Are creating regional tensions. Get in touch with us using the hashtag. Hello and welcome im katty kay in new york, and Christian Fraser is in london. A week after the School Shooting in florida, americas gun lobby has finally spoken up and it is not compromising. As grieving parents and traumatized children confront lawmakers and the president , asking for something be done to stop the countrys mass killings, the nra chief is blaming democrats. Wayne lapierre is defiant. As head of the organisation that lobbies and funds politicians on behalf of the gun industry he is determined to prevent any further restrictions on gun sales in the us. But many of the teenagers, and their parents, whove spoken up since the florida attack, say the nra is out of with the country, and is making schools less safe. As usual, the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain. The breakback speed of calls for more gun control laws and the breathless national media, eager to smear the nra. Were yet to learn the finer detail of the president s gun reforms, but under consideration, a proposal to arm some teachers, raising the minimum age to buy certain types of firearms, and enhanced background checks. Just a short time ago, President Trump met with state and local officials and had this to say. And i think we are making a lot of progress, and i can tell you there there is a tremendous feeling that we want get something done. And were leading that feeling, i hope, but it is a great feeling, including at the nra, including with republican senators and hopefully democrat senators in congress. Lets get reaction to the days events from mica mobascher. Shes a political commentator and a member of the 2020 Trump CampaignNational Advisory board. Let me put a proposition to do. Because President Trump is trusted by dan on us, and you are a member of the nra, is he actually the president who might be able to shift something when it comes to garner laws, particularly around the age which people can buy guns in the country . Absolutely. The art of the deal president is all action orientated, and a very compelling session he had both students and pa rents, session he had both students and parents, many who were grieving, especially one man who played the last of his daughter. This signal is that he is open to bipartisan decisions, and the raising of the minimum wage for ar is weapons is something that the nra is pushing back against, and it is something that the white house has signalled that the white house has signalled that the white house has signalled that the president would be open to supporting. Additionally, i feel that he is looking into closing those loopholes and efficiencies in the National Instant criminal tax system that is used when you buy it gun, and there is a bipartisan bill, and the president is fully behind this. Additionally, iwould be remiss if i did not bring up the blistering attacks, well deserved, on the fbi, his command centre, which is a Central Call Centre in West Virginia deal to pass on details, two text they received that nikolas cruz had been identified as a clear and present danger to himself and potentially to those around him. The bia has an 8. 9 billion budget, it is a bloated bureaucracy with 35,000 employees, 56 field offices, and there have been other deficiencies in the fbi pointed out in the past, including the former supervisor of the Management Division make make man, who in 2009 reported to his supervisors and two assistant at the idyllic that they were deficiencies and failures are political that are interfering with National Security. We need to hold agencies like the fbi are accountable, donal President Trump will do so. There is no question there is a different tone coming from the president. I want to take you back to april 20 17th at the candidate convention. This is what he said. I will never ever infringe on it the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never ever. He has talked about nix, but he has also talked about banning public stocks, maybe automatic weapons. Lapeirre did not letting any of that. Addy headed for a confrontation . I am concerned that you can buy an ar 15 weapon when you are not old enough to buy a beer. Dn ali is pushing background as a raising of the 80s to purchase firearms as an infringement on Second Amendment is, but i dont see product complements brother compromise interferes with the right to buy a gun. I think that President Trump has the strength of leadership to co nfro nt trump has the strength of leadership to confront this and other tough issues, especially from the very powerful can lobby, with 500 million members. Thank you very much for joining us. Last night, the survivors of the School Shooting took part in a nationally televised town hall event. One of the stand out moments involved 17 year old cameron kasky, one of the founders of the neveragain movement, who put this question to senator marco rubio. Senator rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the nra in the future . Well, number one, the positions i hold on this issue of the Second Amendment, ive held since the day i entered office in the city of western miami as an elected official. Number two. No, the answer to the questions is that people buy into my agenda, and i do support the Second Amendment, and i also support the right of you and everyone here to be able to go to school and be safe. Senator reviewer took to 20 million from the nra. Well, lets get more reaction from republican Florida State representative randy fine hes in tallahassee. 2. 3 2. 