hello. this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and steph mcgovern. jeremy corbyn warns against drifting into a "new cold war." he talks of a fevered atmosphere at westminster. the labour leader is resisting growing pressure from labour backbenchers to unequivocally blame the russian state for the salisbury attack. good morning. it's friday the 16th of march. also this morning: at least four people have died after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a busy motorway in miami. they made i skin itch, they all my senses. good

new record coming to the uk hit a new record last year. and that is good news for places like this. this morning we are at the national museum in edinburgh to find out what it means for the local economy. good morning from a rather wet cheltenham on gold cup day. the irish trainer is in so much good form. we will is it like in happens [am-3513s; is is iiss e rest of happens later. what is it like in the rest of the country? good morning. i have the details on board hms belfast this morning, celebrating 80 years since her launch. rain at times turning to snow. i will have the full details inis snow. i will have the full details in 15 minutes. good morning. first our main story. jeremy corbyn has again questioned

whether the russian state was behind the nerve agent attack in salisbury. in an article in the guardian, the labour leader calls on people not to rush to judgement. 0ur political correspondent, ben wright, joins us from westminster. what is jeremy what isjeremy corbyn saying? what is jeremy corbyn saying? jeremy corbyn is doubling down on the position he took in the house of commons on wednesday, a couple of days ago. that was when theresa may said clearly as far as the government is concerned the russian state is culpable for this attack. she listed the measures the government was taking, kicking out diplomats and imposing new sanctions. jeremy corbyn raised questions about the reliability of the intelligence used, questioning whether the state of russia was involved. he repeated those arguments for the article in the guardian. he says the attack is barbaric and beyond reckless. he says there are two possibilities, it

is either the russian state, or the nerve agent has fallen into the criminal underworld, gangsters, and could be used by them. he is holding back from pointing the finger of blame at the kremlin. he is also seen let's not manufacture a division over russia where none exists. he is squeamish and concerned about, you know, going after the russian state in the way the government has done. he also raises previous criticisms he made about british intelligence gathering, talking about the dossier which took britain into the conflict in iraq. there is a lot on this article. he talks about saudi arabia, donald trump, and broader british policy. he has critics in his backbench, labour mps are comfortable with how he is approaching this. the fact he is not blaming russia directly. but he does not deviate from his argument in this piece, sticking to its line there are legitimate questions for him to be asking. for the moment,

thank you. we will speak to a former british ambassador to russia at around ten past eight this morning. at least four people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a major road in miami. eight cars waiting at traffic lights below were crushed. rescue teams are still searching for suvivors. marta newman reports. the bridge at fiu just collapsed out of nowhere. there are cars stuck under there. it was designed to last 100 years and withstand category 5 hurricane winds. but instead, 950 tons of this newly installed pedestrian bridge crashed down a busy miami motorway below. witnesses spoke of terror as the enormous structure flattened ca rs spoke of terror as the enormous structure flattened cars waiting below for the traffic lights to change. we tried to get people out and we couldn't. they were stuck. construction workers fell from the drain. it was a disaster. —— crane.

before bridge was only put in place a week ago, taking just six hours to complete. it was built using a technique called accelerated bridge construction, or accelerated bridge. because of its collapse remains unclear. we deserve to know and the public deserves to know and the families of those who have been hurt and lost their lives deserve to know what went wrong. people can be rest assured, the people doing these engineering studies will tell us what went wrong. as relatives and friends of victims search for a nswe i’s , friends of victims search for answers, investigators from the national transportation safety board will now conduct the investigation. mcm at the family owned contract which helped build the bridge, says it will co—operate fully. —— mcm,. bbc news. one in four council—run secondary schools in england is running at a loss, leading to fears of staff cuts and larger class sizes.

new research by the education policy institute found that number of schools in deficit has nearly trebled in the last four years. helena lee reports. it is no secret that some schools are struggling financially. this study will no doubt add to concerns. researchers looked at budgets and bala nces researchers looked at budgets and balances of local authorities and secondaries in england over the last seven years. the report does not include academies which make up about 2% of secondary schools and 20% of primary is. in 2013 — 2014, 8% were in the red. that rose to just over 26% in 2016 — 2017. those in the south—west were most likely to be in deficit. let parents will naturally be concerned about the pressures on school budgets. ——

pa rents. pressures on school budgets. —— parents. it will mean cuts to teachers and assistants which could mean increased class sizes and a reduction in classes on offer. earlier this month, the education secretary acknowledge that school funding was tight. the liberal government association says this research shows the government should revive additional funding, and research shows the government should revive additionalfunding, and if they do not, councils may not be able to meet their duties. —— provide. bbc news. the government says it does not recognise the findings of the report and is putting an extra £1.3 million in the schools. a report into the failure of northamptonshire county council has recommended that the authority be scrapped after widespread financial and management failures. government—appointed investigators said the problems at the council, which last month announced £40 million worth of cuts, were so deep—rooted that it was impossible to rescue it in its current form. the leader of the council

