now the weather forecast again. snow again for some people? no it won't leave us. this is a weather watcher scene in yorkshire, which was badly hit with several centimetres of snow causing disruption. other areas started the day milder with sunshine and a few rain showers. for the rest of today, it is an improving picture, certainly in the north—east of the country. the snow and the rain clearing off into the north sea a lot of sunshine for many places this afternoon. lighter winds in the south. but still gusty in east anglia for a while. temperatures up to 10 degrees. and there will be further showers in scotland, these falling as snow over the hills. further showers in western areas tonight and the odd heavy one. but most tonight and the odd heavy one. but m ost pla ces tonight and the odd heavy one. but most places will be dry with clear skies and it will be another cold one with some frost and ice where we

have had showers and some freezing fog patches. the far south—west of england, thicker cloud and temperatures falling no lower than four or five. temperatures falling no lower than four orfive. we temperatures falling no lower than four or five. we have temperatures falling no lower than four orfive. we have low temperatures falling no lower than four or five. we have low pressure coming from the south—west bringing milderairand coming from the south—west bringing milder air and strengthening winds. we start off with a chilly note. some sunshine around. northern ireland and central and southern scotla nd ireland and central and southern scotland and northern and central england. some showers in northern scotland. further south it will be turning wet we are the rain pushing through the south and into parts of wales as well. but the temperatures will be coming up as the rain moves north. it bill a wet weekend at times and there is likely to be some snow on the leading edge of the front during friday night and saturday across scotland. elsewhere it will be wet, but given some sunshine following behind in the

south, we could see temperatures up to 14 south, we could see temperatures up to 1a or 15 celsius. that is much milder than what we have been used to. that weather front continues to move north on sunday. you can see this feature on the east coast, it may bring some rain. but we have another area of low pressure moving into the south. elsewhere apart from some cloud we should see some sunshine and it should be dry. milder further north into scotland, ten degrees there through the central belt. but given sunshine in the south we could see 1a degrees again. good news for those fed up with the cold. thank you. raise a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. the home secretary says the attempted murder of a former russian spy and his daughter using a nerve agent is an outrageous crime. the use of a nerve agent is a brazen

and reckless act. this was a attempted murder in the most cruel and public way. 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. good afternoon. here is a look at the day's sport. england head coach eddiejones has named his team for the important six nations meeting with france this weekend. with captain dylan hartley missing out through injury, owen farrell skippers the side in his place. our rugby union reporter chris jones has more. this may be the most intriguing selection yet in eddiejones‘s time in charge of england. there is a new captain — regular skipper dylan hartley has a calf injury, so owen farrell leads the side — and jamie george starts at hooker, perhaps a glimpse into the future. anotherjones stalwart, mike brown, has been dropped to the bench. anthony watson is at full—back

and elliot daly comes into the back three on the wing. one more change in the backline, withjones opting for power in midfield, with ben te‘o replacing jonathanjoseph. jones has called for a response from his players after that humbling defeat at murrayfield last time. england have to win in paris to keep alive their hopes of a third straight six nations title. snowboarder owen pick has been selected as great britain's flagbearer at the winter paralympics opening ceremony in south korea tomorrow. pick is making his debut in the games — he lost a leg aged 18 while serving with the british army in afghanistan. yeah, it's incredible. eight years ago, i was fighting for this flag and now i'm representing this flag, so it means a lot to me. i didn't expect it at all. it was very much a surprise to me. it means a lot. it's super important to us, so nice to have the opportunity to carry the flag out here.

