot cold all of a sudden, really hard freeze, this could just freeze back into the river. however, if it warms up water stays the same

conditions, eventually this thing is going to start to shrink as the edges get knocked away little by little and once there is enough of a crack somewhere, a piece of it might drift off and float down the river and then the rest of it will not have the stability of its current shape and it willjust disintegrate most likely. you have dashed all our hopes but it is still fascinating. thank you very much indeed.” hopes but it is still fascinating. thank you very much indeed. i would encourage anybody to look at the movies that these things, theyjust phenomenal. we will, for sure. thank you. a reminder of our top story. britain's prime minister has begun discussions with other party leaders to try to find a way through on brexit. theresa may survived the vote of no confidence on wednesday, just a day after the government suffered the biggest debate in british history and on the brexit withdrawal agreement she spent two yea rs withdrawal agreement she spent two years negotiating. thanks for watching.

hello. our weather is taking on an increasingly wintry flavour through the coming days. we're moving into arctic air. the isobars are lining up from north to south, following this weather front south. it will clear southern counties of the uk through the day today. today's certainly a cold day for all of us. should be some decent sunshine around, but there will also be some wintry showers. a frosty start pretty much across the board, with a risk of ice, especially across the northern half of the uk. here's the weather front first thing. it will push its way into east anglia and the south—east during the morning rush hour. further north, clearer skies. remember that ice, but also the additional complication of some snow showers pushing into scotland, some pushing into eastern coastal counties of england too. snow possible to sea level in scotland, a couple of centimetres across the mountains, perhaps 5—8 centimetres. here, we are looking at a wintry mix, but a covering i think possible across the hills. mostly rain or sleet, though, as that system finally tucks into the continent by lunchtime.

the showers following on from the north though, in the arctic air, will be wintry, and we will see further showers particularly for eastern coastal counties through the afternoon. they'll tend to thin out across scotland. a cold afternoon, even in the sunshine. and then, through the evening and overnight into friday, a widespread frost will develop. thursday night likely to be our coldest night of the week. you may have noticed, though, towards the west there was a frontal system trying to approach. now, obviously a frontal system bumping into cold air has the potential to turn wintry. that little bit of cloud mayjust bolster the temperatures briefly for the likes of plymouth and belfast. but as the system pushes into the cold air, for northern ireland, we could see a difficult mixture of rain, sleet and snow during the early part of friday. the weather system looks like it will perhaps bring some more significant snow for scotland for a time. further south, i think it will be perhaps snow initially, particularly across the hills and the mountains, but turning increasingly back to rain as the system pushes in,

because we are bringing in a slightly southerly air stream, so some slightly milder air. but there is a lot of uncertainty in this element of the forecast, and if you are travelling on friday, it will be worth getting your latest update. on into the weekend, our story remains chilly, the temperatures perhaps coming up a couple of degrees on the figures we'll see through the end of the week. but i think there'll be a lot of cloud around on saturday. maybe some sunny spells on sunday, but overall, the story for the coming days will definitely be a rather wintry one. will this is bbc news, the headlines: britain's prime minister has begun discussions with opposition parties to find a way forward on brexit. theresa may survived a vote of no confidence on wednesday, just a day after the brexit agreement she negotiated with the european union was decisively rejected by mps on all sides. britain is due to leave the eu in 10 weeks, and parliament is deadlocked. kenya's police chief has said 21 people are now known to have died in tuesday's attack on a hotel

and office complex in nairobi. among the dead is a police officer. another 28 people injured in the attack have been admitted to hospital. the extremist group that calls itself islamic state has claimed responsibility for an explosion in northern syria which killed at least a dozen local people and 4 us nationals — including two service members. it was in the kurdish—held town of manbij. now on bbc news... it's time for click.