this is bbc breakfast. weather warnings as heavy snow hits the uk. up warnings as heavy snow hits the uk. up to 20 centimetres are expected in some places, flights have already been suspended at birmingham airport. this is the scene in north wales at the moment. good morning, today you want to keep gci’oss good morning, today you want to keep across the weather for christ. we have disrupted snow in the forecast thatis have disrupted snow in the forecast that is staying in places. —— weather forecast. good morning.

also this morning, the foreign secretary is due to meet the ukrainian president on the second day of his talks in teheran. he will —— iranians president. nazanin nina ratcliffe could appear in court today. there is encouragement for more students to sign up for shorter courses. we will hear why. in sport, just more than bragging rights at sta ke, just more than bragging rights at stake, with the manchester derby at 0ld stake, with the manchester derby at old trafford is the biggest game in the premier league so far this season. good morning. first our main story. snow is falling across wales, the midlands and southern england — with the met office urging people to brace themselves for disruption. almost 20 centimetres have fallen in sennybridge in powys, mid wales. an amber weather alert has been issued, and there's a warning that some rural areas could be cut off. simon clemison reports: it could be a scene

from the snowman. white the new green, as you fly over parts of wales. sledge down it, sculpt it, throw it. it might not look any different to the snow which has already fallen in shropshire, but it is coming from a different place, and that could mean it has a much bigger effect. a band of rain, this time persistent, is drifting in from the south—west and is set to push against the cold air, potentially leading to heavy and continuous falls across wide areas of wales, the midlands, and into northern england, with the possibility of 20 centimetres accumulating in some spots. it could also go further south than originally thought. scotland and northern ireland are on alert. afairamount has already arrived on the weekend but so far it originated from showers, covering some towns but not others. this hospital is calling on people with 4x4s living nearby to help bring staff to work, with the met office urging people to be prepared.

for many, for now, the snow is anything but a problem. we have been sledging down the hill and it is super fun. we don't get snow very often, we brought the kids out and it was good fun. just having loads of fun in the snow. the met office says road, railand air delays are likely. the hope will be that a sunday will help lessen the impact, because lots of people are not at work or school. in fact, they're here. we can speak now to our news correspondent matthew richards who is in llangollen for us this morning. matthew, how much snow has there been in north wales overnight? how much else can we expect? i would say we are looking at ten centimetres so far this morning. this is quite an elevated position

that gets a lot of these snow, but in mid wales, powers, we have had about 20 centimetres already. all parts of the uk seem to be feeling the effect of wintry weather. we have had a tweet from the met office but low temperatures have been recorded in the highlands of scotland. not quite that cold here, but the wind chill makes it feel cooler. people are being asked to ta ke cooler. people are being asked to take advantage, take note of the conditions and if you'd have to make a trip to make sure they have a winter, snow pack with them, something to dig themselves out of trouble if they are caught in drifts also blankets to keep warm if they get stuck and have too spent time waiting for rescue. we know birmingham airport is temporarily suspending flights. passengers expecting to travel to date have been asked to contact their airlines for further information or to checked birmingham airport's website

also. ruler areas at risk of being blocked off. they attended the major routes open for now. thanks, matthew. the snow clearly affecting the sound quality as well. sorry. we can get the latest with stav at the weather centre. let's talk about the science. why is it happening? we have cold air. the weather front showing up clearly on the rain and snow radar, it is started off as rain, coming off the mild atlantic and bumped into the cold air and you can see it has turned to heavy snow across the republic of ireland and across the republic of ireland and across the republic of ireland and across the midlands. it is continuing to pile up here as this area of rain continues in the cold air. it extends a bit south—eastwards to london area, getting some big flakes of snow mixed into the rain. that will