has now resigned. four african countries with the world's largest elephant populations are expected to call on britain and the european union to ban the legal sale of antique ivory today. ministers will sign a petition at a wildlife summit in botswana urging european countries to follow china's lead in outlawing the sale of all ivory products. alistair leithead reports. africa's elephants are still severely under threat, with less animals being born and the number killed by poachers every year increasing. here in botswana, the last true sanctuary for elephants on the continent, scientists and conservationists are meeting to stop the ivory trade. techniques used for counter—terrorism are now being used to stop poaching and catch the culprits. and they are being

showcased at the giants club summit, which aims to stop poaching by 2020. they are also talking about the illegal ivory trade in britain and the rest of europe. the uk and the eu are the biggest exporters of legal antique ivory. we have seen china has banned their trade. hong kong is saying they are doing a similarthing. kong is saying they are doing a similar thing. the african leaders meeting here are hoping the eu and the uk could do likewise and could stop this trade in antique ivory. the uk could do likewise and could stop this trade in antique ivorym might send a strong message to try to reduce the demand for ivory. alastair leithead, bbc news, in botswa na. mps from egypt are travelling to the uk today to monitor investigations into the death of an egyptian student in nottingham. 18—year—old mariam moustafa died on wednesday, three weeks after being attacked by a group of women outside a shopping centre. police say they are keeping an "open

mind" about whether the assault was a hate crime. fashion retailer, topman, are coming under pressure to withdraw a shirt that some people believe refers to the hillsborough disaster. the red shirt with a large number 96 is being seen by some liverpool fans as a reference to the club's kit and number of victims killed in the 1989 disaster. topman are yet to say anything about the shirt but there is no suggestion of a deliberate reference. the singer, rihanna, has accused snapchat of "intentionally" shaming victims of domestic abuse. an advert for a game on the social media platform asked users if they would "rather slap rihanna or punch chris brown." it appears to refer to brown's conviction for assaulting rihanna in 2009 while they were dating. a spokesperson for the company said the ad was "disgusting" and "should never have appeared." britain's first polar bear cub for 25 years has been filmed

for the first time after being born in december. channel 4 and stv productions have been granted unprecedented and exclusive access to document the breeding and birth of the first polar bear cub to be born in the uk for 25 years. a unique hour—long documentary, britain's polar bear cub filmed over two years by stv productions for channel 4, will follow the pioneering polar bear breeding programme at the royal zoological society of scotland highland wildlife park. that is so cute. it's gold cup day in cheltenham, one of the highlights of the jumpracing calendar. mike is there this morning. good morning. good morning. it is cold enough for polar bears here this morning. the sun is expected

later. raining overnight. it is no surprise the ground is even wetter. they have done a good job patching it up. they are saying it will save the irish horses. they have been so dominant this week. the same in the by. yesterday's big winner was penhill, ridden by paul townend. the 12—to—1 shot saw off the challenge of supasundae to become the sixth win at this year's festival for trainer willie mullins. remember, mullins has never won big at the gold cup. 0n the day he was recalled to the england squad, danny welbeck scored twice for arsenal as they beat ac milan to reach the quarter finals of the europa league. tiger woods and his impressive return to form continues, getting a 68 at the arnold palmer invitational

in orlando. four shots behind henrik stenson, eight under par. there is more to come with the paralympics later on with kate. it is hard to see past the irish trainers here. the other big question is nicky henderson. he could become the first ever trainer in a week to win all three, hat—trick, the champion race, the champion hurdle, and the gold cup, the "greatest show on turf." we will see you later. we are blessed with our outdoor locations today. the museum ship, hms belfast, has been a landmark on the thames in central london since 1971. today, she celebrates her 80th birthday, so we've sent matt to have a look. good morning. we are aboard hms

belfast this morning. launched in 1938 by the wife of then pm neville chamberlain, immediately providing a blockade against germany. since then it has taken part in action on the arctic circle, the d—day landings, and before being scrapped, it was saved by the imperial war museum, put on display in 1971. we will look inside later on in the programme. this is the forecast. not bad. things will get much more cold this weekend. a bitter wind. temperatures plummeting with snow on the way. the snow is limited to parts of scotland, mainly on the hills in the grampians. elsewhere in eastern scotla nd grampians. elsewhere in eastern scotland and south—east scotland, outbreaks of rain at times. rain through northern ireland this morning. developing through the day.

a dry spell across parts of northern england. at the moment in wales, the midlands, east anglia, clearing to allow some sunshine. sunny spells already developing in southern counties of england and wales. here is where we will see showers gradually develop. does showers will become heavy and perhaps thundery in the afternoon. —— those showers. the wind will be like compared to further north. —— lighter. north—east england will be rather wet with snow coming down to lower levels through the day. temperatures in northern scotland today, three degrees. we could again get into the mid—teens in southern england and wales. yesterday, we hit 16. tonight, what you will notice is the rain starts to increase in turn to snow. it will all shift south once again as strong gale force winds become dominant. some snow here and

there. especially in the north of the uk into saturday morning. the far south and south—west of uk is the only place that will avoid the frost. you are in for a big shock for tomorrow morning as far as temperatures are concerned compared to this morning. saturday, snow flurries everywhere, just about. the only place immune will be the far north of scotland. yorkshire, watch that area. sunshine in between. that raw wind is blowing away, keeping temperatures a few degrees above freezing. there will be and icy wind chill until sunday. just about anywhere could wake up to a coating of snow. a fair few centimetres here and there. turning more dry and more bright from the east through the day. wherever you are, feeling cold, sub—zero. some temperatures stay below freezing through the day. the

