olympics in such a good performance. we kind of struggled a wee bit but we pulled it together and really pleased to get the win. eve muirhead would like to try and finish this here. bronze medallists in sochi, the women wanted gold here and started as they plan to go on, by dominating a team of olympic athletes from russia. and she has done it superbly well. next up, it's the united states tomorrow. well the men's curlers are back on theice well the men's curlers are back on the ice as we speak, trailing canada but still with a long way to go in that competition. meanwhile a potential storm brewing in the skeleton competition, some nations are said to be questioning the legality of the new skin suit to be worn by the british athletes including lizzy yarnold. team gb say they've done nothing wrong and the governing body of skeleton have approved those suits. that event is getting underway tomorrow. thank you

for that. time for a look at the weather. here's chris fawkes. we had some glorious sunrise pictures sent in this morning, this one from the isle of wight. and we have a weather front approaching from the west today which gave as those beautiful pictures. but the weather is going downhill now and for many it will be a wet afternoon. a happy band of rain stretching across the midlands, and the south—east at the minute. the rain quite extensive at the moment. and up quite extensive at the moment. and up in the mountains of scotland, expecting five, ten centimetres of snow. it is also windy with gusts of england and wales around a0 miles an hour. higher around the coast. so a

wet afternoon to come across the south—east. from there the rain gets more patchy but clears away overnight. temperature is not quite as cold as last night but still a few patches of frost out in the countryside. so the risk of some icy surfaces first thing in the morning. we are seeing high pressure building in across england and wales tomorrow but low pressure further north and we have these big contrasts in temperatures. cold air filtering we have these big contrasts in temperatures. cold airfiltering in across much of the uk but across the south we have wind in a different direction dragging in warmer air. so quite a few heavy showers banding together tomorrow and some snow contained within those. across england and wales book of the temperature contrast, cold weather across the north, quite mild in the south. looking towards the end of the week, the high pressure builds a

little more, we start to see south—westerly winds just moving that cold air further north. but another weather front across the north west on friday, rain and snow involved with this. but some sunshine for many. temperatures again mild in the south. further north temperatures rising a little bit. and for the weekend, the theme of the weather turning a little bit milder is set to continue and for many through the weekend it should be largely dry. the mineralstein set to continue into next week but it could turn colder towards the latter pa rt could turn colder towards the latter part of february. 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. have a good afternoon. time for some sport on bbc news with me, hugh ferris. it's day five in pyeongchang and for team gb day one

of their curling campaigns. both the women and men won earlier today in the first of their round robin matches. an the men, skipped by kyle smith, are on the ice again. these are live pictures from our coverage of their match against canada at the gangneung ice arena. the canadians are leading 5—a. it's on bbc two right now. the women are once again led by eve muirhead in her third games. they won a bronze in sochi and have had a big win this morning, beating the olympic athletes from russia 10—3. they ended the game early such was their dominance. it isa

it is a long competition the olympic games. you have some one—day games and one day off and then two—game days. it's important we manage our time and as a team what we do really well is manage to switch. we can go and get our nails done. we can then put competition ‘s head and be in business mode. one of the superstars of winter sports claimed another gold medal this morning. snowboarder shaun white claimed his third 0lympic title in the halfpipe. he was actually second going into the final run, but he nailed his display to come out on top. he's known as the ‘flying tomato‘ because of his famous red hair and his gold was the 100th won by the usa in winter and there's one more gold medal to tell you about — after a thrilling final lap, erik frenzel of germany retained his nordic combined title, holding off the silver medallist from four years ago, japan's akito watabe.

dutch speed skaterjorien ter mors bounced back from an injury—plagued season by winning the 1,000 metres. she won with an olympic record time to finish ahead of world record holder nao kodaira ofjapan. and the german pair of tobias wendl and tobias arlt won the luge doubles. they retained the title they won in sochi four years ago. chris froome has defended his decision to return to racing for the first time since his adverse drugs test. the four—time tour de france champion begins his 2018 season at the ruta del sol in spain today despite an ongoing doping tribunal prompted by the test at last year's vuelta a espana. and froome insists he has a right to continue competing. this is a process that eric lot of athletes have gone through, that the lot of other riders have gone through was well and i don't see why i should have different treatment to all of them. i mean they were all