continue to move its way northwards, pivot, and then south—eastwards as it weakens, but we've still got a feel more hours of heavy snow across parts of wales and into the midlands and birmingham airport has been closed there. much indeed. we will check in with you in the morning. if you are on your way to you in the morning. if you are on yourway to birmingham you in the morning. if you are on your way to birmingham airport, your jaw flights are suspended. careful on the roads because we had a guest who has not been able to get in this morning, so is clearly quite treacherous on some roads. don't travel if you don't need to. students in england are being encouraged to study for undergraduate degrees in two years rather than three. the university's ministerjo johnson says these shorter courses will save thousands of pounds in tuition fees — even though universities would be able to charge nearly £2000 more per year. andy moore reports. it was a conservative manifesto

promise to introduce more two—year degree courses. implementing that plan has proved tough going. the universities say it will mean major changes to their schedules, with the prospect of the same or less money in income. by the government's own admission, the pickup so far has been pitiful, with only 0.2% of students on fast—tracked degrees. the new scheme would see students paying more for each individual year of their course, but more than £5,000 less than they would have done if it had lasted three years. it is a fantastic offer. the same quality degree, quality assured in exactly the same way, provided in a more intensive way. so instead of 30 weeks a year studying over three years, a really driven student, a highly motivated student, could pack in 45 weeks over two years. the government says each student on a two—year course will save at least £25,000 if you add in saved living costs and a year's extra earnings to the equation. and they say demand from students

will persuade universities to offer the new courses. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, is due to meet the iranian president, hassan rouhani, this morning on the second day of his visit to the country. he'll continue to press for the release of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe — the british—irainian aid—worker who's been held prisoner in the country since april 2016. she denies charges of trying to overthrow the iranian government. but she faces the possibility of a further court appearance today after mrjohnson appeared last month to contradict her claim she was on holiday in iran at the time of her arrest. i am sure it will make a difference. i'm sure him being there, him raising her case, him raising her case in the context of lots of other stuff, can only help improve relations. and improved relations can only lead to a better results for us. but i'm not expecting that on monday morning she comes back on the plane. following the meetings in iran is our security correspondent, frank gardner. frank, is it a positive sign that

mrjohnson is meeting the president of iran? how much progress can we expect him to make today? i have just to make today? i havejust spoken to make today? i have just spoken to people to make today? i havejust spoken to people in iran and progress is being made. i think richard ratcliffe is absolutely right to keep his expectations low, ido right to keep his expectations low, i do not think we will see nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe coming out imminently. he has had very good meetings with a number of people who you could call pragmatists, speaker of parliament, prime minister, seeing the president today, the fact he saw them for a second day is encouraging. the iranians have got their own shopping list, they will not drop their hands and say let's finish this. they have their own demands and one of their concerns is that they feel they are not getting

their side of the bargain of the nuclear deal for 2015, britain supported the deal and has basically gone against president trump who wa nt to gone against president trump who want to terry top. there is still restrictions on the flow of rainier money through london. —— iranians money. another thing that is very important is the people he are meeting with brett —— represent the more pragmatic side of the hassan rouhani system. behind them is a deep state, the intelligence and security operators, the judiciary, the hardliners, the revolutionary guards, some of these people are opposed to the west, to consider it —— you can opposed to the west, to consider it —— you can see opposed to the west, to consider it —— you can see conspiracy theories everywhere. there is a lot of suspicion of britain in the circles of teheran and he has two overcome that. and you are in bahrain for an international security conference.

what's the latest on donald trump? we are hearing that statement has been released by 22 countries, arab leaders saying that donald trump us ignition ofjerusalem is risking plunging the middle east into further chaos. that decision has been called absolutely disastrous. the phrase thatis absolutely disastrous. the phrase that is being used time and again at this summit is it has grown a hand grenade into a room without the pain end. people are really upset about it. they produced a statement, all 22 members contaminated that the us can no longer be considered a brokering the deal. there is violent 01’ brokering the deal. there is violent or the west bank, people have come out, it is very embarrassing, especially for governments in jordan

and egypt, who are close allies to the united states. frank, thank you very much. the singer—songwriter chris rea collapsed on stage last night while performing at a concert in oxford. the 66 year old — who is best known for writing driving home for christmas — had a stroke last year. the ambulance service said it had taken a patient to hospital and he was in a stable condition. highways england is urging drivers to check road conditions before they set off today as whether warnings remain in place in large parts of the uk. a lot is hitting the midlands. some motorways already covered in snow, with local forces asking people to only trouble if necessary. travel if necessary. some face heavy rain and gale force winds. icy surfaces likely to be a