mini—beast of the east is back. those guns fire showers 12 miles, from here to watford. back to you. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has repeated his caution about making hastyjudgements over russia's involvement in the nerve agent attack on a former spy. an footbridge in miami, florida has collapsed crushing eight cars underneath. we will look at some front pages. the daily telegraph, events relating to the nerve attack in salusbury very much dominating

the headlines this morning. the telegraph is putting a new theory forward that the nerve agent that poisoned sergei skripal and his daughter had been planted in his daughter's suitcase before they left moscow and brought over to the uk. they are quoting sources telling them they are convinced the nerve agent was hidden somehow in the luggage and maybe on an item of clothing or some cosmetics which then she arrived in her father's house in salusbury. of course, it still dominating a lot of the papers. the express is talking about the world cup which will be in russia. pressure was growing last night for a mass world cup boycott in retaliation for the salusbury nerve agent outrage. the times, a bit more on the diplomacy around this. thatjoint statement bit more on the diplomacy around this. that joint statement featuring

the west uniting against vladimir putin's regime. that's to do with allegations of meddling in the us elections. an unequivocal condemnation after the chemical attack. the daily mirror has a different front page on it's talking about poppy worthington, the 13 —month—old who died. it is saying the father will not be charged over her death. the guardian, the lead story. theresa may visited salusbury yesterday, meeting people there but jeremy corbyn has been talking to the guardian and reiterating some of the guardian and reiterating some of the warnings mentioned previously and he has warned of rushing ahead and he has warned of rushing ahead and a fevered atmosphere. we will be speaking a bit more aboutjeremy

corbyn's comments later on and suggestions from him that neither justice nor national security is being well served by the atmosphere around the events at the moment. so this is a story about twins, identical twins, and one of them as an astronaut who went off to space and has now returned. scott kelly. he has come back and scientists have analysed is genetic make—up. a p pa re ntly analysed is genetic make—up. apparently his dna is changed by 7%. it's an extraordinary story. the pairof it's an extraordinary story. the pair of them came into bbc breakfast in november of last year and when they came in, there was a slight height difference. the differences had changed a bit. now the evidence is that the make—up of the astronauts has changed significantly. it's fascinating. rescriptions for powerful

painkillers like morphine, tramadol and fentanyl have risen by almost 80% in england over the past decade. nearly 24 million opioids were prescribed in 2017, despite warnings about the risks of long—term use and rising addiction. tim muffett has been to manchester's integrated drug and alcohol service to find out more. it's easy to get caught, just one more, just one more, just one more. prescribed by doctors to numb pain, sophie and carroll save opioids also numbed their minds and ruined their lives. my joints snapped. i had an operation in the end and then ijust got prescribed them all the time. taking that much painkillers, like, i wasn't doing the school run anything. i was that result, i couldn't move. they were prescribed to me the five years ago. you can't get off them and i've tried for help

for years and years. under supervision, sophie and carroll have stopped taking opioids. they sought help from manchester's integrated drug and alcohol service. we have seen an increase drug and alcohol service. we have seen an increase in numbers. the increase has been going on for a few yea rs increase has been going on for a few years and seeing more and more people. you can come here and talk to anyone. the numbers we are seeing is nowhere compared to what the extent of the problem. the reason why people probably don't seek help is because they feel substance misuse services are set up other drugs, harder drugs like heroin and crack cocaine. hope prescriptions in england have risen by almost 80% in the last decade. nearly 24 million we re the last decade. nearly 24 million were issued last year. while the latest data shows the overall figure has stabilised, for some drugs, numbers are still going up. over the past five years, morphing prescriptions have risen by more

than 50%. codeine, by a third. 0pioids can be effective for short—term acute pain but the longer term chronic conditions it is widely accepted that they are unsuitable. they can be highly addictive with devastating side—effects. breeding difficulties, nausea and hallucinations are amongst possible long—term side—effects. in america in 2016, more than 42,000 people died from opioids related overdoses. the us and canada are number one and number two the us and canada are number one and numbertwo in the us and canada are number one and number two in the world for their use of opiates. we are not careful we will end up in the same place, that's unacceptable. we need to find ways to reduce the use of these drugs. take a deep breath in through the nose. at the university of warwick a two—year title is about to begin hoping to do just that. we wa nt to begin hoping to do just that. we want to help people live data without pain without relying on strong like opioids. things like mindfulness, relaxation, movement, being aware of posture. both dawn and just insane long—term opioid use

brought terrible side—effects. and just insane long—term opioid use brought terrible side-effects. they made me sick, they made my skin each, they dulled all my senses. made me sick, they made my skin each, they dulled all my senseslj had each, they dulled all my senses.” had hallucinations, lost myjob, not able to hold downjob. had hallucinations, lost myjob, not able to hold down job. it's been com plete able to hold down job. it's been complete and utter hell. the government has ordered an independent review into prescription drug addiction. its recommendations are due to be announced early next year. nhs england said gps and hospitals are working to ensure every prescription is both safe and effective. this two—year trial hopes to show with other pain relief options a viable alternative. tim moffitt, bbc news. if you have thoughts on it, let us know before we talk to an expert later. then is at the home of two of the