3 million. Just talk to us about marco rubio there. He is talking about maybe being able to ban high capacity magazines. Theres anything that you would accept in terms of restrictions on gun sales . I would like to clear one thing up. Everyone talks about the legislator being bought and paid for by the nra. As faras being bought and paid for by the nra. As far as i know, the nra has not given a single dollar to a candid running for florida in at least 16 years. Those of us to be lead in the right to keep and bear arms, we believe it because we believe it, not because anybody is paying us too. But do they put the money in congress, where the big bullet scars that are taken . money in congress, where the big bullet scars that are taken . I am just a small representative in florida. I think we are going to have a comprehensive package of reforms. It will come out in the next few hours. It is really going to tackle all of the issues, because the fact remains we had all the laws in place to catch this file killer before it happened, yet the government failed in its responsibility to do so, so why do we keep giving this same government more power to solve the problem, im not sure. One change to the lot that the president has again talked about in washington is raising the age that you can buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21. That would have changed the situation here. Nikolas cruz was 19. Would you support that change to the legislation . Nikolas cruz seems to have been sufficiently convinced that i believe he would have barred and find another weapon. Just answer the question, which you support raising the age . |j just answer the question, which you support raising the age . I am open to discussing it, but the question is not an accurate one. And florida, it is already illegal to buy some semiautomatic weapons until 21. There are other magazines where it is not. It is a simple matter of looking at consistencies in our laws and father almighty s us transit should be rather than some of them. Would you also support looking at high capacity magazine clips, which allows tutors to fire Something Like 30 bullets, are even more before the half to pass . I think we need to be very careful before the infringe on peoples Second Amendment rights. And this country, we dont leave you punish the matches because of the m ista kes punish the matches because of the mistakes of the few. They are 5 million ar 15 is in the United States, only five had been used in mass casualties shootings. We have to keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of gun owners handle them any responsible way, and they scared of restricting their legs because of the actions of a few people. We had from mr lapierre that freedoms are being taken away. What freedoms are being taken away. What freedom is therefore students are too frightened to go to school are being protected by teachers who are arms 01 being protected by teachers who are arms or who are locked up behind gates . The fact of the matter is that we have to protect our kids, and whether it is from an ar 15 someone and whether it is from an ar 15 someone who and whether it is from an ar 15 someone who wants and whether it is from an ar 15 someone who wants to run people of use a Pressure Cooker filled with ball bearings as happened in boston, we need to protect our kids. There are things we are going to be doing. But more important than protecting our kids, we need to figure out what is going on with their kids that makes them think this is a good idea. The high that i idea. The high school that i would do, we had guns hanging on the racks of pick up trucks 25 years ago, yet it never occurred to anyone to use those to shoot people. We need to focus on the symptoms. Dont get me wrong, but we need to focus on the underlying issues with what is going wrong with their children that is making some of them believe this is acceptable. Really good of you to spare us acceptable. Really good of you to spare us back some time. Thank you very much indeed. That speech from mr lucky, it was quite a job link that speech from mr lapierre, it was quite a jaw dropping. Time and again, he kept referring back to this Second Amendment. We have had an awful lot about it. It is interesting, because this Second Amendment is what is used by people who support gun rights and the country to say that there should be no restrictions on guns, but actually four tent in the past decade federal Appeals Court in the United States have ruled that banning assault weapons is legal under this Second Amendment, so they have also said that the Supreme Court has said that gun rights are not unlimited, i e. , gone rights are limited in the country. So, there is a debate about these weapons of war, one of the file in the definition of self defence or not, because that is what the Second Amendment protects, but that they are just used to cause harm, and should not be in peoples hands. It seems like the courts and the Supreme Court do think that some restrictions on assault weapons act constitutional, but that is not an argument duty from the gun lobby. The residents of Eastern Ghouta are living without food, water and electricity. In one area, 80 of the population is now living underground. Those grim figures come from the un, where the Security Council is meeting in new york and is right now debating a draft resolution to end the bombing of civilians in the enclave. The resolution calls for a month long truce to get emergency supplies into the area. But of course russia has the power to veto this plan, and their ambassador has already signalled there is no agreement. It will not be easy. 0ur middle east editorjeremy bowen has this report which does contain some very distressing images. What air strikes, more bombs and more casualties. It is not letting if we , if we havefff fiftwe have tofii 7 7 7 we have to 7 to g we have to i to azure . When my boy key go to g we have to i to azure . When my boy key go to heaven, my boy dies, key will go to heaven, but. Least he will be able to eat. But at least he will be able to eat. I would like to i with him i that e 1. 