this is bbc news. i'm chris rogers. our top stories: president biden addresses the american people, saying something has to be done about the country's shocking level of gun violence. for god's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? how many more innocent american lives must be taken before we say enough, enough? as ukraine approaches 100 days of war, president zelensky once again calls for more military help from western nations. and after winning his defamation case in front of a crowd of thousands, the queen takes the salute, kickstarting four days of platinum jubilee

celebrations. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. in a rare prime—time television address, presidentjoe biden has called on congress to ban assault weapons. from the white house, he said that it is time to act following a string of high—profile mass shootings, and appealed to congress not to let the american people down. over the last two decades, more school—aged children have died from guns than on—duty police officers and active duty military combined. think about that. more kids than on—duty cops killed by guns. more kids than soldiers killed by guns. for god's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?

how many more innocent american lives must be taken before we say enough, enough? i know that we can't prevent every tragedy, but here is what i believe we have to do — here is what the overwhelming majority of american people believe we must do — here's what the families in buffalo and uvalde, in texas, told us we must do — we need to ban assault weapons and high—capacity magazines. and if we can't ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21, strengthen background checks, enact safe storage law and red flag laws. repealed the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability. address the mental health crisis, deepening the trauma of gun violence and as a consequence of that violence.

our north america correspondent nomia iqbal watched what the president had to say. the main headline is that he is calling for this ban on assault weapons. it's not a new proposal, i should add, but it is a significant one because the assault weapons and the high—capacity magazines that he talks about, these are the main weapons used in mass shootings. so he's calling for a ban on that. but also, what was interesting in his speech was that he called on the republican senators to also do something only called unconscionable that they were not taking any action because of course it is all well and good president biden making that speech, pleading for something to be done, but in orderfor any of these new restrictions to be brought in, he has to get the support of republicans. so far, despite the recent tragedies that we have seen, and there's been so many of them,

you almost lose count, despite that, there is still no sign that the republicans will meet him on those proposals he suggested. do you think this address that the americans have seen tonight, and politicians as well, will make some difference? it's difficult to say because whenever there are mass shootings, the spike for support for gun control, it spikes, it really goes up, because people are just so — it really weighs heavy on their minds, they are in such a state of grief, particularly after uvalde, the murder of 19 schoolchildren in their classroom and their two teachers is incomprehensible and it shows in polling that the majority of americans do back background checks. they do ban sensible gun reforms. the problem is about momentum. right now there is momentum behind it, given there have been so many mass shootings so far in america this year. the issue is that it is not like the american public

is clamouring for any kind of change, because many issues get on the way, other issues become a priority for americans, and i saw that when i was in texas reporting on the shooting. they do care about it, but they also care about other issues such as the amount of money they are making, inflation which is a big issue, the economy, that sort of thing. it is about momentum and president biden is obviously holding the address at prime time in america in order to try to get the momentum to do something. well, earlier, ispoke to robyn thomas who's the executive director of the giffords law center to prevent gun violence. part of the challenge that we continue to face is the republicans�* intransigence, intransigence especially on the senate side, because it is such a thin margin and the filibuster rules make it very difficult to get anything through without 60 votes. and i do think things have changed in this country since barack obama made his appeal after the sandy hook elementary school shooting.

you know, we do have a much more robust movement, a much more robust grassroots movement, there's a lot more money on the side of gun violence prevention. we have a whole — dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of political candidates over the last ten years that are running on a platform to better regulate guns and they are getting financial support and they are getting votes and they are getting groups, like the moms demand action in america, which is a big grassroots support groups. you know, a lot of that has developed since the shooting in 2012 at sandy hook. so, a lot has changed on the ground and i do think the president has an opportunity to stay with this, to keep talking about it, to keep talking directly to the senators who may be persuadable. he really needs to be pushing right now because the american people, like the president, are very fed up. there's a lot of energy and focus on this issue right now, so i think it is a moment when we do for the first time in a while, see the possibility of getting legislation,

certainly through the congress, and then the pressure can be put on the senate, and i think that is what is going to have to happen — we are going to have to really push consistently and not lose our focus on this as so often, sadly, happens after these tragic shootings. and of course, some states in america can introduce their own gun controls and some have. has there been any evidence that gun violence has gone down in those states? absolutely. all the states have the ability. there's so little regulation at the federal level in this country, just a very weak background check law that doesn't apply to private sales or gun shows. that's really about it, and so about half the states have passed their own very, very strong gun laws, including states like california, new york, newjersey, and those states, almost without exception, have much lower rates of gun deaths than states with weak gun laws. so if you look — you can look at the gifford's

