says the commons speakerjohn bercow. he cited the president's views on race and sexism, as reasons why there'll be no invitation. as mps begin debating the brexit bill, the prime minister insists britain wants to remain a good friend and ally with the eu, long after it leaves. we wa nt we want a strong and successful european union, that is in our interests and the interests of the whole world. data obtained by the bbc, shows the number of patients on hospital wards in england, has reached unsafe levels at 9 out of 10 hospitals this winter. the situation‘s getting so dire, even paramedics are forced to queue, and patients are sometimes being treated in corridors. a teenager has pleaded guilty to killing an american tourist and injuring five others, during a random knife attack in london last summer. in a moment it will be time for sportsday but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been holding

talks with theresa may. he's made it clear that he wants britain to support renewed pressure on iran. i'll bejoined by our middle east editor, jeremy bowen. at 7 o'clock, on our programme 100 days, katty kay will take a look at the latest developments in the president trump travel ban row and discuss whether he can fulfil his promise ofjob creation? the queen has made history today — reaching her sapphire jubilee — we'll take a look back at her record 65 years on the throne. and at 10:40 my guests on the papers will be the journalist mina al—0raibi and broadcasterjohn sta pleton. that's all ahead on bbc news. now on bbc news it's time for sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday. captain cook no longer... after two ashes victories and a record 59 matches in the role, alastair cook steps down as england's test skipper. the loss of a legend — the former south africa captain

joost van der westhuizen has passed away, aged a5. and canada's dennis shapovalov is hit with a fine after his davis cup disaster. after a record 59 matches leading his country, alistair cook has stepped down as england's test captain. there is some flash photography in this report. 2012. england's new cricket captain, alastair cook, posed for the cameras like a visit to the dentist.

he would rather not, but he knew that he had to, so smile. cook captained his way this way, old —fashioned, reasonable. yes, even inspirational. 0n foreign soil or home he withstood more test matches than any other england captain. but it takes its toll. the demands get to every skipper eventually. and having lost the recent test series in india emphatically a—nil, cook decided he'd had enough, explaining in a statement today, stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision but i know this is the correct decision for me at the right time for the team. alastair cook's record makes him one of britain's outstanding sportsman in an era when live cricket was only available on pay—tv in the uk. england won just over 40% of the test matches cook captained, not the best record, but better than most of his predecessors. as a batsman, no englishman has played more test matches nor made as many runs. cook recently overtook his mental, graham gooch. —— mentor.

he has worked feverishly hard on his technique throughout the years to improve their technique. and we see, you know, a fantastic test cricketer, the rock of the england batting for the last decade. cook is only 32 and wants to carry on as a batsman, but who replaces him as captain? no decision officially yet, but the heir apparent has always beenjoe root. highly talented batsman, but an unknown as a captain. as he recently reflected in a bbc interview. it's one of those things that you sort of have to learn on the job. the timing of this is quite relevant. but being a dad, you don't really know what to do until you sort ofjust have to go with it and see how it goes. so i imagine that would be very similar. cook once told me he felt his england era had been tarnished by claims made by kevin pietersen in his book. and that tension took up so much attention. pietersen suggested today on twitter he is now ready for an england comeback. far more likely england will still look to cook, freed from the responsibility of captaincy to make more centuries. alistair cook took over

the captaincy from andrew strauss, and today he said that being captain of england had worn him down. my conversation with him injanuary, it became clear that he felt a huge amount of energy and drive and determination was needed to take the england test team forward over the next 12 months or so heading to the ashes and deep down he was getting drained by the, i suppose, the relentlessness of being england captain. you are the only person who knows how much gas you have left in the tank. all the demands of being england captain, how much that is taking from you and alastair cook was honest about that and feels it is time for some new blood and fresh thinking. he had some difficulties to ove rco m e thinking. he had some difficulties to overcome both personally and

collectively over the five years. he has dealt with that unbelievably well and at times a lesser man would not have been able to deal with those. the world of rugby is paying tribute to the former south africa scrum half joost van der westhuizen, who has died at the age of a5, after a long running battle with motor neurone disease. president jacob zuma said the country had lost a legend. he was a member of the famous springbok side that won the world cup in 1995. people look at him as a hero and an inspiration, the great captain and scrum—half. the man who stopped south africa from winning the 1995 world cup. the man who won 89 caps for his country and the man who fought motor neurone disease. he gave so much inspiration to others. the rugby world, the sporting world is reeling from the loss of a man who gave so much on two different fronts. some of the biggest names in rugby have been taking to social media

to pay respect to westhuizen. south africa and leicester tigers wing jp pietersen said, condolences and prayers to the van der westhuizen family and his friends. new zealand and racing 92 fly—half dan carter said, he was one of the few non all black players i adored. such sad news! #ripjoost. former england and world cup winning coach sir clive woodward said, very very sad to hear this, he was the ultimate player and competitor, thoughts with his family and @sarugby. canada's dennis shapovolov has been fined over £5,500 for hitting the umpire in the face with a ball, during yesterday's forfeited davis cup match against great britain. shapovolov unintentionally hit the umpire arnaud gabas in the left eye causing him to need medical attention. and for acting in a way that