uk's most visited attractions outside london. good morning. we get to come to some pretty amazing places before they are open to the public and today is no exception. look at this. this is the national museum of scotland, opened originally in 1866 in this pa rt opened originally in 1866 in this part of has gone through a massive refurbishment. they are pretty happy with it and visitors are happy with it too. we are talking about the number of tourists. more visitors from overseas. particularly places like china. europe has been a big source of visitors to the country. let me run you through some of the details because ads you'd expect,, some of the biggest responses from those in the capital. the british museum famous for all the money is

and all the ancient egyptian a rtefa cts that and all the ancient egyptian artefacts that are there. there is also tate modern, home to all sorts of new art down on the southbank in london but then there is the national gallery as well so some more traditional art making up the top three but here in scotland, the most popular attractions are this place, the national gallery of scotla nd place, the national gallery of scotland or the national museum of scotla nd scotland or the national museum of scotland in just over the way from here, edinburgh castle as you would expect. it's really important these tourist attractions are doing well because it means visitors are still coming. 40 million people visited the uk from overseas and between them, they brought in a staggering £26 billion, up by 14% on the year before. i'm going to show you around this place later. some great exhibits for us to look at. i will show you around and we will meet the boss of this place why they spend so much money attracting new visitors. good morning from bbc london news.

the cost of clearing up rubbish left by flytippers in london is rising — with reported cases more than doubling in the last five years. government figures show that there were more than 1,000 incidents reported each day in the last year — creating a cost of more than £18 million. members of the london assembly's environment committee are calling on the mayor to adopt a london—wide strategy to tackle the problem. more police will be at west ham united's next home game at the london stadium — after crowd trouble on saturday as the team lost to burnley. at an emergency meeting yesterday, the club was also warned it could play behind closed doors — if there's a repeat of the trouble. the family of a toddler from carshalton say they need to find £80,000 to fund treatment before he loses his hearing altogether. benjamin needs cochlear implants, but they can't be funded by the nhs under current guidelines. we wa nt we want him to be able to hear the ocean, hear the birds, we want him to be able to hear the ocean, hearthe birds, dance we want him to be able to hear the ocean, hear the birds, dance to a

song, to hear the singing ocean, hear the birds, dance to a song, to hearthe singing in ocean, hear the birds, dance to a song, to hear the singing in the car. around the dinner table, we wa nt to car. around the dinner table, we want to be able to join car. around the dinner table, we want to be able tojoin in car. around the dinner table, we want to be able to join in with car. around the dinner table, we want to be able tojoin in with a conversation and not feel isolated because he can't understand what going on. 0n the tube, there are minor delays on the dlr between woolwich arsenal to canning town because of power problems. 0n the roads, in shadwell: the highway is down to one lane in both directions for ongoing repairs to a burst water main near to king david lane. it's been causing long delays the past few days. central london: st james street closed southbound from piccadilly for repairs to a water main good morning. a pretty dramatic

change happening again at the weekend. it is going to turn bitterly cold with a chilly easterly wind and will probably cease and snow but today, a fairly pleasant date the weather, lots of dry weather around with some good spells of sunshine, just watch up 12 showers which could pop up here or there. western areas, outbreaks of showery rain but a nice dry stuff most of us. good spells of sunshine as well this afternoon, just a bit more cloud bubbling up. watch out for 12 heavy thundery downpours. temperatures as high as 14 degrees. the changes are happening overnight tonight. the cold air coming in from the east, the wind at the pick—up. we could see showers across parts of essex in hertfordshire that could fall as snow. maybe some snow showers first thing across parts of kent at east london. the further south—west from the more likely you are to bejust south—west from the more likely you are to be just above freezing. but the met office weather warnings out. 0n

the met office weather warnings out. on sunday, we could possibly see some more widespread snow through the early hours on sunday. keep an eye on the forecast. a snappy cold snap. temperatures should recover by the time we get to monday. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and steph mcgovern. it's friday the 16th of march. we'll have the latest news and sport injust a moment. but coming up later in the programme. the illegal ivory trade continues to claim the lives of tens of thousands of elephants every year. now, leaders of african nations are calling on the uk government to follow america and china in banning the sale of legal antique ivory. as punters around the world brace themselves for one of the highlights of the jump racing season, the cheltenham gold cup, mike has been to meet some

of the other riders benefiting from the facilities at the famous racecourse. and two weeks ago, the beast from the east stopped radio 0ne's greg james as he attempted to climb three of the highest peaks in the uk and cycle between them for sport relief, but now, the weather has cleared and he's back on his bike. we'll catch up with him as he begins his ascent of ben nevis. good morning. here's a summary of today's main stories from bbc news. jeremy corbyn has again questioned whether the russian state was behind the nerve agent attack against a former spy and his daughter in salisbury. writing in the guardian, the labour leader cautioned against rushing to a "hasty judgement" despite criticism from some in his party over his approach. at least four people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a major road in miami. eight cars waiting at traffic lights below were crushed. the footbridge was put in place less than a week ago. investigators from the national transportation safety board say

