meanwhile there was confirmation today that the russian mixed doubles pair of alexander krushelnitskiy and his wife anastasia bryzgalova have been stripped of their curling bronze medal after krushelnitskiy was found guilty of doping. in the women's ice hockey there was incredible drama as the united states and canada went to a sudden—death shoot out. commentator: saved, the usa win gold. having claimed each of the last four titles, canada were left devastated as the usa celebrated a famous victory. there was more american joy in the men's ski half pipe. defending champion david wise making the spectacular look simple, to triumphant again with a near—perfect final run. commentator: oh, that's it! david ornstein, bbc news, pyeongchang. time for a look at the weather. here's stav. we are in for some winter olympics

temperatures? indeed we are, the story is unfolding. good afternoon. i'll start with the european map and the temperature contrast, you can see the blues pouring out from siberia into western russia, spreading across the continent and reaching oui’ across the continent and reaching our shores, particularly into next week you really will notice the bitterly cold conditions. it's going to feel extremely bitter, particularly if you add on the wind. widespread morning frosts. there's the chance of some snow in some areas, but uncertainty in that detail. keep tuned to the forecast the weather snow will fall. here and now, we have high pressure in control. its finance settled. a lot of dry weather around through the afternoon. the best of the sunshine across eastern side of england, eastern scotland and some glimmers elsewhere, but there will be a tough cloud and disappointingly chilly where you have the cloud. not too bad in the sunshine. 5—7dc. as we had through this evening and overnight, the skies clear quite widely. it looks like temperatures

will plummet. it will be a dry one for where the skies are clear, particularly in england and the of , t, j into parts of scotland it will be a really cold one, much night, frost 15517 a; 5: as; gee; 5.5.2; :7.7 to maybe lease ;ge e; egg gee; eegee ee.e to maybe minus five - in to maybe minus five celsius in a few places. one thing is for sure, it fliséé 51945 “in“; i; 54 isle'iie i; fliséé ezqhe uh-hrj i; ehl isll’iie i; be fliséé itihiie uh-hrj i5 ¥5l ‘5ll’iie i; bea fliséé ifiihiie uh-hrj i5 ¥5l ‘5ll’iie i; be a cold start tomorrow will be a cold start tomorrow morning. you'll be scraping the car if you are heading out early. like today, because high pressure is in control, it will be largely financed right, variable amounts of cloud and good spells of sunshine, the best of it in scotland, parts of england and why, a bit of cloud rolling in off the north sea for north—east england. temperatures 4—7. that's the trend as we head into the weekend. the temperatures continue to fall away as we pick up the south—easterly wind bringing the cold air, which is already across the near continent. again, high pressure in control for saturday. a lot of fine and dry weather. wrap up well and head out, it should be quite nice, good sunny

spells around. a bit more of a breeze. it will start to knock the temperatures down further. ranging from 4—7dc. a similar picture on sunday, with a lot of dry weather around. temperatures continue to fall, particularly after sunday. at the start of next week we're looking at highs a couple of degrees above freezing. add on the wind and it will feel colder. there should be quite a bit of sunshine around as well but there is some snow in the forecast, so keep tuned to the weather forecast for the next few days. that's all from the bbc news at one. it's goodbye from me. on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon, i'm hugh woozencroft with a look at the day's sport here on bbc news. we begin with the winter olympics, where team gb‘s men couldn't match the women by reaching the semi finals of the curling competition... they had one last chance to make it — a play—off against switzerland

but they were beaten 9—5 despite being ahead with just two ends to play... however the swiss did something you don't see too often, scoring five—points in the penultimate end to advance. it's disappointment for team gb who took a silver medal in the event at sochi four years ago... we came in ourfirst olympics, and they gave it our best shot, and we made the play—offs in the end. we had a good game today but it wasn't to be, sadly. a couple of things didn't go our way, a couple of half shots and that is all it takes against a team as good as them. there is plenty to go forward, going forward. need to text in time and reflect on this experience and what we can take from it. some positive news for skier dave ryding though, he vowed to come back and challenge for a medal afterfinishing ninth in the men's slalom earlier. ryding believes he can return to do

