this is bbc news. the headlines: aid agencies say thousands of civilians have escaped areas ruled by the so—called islamic state and the syrian democratic forces say they will resume their final push. this is bbc world news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: it comes as officials confirm that the child of shamima begum — the child of shamima begum — the british teenager who joined the british teenager the islamic state group — whojoined the is group — has died in syria. has died in syria. new satellite images of a facility near pyongyang suggests north korea new satellite images of a facility may be preparing to launch near pyongyang suggests north korea may be preparing to launch a missile or a satellite. a missile or a satellite. the analysis comes after two us think tanks reported earlier this the american actorjussie smollett week that north korea's main rocket faces new charges following claims he falsely reported that he was a victim of a hate crime. launch site had been rebuilt. venezuela's power cut crisis the american actorjussie smollett continues and leaves faces new charges following claims crucial services paralysed. the government says it's sabotage he falsely reported that he was a victim of a hate crime. carried out by the opposition. and international women's day ends in a face—off in istanbul. police and security forces say the march was unauthorised. back now to brexit, and with the deadline of march 29

now just three weeks away, there's still huge uncertainty over welcome to bbc news. friends of shamima begum's family say it is shocking that britain did not protect her new born baby which has died in a syrian detention camp. the teenager who ran away to join the islamic state group has been stripped of her uk citizenship. she had already lost two babies and had wanted to return to britain. daniel sandford reports. when the bbc first interviewed shamima begum 2.5 weeks ago, she'd just given birth to a baby boy, jerrah. in his short life, he lived in one internment camp and then another. his mother said her two other children had already died at the end of last year. losing my children, the way i lost them, i don't want to lose this baby as well, and this is really not a place to raise children, this camp.

now, medical staff in the roj camp, where she's living, and the local military forces, the sdf, have confirmed to the bbc that her baby died yesterday in a nearby hospital after having breathing difficulties. he's already been buried. the family are devastated. the family are not surprised. there were concerns about the child's welfare. shamima has lost her food card, she's made that quite clear, and wasn't able to feed herself, let alone the baby. shamima begum's family had asked the home office for help, but the home secretary sajid javid's response was to take away her british citizenship, and the government gave them no assistance in trying to bring her 2—week—old baby boy to the safety of the uk. in a letter sent by the home office this week to shamima begum's sister, renu, an official wrote: but then the official wrote that:

it was a point sajid javid reinforced today after reports of the baby boy's death first surfaced. the foreign office has been clear for many years there is no british consulate presence, there's no way that anyone can be helped in any way, including innocent children. this is why it's so dangerous. tonight, labour described the home secretary's decision—making as callous and inhumane. save the children said that more than 60 children under the age of five had now died in the camps and called on the uk and other countries to take responsibility for their citizens in north—east syria and take them home. daniel sandford, bbc news. for the second time this week, us analysts have reported activity at a military site in north korea, raising the possibility that the authorities may be preparing to launch a satellite or a missile. earlier, i spoke with our correspondent in seoul, laura bicker. she explained what the analysts had

seen to raise their suspicions. the latest activity is at a site called sanum—dong, near pyongyang, when north korea makes most of its rockets and components —— where north korea makes most of its rockets and components for international rocket launches. trucks have been seen going in and out, which doesn't seem like much, but it's activity which many people believe is consistent with that of preparing for either a missile or a rocket launch. this goes in conjunction with the satellite images which suggests the main rocket launch site, called sohae, is operational again. work stopped there last year but it now seems to have been restarted at a rapid pace. all eyes will now be on that site. it seems trucks and a train have left sanum—dong,

so all eyes will be on sohae to see if something arrives for launch. it is unlikely, i am told by analysts at this stage, that it will be a missile. they believe it is more likely to be a satellite. that would still breach the agreement reached between donald trump and kimjong—un, according to the us state department spokesperson who gave a briefing this week. they would see that as a violation, even if it's a satellite launch. so this is a tense time and it's one of those times where both kimjong—un and donald trump have difficult decisions to make. if they launch a satellite in north korea, it could break all agreements and cause a breakdown of the talks between the united states and north korea. the united states might turn a blind eye and just say "it's a satellite" or they might also say that this is a breach of the trust reached between donald trump and kim jong—un. so it's a tense time and everybody is wondering exactly what's going on. i think the best thing we can do is keep an eye on the situation.