they will now conduct a full investigation. 0nce once we have completed search and rescue operations, we will remain on the scene and help with recovery efforts as well. this has been an incredibly tragic event and our hearts go out to the families of the victims. syrian activists say nearly 20,000 civilians have fled rebel held areas of eastern ghouta, as government forces continue their advance. it is the biggest exodus from the enclave since the military stepped up an offensive to retake it last month. the seven—year conflict is thought to have claimed more than 400,000 lives and lead to 11 million people being displaced. a report into the failure of northamptonshire county council has recommended that the authority

be scrapped after widespread financial and management failures. government—appointed investigators said the problems at the council, which last month announced £40 million worth of cuts, were so deep—rooted that it was impossible to rescue it in its current form. the leader of the council has now resigned. mps haven't been able to find appropriate technology operating anywhere in the world that would allow an invisible border to continue between northern ireland and the irish republic after brexit. the northern ireland affairs committee is asking the government to give more details on how it will manage the movement of people and goods across the irish border. it's also warned that, without a transition period, there won't be time to put new arrangements in place by the end of march next year. four african countries with the world's largest elephant populations are expected to call on britain and the european union to ban the legal sale of antique ivory today. ministers will sign a petition at a wildlife summit in botswana urging european countries to follow china's lead in outlawing the sale of all ivory products. mps from egypt are travelling to the uk today to monitor investigations into the death of an egyptian student in nottingham.

18—year—old, mariam moustafa, died on wednesday, three weeks after being attacked by a group of women outside a shopping centre. police say they are keeping an "open mind" about whether the assault was a hate crime. she was always so kind and always wa nted she was always so kind and always wanted to help people out. i do not know why they would do that to her. she was a hard worker. she always put all her effort in. i feel like she is around me and she is going to come knocking on the door, but that is not fashion retailer, topman, are coming under pressure to withdraw a shirt that some people believe refers to the hillsborough disaster. the red shirt with a large number 96 is being seen by some liverpool fans as a reference to the club's kit and number of victims killed in the 1989 disaster. topman are yet to say anything about the shirt but there is no suggestion of a deliberate reference. the singer, rihanna,

has accused snapchat of intentionally shaming victims of domestic abuse. an advert for a game on the social media platform asked users if they would "rather slap rihanna or punch chris brown." it appears to refer to brown's conviction for assaulting rihanna in 2009 while they were dating. a spokesperson for the company said the ad was "disgusting" and "should never have appeared." those are the main stories this morning. we're off to the races now. mike is in cheltenham on gold cup day taking a look at the runners and riders. i was on the track but i thought we would give you a glimpse before the horses come out. nothing is happening at the moment so we should come to be winner's enclosure

outside. 3:45, that's when the winner will parade that famous trophy in front of 70,000 fans. will be irish continue dominating? will nicky henderson shake them off? the greatest show on turf, they call it. why the irish so dominant at this festival? is because the rain favours irish horses? in a nutshell, ireland has the two most powerful sta bles, ireland has the two most powerful stables, willy mullens and gordon. amazing firepower and courses. they and their owners dominate most races. that has translated to the greatest, the cheltenham festival. of those 15 irish winners, 13 have

come from two trainers. and does two on wednesday and most of thursday, nine consecutive races between them. —— those. i cannot remember such domination. either holding onto their horses more now than in the past, selling them on previously to british trainers. in the past, the best horses got sold to powerful british people. that is no longer the case. there is real strength in irish racing. more than that, when you look at some of these irish trained winners, they are owned by british owners, who recognised... i mean, gordon elliot, willie mullins, they have immense talent. that is not to say there is no enormous talent in british training, including nicky henderson, who could become the first ever to win the champion hurdle, the champion chase,

and the gold cup. can he do it? the greatest danger will be mike, who has a lot of character. in the junior gold cup, he jumped who has a lot of character. in the junior gold cup, hejumped the final fence and then decided to stop and wait for another horse, then went again and got the race back on the line. apparently he gets distracted by the beer tents. you do not win the gold cup by going in getting a pint of guinness. he has been better behaved, but there is a nugget of doubt after so much richness and drama. weirdly, willie mullins, for all his wins here, he has never got

the gold cup. will he set the record straight today? he wants to win this more than any other, the greatest horse race there is. jump racing is more popular than flat racing. he almost did not want to talk about it all week. it is hanging over him. a number of chances. without his main jockey, ruby walsh, injured during the week, it will be difficult. my tip is going to river. trained by collins. ridden by richard johnson. he loves the mud and it definitely is muddy. it is very cold, but even colder in pyeongchang. let's get the latest on the slalom. lock on to a very snowy pyeongchang. the main

attraction is being the snowboarding. it is the first time that the slalom has been included in the paralympics. britain had three racers in action, all going for medals. they get three runs down the course and they take the best time out of those three. great britain, all three athletes were outside the medals going into their final run. all three athletes were outside the medals going into theirfinal run. a lot of pressure to get a fast final run, but unfortunately, they all stumbled on the third, meaning they finished outside of the medals and will not get one at the paralympics. it is disappointing because they came here hoping for medals. it is the first time grow britain was represented in snowboarding at a paralympic games. represented in snowboarding at a pa ralympic games. unfortunately represented in snowboarding at a paralympic games. unfortunately they will not get a medal at pyeongchang. that makes it difficult to get to the medal target of between 6— 12 for britain. pressure will be on the