the same as today's gold medallist andre meerer and win the event at the age of 35... there was a tense finish to the women's ice hockey final. the united states won a dramatic penalty shoot—out in the women's final to take gold and stop canada from winning theirfifth straight title... usa keeper maddie rooney was the hero, sparking wild american celebrations. in the last hour, wu da jing has won gold in the men's 500 metres short track skating. the chinese athlete led from the front and set a new world record 39.581; seconds. and the womens' 1,000 metres short track skating final has just taken place. dutch skater suzanne schulting claimed the gold. that was the event elise christie was disqualified from. but there is a small positive note for her — her boyfriend sandor shaolin liu hasjust won a gold for hungary in the men's short track skate 5,000 metres relay final. russian curler alexander krushelnitsky has today been

stripped of his mixed—doubles bronze medal, alongside his wife, after being found guilty of doping... he was representing the ‘olympic athletes from russia' team — as one of 168 russians allowed to compete as neutrals but the court of arbitration for sport has announced today that krushelnitsky admitted to the anti—doping violation. eddiejones has made one change to his starting xv for the six nations meeting with scotland at murrayfield on saturday... number eight nathan hughes makes his first appearance in this year's competition, replacing the injured sam simmonds in the back row. propjoe marler comes in on the bench having missed the opening two wins with suspension. mercedes have revealed the new car

they hope will claim a record—equalling fifth consecutive world championship double this year. it's been unveiled at silverstone this afternoon. as with all the cars for this season it has the new halo safety device, designed to protect drivers from loose wheels and other items of large debris. after a few races, we will forget that it after a few races, we will forget thatitis after a few races, we will forget that it is even there, and we will look at the old cars and think... you often look at the old car, and you think it's so dated. so this is the new world right now and i'm sure it is only the first of evolution of development this safety level. we will see if hamilton can defend his title. that's all the sport for now. a big night of football, especially for celtic in the europa league, they are in russia to take on zenit

speak tapp st petersburg. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport and i'll have more for you in the next hour. you are watching bbc news, it is exactly 138 pm. let's get more now on the strike action by university lecturers. members of the university and college union are protesting about proposed changes to their pensions — which they say will leave them an average of £10,000 a year worse off in retirement. the employers' group universities uk says the changes are needed because the scheme has a forecast deficit of six billion pounds. our correspondent phil bodmer gave us this update from outside leeds university. i think there is a mood of defiance hear it leeds today among lecturers, and there seems to be some support amongst students who are having their lecturers disrupted. 33,000 stu d e nts their lecturers disrupted. 33,000 students likely to be affected. this isafair students likely to be affected. this is a fair sized picket line that has

been underway since eight o'clock this morning. people are forming up, ready to take place in a march, which will follow the line of protesters and pickets down to the city centre, where they will rally in front of the town hall. this is the first of ii; in front of the town hall. this is the first of 11; days of escalating strikes over a four—week period. as you mentioned, lecturers here protesting against their pensions. that the moment, they were changed from defined pensions to career average schemes. that is now according to union people here today, they say the idea is to change them to stock market related pension schemes. they say that could leave average earnings by about £10,000 per year worse off in retirement. this is what one of the organisers of today's pickett had to tell us earlier. students will be missing their lecturers, and it will impact on them, and we feel very terrible about that, but we are in a position where it is our last

resort, striking is the last thing we can do to defend our pensions, and we have been really heartened by the messages of support from a students. saying they understand and even that in our position ever do the same thing, so they are saying to us in the fact that we are setting a good example because we are defending what is right. let's talk to one of those lecturers on strike today. helen, you teach german here at the university of leeds, why have you come out in support of this action? because the university pension scheme is being moved from a defined benefit to a defined contribution scheme, which means we are likely to be at least £10,000 a year worse off in retirement, a lot of money. is the mood one of anger all frustration or what? it is one of resolution, masses of people have turned out, and people feel really confident. we are very sad to be letting our students down, nobody wants the strike. but that doesn't mean we

don't feel that what we are doing is right. we all thought very hard about cancelling our classes and our lecturers, so we're glad to have that solidarity. as we've been hearing, the un security council is expected to gather later, to vote on a resolution which calls for a thirty—day ceasefire in syria. the move comes as international concern grows over the syrian government bombardment of the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta, on the outskirts of damascus. the bbc‘s lyse doucet spoke to iran's deputy foreign minister, abbas araghchi, about what his country can do to help stop the violence in syria. well, from the very beginning of this crisis, we had a very clear policy, and we believe that there is no