racing until they got to the end of the processes. there was a process to demonstrate that there has been no wrong doing and that's what i intend to do. we are in the bill of that process now and i'm not able to speak about it publicly. —— in the middle of that. liverpool are hoping to follow the lead of manchester city and spurs in the first leg of their champions league last 16 tie tonight. so far the premier league sides have been impressive... and liverpool play porto in portugal but despite being favourites to go through. jurgen klopp is refusing to think further ahead, just like the victorious 2005 side did. i don't think that the 2005 sides spoke about —— thought about this before the last 16. it would surprise me, but i could ask rafa. i'm pretty sure they didn't though. it is such a long way. i hate it, to talk about the round after the

actual round. 0nly because i am a friendly person, i answer the question because we are in public. usually if someone asks me about the next round i leave the room immediately. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. i'll have more for you in the next hour. thank you very much. good afternoon. you are watching bbc news. wouldn't touch on some news that has emerged from the east coast of the united states. this is a live shot from maryland. we are getting reports of the shooting. police said they are investigating a shooting outside the

campus of the national security agency. it's hard to tell what has happened. what a couple of american media outlets have been reporting is a black suv that appears to have crashed into a concrete barrier and there other local media reports. local stations have been showing images of what appears to be police surrounding a man on the ground in handcuffs. we do know that president trump has been briefed on that situation. a white house spokesperson says that the president has been briefed on a shooting in fort meade. that's all the information we have at the moment. this is maryland, the campus of the us security agency. we will keep an eye on that and as soon as the

police or white house gives us more information, we will let you know. a couple of the news agencies are saying that one person is certainly in custody and officials are saying the situation is under control. so someone the situation is under control. so someone is in custody, it would appear, but we would keep you —— but we will keep you up—to—date as there is sure to be more information that will emerge from that situation in the united states. more now on the news that the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has been seeking to reassure people who are anxious about brexit, ,saying that splitting from the eu should be a time of hope. this is what the foreign secretary said earlier. sometimes these economic anxieties are intensified by otherfears

sometimes these economic anxieties are intensified by other fears about identity and security. hitherto recon die concepts, like the single market of the customs union have unexpected of emotive power. whatever the superficial attractions are of these points, they can be turned on the head. i want to show you today that brexit need not be nationalist, but can be internationalists. it's not an economic threat, but an opportunity. it's a manifestation of this country's national genius. i am running the risk of causing further irritation, but i must run that risk because it is this government's duty to advocate and explained the mission which we are now engaged and it has become absolutely clear to me that we cannot take the argument for granted. and the foreign secretary went on to call for unity from all sides to try and get the best brexit deal. more people voted for brexit than

have ever voted for anything in the history of this country and i just say in all candour, if there were to bea say in all candour, if there were to be a second vote, i really think it will be another year of turmoil and wrangling and feuding in which the whole country would be the loser. so let's not go there. let's instead unite about what we all believe in, and outward looking, liberal, global future for a confident united kingdom. that was boris johnson speaking that was borisjohnson speaking this morning and we will have more analysis of that speech after 2pm. hundreds of premature babies could avoid brain damage if their mothers were given a low—cost drug during labour, according to a new report. the royal college of paediatrics and child health says there is a huge regional variation in the proportion of mothers given magnesium sulphate to reduce the risk of cerebral palsy.

but it claims providing a drug that costs one pound per dose could save the nhs 280 million pounds a year, as our health correspondent matthew hill reports. at st michael's hospital in bristol it's standard for every premature delivery to be identified and flagged up to all staff because the baby is at high risk of brain damage. here, nine out of ten times magnesium sulphate will be given by drip to every mother with a very pre—term delivery during labour. the drug passes to the baby through the mother and blocks toxins that would otherwise kill brain cells. there is very high level evidence that this is a very effective treatment, so for every a0 or so mothers we treat, we can prevent one case of so cerebral palsy. and mummy was given some medicine. why? four—year—old cormack was the first chart to benefit from proactive use of magnesium sulphate. we're very lucky that that happened

here at st michael's because four years ago, you know, that wasn't quite so common. for the past two years the government advisory body nice has recommended that this drug should be given to all mothers who go into labour between 2a and 30 weeks. but in reality, there is a huge variation, depending on where you live. the best region is the south—west, where three in four women are given magnesium sulphate. the average in scotland is around half and the worst is staffordshire, shropshire and the black country, where it is just one in four. it's estimated this cheap drug could prevent around a00 cases of cerebral palsy a year, which would save the nhs millions of pounds. matthew hill, bbc news. in a moment, a summary of the business news this hour,

