this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at midday: the legendary athlete sir roger bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes, has died at the age of 88. theresa may urges the eu to get on with discussing her "ambitious but practical" vision for brexit. we've set out what we want and we set out where we think we can have this ambitious relationship that's good for prosperity on both sides. let's get on with it. work continues to clear snow from roads and railways lines after severe disruption. meanwhile, warnings of flooding as strong winds batter the coasts. president trump threatens to increase trade tariffs on cars imported to the us from europe. eu leaders have vowed to retaliate with their own new taxes.

also in the next hour: a right royal celebration for harry and meghan's wedding weekend in may. pubs in england and wales will be able to stay open for an extra two hours on the friday and saturday nights. we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds. oscar hopes for gary oldman for his portrayal of winston churchill in darkest hour. he could be one of the winners at tonight's 90th academy awards. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. roger bannister, the first man to run a mile in underfour minutes, has died at the age of 88.

tributes have been coming in from around the world. sebastian coates said there was not an athlete of a generation who was not inspired by sir roger bannister. he went on to become a distinguished doctor and neurologist and he was diagnosed with parkinson's. joe wilson looks back at his life. 25—year—old roger bannister, third from the left... there are some moments of sporting history which become part of the world's history. he's decided this is the right moment. what roger bannister achieved in 1954 was like a lunar landing for 20th—century sport. bannister‘s old friend and rival chris chataway is in third place, waiting his time to take over as pacer. to run a mile and stop the clock before it reached four minutes. in 1954 this was a magical number, a barrier of human achievement, a feat that would redefine what was humanly possible. and it would fall to a young medical student to achieve it. after two and a half laps,

brasher gives way to chataway. bannister, a superb tactician, has suffered criticism in the past for adopting his unorthodox training methods but they are paying dividends now. brasher and chataway were the pacemakers. those names became famous themselves. those young men gave everything on 6th may, 1954, on oxford's iffley road track. at this point it becomes quite painful. i overtake chris chataway and begin the finish. and here he comes. bannister goes streaking forward with about 250 yards to the tape. before their friend bannister took over. every stride counted. the tape broke at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. and bannister has done it! he's out on his feet. his coach and team manager tell him he has achieved his ambition. there was certainly a feeling of it

being a national event, something of a landmark for the country. it might have felt like the world stopped when that clock stopped. "four—minute mile" was a sporting catchphrase everybody recognised. all i can say is i am absolutely overwhelmed and delighted. it was a great surprise to me to be able to do it today and i think i was very lucky. sir roger bannister was knighted in 1975. athletics was only a small part of his life. he regarded his work as a neurologist as more significant. when he was diagnosed with parkinson's disease, he described the gentle irony that a neurologist should find himself with a neurological condition. training for roger bannister in athletics had been half an hour a day on a cinder track. the world's first four—minute miler was also perhaps sport's last great amateur. sir roger bannister, who has died at

the age of 88. let's talk about his extraordinary life with andy moore, oui’ extraordinary life with andy moore, our sports correspondent. we talk about it being a magical lumber, doing the mile in less than four minutes. at the time it was seen as an utterly extraordinary human achievement. yes. sir roger bannister himself called it the everest of racing. everest itself had been conquered two years before, so had been conquered two years before, so this was the same thing in the world of sporting achievements. cast your mind back to may, 1954. this was iffley road, fairly ordinary race meet attended by 3000 people. the weather georgian —— during the day had been terrible. he had been at work, sharpening his spikes, and he got on the train and got there at about six o'clock in the evening and then he had this tremendous achievement for which he was

remembered for the rest of his life. he said he was proudest of his achievements in the world of science and medicine, as we heard in that report. and we are just hearing a tribute from the prime minister. she has tweeted this tribute to sir roger bannister, saying that he was a great british sporting icon, whose achievements were an inspiration to us achievements were an inspiration to us all. he will be greatly missed. the prime minister, theresa may. tweeting from the official number 10 press office account, saying that his achievements were an inspiration to us all. they really were. although that record was again broken, his record, only about a month later. 46 days later, yes. but it will still go down as one of the great sporting achievements of all time was yellow there has been a tremendous outpouring on social media. the words used the most often are legend and gentleman. we have