that is why we recently, or some months ago, decided, or agreed, together with russia and turkey, to establish a new process in order to help de—escalation of tension in syria. and, as you know, we were quite successful to make these de—escalation zones in different parts of syria. and that was a successful experience, so this has been our policy. in this particular case, we also are in close contact with both russia and turkey, and of course with the syrian government, with whom we have close connections, and we are working on how we are able to de—escalate tension in that area, and how to help and maintain a system for the people who are suffering. it is a fact that people in syria are the ones who have suffered

from all the conflicts, from the beginning until now. we certainly care about that, and we are, as i said, working on it, together with the syrian government, to see how we can end it. you must be worried about ghouta, and the huge human cost of the intensified bombing? everyone is worried about ghouta, everyone is worried about the human cost, everywhere in the world, and particularly in syria. we are worried about people all around syria. and they have suffered in the past several years that the crisis has been going on, and we hope that by accepting, you know, the territorial integrity and unity of syria, and going for a political solution, in which all people of syria can sit together and talk, to go for a syrian—syrian talk,

let me to say, we can actually overcome these problems, and i believe that our processes, and the sochi congress, are the first steps in this direction. in the past few months, the battle against plastic has been brought into sharp focus, in part thanks to the television series blue planet 2. later today, annual waste statistics will be published. in recent years, wales has outperformed the rest of the uk at recycling household waste. john maguire reports. it's bin day in bridgend, and on the curbside, there are even bags for nappies — purple — and just two blue bags

of non—recyclables collected every other week. residents who transgress risk being fined, but locals here seem happy. good, yeah. good for the environment and everything, keeps everyone on their toes. very good, yeah. i've got a child that's eight as well and he finds it quite odd 'cause he automaticallyjust chucks everything in the bin butjust getting him used to it. once you're used to it, you're all right? yeah, it's fine then, yeah. bridgend council is achieving rates other parts of the uk dream of, reaching 74%. the recycling level in wales is 64% against a uk average of 44%. the pretty coastal village of aberporth is cutting down on single—use plastic, and has been awarded a special status by the environmental campaign group, surfers against sewage. at the local shop, the owner mike allen shows me around. milk bottles, glass milk bottles... they haven't banned plastics, they are offering alternatives —

wooden clothes pegs, looseleaf tea, and even a toothbrush made from bamboo. wooden toothbrushes. those are probably our second biggest seller, after the glass bottles of milk. they seem to have attracted people's attention. we have the option of the plastic then with those as well. there are around 150 dolphins living out in cardigan bay. the environment here is jealously guarded, and it was a concern about ocean plastics that inspired resident gail tudor to rally community support. you look at the beautiful beach, and you think, yeah, it looks pretty clean, but when you start going down and you see the stuff that's washed up, and plastic bags washed up in the seaweed, it's not all stuff left by holidaymakers or local people here, a lot of it is washed in. but it still needs to come out of the sea. the talk here is that cutting down on waste, especially plastic,

can spread to the next village, the next county, the next country. plastics are under attack from people power. john maguire, bbc news, aberporth. in a moment a summary of the business news, this hour but first, the headlines on bbc news: high stakes at chequers this afternoon. theresa may and her senior ministers tried to hammer out a deal on the government's approached brexit. the number of eu national is leaving the uk is at its highest for a decade. and give some of our tuition fees back. student anger today as university lecturers across the uk begin a series of strikes over pension provision. iam i am rachel horne. in the business news:... the uk economy grew less than previously thought n the last three months of 2017, according to revised figures from the office

for national statistics. the british economy grew by 0.4% between october and december, below the initial estimate of 0.5%. it means in 2017 as a whole, the economy grew by 1.7% the weakest growth rate since 2012. it takes the economic growth seen in 2017 down to 1.7%, the weakest in over half a decade. barclays bank has revealed one off costs prompted it to lose 1.9bn pounds last year. this includes an £127 million loss related to the collapse of construction firm carillion, to which barclays was a key lender. but when these one—off factors are stripped out, the bank's underlying profits actually rose to £3.5 billion, up 10%. passenger numbers are up and expansion must be prepared for take off — that's the announcement from europes biggest airport this morning as heathrow posted full year figures. the number of customers passing through the airport grew 3.1% to 78 million. and chief executivejohn holland—kaye told the government to "crack on" with heathrow expansion calling for a vote in parliament before the summer. centrica, which owns british gas, is cutting 4,000 jobs, after what its chief executive called a "weak" end to 2017. iain conn said plans for a price cap