skiers in the next few days. thank you, kate. fantastic. thank you for the update and good luck to the british team. and now for the rest of the sport. away from cheltenham, arsenal are in the hat for today's europa league quarter—final draw, after beating ac milan 3—1 last night. the gunners actually went behind but recovered to score three times, danny wellbeck got two of them, and they won the tie 5—1 overall. just a few sound problems with mike. we will be back with him later looking at the races. in the facilities behind them, some people are learning to ride. we have a piece on that. the main stories

for you this morning. jeremy corbyn has repeated his caution about making hastyjudgements has repeated his caution about making hasty judgements over the involvement of russia in the nerve agent attack on a former spy. a new footbridge has collapsed in florida killing eight people. the cars beneath were crushed. we have lots of the team out and about today. it is great. we are at a london landmark with matt turning 80 this weekend. look at that. a gorgeous view. matt is inside the ship. good morning. we have come inside. good morning. we have come inside. good morning. we have come inside. good morning. we are inside hms belfast, celebrating 80 years since its launch this weekend. we are in the captain's ridge. it was equipped with some of the most advanced radar at the time of —— bridge. it is fairly calm on the river thames.

hard to imagine open war. it was involved in many battles, thinking many german battleships. it was one of the first ships to fire a shot in the d—day landings as well. an esteemed history. it the d—day landings as well. an esteemed history. it came here and was opened to the public in 1971 on the thames. people are invited to celebrate it this weekend. a look at the forecast. relatively calm in london at the moment. sunshine breaking through the cloud. not the same everywhere. heads up for the weekend. turning increasingly cold with a bitter wind and a chance of snow in many parts of the 20 centimetres of fresh snow is possible in scotland. it could turn

wintry over the pennines. reasonably dry in northern ireland to begin with. rain in parts of north wales and the midlands and east anglia going north through this morning. allowing sunshine to break through as we can see in southern counties of england and towards southern parts of wales. with that, showers late in the day. light winds, slow—moving showers. you will see it developed through the day. rain through north midlands continuing in the north england. rain into northern ireland later on. joining forces in north england. a grim day. fairly windy. cold as well. temperatures in north scotland limited to three degrees. further south, the sunshine, avoiding showers which could be heavy and thundery. peaking in the teens. yesterday, 16 degrees in wales. forget temperatures like that on the weekend. through the night, the

easterly wind picks up. hill snow going south once again. that will go to lower levels with a slight covering of snow for saturday morning. widespread frost as well. temperatures away from the south, below freezing. a much colder start to tomorrow. bitterly cold wind going with that. adding to the windchill. snow far as possible anywhere through the day. nothing significant. heavy snow around, perhaps in lincolnshire, the yorkshire area will have to keep a close eye on things. sunshine in between that. not making a difference to the temperatures. a few degrees above freezing. feeling colder than that in the wind. saturday night into sunday, a spell of heavy snow pushing across england and wales in particular. that will mean many of you wake up to a covering of snow on sunday. the snow will become confined to the west. isolated showers in the east. dry and sunny through the day. a cold

wind. dry and sunny on the weekend. temperatures continuing to stayjust above freezing with a sub—zero windchill. if you are not enjoying the cold spell, this time it only last a few days. next week, dry and slightly less cold. how tempted are you to get in the captain ‘s seat and have a go? i have already been in. i love it. set with a cheeky smile. we are in edinburgh. speak to yourself. i mean geographically, obviously. good morning, welcome to edinburgh. were at the national museum of scotland. this one, voted the number one

attraction outside a long london. 0pened attraction outside a long london. opened in 1866, renovated just a couple of years ago. it's clearly paying off. edinburgh castle, just over the way. congratulations, testa m e nt to over the way. congratulations, testament to all the work you put in just explained was what you have done. this is quite a lot of work. it's an £80 million project and we have been renovating the whole museum. we've now done 26 new galleries in most capital cities in the world, you would have to go to four or even five museums to get the experience you get here under one roof in this magnificent building. when you talk about spending that much money, it's notjust about one museum. pulling together to get people to come as one destination.

it's been part of a transformation and that's involved everything from the airport expanding enormously when only yesterday, we have the first direct flights to china announced. more and more people are coming from across the world. who is coming from across the world. who is coming here? how long of stay in? and how much they spend. all of those things. more people come for weekend breaks. hopefully, also spending more. we will talk a little bit later. that is why edinburgh has topped the list outside london, bringing people together. we heard from gordon. it's all about getting everybody to work together. edinburgh seems to be doing pretty well. where coming from. they are coming from all over. an increased number of international is coming

from the air routes. a lot more domestic visitors, scottish visitors moving around scotland and people from scotland travelling around all geographic regions of scotland. it's pretty appropriate we are surrounded by planes, the announcement there will be direct flights from edinburgh airport to china and back again to the first time, what difference will that make? it's a fantastic result. some of which started from the destination leaders programme. in conjunction with scottish enterprise. extend their stay. not just the scottish enterprise. extend their stay. notjust the edinburgh but the benefit of the wider country. it makes a pretty attractive the chinese people to come here because they have more money. that is applicable to a lot of different country. visitor attractions of a

