across the entire continent. it should be finished next year. that will turn antarctica from the worst mapped place on the planet to one of the best. jonathan amos, bbc news. a lot of snow in the bulletin today. here's darren bett. it is ice which is the major concern into tomorrow. there hasn't been as much snow falling today. areas that had a lot of snow yesterday are being generally dry and sunny. when that picture was taken, it was minus three. not as cold as that but amateurs call —— close to freezing in essex, more of a slushy mix. becoming treacherous in the night. low pressure coming into the south—east bringing a mixture of rain, sleet and snow in the south—east. that will withdraw towards the near continent and

should become drier, allowing temperatures to drop. this afternoon, not very warm, those numbers may not get above freezing. into the evening, some wintry showers across east and and the south—east. those should clear and temperatures will drop. showers wandering into western wales and the south—west. inland, it is already icy and frosty. wintry showers along the north sea coast and northern scotland. mostly rain in northern ireland this evening. many places will become dry. the confirmation of lying snow and wet weather, it means ice will bea and wet weather, it means ice will be a major concern on untreated roads and pavements. temperatures fall quickly, we lose the showers, clearer skies in northern ireland and scotland. most showers down the eastern side of

england. a cold night. look at that, -12 england. a cold night. look at that, —12 in the countryside, especially with a covering of snow. potentially it could get very icy. heading into tuesday, we lose the showers on the western coast. those on the eastern coast will be blown offshore. wetter weather arriving. in the west, we see highest temperatures. tomorrow is dry, cold and sunny. this weather front may bring a bit of snow later tomorrow over the hills of scotland, northern england, and the threat of icy conditions. more significantly on wednesday, we are drawing in atlantic air, temperatures will be higher, it will be cloudy and showery. as it brightens up, the showers that followed could turn wintry but

nowhere near as cold and severe as the weather over the weekend. minus i2. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. hundreds of schools are closed, thousands have no power as snow and ice cover much of the country — with warnings temperatures will plummet tonight. that's all from the bbc news at one. so, it's goodbye from me. and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. gl time for the sport. the draws for the knockout stages of the champions league and europa league have taken place. a record five english teaams were involved in the champions league — tottenham, manchester city, manchester united and liverpool all won their groups, with chelsea finishing second. olly foster is with me and watched the draw. some exciting match ups there.

chelsea you would have to say handed the toughest draw against barcelona. they were looking to avoid paris saint—germain or barcelona but they have barcelona, a couple of comfort for them is the last time they met barcelona, two fantastic legs, that was in 2012. they came out on top and went there and got a draw over there, and they went on the become european champions then, chelsea, so they will know the last time they met they did get the better of bars rhona but it is messi and their press c0 nfe re nce rhona but it is messi and their press conference is going on right 110w press conference is going on right now chile. the manager is speaking to them, he is talking about hazard matching himself against messi. he says it is a good chance for every player to show the right value, to show what he has in the right way, thatis show what he has in the right way, that is a tie we will be looking forward to. i cannot wait for that.

the rest of the english teams you would say handed easier draws if there is often a term, manchester city are flying in the premier league at the moment. the other four teams won their groups so might have expected a slightly easier tie. manchester city have an away tie to basel. they did beat manchester united in the group stages but they will expect to go through. liverpool at porto, and also manchester united against sevilla. they will expect to go through, with the second legs being back at home. spurs, the best performing english naem in the group stage, juventus, last year's runners—up. not the force they were last subpoena but nonetheless spurs might have wanted an easier tie, but, well, the way spurs are going in your they will fancy their chances as well. as said europa league draw taking place, interesting one for arsenal. the english people are well represented with a team arsenal are playing. a swedish side managed been an

englishman. graham potter, used to play for stoke, west brom. southampton briefly. briefly. the only club he has coached is this one, taken them through four promotions, they got into the europa league by winning the swedish cup. this is going to be the biggest match in their history, with the englishman graham potter coming up against arsene wenger. sell tick, a tougher tie against st petersburg. paris saint—germain, they are playing real madrid, that is the stand out tie. that is massive. looking forward to those matches. manchester united and manchester city have until wednesday to respond to the football association's request for more information, following an altercation between the two camps yesterday. city beat united 2—1 to extend their lead at the top of the premier league to 11 points, and united managerjose mourinho was said to be unhappy at city's supposedly excessive celebrations. here's our football

reporter simon stone. mourinho walked along the corridor, saw the manchester united dressing room was open, and basically made his feelings known, there was a reaction, there was a lot of jostling, arteta got a cut above his eye, there was milk thrown that hit a wall, hit a member of the manchester united staff, so it was all a bit unseemly, the fa have now decided to step in, they have asked both club what is happened. it is outside the referee's jurisdiction so outside the referee's jurisdiction so the clubs have until 13th of december to let the fa know what went on. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.o.uk/sport and i'll have more for you in the next hour. police in new york city say they're responding to reports of an explosion in manhattan.