had a tribute from his family, short statement. sir roger bannister died peacefully in oxford on the 3rd of march, yesterday. he died in oxford, the scene of his most famous achievement. he lived there most of his life and he was master of pembroke college. he died in oxford surrounded by his family who were as loved by him as he was loved by them. they went on to say that he banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends. we have had lots of tributes from members of the public, just to give you a flavour of the feeling. zachary says: i will run at least a mile this morning to show my appreciation. it will be nowhere close to four minutes but it is the thought that counts. and neurologist says: sir roger bannister, rip. superb urologists, and in brackets, not bad as an athlete either. and philip hearsay and: roger bannister and his contemporaries trained in lunch hours, trained on cinder

tracks, had no mod cons and his and his achievements were incredible. —— philip here saying. amazing to be an athlete and a neurologist and a master of an oxford college. an incredible life. when asked what he was most proud of who said his achievements in medicine. he was also the first chairman of the sports council, so achievement in sports councilrsorachievement—in ’jf more —fl%i m h bringing bannister, bringing those sporting events to the general public. an incredible legacy in so many fields. he will be very sadly missed. he certainly will. for the moment, thank you. olly foster is at the bbc sport centre. in a world of sport, such a gigantic, iconic figure, and

tributes are coming in for sir roger bannister. absolutely and alike to celebrate in athletics, even though he himself, as andy moore was saying, he would consider his achievements in medicine as being more significant. it is worth looking back at what was going on in the early 50s. my colleaguejoe wilson in his look back at his career alluded to this. it was almost like the space race. they we re almost like the space race. they were trying to get close to the four minute mark. the race was really between he and an australian, john landy, and it was after the 1952 olympics, when roger bannisterfelt that would be his goal. he didn't do very well at the olympics in 1952 that he would set out, using his medical background as well, to hone his training to try and develop a style to break that barrier. and he certainly did on that day in may in

oxford. john landy the australian was getting very close as well. roger bannister got there first but the two men will face each other for the two men will face each other for the first time later that year. the 1954 commonwealth games in vancouver. those games would be remembered for the miracle mile between roger bannister and john landy. coming round the final bend, john landy looked over the wrong shoulder, his left shoulder, and roger bannister took him on the outside. that was a race significant for being the first time that two men had both broken four minutes in the same race. john landy took roger bannister‘s record 46 days later as well. a couple of days in the early 50s, as different great athletes tried to break the four minute mark. it really gripped the athletics world and it was roger bannister you got there first. he became european champion in 1954 as well but then he hung up his spikes, which he had gathered in graphite. he didn'tjust sharpen them. he covered them in

graphite on his way to oxford so they did not pick up too much cinder so they did not pick up too much cinder so he would be lighter and quicker. three minutes and 59.4 seconds, just under that four minute barrier. he will be remembered for ever as the four minute mile man. he certainly will always be remembered for that. olly foster, thank you. roger bannister has died peacefully at his home in oxford at the age of 88. let's look at the other news today at 11 minutes past midday exactly. theresa may has urged the eu to get on with discussing her "ambitious but practical" vision for economic relations with the uk after brexit. the prime minister told

the bbc‘s andrew marr today the bbc‘s andrew marr today the "right deal for us will be the right deal for them too". she said she was confident of a deal, while accepting the uk could not expect the same market access in some areas. let's get this analysis of what the prime minister has been saying. susana mendonca has been listening to what the prime minister said to andrew marr. on the cherry picking point she made that on friday and again today. every deal is different so you could say that every deal is cherry picking and that is not what britain is after. it is after its own unique deal with the eu. she talked about specifics, areas of divergence, and areas where the uk would move away from the way the eu do things, specifically fisheries. so british fishermen would have fairer access to british waters. and then where we would have a close relationship with the eu, the manufacturing of cars because countries work together on that. but then on the issue

of financial services, this is a difficult one because the city of london is so important to britain's economy. she made it clear that they will lose some access by not having passporting rights, which is basically the right to trade across country by country, and if you're not in the single market you can't have access to that. she understands that will not be workable in that sense but she is looking to have a different kind of relationship on that. if you look at the significant sums of money businesses in the eu 27, those other countries, actually raise through the city of london, it matters to them as well. if we were to accept passporting, we would be a rule taker. we would have to abide by the rules being set elsewhere. and given the importance of financial stability and ensuring the city of london, we can'tjust take the same rules without any say in them. so how likely is she to get what she wants, especially on the issue of the irish border?