was one reason for the job losses, just over half of which will be in the uk. the energy supplier, which also operates in north america and ireland, said group profits fell 17% to £1.25 billion. british gas lost 750,000 domestic customers in 2017. that a fall of about 9%, the company now has just under eight million uk domestic customers. we can now talk to jane lucy, founder and ceo of the price comparison service, labrador. thank you forjoining us on the news channel. let's talk about switching. across the energy industry, how money people are doing it? it is true that switching rates are up and they are about 18% other moment but that shouldn't give confidence that we have a competitive market at play, hence the talk about the price caps. the issue is that despite

about 19 years since deregulation, we still have about 80% of customers, who are drastically overpaying for the energy. why don't more people switch?|j overpaying for the energy. why don't more people switch? i think it is quite simple. people don't have the time, and it is quite a confusing process. you use time, and it is quite a confusing process. you use a time, and it is quite a confusing process. you use a price comparison service and for the main you get offered a table of 30 different results, and it is very confusing to make sense of what a kilowatt hour means and what will be the cheapest for a particular household. so i think it is fully important to start to look at the services entering the market, like labrador, that can provide accurate and automated services that provide customers with simplicity of always knowing they are on the cheapest energy deals without having to navigate that complexity on a regular basis. could you explain to viewers what the price cap would be, and once the

price cap would be, and once the price cap comes into place, could there be less motivation for people to switch? exactly. there is overall overwhelming evidence that a price cap is not the solution. it is likely to increase energy prices, in terms of the cheapest prices in the market, and you risk seeing more customer lethargy in this engagement, exactly not what the market needs. once people do switch, does not just market needs. once people do switch, does notjust a one—off thing, people need to continue to switch to get the best deal? exactly. there are frequent price changes on the market, sometimes they can happen daily, if not weekly. while switching statistics on the rise, these are not people keeping across all of the price changes, they tend not to be people who switch every year, not to be people who switch every yea r, let not to be people who switch every year, let alone the 80% who don't have three to five to 20 years or more. thank you for your time. as you've been hearing, heathrow‘s results are out today — they saw record results but a fall in pretax profits. earlier i spoke with chief executivejohn holland kaye

about the airport's expansion plans. the growth we have seen this year has been to a number of markets, particular growth from domestic markets. we have seen new routes with fly be to aberdeen, and edinburgh. that is underpinned by significant reduction, helping to make sure that wherever you are in the uk you can use heathrow to get international markets. we have also seen a growth in the americas and asia, particularly china. that reflects the way the world market is changing, and we are increasingly looking to the far east for growth in the world economy. brexit has not had a significant impact on our performance so far. the exchange rates have probably helped to boost the cargo volumes we have seen through the airport, up 10% last year, and that is just a through the airport, up 10% last

year, and that isjust a reminder of what a significant role heathrow plays as the uk's biggest port. while we have had a good year of growth, paris, amsterdam even have been growing farther, and at the rate of growth they are showing, they will overtake heathrow in the next five years. that is a big warning sign, as we plan ourfuture outside the eu. we need to make sure that the uk has a well—connected global hub airport, which is why it is so vital the government get on with the vote to expand heathrow this summer so we can deliver the vital new capacity for the uk as quickly as possible. lots of fourth quarter earnings out today, profits at the public services outsourcing firm serco fell 29% to £69.8 million last year. group chief executive rupert soames said there was an urgent need to re—think the relationship between the uk government and its suppliers. miner anglo american has announced it will pay its biggest dividend in a decade — 5a cents a share —

after halving its net debt to 4.5bn dollars — that's about £3.2 billion pounds. meanwhile, pre—tax profits doubled to $5.5bn dollars. chief executive mark cutifani said improvements in productivity had helped boost the company's bottom line. bae systems has reported positive full—year figures, boosted by new orders for its f—35 fighterjets and typhoon aircraft, as well as growing demand for its laser—guided rockets. group sales increased by £0.6 billion to £19.6 billion last year compared to 2016, while revenue also came in slightly higher. that's all the business news. downing street has insisted theresa may is "absolutely committed" to supporting people affected by the grenfell tower tragedy, after she was criticised by grime artist stormzy at the brit awards last night. during his performance, he'd demanded to know where the money for grenfell had gone.

