welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: president biden outlines gun control measures as a first step towards curbing mass shootings in the united states. gun violence in this country is an epidemic. let me say it again — gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it's an international embarrassment. explosion. violence flares again in northern ireland for a sixth consecutive night. a medical witness says george floyd died from a lack of oxygen after being pinned down by the former policeman derek chauvin — not drugs, as the defence claims. the us and nato discuss the build—up of russian troops near ukraine after a warning that moscow could intervene to help its citizens. and the find of a lifetime:

archaeologists unearth an ancient egyptian lost city close to some of the world's best known monuments. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. we start in the us. president biden has described gun violence as "an epidemic" and "an international embarrassment". on thursday, he put forward a series of measures to try to tackle the problem. the president said there was widespread public support for stricter rules, despite the efforts of the gun lobby. every day in this country, 316 people are shot, every single day. 106 of them die. every day. 106 of them die. every

day. ourflag was day. 106 of them die. every day. our flag was still flying at half staff for the victims of the horrific murder of eight, primarily asian—american, people in georgia when ten more lives were taken in a mass murder in colorado. you probably did not hear it but between those two incidents, less than one week apart, there were more than 850 additional shootings. 850. that took the lives of more than 250 people. and left 500— 500 injured. this is an epidemic, for�*s sake, and it has to stop. —— for here's our washington correspondent, lebo diseko. well, i think is very notable that this is being done through executive order. these are measures that, you know, some people might say effectively are just tinkering around the edges because of how difficult it is to get such measures through congress

and passed into law. i think the most significant of today's measures that were signed by executive order were around — you heard him talking about the �*ghost guns�* — these are guns made from kits you buy over the internet. they don't have serial numbers so they are very hard to trace, and experts say they are increasingly being used in crimes. so the president wants the department ofjustice to come up with a way to reduce those numbers, and he has given them 30 days — they have got 30 days to come up with new rules around that. and then the second quite important measure that was signed today was around this — it's a device called a stabilising brace and it's put onto pistols and the administration says that it effectively turns them into a short—barreled rifle. and president biden referenced the recent shooting — mass shooting in colorado, boulder, colorado — and the shooter there is thought to have used one of these devices,

so he wants the department ofjustice to try to come up with rules to make sure that these are treated or come under the same kind of restrictions as rifles would be. and, lebo, as if to underscore president biden�*s point, more shootings in the country today? yes. this is in texas. today, there has been a mass shooting there. one person died, four people had been injured. —— one person died, four people have been injured. yesterday, in south carolina, there were five people who were killed, including the shooter himself — he shot himself there. and obviously, in the past few weeks, we have had really quite shocking mass shootings, both in georgia and also in colorado. when you look at the statistics, the number of mass shootings here in the united states, it is estimated that there is about one a day on average. it is also estimated that there have been around 11,000 gun deaths this year alone. president biden there

mentioned that most americans are in favour of tightened measures. but, you know, we're talking about things like increasing the background checks, not necessarily clamping down harder on gun ownership, and i think the key thing for president biden is that in congress, particularly in the senate, there just is not the support for the stricter measures, so he will have quite a hard time trying to get those through. ok, thanks for that. and we're going to move to another issue that's close to president biden�*s heart now — peace in northern ireland. after another night of violence on the streets a white house spokesperson said the good friday agreement, which protects peace in northern ireland, must not become "a casualty" of brexit. these are pictures from a few hours ago. a crowd of mostly young people throwing petrol bombs, fireworks and stones at police, who responded with water cannon. the former uk secretary

of state for northern ireland theresa villiers disputed claims brexit was the cause of violence. ido i do not believe that the peace process is in jeopardy. i do not believe that the peace process is injeopardy. it's a depressing fact that rioting and lawlessness of the kind that we have seen on the streets over recent days is something that's disfigured northern ireland over decades. inaudible police response to it but references back to brexit are not an excuse for these rioters. nothing justifies that they are doing. —— nothing justifies what they are doing. rioting 2a hours earlier was the worst in years, as our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. sirens wail. on an already febrile situation, now more fuel on the fire. sirens wail. at one of belfast�*s peace lines last night, the peace was broken. explosions.