we will have to wait and see what europe decides. on the issue of the irish border, it is a difficult one and a real sticking point. people have talked about how in order to maintain borderless access across the irish border, you have got to have access to the customs union and the prime minister has said she doesn't want us to be part of the customs union, and she is talking about having new customs arrangements. she has been very clear and she has talked about the use in the past of technological ways of getting by that issue, so you don't have to have a physical border. the border could exist technologically but not in terms of having to pass through checkpoints and that kind of thing. northern ireland and the republic of ireland don't want to go back to that. she is still very much focused upon having this borderless arrangement with the eu. what i am saying on the standards is that we will be looking to say where does it make sense in a practical sense, because it is important for people,

for theirjobs, their prosperity, for our country's prosperity, where does it make sense to say actually we will abide by these standards? can ijust add this point because this is quite important? we talk about eu standards but actually what we are talking about is not eu standards, not european standards, it is international standards, because many of these things are developed in an international market. what we would be doing would be ensuring we are meeting standards that enable us to trade elsewhere. we have been hearing from the irish government's foreign minister and he has cast doubt on whether or not the eu would go for this idea that theresa may has come up with, this customs arrangement as opposed to a customs union. he is basically saying that the idea of theresa may's to have the soft border is likely to be rejected by the eu, because it would bring into doubt the integrity of the single market. i am not sure that the european union will be able to support a situation whereby 80% of companies that trade north—south

and south— north will actually protect the integrity of the eu single market, which of course will be a big priority for the eu negotiating team. while of course we will explore and look at all of the proposed british solutions, they are essentially a starting point in the negotiations, as opposed to an end point. theresa may has now set out her plan and we are expecting the eu to come back with some kind of response to that and theresa may is going to make a speech to parliament tomorrow about her brexit plan. of course we have got negotiations continuing. the idea is that britain could move to a point where it moves on to trade discussions. that is what the uk government wants. it remains to be seen whether the eu will be happy with what theresa may has put to them as the idea that she wants to proceed with. susana mendonca, our political correspondent. snow and ice continue to cause widespread disruption in some areas of the uk despite temperatures slowly rising. many rail lines are still affected

and drivers have been warned to expect delays. two yellow warnings remain in place covering much of the uk, while 16 flood warnings and dozens of flood alerts cover the south—west and north—east of england. simon clemson reports. simon clemison reports. with so much snow to melt and even a little more in today's forecast, some will be living with these conditions and the disruption for a while yet. northern england, the midlands, wales and parts of northern ireland could still see further small amounts of snow this morning, while scotland faces more coming in from the north sea. the met office is also warning drivers to be aware of ice following lower overnight temperatures. after some train operators simply said "don't travel," services are resuming. but many trains will not run today, with a number of companies on a reduced service. birmingham, cardiff and glasgow airports have all reopened,

but there have been reports of delays and cancellations. some power companies are planning to fly engineers out today to reconnect remote areas. latest figures show thousands of homes remain without power. in devon, work will continue this morning to get supplies to a town and village on the north coast which were cut off. elsewhere, in somerset, farmers say they cannot get their milk out because tankers can't reach them, meaning they are having to pour thousands of litres away. dairy farming is hard enough without losing money, but at the end of the day, what can we do? it was freak weather. we've just got to get on with it. there are still flood warnings in place along the south—west and north—east coast as the wind whips up the waves. with scotland on standby for snow into tomorrow, the latest spell of weather is not going quietly. simon clemison, bbc news. and we can get the very