meanwhile, dame sarah storey has withdrawn rom this month's uci para—cycling track world championships after an outbreak of yellow fever in rio dejaneiro. the 14—time paralympic gold medallist had her second child in october, and there are risks around the yellow fever vaccination in certain groups including breastfeeding women and babies under the age of nine months. it's been a torrid time of late for arsenal. defeat to ac milan in the last 16 of the europa league would make it their worst losing streak in 41 years. that run has left arsene wenger‘s side 13 points away from a place in the premier league's top four and, with it, an automatic spot in next season's champions league. winning the europa is another way of achieving that goal and wenger thinks they now have to try and win this competition. this is an opportunity for us. we have to take this, of course. and it

increases the pressure even more on this competition, but as well at the moment it's certainly difficult, when you go through a patch like that, but i believe as well it's a good opportunity. what you want is to show that you have the quality and strengths, and you can only show that when it's difficult. former world number one maria sharapova's disappointing run of form has continued. she's lost in straight sets in the first round at indian wells to japanese number one naomi osaka. it's the second opening round loss in succession for the russian after she was knocked out of the qatar open last month. sharapova made six double faults, won only 25% of her second—serve points and had her serve broken five times. osaka, 20, the world number 44, wrapped up victory in 95 minutes. i've been working through a few physical things, and that's been frustrating, because there's been a lot of starts and stops since i've

come back, and that hasn't really given me the type of playing match rhythm that i really wanted, but i felt like i committed today, and there is a lot of good things that i can take away. mark cavendish has suffered a number of injuries, including a fractured rib and some swelling on his face, in a crash in italy. cavendish, seen here on the far right at the start of yesterday's opening stage of the tirreno—adriatico, completed the stage after the rest of his team dimension data teammates. he earlier crashed at over 30mph, although the tv cameras missed it. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. i'll have more for you in the next hour. thank you. good afternoon. let's return to our main story. the home secretary has described the nerve agent attack on two russians in salisbury as a "brazen and reckless act". amber rudd said the pair had been the targets of an "attempted murder

in the most cruel and public way". samples from the victims have been tested by experts at the defence science and technology laboratory at porton down, who are world renowned experts in this field. as assistant commissioner mark rowley announced yesterday, that forensic analysis has revealed the presence of a nerve agent, and the incident is therefore being treated as attempted murder. i can confirm that it is highly likely the police officer has been exposed to the same nerve agent. mr speaker, i spoke only this morning with assistant commissioner mark rowley, and he confirmed that we remain in the midst of a fast—paced criminal investigation. as such, i will not comment further on the nature of the nerve agent. we must give the police the space they need to conduct a thorough investigation.

all members will recognise that an investigation such as this will be complex and may take some time. public safety continues to be the number one priority for this government. professor sally davies, the chief medical officer, stated yesterday that, based on the evidence we have, there is a low risk to the public. the use of a nerve agent on uk soil is a brazen and reckless act. this was attempted murder in the most cruel and public way. people are right to want to know who to hold to account. but, if we are to be rigorous in this investigation, we must avoid speculation, and allow the police to carry on their investigation. as the assistant commissioner said yesterday, the investigation now involves hundreds of officers following every possible lead to find those responsible. some of those leads have come from members of the public. i'd like to thank the people of salisbury for their help and the calm they have shown over

the last four days. i encourage anyone who visited salisbury town centre and surrounding areas on sunday afternoon and who has not yet spoken to the police to get in touch. we are committed to doing all that we can to bring the perpetrators to justice, whoever they are and wherever they may be. the investigation is moving at pace, and this government will act without hesitation as the facts become clearer. amber rudd, the home secretary, talking to mps in the commons earlier, and we'll keep you up—to—date with any developments in that story. the danish man accused of murdering a female journalist aboard his homemade submarine and then cutting up her corpse is on trial this morning in copenhagen. inventor peter madsen admits dismembering kim wall's body and throwing it out to sea, but denies killing her. ms wall was working on a story about madsen when she went missing last august.