the incident reportedly happened on monday morning at the port authority bus terminal near times square. police said they were investigating an explosion of unknown origin in this busy area in down town manhattan, one person has been detained according to the police, which is the news they have just released. you can see sit on twitter. we understand that one person has been injured although the injuries are not life threaten, but a number of subway lines have been evacuated there, it is an extremely busy part of new york, particularly at this time of day, there are some reports that the blast came from a

pipebomb, this is not anything the police have confirmed yet. they haven't said where it happened, but thatis haven't said where it happened, but that is what some local media are reporting at the moment. that is the latest live pictures that we have coming from new york. the police have told the inquiry into the grenfell tower disaster that they are investigating a range of possible criminal offences, including misconduct in public office, breaches of fire safety regulations, manslaughter and corporate manslaughter. this week marks six months since the fire, which killed 71 people. meanwhile, amid ongoing criticism over its handling of the disaster, the leader of kensington and chelsea council said 300 homes will have been bought by christmas for families affected by the tragedy. elizabeth campbell spoke to our correspondent, frankie mccamley. we have 250 who we have exchanged on, but, you know, remember buying your own house, all the things that your own house, all the things that you have to do, and double it, because we are doing it as a

council, so fire certificate, gas certificate, survey, repainting, recarpeting. all those things take time. but we have been buying at a rate of roughly about two a day. you said that you had, you told us in october that you hoped you would have bought 300 new homes by christmas. we are almost there, we have exchanged on 250 so we have 50 more to exchange before christmas, but in total, under offer we have had 370 so we are moving in that direction, yes. so what do you say to those households who are upset, frustrated, angry that they are still in a hotel? i would say talk to your key worker, talk to other workerers especially if you are children, is it is right place to have children? is there a private

rented accommodation any alternative accommodation service apartment that you would like to move into? if you would we will try and find it for you. would you say sorry to those who are going to be in hotels over christmas? yes, i am sorry, i am sorry they are in hotels but i am also sorry, well, it is one of these thing, they don't feel they trust us enough, they can move somewhere they might be more comfortable before they make the final decision, yes, of course i am sorry. that is lack of course i am sorry. that is lack of trust, and that takes time to build up again, i don't think i have a magicance to that. what specifically are you doing to encourage the community to trust you? i suppose action, you know, we have taken on 300 extra staff, we have taken on 300 extra staff, we have an army of people out there who we have commissioned, wrap round care, it is notjust about house, it is the whole package, and i think it

is the whole package, and i think it is about building relationships, if they are a strong relationship with they are a strong relationship with the housing officer or their key worker, we have decent accommodation to move into, hopefully, that will repair the trust. saudi arabia has announced that it is to lift the ban on public cinemas early next year. cinema—going is currently very restricted in the ultra—conservative islamic kingdom. the move is the latest in a number of reforms promoted by next in line to the throne, crown prince mohammed bin salman, which also includes the lifting of the ban on women driving. in a moment a summary of the business news this hour, but first, the headlines on bbc news. more than 1,000 schools are closed, and hundreds of homes are without power, as parts of the uk continue to suffer from the effects of heavy snow. two days of hearings into the grenfell tower disaster gets under way, the metropolitan police are investigating offences including misconduct in public office, breaches of fire safety regulations, manslaughter

and corporate manslaughter. scientists trying to halt the deadly huntington's disease — think they may be close to the biggest breakthrough for 50 years. in the business news. christmas will cost more this year, most of it thanks to food price inflation. food and soft drink prices rose by 4.1% in the year to october — the biggest growth in four years. if you want to cut back, forget smoked salmon — that's up nearly 23% on last year, drop the brussels sprouts — 8.4% more expensive. the question is can you do without christmas pudding? it's nearly 8% more expensive than last year.christmas bitcoin has begun trading on a major exchange for the first time after launching on chicago's cboe futures exchange, the move allows investors notjust to buy and sell the electronic currency but to bet on whether it price will rise or fall.