the us actorjussie smollett is facing a series of new charges following claims he falsely reported that he was a victim of a hate crime. he has consistently denied the charges. the former star of the tv show empire has been indicted by a grand jury in chicago. our correspondent in washington, chris buckler, explained the latest charges. jussie smollett has already been charged with the offence of effectively lying to police when he said he was attacked. detectives claim not only was he not attacked, but they claim he was using it to try to get the salary for his television programme empire increased. since then, the grand jury — and their purpose is to look at charges and look at the evidence and decide what charges should actually be brought — they have decided that rather than one charge, they should have 16 offences brought againstjussie smollett. they relate to two interviews he gave — one with an officer shortly

after the alleged assault, and then secondly with a detective later that day. just to remind you of whatjussie smollett says happened, he says that at the end of january, he went out to get a sandwich in the middle of chicago. he says he was approached by two individuals, two men, who started to shout abuse at him. he is a gay african—american actor and he said it was very clear that it was a racist and homophobic attack. he claims they beat him, they put a rope around his neck, and that they shouted, "this is maga country" — a reference to donald trump's phrase "make america great again". the police suggest and claim that all of this was simply made up and that he, in fact, paid two people who are extras on the empire programme to carry out this assault. that is very strongly denied byjussie smollett, but it is clear he's now facing 16 charges as opposed to just one. what has the reaction been to that? his lawyer has already been

on the us television networks, saying that he's going to mount a very aggressive defence, also suggesting that the coverage of this case has not been fair to his client. he said that as far as he was concerned, the presumption of innocence was being run over roughshod as a result of some of the coverage. but there has been a huge amount of focus on this case, not least becausejussie smollett is one of the most prominent gay african—american actors and, of course, as things stand, he has been written out of the last two episodes of empire, the series he became famous for, and it's not clear if or when he will return to that programme. opposing demonstrations are to be held in venezuela in the coming hours by supporters of president nicolas maduro and the opposition leader trying to force him from power, juan guaido. the protests come after much of the country has been without power for more than 2a hours, after a nation—wide blackout. from caracas, will grant reports.

even for people accustomed to blackouts, this was the worst anyone could remember. almost all 23 states in venezuela, plus the capital city, plunged into darkness for more than a day. the chaos it caused was huge. for an already creaking public transport system, some faced little choice but to walk, even with their children under their arms. "i've been walking from plaza venezuela, which is almost 3km away," said this young mother. "i still have a bit more to go." the power cut came amid high political tension in the country with the opposition leader juan guaido trying to force president nicolas maduro from office. both men tried to blame the other. the maduro government said the blackout was an act of sabotage by the opposition, while mr guaido‘s camp blamed government incompetence, corruption and under—investment.

translation: i am worried for the people who face difficulties in getting home, for the food that's beginning to rot, for the patients who are hospitalised, about whom we are very concerned because of the lack of electrical power. beyond the accusations of either sabotage or incompetence, most venezuelans are just caught in the middle, unable to go to work or lead relatively normal lives. the blackoutjust adds to the growing sense of anxiety across venezuela. translation: i came out looking for water and food for my family, but because of the electrical blackout, the traffic lights aren't working and someone crashed into our car. now we are stuck here, as you can see. now attention turns to saturday's planned marches. two opposing demonstrations planned — one pro—maduro, the other calling for him to go. the long blackout has left people exhausted, but many will still take to the streets to show where their loyalties lie.

it seems power — and the lack of it — will be the key questions facing venezuelans for some time yet. will grant, bbc news, caracas. the brexit secretary, stephen barclay, has dismissed the latest initiative from the eu on the withdrawal agreement as "rerunning old arguments". the two sides are trying to agree changes to convince mps at westminster to vote for the deal on tuesday. in brussels, the eu's chief brexit negotiator michel barnier said the eu would give ‘legal force‘ to assurances already made that the uk could not be stuck in a customs union. our europe editor katya adler has more on the political reaction in the uk and brussels. michel barnier‘s proposal went down like a lead balloon, and that is putting it very politely. the brexit secretary shot back that, with a real deadline looming, now is not the time to come up with old arguments,

and what did he mean by that? well, what the eu is offering is for the uk to step out of the uk—specific parts of the backstop. now, on the one hand, this would allay brexiteers‘ fears that they could get stuck in a customs union through the backstop. it would allow the government to make trade deals in goods as well as services while in the backstop, but essentially, it comes back to the eu's plan a, and that's for northern ireland—only backstop, and the prime minister rejected that at the time because she said it threatened the union dividing northern ireland from great britain, and that is why she came up with the idea of the uk—wide backstop. so essentially, with three weeks to go, we have come round full circle and we are finding ourselves bang in the middle of a blame game with the prime minister appearing to point the finger today at the eu, saying if there is no deal, it will be the fault of the eu's intransigence, or as we heard from the dutch prime minister today,

who also spoke to the prime minister tonight, and he put the blame at having too many uk red lines. so what next? it is not quite game over because both sides still want to deal, and they will be meeting again this sunday for more talks. —— still want a deal. a big week in brexit terms next week. we will have all of the coverage for you right here on bbc news. still to come: why the us women's national soccer team are suing the us soccer federation over allegations of gender discrimination. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then, the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym.