our correspondent maddie savage is following the case in copenhagen. a packed pressroom, more than 100 journalists from all over the world and, injust the journalists from all over the world and, in just the first couple of hours, prosecutors have presented a wide range of pieces of dark and grim evidence that they hope will see peter madsen convicted of the swedish journalist kim wall's murder. some of this may be a difficult listen. we've been showing video of police divers going to the sea bed to retrieve one of kim wall's arms, which had been cut from the body. we've been shown a photo of her underwear, discovered on board peter madsen's submarine, and various pictures of straps found in a bag of kim wall's clothes that had been dumped. prosecutors say they match straps used by peter madsen and found on his submarine and in his workshop. they've also found out

that peter madsen used his mobile phone 16 hours before contacting kim wall to google a video of a woman having her cared —— her head cut off slowly but kim wall was a respected freelance journalist, she worked for media including the guardian and new york times, and she was about to move to china with her danish boyfriend, and one of the most emotional moments was when we heard of text messages she'd sent to him from peter madsen's submarine. in english, she typed, i'm still alive, by the way, i'm going down now, and then, i love you, followed by a bunch of exclamation marks, and she added that peter madsen at brought coffee and cookies onto the submarine got prosecutors say peter madsen had narcissistic and psychopathic tendencies and he presents a great safety to others. peter madsen denies murdering kim wall. the trial is expected to last around seven weeks. let's turn our attention is back

here. weather warnings of snow and ice are in place for many parts of the country as police warn of tricky driving conditions in parts of wales and central and northern england. more than 120 schools are closed nearly a week after heavy snow brought chaos to the country. danny savage gave us this update from wetherby in west yorkshire. it was really a lot worse much earlier this morning. the snow came down heavily between 5am and 9am. since then, it's been melting quite quickly, but it's certainly been a morning to remember for quickly, but it's certainly been a morning to rememberfor many quickly, but it's certainly been a morning to remember for many people in yorkshire. basically, it's a corridor down the centre of yorkshire, from harrowgate down to sheffield, where several centimetres of snow fell very quickly this morning. there was gridlock on roads around bradford and leeds and harrogate in sheffield, and quickly the list of schools that said they

weren't opening for the day grew by the minute to between about —— between about 730 and 830, because staff couldn't get to school or work, and nothing was the roads. you can probably see over my shoulder a bit of traffic moving left and right occasionally, on the alpha—macro. that was solid this morning going southbound, lorries were stuck, there were vehicles, causing a big problem, but it's melting quickly and the situation is improving a lot, and the irony is that i can see blue sky coming in from the west, and the forecast is temperatures by the weekend of and the forecast is temperatures by the weekend 01:14 and the forecast is temperatures by the weekend of 1a 15 degrees in this pa rt the weekend of 1a 15 degrees in this part of the country, so it was a flash in the pan. there were yellow weather warnings in place for snow, it had been forecast, but i think the severity of it surprised people and call people out, but i think it will get back to normal quite quickly now across much of the region. we have a full weather forecastjust

before the top of the hour. the headlines on bbc news: the home secretary says the attempted murder of a former russian spy attempted murder of a former russian spy and his daughter using a nerve agent is an outrageous crime. a passenger tells a jury how her hair caught fire when a bomb went off on a london underground train in parsons green last september. domestic abusers could be tagged or banned from drinking alcohol and taking drugs, as part of a clampdown on violence. in a moment, more than 300 trains have been cancelled in spain as workers go on strike to defend women's rights on international women's day. members of the british chambers of commerce — which represents the interests of 70,000 businesses and employs more than five million people — are meeting in central london. it's just a year before the uk leaves the european union. our business correspondent,

susannah streeter, is there speaking with members about what they want from government. yes, you talked there about how workers in spain are going on strike to mark international women's day, and unequal pay. interestingly, here, there is a big discussion about diversity in business on international women's day. it's a hot topic, especially because many companies up and down the country have published their gender pay gaps, and there are huge disparities between men and women in many companies. here to talk about this is somebody on the panel about diversity in business, a senior lawyer and diversity leader. thank you for talking to us. why do you think the gender pay gap exists to such an extent? it's as simple as this, there aren't as —— enough

women in senior positions and burning larger salaries, and so that's why we have the gap. how do you change this? we need to encourage more women to progress. i'm a practising solicitor... i'm sorry, we have to interrupt this and go back to our studio and we will come back for more later. many apologies for that. not entirely clear what happened. we've obviously got a problem with communications at the annual conference. we'll see if we can get that back, because it's a very important day with lots to discuss. let's turn our attention to what's going on in the trump administration. the white house is facing major resistance to its plan for trade tariffs on steel and aluminium, which president trump could sign as early as today. republican lawmakers have joined investors and foreign governments in criticising the measures, which it's feared could start a trade war. chris buckler reports from washington.