stormzy came away with two awards, beating ed sheeran to win best british male and best british album. the singer, dua lipa, also picked up two awards at the ceremony at the o2 arena in london. our entertainment correspondent, lizo mzimba was there. # yo, theresa may, where's the money for grenfell? # what, you thought we just forgot about grenfell? a powerful political performance from grime star stormzy. he won best male and best album for gang signs & prayer. gang signs & prayer, this was the hardest thing that i've ever worked on something like this in my life. everything i put in that album, i didn't have anything left after. you can ask fraser, we went in there, we made something that i feel like is undeniable, i can stand by it today. gang signs & prayer, album of the year, i love you guys. thank you so much, man, thank you. # one, don't pick up the phone. # you know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone. # two, don't let him in... two awards for 22—year—old dua lipa. she won breakthrough artist and best female.

she paid tribute to the many women in music who'd influenced her. i want to thank every single female that has been on this stage before me, this country is, believe it or not, quite a small little thing, right? but it's full of. . . it's a lovely place. what i want to say is, don't let it become isolated. # i'm only human, i do what i can. rag'n'bone man won best single for his hit, human. ed sheeran received the global success award. and there was a special tribute from liam gallagher, commemorating last month's manchester arena bombing. # maybe i don't really wanna know

how your garden grows... lizo mzimba, bbc news. 0k, it is ok, it is three minutes to 2pm, let's check out the weather prospects. for some while, we have been talking about the potential of some very cold air pushing in from the east, and that is what is developing now. you can see the blue colours indicating that very cold air, which is pouring out of siberia, western russia, spreading across much of europe and reaching our shores, particularly as we head into the weekend and into next week and you will really notice it will be bitterly cold. widespread morning frost and even a chance of some snow in the forecast as well. but, that said, there should be a good deal of sunshine around from day—to—day because it is high pressure largely dominating, keeping all of these weather fronts at tabea alt in the atlantic. for the rest of this

evening and into the overnight period there will be plenty of clear spells, just patchy cloud, the odd mist and fog patch, but under those clear skies temperatures plummeting. a hard clear skies temperatures plummeting. a ha rd frost clear skies temperatures plummeting. a hard frost than we have seen the last couple of nights, may be down to —5 or six in central and northern areas and some rural areas. we start friday morning on a very cold note, frosty start. there should be a good deal of sunshine around, with cloud coming and going here and there. the breeze coming in from the east or the south—east will be fairly fresh. it will feel cold. temperature—wise we're looking at four to six or seven celsius at best. add on the breeze and a bit of cloud with you it will feel even colder than that. into the weekend, high—pressure still dominating, but bringing this colder air from still dominating, but bringing this colder airfrom the still dominating, but bringing this colder air from the continent ever closer to our shores. temperatures will be falling away as the weekend wears on, but again keeping weather fronts out at bay. another dry day for saturday, a cold and frosty start, we should seize on good

spells of sunshine here and there, generally light winds but it will be fresh across the eastern coast, which will make it feel quite cold. temperature—wise, five to seven celsius. this is sunday's picture, starting to turn colder now, we are really pulling in this very cold air across really pulling in this very cold air a cross m ost really pulling in this very cold air across most areas. a little bit of cloud across the north—east of the uk rolling in. most places again dry with some good spells of sunshine. it is beyond sunday where we really start to feel that bike in the wind. the daytime maximum is around two to four celsius. add on the wind and it will feel like subzero, so you really will be needing to wrap up if are heading out. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy.

today at 2... high stakes at chequers — theresa may and her senior ministers try to hammer out a deal over the government's approach to brexit. the number of eu citizens leaving the uk is at its highest for a decade. give us some of our tuition fees back — student anger as university lecturers across the uk begin a series of strikes over pension provision. # yo theresa may, where's the money for grenfell? # what, you thought we just forgot about grenfell? downing street reacts to that blistering political attack from grime artist stormzy — at last night's brit awards. coming up on afternoon live all the sport — hugh? our curlers? yes, not great news. they won silver, the men, four years ago. it is a new team, they