it's already gone from $1,000 at the start of the year, to more than $18,000 today. uncertainty is holding back the uk economy — according to the british chambers of commerce. the problem means the organisation has cut its forecasts for economic growth for each of the next three years, by a tenth of a percentage point. so from this year to 2019 growth they believe will run at 1.5%. then 1.1% and then 1.3%. then 1.1%. and then 1.3%. so let's look at the chamber of commerce's view of the economy over the next three years. the key to what it is saying is that it is being dogged by uncertainty. there's an old saying, not altogether true, that markets hate uncertainty, but businesses hate it even more — because you can't plan anything if you don't know what the rules, the taxes and the costs are going to be. that's why unstable exchange rates, uncertainty over regulations and customs duties are so inhibiting. joining us now is suren thiru,

head of economics at the british chambers of commerce. it is the whole package, and i think it is about building relationships, if they are a strong relationship with the housing officer or their key worker, we have decent accommodation to move into, hopefully, that will repair the trust. what is perhaps interesting about this, is that it is all to do, brexit, uncertainty t this, is that it is all to do, brexit, uncertaintyt i me sewell. that is the reason, that is what you are talking about, but the proportion of british companies which do business with europe is small, less than 10%, i think. which do business with europe is small, less than 10%, ithink. so why does it affect so many businesses? what we are talking about is the broader business environment which is affecting it. so brexit in the impact of brexit is one area, learning what the future landscape is going to be, but other elements of uncertainty as well. we have seen inflation rise a lot over last year due to drop in sterling. that is impacting the cost of businesses ability to get raw materials, but what we are also seeing is impact of government

policy business rate, they are hitting business cost base, at a time when we have uncertainty, those two in combination impact business investment and overall economic growth. so brexit not such a big player in this uncertainty aspects you don't think? it is one of a number of factors but certainly the uncertainty over brexit, some the practical question, some of the practical question, some of the practical questions of how the post—brexit landscape will look like. how are the goods going to be left in custom, and things like that. so apart from coming to a deal over europe, what can the government do, to make things better? well one of the key areas that businesses are facing is the cost of doing business in the uk, so a lot of focus from the government is some of the up front costs such as business rate, premium tax, all these cot costs hit businesses no matter how well they are doing. what we are hearing from

businesses is these costs are impacting the ability to invest grow and recruit. so, in terms of actually the companies themselves, what are they failing to do? is it just being unable to invest because they are not sure of the future? is that the effect? there is some incentive into when to plan for brexit, we hear a lot of companies may be looking to the first quarter of next year to make a decision in terms of where they need to invest. a lot of businesses are waiting for clarity. thank you. the digital currency bitcoin is now being trading on a major exchange for the first time. the cboe futures exchange in chicago opened trading in bitcoin futures yesterday, promptly sending it soaring in value above $18,000. earlier we spoke to one expert who advises banks and governments on the future of money — he explained what difference the move will make. it is one way directional traffic

which begs the question, who is losing? and that is concerning. it suggests bubble territory but it also suggests this is an asset which is limited in supply. there are only 21 million bitcoin after all. certainly a mainstream moment. it is interesting the volumes is very low, that could be just because it is early and it may continue, it is also interesting that the mainstreaming is we are talking about it on the bbc for instance, the mainstream media is paying attention which is important. i have had 37 people getting in touch asking how they can buy bitcoin which says a lot. in other news. germany's intelligence agency claims that china has been using fake linkedin profiles to gather information on german officials and politicians. the agency alleges that chinese intelligence used the networking site to target at least 10,000

germans, possibly to recruit them as informants. the gulf state of qatar has signed another major deal to buy hi—tech defence equipment. it will spend eight billion dollars on 2a typhoon fighter jets, which will be built in the uk. it follows a deal struck last week with a french supplier for nearly 500 armoured vehicles. french baby milk formula maker lactalis has ordered a global product recall over fears of salmonella contamination involving 26 infants this month. it covers hundreds of baby milk powder products marketed globally under the milumel, picot and celi brands. and the markets. the bitcoin market has actually pushed, given a bit of sense of optimism, it is a new thought, it is

going upwards. that has given them a boost behind the american market. binyamin netanyahu has said that he believes all countries will follow america in recognising jerusalem as the capital of his country. but the foreign policy chief of the european union i don't know appearing with him in brussels, said the eu would not be changing its policy. it is time that the palestinians recognise the jewish state and it is time that the palestinians recognise thejewish state and also recognise thejewish state and also recognise thejewish state and also recognise the fact it has a capital, it is called jerusalem. i believe that even though we don't have an agreement yet, this is what will happen in the future i believe that all almost of the european countries will move their embassies tojerusalem, countries will move their embassies to jerusalem, recognise jerusalem as israel's capital, and engage robustly with us, for security, prosperity and peace. you know where the european union

standards, believe the only realistic solution to the conflight between venus williams and palestinian is based on two state withjerusalem at palestinian is based on two state with jerusalem at the capital of both the state of israel and the state of british and irish lions this is our position, and we will continue to respect the international consensus on jerusalem, until the final status of the oldest city is resolved to direct negredos between the parties and hope the parties can engage in meaningful direct negredo with the support of the international community. a new portrait of the duke of edinburgh, which will go on public display next year, has been unveiled. painted by artist ralph heimans, the duke is shown in the imposing setting of windsor castle wearing the sash of the order of the elephant, denmark's highest—ranking honour. the duke has a close association with the nordic country as he was born a prince of denmark, as well of greece, before becoming a naturalised british subject in the 1940s. the portrait will go on public display in both the uk and denmark next year. now new studies have found that