president donald trump has long promised protectionist policies — measures meant to defend industries like steel, which has suffered decades of decline. his plan for steel tariffs is an attempt to stop cheap imports from damaging us businesses by pricing them for market. but inside the white house, the languages offers slightly, with mentions of possible exceptions. we expect the president will say something about it i'd end up with, and there are potential carve outs for mexico and canada based on national security and possible other countries as well, based on that. economic adviser gary cohn was one of the loudest voices to stand up against tariffs into the white house. but he is leaving. there are others, however, close to the president, that are worried this could end up in a tit—for—tat trade war that could damage america's

economy, amongst others. more than 100 members of congress, from president trump's own republican party, have sent an open letter expressing their concerns. ta riffs tariffs are taxes that make us businesses less competitive and us consumers poorer. recent turbulent days on the stock exchange suggests that wall street shares some of that nervousness. i think there is some uncertainty in the markets and investors are probably looking at the resignation and fearing what could be a potential trade war. the resignation and fearing what could be a potentialtrade war. mr donaldj could be a potentialtrade war. mr donald j trump! could be a potentialtrade war. mr donald] trump! on his way to the presidency, donald trump pledged to put america first, to tackle what he claimed were unfair trading practices from other countries and to reduce america's huge trade

deficit. even among political opponents, there is support for much of that. in my region, there are several steel and aluminium companies that have been battered by donald steals from russia, china and vietnam, and other countries have closed market as well, such as japan. —— battered by dumped steel. there comes a point where you can't lose any more. certainly, there are steel mills derelict across america. however, the tariffs are being justified not on grounds of the economy, but national security. these are supplies that would be needed should the us be needed to defend itself. and that has led allies to demand exceptions. national security element, the reason for it makes no sense when canada and the us have the closest national security collaboration of any two countries in the world. we have fought and died together in multiple world wars and theatres around the world.

not for the first time, countries around the world are waiting to see exactly what president trump does, and whether the tariffs turn out to be as tough as the talk. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. we stay with business issues, or rather we return to them. a bit of a communication failure with the british chambers of commerce annual conference, but there's lots to discuss. susannah streeter is back. let's give it another go. welcome back to the british chambers of commerce annual conference. it is international women's day, and there's a big discussion here about diversity in business, particularly with many companies publishing their gender pay gaps. with me to talk about this is one of the panellists on the diversity in business session. thank you forjoining us. you are a senior lawyer and

diversity leader. why do you think such a large gender pay gap exists in many companies across the uk? the simple reason is because, for many reasons, women are not progressing to the more senior roles and earning the larger salaries, so within the legal profession specifically, that isa legal profession specifically, that is a problem. you don't see as many women progressing to partnership level, and one of the ways we are trying to address that is by creating more visible role models. we are working on a project called the first 100 years project, which will celebrate 100 years of women lawyers in the uk, and that way we hope to inspire more willing to stick it out, to really stick it out and to progress to those senior roles. but many women, if they have chosen to have children, they return after maternity leave, they may be working part time, and they see their career blocked. they are not perceived as being fit for promotion. that was my experience, i was a maternity leave mum, i

returned after a year, but i had to move out of central london altogether to carry on progressing mike brett, so there is a trade—off you have to make here, but we are making important tools to try and encouraging women to carry on their careers. mentoring, setting targets, supporting women who are returning from maternity leave, to encourage and support them so they can stick it out. equal pay and the gender pay gap are two different things aren't they? can you explain the difference? equal pay, not paying men and women equally has been outlawed for a long time, and that is simply that men and women of comparable rank or status within a role played the same way. the gender pay looks at the average difference in pay between men and women, and the percentage of the men's salaries. that is how it works. deloitte revealed its gender pay