hazard. we arejoined by a operations manager of highways england. barbara, let's start with eu. it is always the elderly, vulnerable people who are most at risk in this kind of weather. surprisingly, 25,000 extra deaths a year due to the cold weather, and not because people are slipping and breaking their hip, but as we get older, the body's natural thermostat is not a sufficient so we do not notice that we're getting cold and the cold you are, the morrow to risk you having a heart attack, stroke, and the less at child you are, some are likely to fall. it is important to keep warm and if you cannot afford to heat the whole house than

where layers of clothing, hat, clothes, slippers, lots of hot drinks and protect yourself. get your flu jab when it is offered to you, take up whatever is available, make sure if someone rings you and knocks on the door, asks you for help, don't be too proud to accept help, don't be too proud to accept help, and is a good neighbour, think about the people who are nearby who we can help and we can ring and knock on the door who don't —— don't make assumptions. check on one another, it is a difficult time for everybody, but there will be somebody a little bit worse off who we need to keep an eye on. we have heard that severe weather is causing weather disruption. birmingham airport runway closed at the moment was what is the situation on the roads?

the midlands is getting hit the most at the moment. the northwest so far, it should have been here, but we seem it should have been here, but we seem to beak scraping it. it could still move up here. look if you're looking outside and thinking it's 0k, make the same preparations, could still hit later on. what are the preparations? what advice would you give to drivers? if you have to go, preparation first. make sure you warm up the car, defrosted it, top up your screen car, defrosted it, top up your screen wash, car, defrosted it, top up your screen wash, many car, defrosted it, top up your screen wash, many people get caught out because of the salt on the road, you are constantly using the wash. fill up your car, charge phone up, people think if you break down and your power goes off, you lose your saturn as, you lose the power to your phone. keep your recovery numberto hand, you your phone. keep your recovery number to hand, you can get in contact with them. when you said you were expecting more snow in the north—west, if you

positioned it in this area, how quickly can you move and who takes the decision, who comes to the decision? we have two areas where we move things around and stop the gritting stations around the country, they are been the key areas will stop the gritters has to go back to the depots to refill. the drivers are on stand—by, they will be out there waiting in their truck to take them where the need to. they have a standard pattern of where they go, so standard pattern of where they go, so they are constantly gritting. we also have recovery vehicles placed in areas we know they get badly hurt. it is the time of year people are picking up illnesses, what preventative advice would you give to people at this time of year? vaccination, especially children who we know our super vaccination, especially children who we know our super spreaders, so if you can get your child vaccinated, we are protecting the whole of society if we can. apart from that, the other viruses are like

norovirus, winter vomiting virus, so if you have someone in your family ora if you have someone in your family or a child who has it, keep away from everybody else from a good few days until you are trouble—free because it is so contagious and it brings down people living in communities like nursing homes and hospitals. don't visit people if you are unwell. be careful about who you are unwell. be careful about who you are spreading germs to. thank you very much. useful advice. norovirus is always around at that time. we did say that there was most 20 centimetres of snow and we invited people to send in photos. we have been sent this picture of a garden. that is a a lot of snow. very thick fare. about 23 centimetres, yeah. we can find out how much snow is falling across the rest of the country. very severe conditions, 23

centimetres is the highest recording in wales at... continuing to fall there as well. rain and snow radar. it is extending further south and south eastwards into the london area, to the home counties, pushing on to parts of east anglia. there it is, 23 centimetres. a discount to continue to mount up. i think ten centimetres there. no surprise, met 0ffice amber be prepared warning in force. this is the amber warning area, force. this is the amber warning area , you force. this is the amber warning area, you can see if extending further south—east in towards east anglia, on the hills, down to 20 centimetres. we have seen more than that in north wales. good news is this will continue to weaken as we