then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really — i've never been married before. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: it's been confirmed that the child of shamima begum — a british teenager who joined the islamic state group — has died in a detention camp.

let's stay with that story now. over the past few weeks thousands of people fleeing the collapse of the so—called islamic state's caliphate have been arriving in detention camps in syria. aid charities say 90% of them are women and children. jon ironmonger reports. forfamilies of for families of the caliphate, this now overwhelmed camp in north—eastern syria is both a refuge and a detention centre. more than 12,000, mostly women and children, have arrived over the past few days, after fleeing the tiny enclave baguz, still under is control. you can's population has reached 65,000. translation: it's a very miserable. the displaced are growing in huge numbers, and we are trying to meet people's needs, but need help. but

while the wives of isis fighters may be failing to arouse international sympathy, it is the children who are suffering. many of the women are either heavily pregnant or have recently given birth. at least 60 babies and infants under five years old have died since december, making the journey to the camp soon after arriving. on friday it was confirmed that the british teenager shamima begum had lost her son, jerrah. he died of pneumonia, aged three weeks. hypothermia has become a major problem, as temperatures dropped overnight. aid workers say funding is urgently needed to supply a further 5000 tenths as well as food and medicine. —— 5000 tents. further 5000 tenths as well as food and medicine. -- 5000 tents. the health of these arrivals is incredibly poor. over the last few days alone we have seen hundreds of cases of severe, acute nutrition. and unfortunately we are also seeing an awful lot of children and infants dying. many foreign women remained outwardly aligned to isis, and have

been fenced off ib syrian kurdish authorities to control the camp to avoid clashes with locals who are forced to live under the caliphate. so far, britain, france and germany have taken a hard line with their citizens, citing the risks of repatriate him down. but the apparent ease with which journalists have made the trip to the refugee camp, and a sharperfocus on the plight of young children there, could make that position harder to defend. bassam barabandi is a former syrian diplomat and co—founder of people demand change. it's involved with conflict mediation and rebuilding civil society structures in syria. they've also been working with international governments to provide humanitarian aid. i asked him what the situation was like on the ground. the camps used to be, before ten or 15 days before now, they were full of people. remember that the fight to defeat isis has been going for quite sometime now

and all the internally displaced people are moving to these camps, 40,000 syrian idps in the last two weeks. since they are cleaning out the last pockets of this terrorist organisation, the number has almost doubled. the issue is that they need everything. everything you can imagine, they need. the united nations and the international red crescent are doing their best, but the challenges are large, the numbers are large. to know who is who is a difficult question. at the end of the day we do not want to let a terrorist group infiltrate an idp camp.

but from a humanitarian perspective, the food and medicine should be provided to everybody. how do you try to distinguish between people who need help and those people who might be there, terrorists coming through? how on earth on the ground you actually sort people? there is no way. humanitarian aid is humanitarian aid, that is the bottom line. everybody should get the food and medicine, any need of assistance. i am saying about the challenges, not us as an organisation, not as a counter—isis coalition, as the international community, the number of people whojoined the idp camps is huge, a large number. that is a big challenge by itself. we don't know who is who. it's not ourjob. there is the counter—isis coalition, the local forces, have theirjobs to do. you have spoken about the short—term problems. in the long—term, of course, there will be people there who will have been brainwashed under

the previous regime. this is a long—term problem. it is a disaster. i am not talking about brainwashed people. we have kids that have been raised, born and raised, under isis ideology. when they look about the humanitarian aid, when they look at the rest of the community, they don't see it except as an enemy. there is a big challenge to deal with these people. this is a long—term challenge for the whole international community. we are talking about thousands and thousands of kids. they need education, they need to reset their minds, they need to be addressed psychologically, in educational terms, values. we need to challenge the whole generation. all around the world women and men have demanded better pay, more rights and respect for women on international women's day. georgina smyth has the story.

tear gas, pepper spray and riot police — this was not how international women's day was supposed to end in istanbul. several thousand women were forced to turn around after police said the march was unauthorised and barred them from entering the city's taksim square. that since an attempted coup in 2016, and the turkish authorities have routinely banned marches in downtown istanbul. they scream, "we do not obey! we do not stop talking! we are not afraid!" noise was also being made in germany, where women called for equal economic opportunities and underlined the need to fight for women's rights. that was echoed in spain, where women demonstrated for lesbian and transsexual rights and danced against the patriarchy. these activists singing that without women, the world stops.