website, giffords.com, and we have an analysis where we look at the laws in each state, we give them a grade, and then we compare that to gun deaths rates, and it is absolutely 100% clear that stronger gun laws, even with poorer state borders and guns being trafficked across borders, which make state laws not as effective as they could be — there's still much, much fewer gun deaths in states with strong laws, so these laws work and there is research which proves that they do. that's not the problem here. the problem here are the lobby groups in the united states, like the nra and gun industry, that have a lot of republican politicians in their pocket, and so the republicans are not even voting what their constituents want. the majority of americans and gun owners support common—sense measures like universal background checks, and yet, the people that represent them do not vote for them because that's not who they are accountable to. they make themselves accountable to lobbyists and it's really disgusting when you see these shootings and know that reality. in other news, president zelensky has called for weapons

deliveries to ukraine to be stepped up as he warned that russia now controlled a fifth of his country. he has also met the new us ambassador to ukraine, bridget brink. she has given herfirst broadcast interview to the bbc�*sjoe inwood, who reports from kyiv. the battle for severodonetsk is not over, it seems. this is how one ukrainian soldier experiences it. bodycam footage released on social media shows intense street fighting as they try to hold back the russian advance. "calm down, calm down — it's ok," he says. one of his colleagues has been hit. they apply pressure to the wound before trying to get him to safety. it has been increasingly hard to get a clear picture of what is happening on the ground. even as the fighting rages, the region's governor knows this city may fall. translation: it's not - the battle for severodonetsk

which is most important. we need to win the war. the luhansk region became the fortress to hold back a huge influx of russian forces. by holding them back, we don'tjust keep them at a distance — they lose equipment and personnel. meanwhile, we receive weapons from our partners. and it's weapons like these they're talking about — long—range rocket artillery called himars. it's thought they could change the course of this war. it's great to be in kyiv. thanks so much for coming out. they're being delivered by the united states, and today, the new american ambassador met the president, and then the media. she also gave the bbc her first international broadcast interview. part of our goal in providing all of this security assistance is also to strengthen the ukrainians�* hands at the negotiating table, so it helps create a better situation for ukraine, as they may be looking at some point to how this conflict ends.

but i think it's quite remarkable, the success that the ukrainians have had. russia's invasion has triggered an expansion of nato, with finland and sweden applying tojoin the defensive alliance. could ukraine one day follow them? ultimately, ukraine will have to decide what it wants in its future, and then as is with the membership process, the leadership of nato countries then also make a decision. so i think if we're in that... would you support it? if we're in that position, i think we are in a very good position, because right now, we've got to help ukraine win the war. but that moment is still a long way away. cities in the path of russia's invasion are still emptying out. this was sloviansk earlier today — a key russian target. those who can, flee. those who can't face an increasingly uncertain future.

joe inwood, bbc news, kyiv. buckingham palace has announced that queen elizabeth will miss friday's national service of thanksgiving in london because of mobility difficulties. a statement said the 96—year—old monarch had greatly enjoyed thursday's platinum jubilee events, but that she'd experienced some discomfort. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell looks back on a day of celebration. fanfare windsor castle this evening. the queen was present to light the first of the jubilee beacons. but in a surprise development, buckingham palace has said that the queen will not now be able to attend the service of thanksgiving tomorrow at st paul's cathedral. the reason? all the palace will say is that the queen experienced some discomfort today when she travelled into london to appear briefly after trooping the colour. cheering there'd certainly been no sign of any difficulties during the event.

the queen had appeared on the palace balcony, walking carefully and leaning on her stick. for the first time in her reign, she did not attend the parade itself. it had been left to the prince of wales to lead the royal party from buckingham palace down to horse guards parade. also riding on horseback, behind charles, were prince william, the duke of cambridge, and princess anne, the princess royal. and riding together in one of the carriages, the cambridges�* three children — prince george, prince louis waving away happily in the middle, and princess charlotte. and the more the crowd waved, the more louis waved until his sister decided that that was probably enough. as the procession made its way down the mall, a group of animal rights protesters

broke through the tight police cordon and attempted to disrupt one of the marching bands before being dragged away by police. on horse guards parade, the footguards had formed up — plenty to look at and plenty to get used to for these newcomers to the parade. they will be seeing it many times in the years to come. absent from the parade, the duke of york — stripped of his role as honorary colonel of the grenadier guards. keen young eyes were watching from the windows overlooking the parade ground. the duke and duchess of sussex were also watching from the same building. their presence was caught by photographers. the military parade on horse guards over, the crowds were allowed up the mall towards buckingham palace. they filled the spaces around the victoria memorial.

on the balcony, the queen and the working members of the royalfamily and their children, one of whom was about to steal the show. overhead, there was a fly—past, the finest britain's armed services could offer. watching was four—year—old louis, still waving for all he was worth — fascinated by what he was seeing overhead one moment, clapping his hands to his ears the next. the queen, of course, has seen it all before. her 70 years on the throne were marked in style. the jubilee celebrations are under way. but once again, with the news tonight that she will not be at st paul's cathedral tomorrow, there is uncertainty about the degree to which she will be involved. nicholas witchell, bbc news, buckingham palace. during those events, people from all over the uk and those visiting from many parts of the world gathered to stand in the crowd and watch the ceremonies. my colleague reeta chakrabarti spoke to some of the spectators.