single can even help people with hearing impairments communicate more effectively, fee by from the charity creative futures takes them through the various exercises. and with this computer programme, they are able to see what their voices are doing even if they are unable to hear them. professor graham welsh has been

studying how it can help them and says single can —— singing can stimulate the brain. they are engaged in singing but they have improved in their measurable singing skills, and at the same time there is some evidence of impact, on the hearing as well. so they are better able to discriminate sound. like an opera singer. music is multisited in the brain. as far as we can work out music touches more parts of the brain than any other human activity. to understand how singing affects the brain, we have invited alex, a musician to a neotherapy session. alex has cystic fibrosis, hejunes goes physical therapy and treatment. he says music is vital to him. because of my treatment and what i

have do with my health it is solitary, so you have to, music can make it all the better. it does something, it perks up your brain andi something, it perks up your brain and ifeel, something, it perks up your brain and i feel, and something, it perks up your brain and ifeel, and yes, #34r50i6 would be incredibly different without music. nadia is a music psychologist, first she measures the electrical activity in alex's brain while he is resting. destroy to stay as relaxed as possible. then she asks him to sing. # have yourself a merry little christmas # let your heart be light # once he has finished and rested alex is assessed again and the results are immediate. i mean that shows that within ten minutes of singing someone can improve that within ten minutes of singing someone can improve clarity of their mind, and also perhaps feel

emotionally much more up litted. finally and you may want to turn the sound down he sings with someone else, that is, i am afraid to say is me. # through the years we all will be together #if together # if the fates allow # if the fates allow # hang a shining star... # laughter believe it or not, the results are even more impressive. that is simply the factor for social interaction with another human amplifying the beneficial factor for music. # hang a shining star... # song often speak or sing of the importance of music to the heart and the soul, but it can also be of huge benefit to your brain. minus 12 tonight, you won't forget

that, although last night we were close to that sort of low temperature in one or two place, but tonight, the cold will be more widespread and temperatures, the really low temperatures will be more widespread as well. there has not been a huge amount of snow, we had a lot in wales in particular, but across much of wales it has been dry and sunny, it has been really cold. temperatures not as low but still close to freezing here earlier on at basildon, where it is slushy out and about on the roads, and all that could freeze overnight. and leave us with tricky conditions. we have had this area of low pressure, it has brought stormy weather. it has brought stormy weather. it has brought cloud in the south—east and east anglia and a wintry mix of sleet and snow, that will push further east and away into the near continent. thing also dry up, still left with a few wintry showers in east anglia into the early part of the evening. more cloud as well.

that will move away and temperatures will drop. showers beginning to arrive in western fringes of wales. far south—west of england. many inland areas it is cold and frosty and icy, showers are coming in off the north sea up into northern scotland. we have showers in northern ireland but those are likely to be of rain. with the wet roads round and the lying snow, it is ice we really need to by a wear of, i think through this evening and into tomorrow as well, on any untreated surface, that develops quickly, frost develops widely, we loose the showers and for scotland keeping them going if the far south—west and mainly wintry showers off the north sea in particular, in east anglia, those are the numbers in towns and city, so coaler in the south—east than last night but it is if you are in the countryside and have that covering of snow where the temperatures will drop away to minus 12 or so. so really cold, start to tomorrow, and potentially really icy as well. we lose the showers in the

south—west, with showers that we have along the east coast get broken off —— blown offshore. the wind will bring rain to northern ireland and western scotland. many areas will be cry and sunny but cold once again, coming into that cold air we have that weather front threat of snow over the hills of scotland, northern england and icy conditions ahead of that but we are starting to draw in wind from the west, round the middle pa rt wind from the west, round the middle part of the week. that means we have a lot more cloud round, showers, rain, temperatures will be higher. it gets colder in the north—west with binty —— wintry showers but not adds severe as yesterdayed p —— yesterday. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. today at two. hundreds of schools are closed and thousands have no power as snow and ice cover much of the uk — tonight temperatures may plummet to as low as minus 12. here in gloucestershire alone, 250

schools are shut today and the threat of an even colder nights to come. police in new york are responding to an explosion in central manhattan — it's thought one person is injured and is now in custody. six months after the grenfell tower fire — survivors are told that great importance will be placed on their stories at the public inquiry. a big breakthrough in huntington's disease research — scientists say there's hope the deadly condition can be stopped. coming up on afternoon live all the sport.