but among the noisy demonstrations, there was also silence — in portugal's parliament, in respect to women killed through domestic violence. out on the streets, 10,000 nurses marched for better pay and working conditions. equal pay was the message in france too, where women were told to leave work at 3:40pm — the time that women stop earning as much as their male counterparts in any given day. french women also demonstrated before the saudi embassy in paris, demanding the kingdom release three saudi women's rights activists. ifeel the embryonic kicking of feminism. in the uk, the heavily pregnant duchess of sussex told an audience the soon—to—be newest member of the royal family is kicking of feminism. there were small tokens in ukraine and grand gestures from russian astronauts in space, but down on earth, the fight for gender equality continues for another day. georgina smyth, bbc news.

and as international women's day was marked around the world the us women's national soccer team, the current world champions, are suing the us soccer federation over allegations of gender discrimination. all 28 members of the squad were named as plaintiffs in federal court in los angeles. jonathan tannenwald is a soccer correspondent for the philadelphia inquirer and daily news. their argument is there are some very real differences in the ways that the us federation, the american fa, has paid male versus female players in recent years, including after the us women won the world cup — which they have now done three times and the men never have. and in the lawsuit filed today,

they put some very clear numbers in there to back their case. what about the business case, then? is it in case of, in the uk, for example, the men's game is a lot bigger business, a lot more viewers, and so discrepancies in pay are explained away that way. but that's not the case in the us? it is really not. first of all, the us women obviously — in the world cup, they have drawn some enormous audiences but even just on a regular basis throughout the average year, their crowds are equal and sometimes higher, their popularity in general in terms of television ratings and things like that are equal and often higher and, you know, the exact quote from somebody at the us fa told the us women's team "market realities are such that the women did not deserve to be paid equally to the men". first of all, there is very little proof of that and secondly in all this, it is a non—profit government body, this is what this is, so they don't have to operate that way if they don't want to, and the women and a lot of theirfans, and a lot of fans

in the sport in this country believe that that market rationale is not how they should be doing things. it is fascinating. from your point of view, then, do you think they have a good chance of succeeding here? i am not a lawyer! but put it this way. in the battle of public opinion, babel win. in a courtroom? they may not get there, they may settle before that. but the battle of public opinion will be on their side, especially in a world cup year, they'll be going to france as defending champions and you will see notjust the american team but tens of thousands of american fans going with them. and of course we will keep you up—to—date as that court case progresses through the courts in the united states. you're watching bbc news. do stick with us, and don't forget, you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter. i'm @lvaughanjones.

hello. there is lots of weather coming our way this weekend, some rain at times, some snow, too. it'll be windy throughout the weekend. remember when high pressure was in control? it was all quiet? it's well to the south of us now. it's low pressure, the atlantic in charge of our weather. weather disturbances coming through. briefly milderfor some across southern parts of the uk during saturday, then we're all back into the colder air on sunday on a strong and cold wind. so the weather elements this weekend, it is going to be windy, widely gusts around 40—50 miles an hour. it will feel chilly in the wind. some wet weather at times — notjust rain but snow too — but also, we will all get to see sunshine at some stage of the weekend. this is how we're starting the weekend.

temperatures at their lowest across northern england, northern ireland and scotland. close to freezing in places. wintry showers in scotland. an area of rain and hill snow coming out of northern ireland and running through northern england first thing, so a bit of snow to the pennines out of that. further showers running into northern ireland, across northern england, northern and western scotland on through the day. again, wintry on the hills but there'll also be some decent sunshine. let's take a look at things at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. very strong gusty winds across the far north of scotland and northern isles. a bit of wet weather on and off during the day into orkney. these are the showers running into scotland. again, wintry on the hills. not too many to the east of scotland. in northern ireland, they should be starting to ease from northern england at this stage of the afternoon. strong gusty winds right across the uk and actually, a fair amount of fine and occasionally sunny weather across the bulk of england and wales, bar the odd passing shower. look at this, though.

on through saturday evening, some rain pushing north through a large part of england and wales. a bit of snow in snowdonia, into the peak district. temperatures will be at their lowest the further north you are away from that, and a frost setting in, particularly into scotland, as sunday begins. but it's not a cold night further south where you're seeing the rain. all of that has to clear away on sunday. it will be a slow process as well. that will take an area of rain and hill snow across the uk during sunday, and that snow in scotland particularly will be falling to relatively low levels, so don't be surprised by that. but the chance of seeing some significant snow piling up in the hills in scotland on sunday but elsewhere, you could see some some sleet and hail out of these showers, but there'll also some sunny spells around too on what will be a windier and colder—feeling day on sunday. low pressure still in charge. briefly quiet on monday. then tuesday into wednesday, a deep area of low pressure passing just to the north of the uk, making it very windy once again. so a brief lull on monday. it clearly isn't going to last very long. that's your forecast.