kind of place that they come to stay in the first place. if they extend the stay and there is a repeat visit, you have employment and products and services. notjust coming to museums and things like this, hotels, restaurants, taxis and airlines. it has a real impact on the local economy. it has a wonderful view from the museum. but there is one thing you can't guarantee when you come to scotland. and that is the weather. it is pretty wild and went up there. i will take you up and show you that view a little later. get your coat on and get out there,

love. come on. get out there, absolutely, go for it. just a reminder. we are talking about tourism attractions. if you have a favourite spot in the uk, send it you can send those pictures to us. it's always nice finding out about people's favourite places because there are so many places you have perhaps never heard of or visited and it gives you a good sense of way you might one to plan for a visit. and i always say, feel free to go to a different place other than the conventional attractions. it might not be your favourite place or conventional. and it can be quite a sometimes, which is nice. we are going to take it to live shot from cheltenham today. it is of course the gold cup today. try to get a

sense of the weather this morning. mike has been saying it was raining. i'm going to use my racing terminology. if you know your horse racing, that is what they are saying. be warned. we will be chatting to m a little later this morning. the course is also home to one of the biggest riding therapy centres in the uk, hosting more than 200 riders every week with disabilities or learning difficulties. mike's been to have a look. 0n on this famous courseware legends have been made, another young jockey is getting the winning feeling at cheltenham and this isn't a race, it's about using the power of the horse to help jamie in this case with his learning difficulties. sir jamie, iask with his learning difficulties. sir jamie, i ask all the famous jockeys who pass the winning post at cheltenham, what did it feel like? amazing. it helps your confidence to ride ponies and horses. and do other

things. cheltenham is home to one of the biggest centres for the riding for the disabled association. three quarters of the people that come here have some sort of learning difficulty and it's notjust about riding the horse is, there is mutual affection and important grooming to be done. before then, climbing on board and riding away. whether on a real horse or even on the new simulator here. i suffer with seizures. i don't get them when i'm around horses. ithink seizures. i don't get them when i'm around horses. i think animals have something that humans can't give. like a special kind of calm —— calming feeling. ages range from four to 76. for little amelia rose, it's a chance for freedom. we are all about to indulge ourselves in

world —class all about to indulge ourselves in world—class sport. 0bviously our ponies aren't the thoroughbreds —— thoroughbreds but it's a different way to put something back using horses. it is magic, what happens. you see people who have mobility issues. actually, the pony then spend their legs. they've been using horses departs for the lives of 33 yea rs now horses departs for the lives of 33 years now and every week over 200 riders of all abilities saddle up here with the help of 160 volunteers. the association is helped by the jockey club which charges than £1 a year to be here but with so many courses to keep, it still requires a lot of fundraising and volunteering. the national governing body did a four—year study into the impact forces can have on the riders here. over two thirds showed a greater ability to communicate with others. more than that, have greater confidence, 76% showed physical improvement, and again, more than that had an improved ability to form relationships and most importantly of all, 76% felt it gave them

greater enjoyment in life. being able to build a relationship with a horse actually then extends out, not just at home but at school, at work and into the wider community. even those celebrating picking the winner of the gold cup today will find it ha rd to of the gold cup today will find it hard to match the smiles on the other side of the course. it is absolutely wonderful seeing that, the impact, the contact with the animal. i remember meeting a lady who runs a charity for autistic children, they run a farm and it's amazing how much difference it can make to the children's lives in an apparent as well. we will be back with m a little later on who was at cheltenham. also this morning, we are at hms belfast a little later. a wonderful view from the ship this

morning. it looks a bit fake, that picture. we need something to go past it. we have that dark gloomy weather over the skyline of london. expected to get very cold over the weekend. matchwood tell you exactly when and where. the mini beast from the east, they are calling it. good morning from bbc london news. the cost of clearing up rubbish left by flytippers in london is rising — with reported cases more than doubling in the last five years. government figures show that there were more than 1,000 incidents reported each day in the last year — creating a cost of more than £18 million. more police will be at west ham united's next home game at the london stadium — after crowd trouble on saturday

as the team lost to burnley. at an emergency meeting yesterday, the club was also warned it could play behind closed doors if there's a repeat of the trouble. the family of a toddler from carshalton say they need to find £80,000 to fund treatment before he loses his hearing altogether. benjamin needs cochlear implants, but they can't be funded by the nhs under current guidelines. we want him to be able to hear the ocean, hear the birds, to dance to a song, to hear the singing in the car. around the dinner table, we want him to be able tojoin in with the conversation and not feel isolated because he can't understand what's going on. let's have a look at the travel situation now. 0n the tube, there are minor delays on the dlr but a good service on all other lines. 0n the roads, in shadwell: the highway is down to one lane in both directions for ongoing repairs to a burst water main near to king david lane. it's been causing long delays the past few days. central london: st james street

closed southbound from piccadilly for repairs to a water main. in kingston, portsmouth road is closed until the 21st for roadworks. and finally the a24 tooting high street remains closed south of tooting broadway tube for repairs to the large water main that burst last week. good morning. a pretty dramatic change happening again at the weekend. it is going to turn bitterly cold with a chilly easterly wind and will probably see some snow but for today, a fairly pleasant day of weather, lots of dry weather around with some good spells of sunshine, just watch for one or two showers which could pop up here or there. western areas, outbreaks of showery rain first thing but for most, a nice dry start. good spells of sunshine as well this afternoon, just a bit more cloud bubbling up. watch out for one or two heavy thundery downpours. temperatures as high as 14 degrees.