latest on the weather disruption from our correspondent andy gill. he's currently in north yorkshire at the scotch corner junction of the a66. the sleet and snow seemed to have abated a bit where you are. the snow is coming and going this morning. it was snowing heavily before you came to us and it is still snowing now. the good news is that the a66, this vital trans—pennine the good news is that the a66, this vital tra ns—pennine route, the good news is that the a66, this vital trans—pennine route, linking penrith in cumbria here to scotch corner in north yorkshire, very important for passengers and businesses, the good news is that in the last hour it has reopened. the highways agency say the crews have worked very hard to clear the snow and traffic is now flowing on. i have got to say that driving conditions remain very poor. it is because of snow and sleet but also fog. the weather is also affecting trans—pennine railway fog. the weather is also affecting tra ns—pennine railway routes. fog. the weather is also affecting trans—pennine railway routes. the newcastle to ca rlisle

trans—pennine railway routes. the newcastle to carlisle train service asa newcastle to carlisle train service as a replacement bus service on it. the leads lancaster to carlisle railway services not running either. on the west coast main line between scotla nd on the west coast main line between scotland and england there are no trains but there are replacement buses. virgin did resume train services on the east coast main line yesterday. other rail companies such as seven are asking people to postpone journeys until tomorrow, but that is partly because of engineering works. —— southern. networks in the south—east and south—west say they are back to normal. the thought is expected in the south of england later today with temperatures up to 9 degrees. but in rural areas tonight they could be back down to minus four is not out of the woods yet. a lot of rural areas are cut off by large snowdrifts, in hilly areas. lots of people without power, some in cumbria and hartlepool, we are told.

thousands of people have power restored in the west of england but there are still 1000 homes in the midlands cut off and around 400 in wales and the south—west. the company which is responsible for power across the south—west of england and across the midlands was using helicopters yesterday to get to some of the more remote properties which were cut off but they could not because of freezing fog. they will try again today to get out to those properties. with conditions like this, that may be quite difficult for them. thank you for bringing us right up to date. germany's social democratic party has voted in favour ofjoining a grand coalition government with the conservatives, led by chancellor angela merkel. the result ends months of political deadlock following elections in september, and means mrs merkel will be sworn in for a fourth term in office. with me now is our correspondent in berlin, jenny hill. we have been waiting months for this

but finally angela merkel has got what she wants. indeed she has and no doubt she will have breathed a sigh of relief this morning when the news came through. but having said that, there is not a real sense of victory here and that is for several reasons. first of all the social democrats who finally decided to go ahead with the coalition government, they have torn themselves apart in they have torn themselves apart in the process of making that decision. their party is really low in the polls and its members are still, some of them at least, very opposed to what is about to happen here. secondly there is limited public enthusiasm and appetite for another grand coalition. it is a coalition of what we have had in germany for the last four years. —— it is a continuation of what we have had. and angela merkel has been really damaged by the last few months of political wrangling. she has been off the world stage while being

preoccupied at home. she does cut a rather weaker figure preoccupied at home. she does cut a rather weakerfigure in preoccupied at home. she does cut a rather weaker figure in germany and i think further afield as well. this wasn't a given, was it? some of the social democrats, especially younger party members, were quite seriously opposed to continuing in coalition with angela merkel. indeed. the party really was split. broadly speaking, though not exclusively, along generational lines. those who opposed the grand coalition say that really the last four years of working with angela merkel‘s conservatives have led to the spd really being diminished in the public eye. people don't really know what the policies are and what they stand for because, these people would argue, they have been overshadowed by angela merkel. they have argued all along, particularly the youth wing of the social democrats, that to get into another coalition would be political suicide and spell the end of the party. ironically this internal schism has

probably done more damage. it is certainly significantly worsening what were already dismal poll weightings for the spd who had one of their worst election results ever backin of their worst election results ever back in september. —— poll ratings. it is well that that many social democrats blame angela merkel. they will have to find a way to come together. they have just lost their leader, martin schulz, the former leader, martin schulz, the former leader of the european parliament. he resigned because this has been such a pickle, for want of a better phrase. a new leader in waiting has been appointed and she will have to unite the party but angela merkel herself has got to unite this government. it will be a difficult task and he has got to regain the trust of voters, who i think by and large over the last few months in particular have been rather disillusioned by the political wranglings of germany's two biggest establishment parties. jenny, thank you very much. you are watching bbc