head on towards the afternoon, fragment, become a bit lighter. there will be some snow in the area so roads will be treacherous. rural communities could be cut off for a while. southern parts of england, in the south—west, bristol channel, gale force winds, maybe eight to —— 80 mph. disruption from wind, snow, across the north, it will be largely dry, very cold, but lots of crisp sunshine, some wintry showers across the north highlands. 0utbreaks sunshine, some wintry showers across the north highlands. outbreaks of sleet and snow continuing through central areas, clearing through the course of the night but it will leave a hazardous ice risk across northern areas. watch out for that. town and city values here. lower than that over the snowfields across scotland, maybe —12 in places. this can donna clears away on monday.

there will be some damaging winds in france. northern periphery could clip the south and south—east with heavy rain, strong winds, wintriness mixed into that. further north, a drier picture. another crisp day for many. wintry showers continuing. quite today on tuesday, lots of sunshine after a really cold, frosty start. watch out for ice once again. another cold state to come. that is the forecast. teachers are calling for highly caffeinated energy drinks to be banned from schools. they've been described as a form of "legal high" by one of the largest teaching unions, who say they are fuelling bad behaviour. adrian goldberg from 5 live investigates joins us. why ed teachers are worried? there is concern about the levels of sugar and caffeine. i was shown by a

nutritionist a can of a well—known energy drink this week. it was about that high off the table, there were 20 sugars in that camp. you throw in the impact of caffeine where young people may suffer from the impact of caffeine where young people may sufferfrom insomnia the impact of caffeine where young people may suffer from insomnia and mood swings and now the teaching union has said it is time to ban the consumption of all energy drinks in schools. what restrictions are currently in place? there is a voluntary code of conduct which the manufacturers, organisations say is signed up to. if you look at the small print on the back of a can, it will say they are not recommended for sale to under 16. but it is not illegal to sell them to win the sixteens, nor illegal for sell them to win the sixteens, nor illegalfor under 16 is sell them to win the sixteens, nor illegal for under 16 is to sell them to win the sixteens, nor illegalfor under 16 is to buy sell them to win the sixteens, nor illegal for under 16 is to buy them. we know that two thirds of young people in this country consumes energy drink at least once a week

and our young people are amongst some of the highest consumers of energy drinks anywhere in europe. ican energy drinks anywhere in europe. i can say i am surprised. if i give my child a packet of harry bo, he walks up onto the ceiling. it is not believable they react to high sugar. can you regulate it? there has been some research carried out by eight group, academics in the north—east of england, research led from newcastle university, they have spoken to ten to 14—year—olds and they say that whatever the manufacturers say, they believe that they are being targeted by the drinks manufacturers. the boys say that they think energy drinks make them look hard. the girls think it might make them look sophisticated. the research is who carried out the study argue it is time to simply bands the sales under 16 is completely.

what are the manufacturers saying in response? they say there is a side of —— code of conduct and they say the ingredients have been deemed safe by regulatory authorities around the world. thank you very much. and you can hear more on 5 live investigates on bbc radio 5 live at 11. you're watching breakfast from bbc news. let's ta ke let's take a look at the newspapers. music producer steve levine is here to tell us what's caught his eye. we'll speak to steve in a minute. first let's look at the front pages. the mail on sunday, pm had to separate ministers in bust—up at commons. that was from the chancellor from the defence secretary. they were row in overcoats to defence spending. the defence secretary thinks he was made to look a fall. the mirror, santas slaves — delivery drivers for amazon earn less than the minimum wage.