49 115 . 143i if 7 1511165 . Can look after him. So many syrians have died in the war. The killing is escalating. And once again the world is watching from a safe distance. The situation clearly really desperate iniesta and get it at the moment. We can speak now to david ignatius, a journalist for the washington post. He has just returned from reporting in syria. Just looking at what is happening in the conclave, if the russians agreed to this draft resolution for a 30 day truce, what happens to the people . That was a grand airport. This early in regime, with russian backing, is trying to eradicate the rebel opposition in Eastern Ghouta, just to the east of damascus. This has been a stronghold of the opposition, this is an area where cia backed rebels where strong. My fear is that we are watching a replay of aleppo, where again, us cia backed forces that were active we re cia backed forces that were active were finally destroyed by ruthless bombing, barrel bombing, vicious five inbound civilian areas. That is happening in Eastern Ghouta. The russian bass blackbelt want to push as far as it can. There may be a ceasefire, as there was often in aleppo, but i think they will want to keep the momentum going. |j to keep the momentum going. I want to talk a little bad about the carotid seen elsewhere in syria, because that is what you have been looking at. You talked about the craziness that is unfolding on the battlefield, and i just craziness that is unfolding on the battlefield, and ijust want to give our viewers a favourite of that editorial. You wrote. As you say, what we know have is converging forces with diverging interests. What is the policy of the United States amid all that . The honest answer is that the policy of the United States is confused. This has become even more than before, a shooting gallery. The Syrian Civil War was catastrophic in terms of loss of life and refugee flow, now it is becoming a place where there is Little International proxy wa rfa re is Little International proxy warfare going on. The us with its allies currently occupies about one third of the country. The us has not really decided what it wants to do with that. This secretary of state Rex Tillerson has said the us forces will remain the ansaldi process leads towards some kind of transition, but that is a matter of yea rs transition, but that is a matter of years away. What is the us strategy for stabilising the situation . Increasingly, i hear people in washington talking about the importance of some kind of dialogue involving the us, israel, russia and inevitably syrian regime. I think the level of budget, the inability to make any other approach to transitional works comes means that at some stage, the new stage will be at some stage, the new stage will be a change of policy. Thank you very much forjoining us. Ethiopia, sudan and egypt have set a deadline of the end of the month to try to resolve a long running dispute over the blue nile, which is threatening relations between the three countries. Ethiopia has almost finished building one of the biggest dams in africa, to produce hydro electric power, but egypt is worried it will reduce its water supply. 0ur africa correspondent Alastair Leithead sent this special report from sudan. The grand ethiopian renaissance dam is almost finished. Africas biggest hydro electric power station has already bridged the nile. And sudan is waiting expectantly for the cheap power that will soon fizz across its border. But that is not all. The waters of the nile transform the sudanese desert into a land of plenty. First it grew cotton, a century ago, for british textile mills, and now there are vast circles of high quality cattle feed, mostly for export to the gulf. For sudan, the great advantage of this new dam is to regulate the flow of the blue nile. This, at the moment, is a dry season. Theyre having to dredge just so the pumping station can receive water to take to the fields. In the wet season, the level is as high as that platform eight metres higher. Thats what the dam is going to change. These are turbulent times. Sudans had a decade long deal with egypt, but is now at odds with its northern neighbour over how much water the country can use. This is sudans richest man. He owns a golf course as well as the cattle feed farms. For sudan, its wonderful. I mean, its really the best thing that has happened for a long time. And i think the combination of energy and regular water levels is a great blessing. Cheap power to keep his cows cool and to bring Faster Development to eight sudan emerging from decades of crippling us sanctions. But egypt is firmly against the dam. The regional rivalries go back as far as the pyramids. The sudanese pyramids. Egypt was once ruled from here, 2000 years ago. Powers on the nile rise and fall, and ethiopias influence is growing. Water in general is becoming highly politicised, not only in this region but elsewhere, but i think if there is always, as in our case, between the three countries, if the political will is around involving the high up authorities in three countries, i think it will work out. But the diplomatic row is far from settled. Where the rivers two great tributaries meet in khartoum, the blue nile from ethiopia supplies 85 of the water. And so the dam, and its ability to control the flow, is making downstream egypt nervous. It is one of the top three places on the planet most vulnerable to live in sea level, and the problem is that two thirds of the egyptian population live north of cairo. If you dont have water washing down the river, then you get sallow nation of that delta area. So it is not just about food, water, nation of that delta area. So it is notjust about food, water, it is about livelihoods. It has become a