news. it is 24 minutes past midday. a full sports round—up for you from the bbc sport centre with olly foster once again. hello. deonte wilder says he's ready to take on anthonyjoshua in the heavyweight unification fight that all boxing fans want to see. that's after the american retained his wbc belt overnight. luis ortiz was also unbeaten and he looked to have him on the ropes in the seventh but he was beaten in the tenth, the 39th knockout in 40 fights. joshua put his belt on the line against parker at the end of this month and if he comes through that, super fight could this month and if he comes through that, superfight could be made but while there is not convinced that the joshua camp are while there is not convinced that thejoshua camp are keen on that. —— wilder is not convinced. they definitely don't want it, the

promoters. it is up to you guys, the fans. i have talked about it enough andi fans. i have talked about it enough and i don't want to talk about it no more because i said all i have to say and after tonight i don't need to say no more. i don't need to prove to the world that i am the best. kell brook has won his first bout at light middleweight knocking out sergey rabchenko in front of his home crowd at the sheffield arena. his first fight since losing his world welterweight title last may. he could now target the fight against amir khan. a couple of games in the premier league today. writing ta ke in the premier league today. writing take on arsenal in the lunchtime kick—off. runaway leaders manchester city face chelsea later. city can go 18 points clear if they win. they give in the match off the back of those two wins against arsenal in the league cup final and the league last thursday night. that is when pep guardiola was asked about today's opponents chelsea and their manager antonio conte. he has introduced another way to attack, another system. a lot of teams, even

arsenal, wanted to imitate him, to do that. tactically he is a master. he did it amazingly in international tea m he did it amazingly in international team with italy, withjuventus and cheering. i think antonio conte is going to give something to english football, i am pretty sure of that. to see an advantage against a team like manchester city is very difficult, yes. but at the same time we have to prepare the game in the right way and we hope to have all the players in good form and to try to fight for a good result. but for sure in this moment they seem unstoppable. unstoppable, yes. they have been unstoppable. a lot of football was frozen off yesterday.

two more scottish cup quarterfinals are scheduled to go ahead today: celtic went through yesterday. they are into the semifinals. aberdeen and kilmarnock have got to replay theirs. mo farah has won the inaugural big half race in marathon, new half marathon. he will turn his attention to next month's london marathon, the full distance, over 26 miles, where he will bid to become the first british man to win since 1993. there is more sport for you in the next half an hour. olly foster. thank you. president trump has stepped up his rhetoric on trade tariffs, by threatening to impose additional taxes on cars imported to america from europe. the eu had said it would retaliate in kind if mr trump carried out an earlier threat to apply tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium. with me

is the international trade policy advisor, nick ashton—hart. thank you for being with us. what would that mean if there were ta riffs would that mean if there were tariffs on british cars going into the united states? are damaging would that be? it would be very damaging for us, the manufacturers, and also the small and medium—sized enterprises that provide any kind of service to those companies. of course ca rs service to those companies. of course cars like the mini travel across the channel twice during the manufacturing process. many cars manufactured in the united states, so he would be taxing his own workers and making their work less competitive as well. basically, this measure would cost everyone, including his own country, which is what makes it so mystifying. and it risks a trade war. this is just a twea ked risks a trade war. this is just a tweaked so we don't know if it will come to pass, but it does risk a

trade war. —— just a tweet. the eu is threatening to tax the harley—davidson. this is how these things get out of control. retaliation, cross retaliation and no retaliation against. at any point that this starts, it is very hard to stop, especially when the measures he started with our global, and then you have responses against that globally. but this is the protectionist agenda he was elected on, america first, evenif he was elected on, america first, even if it means putting up trade barriers. this is his interpretation of america first. the reality is there is no one place where everything is made and no 1's