in the hands of teenagers, petrol bombs, thrown in both directions over the wall. each evening, these gates are locked to keep the mainly protestant and catholic communities apart. now forced open, rammed by cars and battered closed by police amidst a running battle between crowds on each side. it's hard to control. mobs of kids — when they see one side doing it, they arejoining in. who's encouraging it? the loyalist politicians are doing it. why? because they got brexit in and it is not working. it will take months and months now to repair the damage to this community, if it is ever repaired. as the fighting continued between belfast�*s shankill and falls roads, local priests tried to warn young people of the danger, themselves in harm's way. the to and fro attacks, which lasted over an hour,

have just been interrupted by the arrival of this line of police land rovers, who have pushed the crowd back from this side of the peace wall. earlier, on the other side of the wall in the loyalist shankill road, a bus was hijacked and set alight. the disorder last night was at a scale that we have not seen in recent years in belfast or further afield. the fact that it was sectarian violence and there was large groups on both sides of the gates at lanark way is, again, something we have not seen for a number of years. in loyalist communities, who are staunchly british, there's a backlash over the brexit deal, which sets northern ireland apart from the rest of the uk. so whenever i got here, the police... 19—year—old joel was arrested in a riot over easter and released without charge. he tells me he was looking out for a friend. but many who have become involved are even younger. why do you think this is happening? i don't think young people really understand the details in terms of the irish

sea border and stuff. what they're being told and what they're seeing reflected in the media is that sinn fein are winning, the republicans are winning and that our identity is under attack. and when they hear those words, when they hear that stuff, and then they're told alright, and the way you can help is by going out and throwing bombs, sticks and stones at people, they're more than willing to do so. people will say why were you there in the first place? wouldn't it have been better to go home? the fact is someone i cared about was in trouble, and i don't think that that's something that anyone can blame me for or accuse me of wrongdoing. as the clean—up operation began in belfast, political leaders gathered for an emergency meeting at stormont to try to bring about calm. there can be no place in our society for violence or the threat of violence, and it must stop. what we saw last night at lanark way interface, i think, was a very dangerous escalation of events, and it's utterly deplorable.

in the past hour, police, under attack again, have used water cannons against large crowds side of the peace wall. there's concern the floodgates have opened on something more reminiscent of northern ireland's days of old and may be difficult to close. emma vardy in belfast. back to the us. a medical expert in the trial of the former us police officer derek chauvin says george floyd died from a lack of oxygen due to the way he was restrained. mr chauvin was filmed kneeling on george floyd's neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest last may. this is what dr martin tobin was asked in court by the special assistant attorney general. have you formed an opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, on the cause of mr floyd's death? yes, i have. would you please tell the jury what that opinion or opinions are? yes. mr floyd died from a

low level of oxygen. and this caused damage to his brain that we see and it also caused a pea arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop. doctor tobin also rejected the suggestion that the drug fentanyl was in any way responsible for george floyd's death. you're familiar with the way people die from fentanyl? yes, very. do they or do they not go into a coma before they die from a fenta nyl overdose? yes, they will. was mr floyd ever in a coma? no. thank you, dr tobin. 0k. 0ur correspondent larry madowo has been following the trial in minneapolis. dr tobin's testimony today has left the defence�*s case looking weaker than probably it has at any point in the past two weeks. his testimony that george floyd died from oxygen deficiency,

which led to his brain to stop, was so significant because it's at the centre what the prosecution is saying here. the three reasons for that, he says, is because he was lying flat on the concrete, he was handcuffed behind his back, and he had several officers kneeling on him. he also calculated that from the moment george floyd stopped breathing, there were three minutes and 27 seconds when the neck restraint continued. so dr tobin, all through this testimony, was captivating, he was masterful and his testimony, therefore, is potentially devastating to the case because the jury paid attention and took notes. thank you to larry for that update. there's been a ratcheting up of pressure in ukraine as a senior russian official says moscow could intervene in the east of the country. fighting has increased there between ukrainian government forces and russian—backed rebels. the biden administration says it's worried that russia is now deploying more troops in the area than at any time since 2014 — that's when russia first seized control of crimea away from ukraine. berlin has also told russia

to reduce troops numbers. mark lobel reports. ukrainian troops in the country's tumultuous east received this show of solidarity from their president following weeks of increased fighting there. but the kremlin is accusing kyiv of provocation and warns it may intervene to protect russian—backed separatist rebels they fear may soon face an all—out assault. as russia's most senior negotiator for the conflict, dmitry kozak, put it: russia, for its part, released these videos of training exercises near the ukrainian border. the united states says it's increasingly concerned by recent escalating russian aggressions in eastern ukraine,

including russian troop movements on ukraine's border. russia now has more troops on the border of ukraine than at any time since 2014. five ukrainian soldiers have been killed this week alone. these are all deeply concerning signs. lives are being lost on both sides. ukraine says 25 servicemen have been killed so far this year. russian—backed rebels report one of their fighters was killed this week when ukrainian troops fired 1a mortar bombs at a village on the outskirts of the city of donetsk. amid the fighting, president putin accuses his ukrainian counterpart of inflaming matters by pushing for nato membership, which he believes will worsen the situation, while russia insists the build—up of its troops is defensive. both sides now turning up the heat in a simmering

conflict. mark lobel, bbc news. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: the idyllic underwater world that could be wrecked by deep sea mining — the stark warning from environmental campaigners. 25 years of hatred and rage as theyjump upon the statue. this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power, the power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future, a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past.