gap, around 43%, which is a huge difference, isn't it? do you think it simply is the fact that they are not reaching those higher echelons costu me not reaching those higher echelons costume on what can companies do to change this? i think it's as simple as that, not having enough women in senior leadership roles, and what companies can do is to really focus on more concerted, positive action, they need to target and look at the reasons why they need to target and look at the reasons why women are not they need to target and look at the reasons why women are not sticking it out. is it maternity? is it because women generally take on more of the care responsibilities? is it because men also want to work flexibly? i would ask you what impact you think brexit will have an diversity in the uk workforce. impact you think brexit will have an diversity in the uk workforcelj choose diversity in the uk workforce.” choose to be an opportunist about this and to be optimistic. brexit has highlighted the immigration concerns, and it's made us have those discussions about our talent pool and where we go to, so we could have a more diverse talent pool.

thank you for talking to us on bbc news. that panel will be taking place a bit later this afternoon. at the moment, all of the discussion in the moment, all of the discussion in the big room behind me is about the uk trading relationship in the future. what will happen post—brexit. lots of discussions taking place. iwill post—brexit. lots of discussions taking place. i will bring you more on this a bit later. thank you, susannah streeter was much more coming up from 2pm. time for a look at the weather. thank you. the picture behind me depicts what many people woke up to this morning across parts of central and northern england and wales, some pretty heavy snow. it was heavy across parts of lancashire and into yorkshire as well, giving rise to some travel disruption. a lot of it is starting to melt. across the south, and lots of sunshine, fairly strong winds and rain showers. the rain and snow clearing in the next couple of hours and then we'll see

sunshine and showers across country, mainly across western areas. the odd heavy, thundery one, snow on the high ground of scotland, but it looks like things will dry up this evening and overnight with light winds, it's going to turn cold for many. some patchy frost and freezing fog in places, and some ice where the ground has been wet from showers. in the south—west, more cloud around, because of this encroaching area of low pressure, which will move slowly north through tomorrow. that area of low pressure will continue to bring fairly breezy conditions and further showers to scotland, especially the west, with some snow on the field and outbreaks of rain continuing to spill north across southern britain. but there will be a lot of sunshine around for northern ireland, central and northern infant and southern scotla nd northern infant and southern scotland before the cloud arrives on top temperatures around 10 degrees, but it will continue to get milder as the weekend wears on. on saturday, that rain spilling north,

with some snow on its leading edge. quite a wet weekend in places, but where you get the sunshine it will feel very mild. on saturday, it will be quite wet, a lot of heavy, persistent rain moving north, with some snow over the higher ground scotla nd some snow over the higher ground scotland and maybe the central belt for a while. is this next band of rain moves north, there should be some brokers pushing in. where we have that, temperatures could get up to 14 or 15, so it really is much milder than what we have been used to but saturday is quite mixed, with bad weather front continuing to move northwards. this feature could bring some rain to the far east of england, low pressure bringing showers, blustery across the south and south—west. a lot of cloud, showers in the south, with some rain grazing the east coast, but quite a bit of dry weather as well. with the sunshine, it could be quite pleasant. double—figure values across central and southern scotland. in the south, given some sunshine, we could see temperatures reaching 14, so the main message for

many is it for it to turn milder. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2. the home secretary describes the attempted murder of a former double—agent and his daughter in salisbury as an outrageous crime. the use of a nerve agent on uk soil is a brazen and reckless act. this was attempted murder in the most cruel and public way. a woman who got on a tube train moments before an explosion describes to a jury the moment she saw a "wall of glass" coming towards her — we'll have the latest from the old bailey. domestic abusers could be electronically tagged or banned from drinking alcohol, in a new crackdown proposed by the government coming up on afternoon live all the sport. it is all arsenal. it is. the north londoners haven't lost five straight matches since 1977 —