BBC在线收听下载:英美法对叙利亚发动空袭

BBC News. Hello, I'm Gareth Barlow.

President Trump is expected to make a statement shortly on Syria. US media reports suggest he'll announce that he's approved airstrikes in response to a suspected chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta. The State Department says it has proved that the Syrian government was behind the attack and Russia did nothing to stop it. The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher was at the State Department briefing. She said the assessment of all three governments, the US, Britain and France are that the Syrian regime was behind it. And it is quite a strong statement given that when the Defense Secretary was speaking. He was saying I believe a chemical attack was carried out, but we don't have the actual evidence no matter what you saw. You know, everything you see on social media. We don't actually have the evidence, and he didn't single out the syrian government officially at that point either. So I think it's a stronger statement than we've seen before.

As the United States, France and Britain work on a likely military response，International Chemical Weapons inspectors are due in Syria to begin investigating the incident. Britain denies a Russian claim that it's staged the attack. Steve Rosenberg is in Moscow. The phrase war of words is something we hear very often to describe relations between Russia and the West, but if you listen to the words Russia has been using today, you can see just how wide the gulf is now between Moscow and the West. The words of Russia's UN ambassador today claiming that America's irresponsible behavior was unworthy of a permanent member of the Security Council. The words of the Russian Defense Ministry claiming that the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria was a provocation by Britain.

Federal prosecutors in New York have disclosed the President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months. Lawyers for both Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen went to court to stop documents seized at the lawyer's home and office being made public as part of the investigation into Russian meddling. From New York, Nada Tawfik reports. Investigators are looking into whether Michael Cohen committed tax fraud, money laundering and other crimes, which they say has nothing to do with his work as an attorney, but with his own personal business dealings that could include his work for President Trump. The FBI seized documents and evidence from Michael Cohen's home, office and hotel in New York on Monday, but they have also searched his safety deposit box, two of his cell phones and his email accounts.

World news from the BBC.