but first the headlines on bbc news: actress and campaigner minnie driver borisjohnson boris johnson assures borisjohnson assures people that brexit is an opportunity there shouldn't be any fear. actress and campaigner minnie driver has stood down as a celebrity ambassador for 0xfam over the haiti scandal. pressure is mounting on the south african president jacob zuma pressure is mounting on the south african presidentjacob zuma to stand down. hello, time now for the business news. the european union economy grew at its fastest pace in a decade last year. official figures show it expanded by 2.5% in 2017. more on that in a moment. sky and bt have agreed to pay £a.5 billion to show premier league games from 2019 to 2020. that's less than the £5.1 billion pounds they paid in 2015. the south east is still driving the

second—hand car market. just over 8 million use cars change hands last year, some 1.2 million of those transactions taking place in the south—east. the eu economy is on the rise. last year it grew by 2.5%. that's the fastest growth since 2007. the french and german economies have done especially well, but there was also rapid growth in eastern europe as well. joining us now is the economist vicky pryce. thank you forjoining us. what is driving this growth? to an extent it's the fact that world trade is increasing very substantially. what we are seeing right now is a synchronised expansion in growth. the developing world is rising fast.

we have seen china doing better than anyone expected. asia are doing really well and europe has benefited hugely exporting to those countries. in addition we have had years of monetary easing in the eurozone with huge quantities of liquidity going into the market. that has helped businesses and consumers borrowing cheaply. domestic demand is going up in europe as well. we have seen great picking up in america as well. is that having a spill—over effect here? it is and it will over a period of time, but remember that the us grew by 2.2% last year. not spectacular in any way. the worry in europe is that we will end up with a lot more protectionism and tariffs imposed by the us by president trump. the us is important, but it's really be developing world that matters hugely. so good that put a

brake on the growth in europe, the protectionist measures from the us? there could be an issues need to be debated about particular products. it isa debated about particular products. it is a concern and the whole of europe was worried when president trump was elected and they had a special meeting to discuss what the actions should be, but overall i think with the economy growing and growing fast and the us probably picking up in 2018, then i think actually, europe will do reasonably well as well. some concerns in some areas, particularly high unemployment in some countries still and debt to gdp ratios and the banking industry that still struggles with non—performing loans in many countries in europe, so is not plain sailing, but as long as the world trade growth continues, i think the eurozone will do well. very quickly, will it increase

pressure on interest rates? not in the short term. the head of the ecb is looking at that carefully. he is still buying bonds and carrying out quantitive easing at a lower rate. he is cautious because he thinks the recovery is fragile. thank you very much indeed. it may have come to your attention that it's valentine's day today. it's notjust a celebration of love and romance, it's also a big day for spending on gifts and meals and so forth. but what if you're single? you may not be forking out for expensive gifts today, but there's real evidence that in the longer term being a singleton could be bad for your pocket. joining us now is sarah coles, personal finance analyst at hargreaves la nsdown. thank you forjoining us. how can biggest single hurt your pocket? when it comes to sharing a household with someone you start sharing the costs. although a couple would spend

more on utility bills and shopping, they will split them in half, and things like mortgage or rent will be split in half. day—to—day costs are lower. you do get some benefits from being a singleton. you get 25% off of your council tax, but it leaves a single person to still paid 75% of what a couple would split. 0ne single person to still paid 75% of what a couple would split. one of the unusual day—to—day costs is car insurance. by ticking the box on your car insurance to say you are married, insurers will think you are less of a risk and you will pay lower insurance. so i was single people being ripped off? car insurance companies do the maths and work—out statistically that this is a phenomenon than they have to reflect in their pricing. single people can be annoyed that they are not getting more of a discount on things like the council tax. again,

married couples will probably argue that they paid plenty of costs for being married, so it's nice to get the benefit. what would your tip be toa the benefit. what would your tip be to a single person trying to navigate this particular maze?l to a single person trying to navigate this particular maze? a lot of advantages come from cohabitating. you don't have to be ina cohabitating. you don't have to be in a couple to cohabit. 0ne cohabitating. you don't have to be in a couple to cohabit. one of the trends we are seeing is siblings buying puppeteers. with these lower costs ba co n buying puppeteers. with these lower costs bacon have the advantages of being a couple without having to splash out a fortune on valentine's day. thank you very much indeed. let's have a quick look at the markets. coca cola is doing very well. it shares have been on the up after encouraging results. sky has been doing well after the