i think that picasso's i works were beautiful, they were intelligent and it's a sad loss to everybody - who loves art. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: president biden outlines gun control measures as a first step towards curbing mass shootings in the united states. violence flares again in northern ireland despite the british and irish prime ministers calling for calm. mexico currently has the one of the highest covid death rates in the world and its hospitals are at breaking point. critics say the rollout of the vaccination programme, with its reliance on

the sputnik vaccine, has been chaotic. 0ur latin america correspondent, will grant reports. ivan sanchez often takes his wife and children out to eat in a local cafe in mexico state, but these days someone is missing from their regular family lunches — ivan�*s father, mario. he fell ill from covid shortly after ivan got the disease. unwilling to go to hospital, he tried to ride out the virus at home, and died on this very sofa. ivan grapples with the grief and the guilt of having infected his father every day. many thousands in mexico have died like mario — untested, under the radar, and not included in the official statistics. translation: after he died i asked a friend to help me l with the paperwork so his death wouldn't be registered as covid but as a respiratory collapse. we did it so we could give him

a proper wake at home. as government data suggests a staggering 320,000 have died from coronavirus in mexico. public health experts believe cases like mario's mean the true picture is even worse. most families extra officially are arguing our number could be higher than that 320,000, that we may be about half a million dead. if such a dire estimate is true, mexico needs to vaccinate its people soon. in one of the worst hit municipalities, there was tentative hope and optimism as the most vulnerable received their jabs. but nationally the criticism is there simply aren't enough doses to go round and there has never been a proper strategy in place to cope with the scale of the problem in mexico. veronica saw her parents vaccinated — a huge relief after her brother recently

died from coronavirus. veronica blames president manuel lopez 0brador for underestimating the pandemic from the start. translation: with elections coming he doesn't care - about the virus. he just wants to keep the economy moving because shutting it down would turn even more people against him. but keeping tourism afloat has had deadly consequences and now a new spike is expected after the easter break. social distancing at prayer, face masks at mass. as mexico mourns its dead only the us and brazil may have lost more. yet the final figure here may never truly be known. will grant, bbc news mexico. nike says the creators of the so—called �*satan shoes�* that contain a drop of human blood in the soles have agreed to a voluntary recall as part of a legal settlement. the trainers, launched by rapper lil nas x, are modified nike air max 97s. only 666 pairs were made and

all but one have been shipped. the brooklyn collective, mischief, who made the shoes will now offer full refunds to customers in order to remove them from circulation. the settlement resolves a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by nike. archaeologists have discoverd — in their words — the �*ancient egyptian pompeii�* near the city of luxor in egypt. the large city is believed to have been built more than 3,000 years ago. it lies near some of egypt�*s best known monuments. peter lacovara is the director of the ancient egyptian heritage and archaeology fund. i asked why this discovery is so important. it is part of a huge city that was built for the jubilee festival of amenhotep iii.

just like the queen, egyptian kings had festivals to celebrate, in his case, the 30th year of his reign so he built a huge palace and the city to go along with it in orderfor that big celebration. so the walls that we are seeing and the corridors, this is a living city where people would have lived. it looks quite big from the photos. why are we only discovering it now? parts have been excavated for over 100 years but it is such a vast city spread out over ten kilometres and little bits of it have been picked up here and there over the years but it is just too big to excavate the entire extent of it. i think we have some pictures here have other things they have recently unearthed. we have a skeleton. what is the significance of these findings. we see a pot there as well. there are later burials

and things dug in and the whole city was, again, it was built just for thejubilee so after the celebrations were over it was abandoned and parts of it were dug into for later burials and things like that. what is unique about this discovery is that this part is incredibly well preserved. so buildings are preserved and objects are in situ, as they were left. 0ur our thanks to peter lacovara there. as the world begins to move away from petrol and diesel—powered cars, there are questions over how the metals needed for batteries in electrical vehicles will be sourced. one possibility is to mine the deep ocean floor. a number of companies are lining up to exploit the minerals found there, but campaigners warn it could have a disastrous impact on the marine environment. here�*s our chief environment correspondent, justin rowlatt.