it was ten deep on the mall as people gathered to watch the parade. those at the back couldn't really see much but that seemed to bother absolutely no—one. it's incredible! i've never seen it like this, and itjust really feels like a very special occasion. we're delighted to be here. you can't see very much from back here. does that matter? no. do you know what's actually really helpful? all of the cameras in front of us. we've been getting some quite good shots of what's going on anyways. some people have travelled thousands of miles to be here. you came from canada? yeah. oh, my goodness! specifically for this? specifically for this. her majesty's platinum jubilee. we came here ten years ago for the diamond jubilee. extraordinary! thank you. and why — why have you come all this way? because her majesty the queen has been faithfully serving us and the commonwealth for the last 70 years. "claire was there". yeah! claire, why are you here?

well, i think it's a very special occasion. we're never going to see this again, are we, really? not with our queen, bless her. and ijust feel it's very special, and you've got to be part of the atmosphere. for others, this was the tonic needed after the last long two years. incredibly proud to be part of this and the sense of togetherness, which we haven't really felt in a long time, especially due to the pandemic, it's really special. and why are you here? oh, i'm here celebrating the occasion. you know, it's nice bringing communities together, and we're all here. you know, that's why i'm here. where have you come from today? to stay with us here on bbc world — to stay with us here on bbc world news, plenty to come, including _ world news, plenty to come, including a potential environmental revolution in rotterdam. sky—high ambitions. the queen and her husband began their royal progress

to westminster. the moment of crowning, in accordance with the order of service, by a signal given, the great guns of the tower. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali, who has died at the age of 74. outspoken but rarely outfought, ali transcended the sport of boxing, of which he was three times world champion. he was a good fighter. he fought — all the way to the end, even through his illness. yes, he did. uefa imposes an indefinite ban on english clubs playing in europe. today is the 20th anniversary of the release of the beatles�* lp sgt pepper�*s lonely hearts club band — a record described as the album of the century.

this is bbc news. president biden has called for a ban on the sale of assault weapons and tougher background checks on prospective gun buyers. a ceasefire in yemen has been extended for another two months. the country�*s civil war started in 2014, when houthi rebels took over the capital, prompting a saudi—led military intervention a year later in support of the government. calvin dark is a political commentator. he gave me this analysis from denver. while the situation is truly complicated, what the extension of the ceasefire means for the people of yemen is a respite from a lot of the death and the tragedy that they have lived over the last seven years because with this last truce that started back in april, we saw a drastic decrease in civilian casualties and just

a kind of lifting of the tragedy happening there. so, while the political situation is complicated, for the yemeni people, this will be another hopefully two months of decreased deaths, decreased tension while the different warring factions hopefully can arrive to some type of an agreement to make this peace that they saw in the last two months — and, hopefully, for the two months coming — be more permanent. what are the chances of that, do you think, though? well, i think there is a good chance because people have seen how the violence decreased over the last two months, that�*s part of it, but i think one of the other majorfactors actually is outside of yemen, because you have yemen as kind of a proxy war for other bigger things happening in the world. you know, you�*ve got the houthi rebels, of course supported by iran and then the yemeni

government supported by the saudis. the united states are in a very interesting position becausejoe biden came into office, saying he was going to take a harder line against the saudi government but, because of things that have come up — most notably gas prices — he has kind of softened that. you�*ve got progressive members of congress in the united states who want to end the us support of the saudi—backed government and all of the things that they are doing in yemen. and then, added to that, you also have iran that sees a window to kind of restart the talks with a nuclear pact negotiations before congress changes in november — or before there�*s somebody else in the white house. all of those things are dictating what is happening in yemen. calvin dark. the actor amber heard is planning an appeal after losing a defamation trial against her former husband johnny depp over allegations of domestic abuse. from washington, here�*s david sillito. johnny depp wins in his lawsuit against... stunning verdict.

victory forjohnny... this morning, - a growing fallout... "stunning", "unexpected", "dramatic" were the words today that greeted johnny depp�*s legal victory. amber heard had alleged she had endured years of abuse. the jury didn�*t believe her. however, her lawyers are not giving up yet. her next move is appeal. but she is heartbroken... she is heartbroken, and one of the first things that she said when she came back from the verdict, when we went into the conference room, was, "i am so sorry to all of these women". this is a case that�*s struck deep. online, it has become almost inescapable. yeah, i�*ve been following it on, like, tiktok and stuff... you�*ve been following it on what? tiktok. if you go on tiktok, it kind of, like, appears in yourfeed. i think it's really weird to publicise a domestic abuse trial like that. the number of views of videos with the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp has now topped 19.5 billion. yes, 19.5 billion. this online torrent has left many deeply concerned.