i would never want to act". the president of the eye aaf lord coe is shortly to hold a press conference in monaco. russian athletes banned from the brazil 0lympics during a state—sponsored doping programme is one of the issues that he will be addressing. the eye aaf are meeting in monaco, council meetings are assembled in the hotel just across council meetings are assembled in the hoteljust across the harbour with a range of issues to be discussed including where future world championships will be held. but the questions resulting from the russian doping scandal as centre in everyone's minds. track and field badly affected from the scandal and of course russian athletes missing out on the 2016 olympics. russia wa nts to out on the 2016 olympics. russia wants to be readmitted into the sport in time for the london world championships in just six sport in time for the london world championships injust six months‘ time from now. questions also for

lord coe, he is under pressure about what he knew and went about the russian doping problems. questions from british mps have been put to him, e—mails have been sent back and forward , him, e—mails have been sent back and forward, lord coe does not want to go back before the mps and they have been something of a stand—off between the parties at the moment. his former right—hand man nick davies has been banned from working with the eye aaf after admitting finally and after some denials that he had accepted cash payments from the former president of the sport. there will be questions about that and those other issues when lord coe appears before the media at this hotel later today. five sports today begin their appeals against a decision to axe all their elite level funding. badminton and wheelchair rugby are among the sports making their case to uk sport to challenge their decision to cut funding for the tokyo 2020 olympic games. david 0rnstein reports. these sports facing perhaps

their biggest battle. representatives from each will begin meeting uk sport today. the outcome could make or break their hopes for the tokyo 0lympics. badminton has been hit the hardest by the cuts. £5.7 million to prepared for the last games. nothing for the next. this despite exceeding uk sport‘s target of a quarterfinal place in rio. that was secured by rajiv 0useph, before marcus ellis and chris langridge won and unexpected bronze. we both want to be, one on one. we want to show everyone what we can do, and we think at the olympics we did that. and we want to go one better. but without any funding, it really is so, so difficult. we did exceed our target. we had a fantastic programme in place to secure, notjust one, but who knows how many medals. here at the national badminton centre, you don‘t have to look far for signs of success. but none of that would have been possible without uk sport funding. and the fear is that

if this appeal is rejected, that success on the court will not be repeated. of the other sports to lose their entire funding, fencing had £42 million for rio. wheelchair rugby, 3 million. archery, 2.9 million, and weightlifting, 1.7 million. all cut. wheelchair rugby is one of the most popular paralympic sports. and britain had high expectations for 2020. but not in the eyes of uk sport, who distribute a pot of £345 million to 32 olympic and pa ralympic associations. i just feel there‘s something ugly about the decision. we‘ve seen some sports that have got massive increases. and we as the only disability sport affected, we‘ve lost all of our funding, with massive implications. the sports appealing believe money should be reallocated more fairly. they will learn their fate by the end of february. david 0rnstein, bbc news, milton keynes. badminton has said it faces

a financial crisis despite winning a bronze medal in rio, exceeding their target. gail emms won a badminton medal in athens in 2004. uk sport has this pool of lottery money and it is divided up into the different sports but unfortunately in our case, it doesn‘t go on your past performances. so rio gets swept under the carpet, so even though we did make the targets and exceed them with chris and marcus‘ fantastic bronze medal, that means nothing. you have to put your case about predicting what you will get at tokyo 2020. better news for netball today though, they‘ve been given nearly £17 million of sport england funding. netball isn‘t an olympic sport, but it does feature in the commonwealth games. rugby union, table tennis, tennis and athletics also benefit from extra £100 million extra investment. that‘s all from sportsday.

there‘ll be more sport here on bbc news throughout the evening. theresa may has held talks with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in downing street. mrs may outlined her concerns over settlement building in the west bank, while mr netanyahu warned that iran posed a threat to europe, after it test—fired a ballistic missile. with me is now our middle east editorjeremy bowen. has there been a shift in the uk‘s attitude towards the building of settle m e nts attitude towards the building of settlements by the israelis or has the uk been maintaining its policy of fundamentally opposing them? britain is opposing it but less

permanently than before. back towards the end of last year in the final days of the 0bama administration there was a resolution adopted by the un security council america abstained rather than blocking that which ranged mr netanyahu. essentially condemning a lot of what they were doing. after that the uk reined back despite having voted for it and been one of the prime movers behind it, the uk rent back on it and since thenit the uk rent back on it and since then it appears that theresa may and her determination to get as close as possible to president trump, is more 01’ possible to president trump, is more or less following his middle east policy which is to be a lot softer on netanyahu than 0bama. well today she made it clear in the commons that she was adamant to mr nash and yahoo that the israelis should cease building settlements. —— mr netanyahu. are building settlements. —— mr neta nyahu. are you building settlements. —— mr netanyahu. are you saying that behind—the—scenes things are more fluid? i was not in the meeting and

interestingly they decided not to have a press conference afterwards, they just put have a press conference afterwards, theyjust put out a statement which is kind of unusual. i think a sign that neither of them wanted to face awkward questions. a spokeswoman for theresa may said the objection to settle m e nts theresa may said the objection to settlements was that they undermine trust, the reality is there is no trust, the reality is there is no trust between the israelis and palestinians on these particular issues. and there is a pretty strong international consensus that the growth of settlements is doing more than anything else to reduce the chances of the so—called two state solution. palestinian state alongside israel. now of course they wa nt alongside israel. now of course they want the visit to go well, the uk needs more trading partners because of brexit. and israel has a very strong high—tech economy so you can see why they want it all to go well and perhaps they did