announcement of the deal to show premier league matches. brent crude is on the way down. it was on the way up, but there is a lot of fear about overproduction in the us which is keeping prices down. that's all from me for now. you xp bomb that was discovered near london city airport has been detonated. it was taken down the thames yesterday and there you can see it being detonated. a building hasjust opened at the winter olympics in south korea which is the blackest building on earth. designed by a british architect, using materials created by british scientists — the structure absorbs 99%

of the light that hits it. this material is the blackest in the known universe apart from a black hole. graham satchell reports. it's the blackest building on earth. this pavilion outside the olympic stadium in south korea is coated with a materia called vbx2. it absorbs 98% of the light. i wanted people to be literally awestruck and starstruck by this building, and to see it and stop in their tracks. the pavilion is the brainchild of british architect asif khan. you feel drawn into it, you want to plummet into its blackness. asif has peppered the building with small lights to look like stars. as you walk around the building, you get the effect of parallax, so it appears the stars are moving

against each other, as though you were diving through the universe. this laboratory in southern england is where vbx2 and vantablack were created. it might look like paint but vantablack is made billions of microscopic carbon nano tubes. it absorbs 99.965% of light. the only thing darker would be a black hole. the only thing darker in the universe is a black hole? is a black hole that we know of that this time. it's so black it changes the dimensionality of an object. it makes things look flat. you're seeing the lack of photons being reflected back to your eyes, and so your eyes are no longer able to make sense of what you're seeing so therefore you see it as a void or a very black area that you can't

make shape or sense from. looking at black nothingness like this is a rather odd sort of experience. it is slightly vertiginous, like you're standing on the edge of an abyss looking into a void. it's exciting and unsettling at the same time. vantablack is used in space exploration, in cameras and telescopes to reduce the amount of flair from the sun. it gives astronomers a clear view of distant stars and planets but using this nanotechnology has only just started. the possibilities of designing materials are, kind of, quite limitless. i imagine coating materials with nano materials, imagine vehicles that slip in and out of invisibility, that's the sort of world that we're talking about here. so a stunning building using technology that has

the potential to revolutionise photography, space exploration, architecture, design. graham satchell, bbc news. simon mccoy is coming up with afternoon live, but first, time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. a glorious start to the day. this is one of the pictures that were sent to us from the isle of wight. glorious picture with the red and yellow there. it's a day where the weather has been going downhill though. the cloud thickens and

brings us rain this afternoon. it's expensive at the moment across northern england, the midlands in southern england. 0ne northern england, the midlands in southern england. one or two heavy bursts for a time, and it is not just rain. in scotland on the high ground the rain is falling as snow. we could see five centimetres over the tops of the cumbrian fells and the tops of the cumbrian fells and the pennines as well. in the midlands, east anglia, it'sjust a wet afternoon. the rain should clear out of the way it this evening. skies will be clear, causing temperatures to drop. 0ne skies will be clear, causing temperatures to drop. one or two icy patches as we head into thursday. thursday is a day of big temperature contrasts. low—pressure and high pressure coming from different areas. cold air across most of the

country, but mild and air pushing in across southern england and wales. it will lead to big temperature contrasts. showers will merge together and snow across the high ground in scotland and northern ireland. further south, largely drive with some sunshine. look at those temperatures. 11 in the south, 5 degrees in the north. as we head into friday, the ridge of high pressure extends further north and that should push the milder air further north as well. on friday we have another weather front moving in off of the atlantic bringing some rain, arriving late in the day from northern ireland and in the afternoon for western scotland. a bit more snow on higher ground. that trend will continue into the weekend with mild and dry conditions for most of us to look forward to on

saturday and sunday. that is your latest weather. hello, you're watching afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. today at 2pm: "a reason for hope — not fear". boris johnson's says derailing brexit would be disastrous for the uk, and can't be reversed. brexit need not be nationalist, but can be internationalist. it's not an economic threat, but a considerable opportunity. not unbritish, but a manifestation of this country's historic national genius. "what have i done wrong?" south africa's president jacob zuma clings on to power as those around him tell him — "you've got to go"." it is very clear that for us, we can no longer wait. we don't want to

keep south africa waiting. more than 1,000 people cancel their direct debits to 0xfam in the last three days, as 20 supporters donate significant one—off amounts in reaction to the charity's sex—scandal