they're claiming this. the sunday telegraph, fast track university degrees could save students 25,000. they could do these studies in two yea rs. the sunday times, labour in two—million skyscaper bribe scandal. its own investigation. theirfull investigation in this morning's sunday times. you have pulled out a historic close to my heart, as a man of burnley where they have cotton mills. it is in the sunday telegraph. the return of king cotton looms large. it is an important story for this whole area. manchester and liverpool once had the cotton industry and in liverpool, the sale of cotton through the cotton exchange. what is

lovely about this, we mentioned earlier about vinyl, and that is a mechanical industry making a comeback. here we have a combining of the two worlds. we have the physical, botanical industry of the mills, that computer technology is allowing not only the bisto industry to happen, so this is in the article, you can have a one—off and it can be affordable and it is 100 send british made because all around the world varies a love and fight as a nation —— fascination for these goods that have the heritage of this area. there was always the problem that there are lower labour costs in the far east so they could make things cheaper. i think people have less goal learned lessons because manufacturers in the far east have the leading edge technology, for insta nce the leading edge technology, for instance in electric guitar

manufacturing, every millimetre of what is precious, so when they cut a model, it is specifically not wasteful. here we have the same kind of technology used for this. so if someone of technology used for this. so if someone is making she is, they can be efficient with the use of raw materials because it says they had to import the raw materials from italy. now they can have everything home—made, can be efficient with the use and they can keep the labour costs down because there are so many people to run the mill. the idea it is the spoken is fantastic. it is the quality and heritage. technology and mechanical and the heritage of the area. hopefully a new industry will come through from there. you are a music man, what you make of this story about apple? so in the middle of the week in one of my business be goal papers it is

looking at apple finishing physical downloads. 0nce looking at apple finishing physical downloads. once again things are moving on at a pace. shazam is fingerprinting software. if you are ina baror fingerprinting software. if you are in a bar or restaurant or see something on a movie, you use your phone to fingerprint the music and it will tell you who the music is and sometimes lead you straight through to a download store. in america, hassan rouhani has been used in some of the problem so when an advert comes on towards the end ofa drama, an advert comes on towards the end of a drama, you shazam it. an advert comes on towards the end ofa drama, you shazam it. in america where they can have product placement, you can be very specific about, i like your tie, and placement, you can be very specific about, i like yourtie, and it placement, you can be very specific about, i like your tie, and it will show you how to buy the tie. the idea having bought shazam is they have bought the technology which is incredible. they are not the only company that have that technology

full stop there are a couple of other software is. i use another similar sort of thing. you often in a place and you wonder what the song is. iam is. i am nervous about these really good apps. i use shazam all the time. being bought up by the bigger companies and then subject may be the fees that the bigger companies impose. i think with something like shazam, i think with something like shazam, i think the advertising marjorie spake by the technology and they can absorb the cost of it. the ideal if you think of in the next 18 months, downloading gives way to total streaming which is very helpful for the entire business, and you have a situation where people will want to know the song and if you can goes through through and stream it, it makes perfect sense i can see why they bought it. to finish, strictly. i watched that last night. the level of fitness required, the core

strength required, i was blown away. you have got a professional dancer and the celebrity, the amount of co re and the celebrity, the amount of core strength you need. he flipped over as core strength you need. he flipped over as well. that is breathtaking. apart from learning to dance, all the celebrities have lost weight, gained fitness and strength, and also what is so brilliant, when you look at it as it moves on, they are learning to understand the beat, rhythm, and it is fantastic. i reckon lots of them train. eight hours, ten hours a day. it is amazing how it is command from the very first strictly who enter the very first strictly who enter the forum, and now the standard is up the forum, and now the standard is up here. —— enterforfun. there are the professionals with the choreography, making the temperatures be super impressed with little details. then there is the band, get new arrangements. brilliant year your files, thank you

for coming. hello, this is breakfast with tina daheley and christian fraser. coming up before nine, stav will have the weather. but first, a summary of this morning's main news. snow is falling across wales, the midlands and southern england — with the met office urging people to brace themselves for disruption. almost 20 centimetres have fallen in sennybridge in powys, mid wales. an amber weather alert has been issued, and there's a warning that some rural areas could be cut off. highways england say they're on stand—by for what could be very unpredictable weather conditions today. round the country, we have 500

gritters, 1300 drivers and enough grip to do 10,000 miles of motorway. but they constantly update the alert, they even have to choose the type of grid depending on the type of weather. here is the live shot of broadcasting house. there's always a mild sense of panic when it snows in london because it doesn't happen very often.