i fear that the impact will be quite negative — from the memes, to the hashtags, to the online bullying, victims are watching this and they are thinking about, "how will i be treated if i come forward?" and it should be noted in a previous uk trial, amber heard�*s allegations were judged to be "substantially true", but this second trial has been very different. and remember, amber heard was not writing in the washington post as johnny depp�*s ex—wife — she was a spokeswoman, an ambassadorfor a civil rights association talking about women�*s rights and #metoo, and many people watching her testimony began to have doubts on what impact it could all have on a wider movement. take yasmine bedward. she got 4.4 million hits for one of her videos about the trial, and what drew her in were concerns about amber heard. this is someone who has become the face of a movement that

women have been fighting forfor years and so, to have someone be at the front of that and not be truthful is damaging to not only the organisation but, i think, women overall. but, forjohnny depp, who has this week been performing in the uk, the trial has changed everything. for team johnny, it�*s case closed, reputation restored. cheering. david sillito, bbc news. life in a modern city presents many challenges. in one dutch city, they�*re trying to solve some of those problems by looking up. in rotterdam, a kind of revolution is taking place — up in the air. this is a new rooftop walkway that is open to the public in the centre of the city. —— this is a new rooftop walkway that has opened to the public in the centre of the city. we want people to experience how great it is to be

on a rooftop and what space we have lying there above the city which we do not use, and what the quality of that space is and what the potential of that space is. a lot of things are happening up here that, some say, could help transform the environment — rooftop farms and gardens, solar panels for energy, the potential for a whole new type of community. translation: it's importantl for the environment and also, you have more space, so you can do things on roofs and houses, then you can save space — and it works. translation: it's a unique | opportunity to see rotterdam from a higher level. normally, you drive through the city and now, you walk above it. rotterdam is a city with plenty of flat roofs and experts say only around 3% of them are being used effectively. the potential for expansion is obvious. big ideas and sky—high ambitions — quite literally. tim allman, bbc news.

that�*s it from me and the team but you can always get in touch on twitter. thank you for watching. hello. obviously, so many events taking place over thejubilee weekend and many of us are hoping for some fine weather and, yes, there will be plenty of sunshine around, but also some heavy showers lurking on the horizon. they will be very hit—and—miss, though. now, the recent satellite picture showed the cloud, which we had during the course of thursday into friday, across the north—west of the uk, so some wet weather through the early hours south—western scotland, parts of northern england, into wales, too, but elsewhere across the country, there is actually a lot of dry weather to be had and 13 degrees at 8am in the south, 8 degrees expected in aberdeen. now, how about friday daytime, then? so, cloud and rain comes and goes, i think,

in the north—west of the country, and then, eventually, most of that should fizzle out and give way to some sunny spells. however, to the south, across the midlands and wales, we could see showers brewing in the afternoon — again, very hit—and—miss — and the temperatures, 22 in london on friday, up to 20 degrees in the western isles of scotland, but for some of us, it�*ll be closer to the mid—teens, particularly on the north sea coasts, and that�*s because of those fresh winds blowing off the north sea, and this is the forecast for friday night. so, friday night, many of us having dry weather but through saturday, there is a change taking place to the south of us — a weather front here. high pressure in the north, so it�*s scotland that, on saturday, has the best of the weather — windless weather, clear blue skies, stunning conditions here. fine weather also stretching into the lakes and northern ireland, but in the south, there will be more cloud and a good chance of catching some showers from southern wales, along the southern counties, maybe a little bit further north.

and then, saturday night, into sunday, there�*s a risk of thunderstorms across southern areas of the uk. they will be drifting in from the south. the forecast will keep changing. these are very notorious to forecast. the sort of shape of these storms change, the sort of areas they affect may change but the point is that through the course of sunday morning, we think that area of thundery weather will be drifting further northwards, but even once it clears in the south, showers could return in the afternoon, so a very unpredictable day for southern parts on sunday.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president biden has called for the banning of assault weapons and high—capacity magazines in the wake of a mass shooting at a texas primary school last week. other measures proposed included raising the age at which guns can be purchased and putting in place tougher background checks for gun buyers. on the eve of the hundredth day of russia�*s invasion of ukraine, president zelensky has said moscow has seized about a fifth of his country, and up to 100 ukrainian soldiers were dying each day. russian forces have been intensifying attacks in the eastern donbas region. buckingham palace has announced that queen elizabeth will miss friday�*s national service of thanksgiving at st paul�*s cathedral in london, marking her platinum jubilee.

a statement said the 96—year—old monarch