it is one of the most remote regions on earth, the vastness of the pacific ocean. but more than two miles beneath the surface lie incredible reserves of the metals needed to make electric vehicle batteries. so this is what the mining companies are after. this is a poly—metallic nodule. it�*s a kind of nugget of crucial battery metals, so in here you�*ve got cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and there are hundreds of millions of these lying on the deep sea floor in some areas of ocean. we can dramatically reduce our environmental and social impact... the mining companies say sourcing metals from the deep ocean has a lower environmental impact than mining metals on land. and they just sit there like golf balls on a driving range. so we don�*t have to drill or blast to find them.

also, they happen to sit in an environment where there are no forests, no plants. it�*s a no—brainer where we should be getting our metals from. environmental campaigners disagree. they say mining will destroy fragile ecosystems that have developed over hundreds of millions of years. petrol. 0r electric. bmw, google, samsung and volvo trucks announced they would not be using any metals sourced from the deep ocean in their products. at the natural history museum, zoologist adrian glover studies the creatures that live on the deep ocean floor. of course, james cameron was inspired by deep sea animals for all of his movies. he says the impact of mining will be profound. it means humanity faces a difficult decision. it will be a dramatic shift in the ecology of that environment. and that�*s something that you just have to accept. some areas of the planet will have to be impacted

if humans are going to move forward in a zero—carbon future. the decision about whether to allow mining will be taken by the un body that controls exploitation of the deep ocean. but, as sales of electric vehicles increase, pressure to allow mining in the deep oceans is also likely to grow. justin rowlatt, bbc news. a quick reminder of our top story this hour. president biden has announced his administration�*s first measures to limit gun violence in the united states, describing the situation as an international embarrassment. the executive orders include the tightening of regulations for guns that can�*t be traced by the authorities because they are assembled at home. mr biden also outlined more ambitious proposals that require the support of congress, such as a ban on assault weapons. the correspondence that the legislation would almost certainly be blocked by republicans. you can reach me on twitter —

i�*m @lvaughanjones. i�*m lewis vaugthones and this is bbc news. goodbye. hello. although thursday was a little less cold for many, friday plunges us back into the arctic air. in fact, we will stay with the colder air again into the weekend for many. there is certainly a chance of those snow showers and possibly wet and windy weather in the south, we will come to that in a moment. this is the weather front ushering that cold air southwards and that will push to most parts by the end of the day today. with it the brisk wind which through the night has reached severe gale force in the north, slowly easing away, but cold air means widespread frost first thing and a risk of ice because here the showers have been coming through notjust for scotland but for northern ireland, some northern fringes of england and wales as well.

that weather front further south is a slow—moving affair. still windy, although they are easing off, the great risk of snow piling up is in northern scotland but the showers will come through thick and fast during the day. they could fall as rain, sleet, snow, hail, rumbles of thunder. further south we will have a weather front becoming slow—moving. could be sleety on high ground with this weather system as the cold air digs in but we will see crisp sunshine across the northern half of the uk through the day ahead and brightness and sunshine to the south of the weather front affording us perhaps 11 or 12 degrees but if you are stuck under the cloud all day, seven and eight is more likely. a transition day, one that feels wintry for many. the big question for the weekend is this area of cloud and rain, possible hill snow and a brisk north—easterly wind during the course of saturday and into sunday. there is still quite a bit of uncertainty as to how far north that will come but as i say it could be a spell of wet weather. a brisk north—east wind makes it feel cold and that could turn to snow over the hills. further north again the crisp sunshine continues but even

with the sunshine it will be cold with the risk of sleet and snow showers just about anywhere because we are into the arctic air. the same is true through saturday night and sunday that slowly works out of the way but then we have arctic air right across the uk and perhaps something more organised coming into the north—west later on sunday. plenty of detail to fill in and if you have plans stay tuned to the forecast. as ever, the forecast and the warnings are online.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: president biden has announced his administration�*s first measures to limit gun violence in the united states after describing the situation as "an international embarrassment". his executive orders include the tightening of regulations for guns that can�*t be traced by the authorities, as they�*re assembled at home. the uk and irish governments have condemned ongoing violence in northern ireland following a week of unrest in belfast. police faced more assaults from petrol bombs, fireworks and stones after protestors gathered on both sides of large gates separating loyalist and nationalist areas. the trial of derek chauvin has been told by a medical expert that george floyd floyd died from a lack of oxygen after officers held him down in a vice hold for more than nine minutes. mr chauvin denies a charge of murder. now on bbc news, it�*s hardtalk with stephen sackur.