the changes are happening overnight tonight. that cold air coming in from the east, the wind will start to pick up. we could see showers across parts of essex and hertfordshire that could fall as snow. maybe some snow showers first thing across parts of kent and east london. the further south—west you are, from the more likely you are to be just above freezing. met office weather warnings out. on sunday, we could possibly see some more widespread snow through the early hours on sunday. keep an eye on the forecast. it'll be quite a snappy cold snap. temperatures should recover by the time we get to monday. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. hello. this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and steph mcgovern. jeremy corbyn warns against drifting into a "new cold war." he talks of a fevered atmosphere at westminster. the labour leader is resisting growing pressure from labour backbenchers to unequivocally blame the russian state

for the salisbury attack. good morning. it's friday the 16th of march. also this morning: at least four people have died after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a busy motorway in miami. they made my skin itch, they dulled all my senses. good morning. the number of tourists coming to the uk hit a new record last year. this morning we are at the national museum in edinburgh to find out what it means for the local economy. good morning from cheltenham on gold

cup day. 70,000 tourists here today. can nicky henderson make it an historic treble at the greatest show on turf? and the weather. good morning. captain matt reporting from the hms belfast, 80 years since its launch. the sun is out in london and cheltenham, but elsewhere, it is called. ran turns to snow this weekend. —— cold. —— rain. iwill

have all the details and 15 minutes. good morning. first our main story. jeremy corbyn has again questioned whether the russian state was behind the nerve agent attack in salisbury. in an article in the guardian, the labour leader calls on people not to rush to judgement. 0ur political correspondent, ben wright, joins us from westminster. take us through the main points of whatjeremy corbyn said. take us through the main points of what jeremy corbyn said. good morning. all week, jeremy corbyn has refused to echo, endorse, the view of the government the russian state is responsible for the salisbury attack. that has caused some anger, it must be said, among some of his backbench mps who believe the response from him has been misjudged at best. but jeremy response from him has been misjudged at best. butjeremy corbyn is not bending and it is doubling down on that view in the article he wrote for the guardian. he said the use of the nerve agent was barbaric and

reckless and condemns it, but he says the possibility remains open this nerve agent fell out of the hands of the russian state and they lost control of it and it ended up in the hands of mafia style gangster groups in the uk. he said there is a possibility of that. he says there needs to be a calm and measured response from politicians and they should not rush to judgement. response from politicians and they should not rush tojudgement. he joins a link to iraq, something he com pletely joins a link to iraq, something he completely opposed, saying that was a reliance on flawed intelligence. he is saying because there is evidence now of russian culpability, that may not be the end of the story. he is urging caution and is asking parliamentarians to think. he is unapologetic about his dance, saying it is right for the opposition to ask questions about the strategy. —— stance. this will do nothing to calm down labour mps who believe he has his tone wrong,

especially after the joint declaration by the us, france, and the uk, saying that russia was behind the attack. thank you. we will speak to a former british ambassador to russia at around 8:10 this morning. at least four people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a major road in miami. eight cars waiting at traffic lights below were crushed. rescue teams are still searching for suvivors. marta newman reports. the bridge at fiu just collapsed out of nowhere. there's cars stuck under there. it was designed to last 100 years and withstand category 5 hurricane winds. but instead, 950 tons of this newly installed pedestrian bridge crashed down a busy miami motorway below. witnesses spoke of scenes of terror as the enormous structure flattened cars waiting below for the traffic lights to change. we tried to get people out but we couldn't.

they were all stuck. two construction workers also fell from the crane. it was horrible, it was a disaster. the footbridge was only put in place a week ago, taking just six hours to complete. it was built using a technique called "accelerated bridge construction," or "instant bridge." the cause of its collapse remains unclear. we deserve to know and the public deserves to know and the families of those who have been hurt and lost their lives deserve to know what went wrong. people can be rest assured, the people doing these engineering studies will tell us what went wrong. as relatives and friends of victims search for answers, investigators from the national transportation safety board will now conduct the investigation. mcm, the family—owned contractor that helped build the bridge,

says it will co—operate fully. marta newman, bbc news. egypt is sending a delegation of mps to the uk to monitor investigations into the death of an egyptian student in nottingham. mariam moustafa died on wednesday, three weeks after being attacked by a group outside a shopping centre. jeremy ball reports. a teenager whose future looks so bright, whose family is now in mourning. they brought her to britain for an education, and now she is gone. she was amazing. i feel like i have lost my other half. she was so like i have lost my other half. she was so kind and always wanted to help people out. i do not know why they would do that to her, why her? she was attacked outside the victoria shopping centre on february 20. people saw a group of women punching her in following her onto a bus. 0n punching her in following her onto a bus. on wednesday she died in hospital. the egyptian agency said this. it is supporting the grieving

family of mariam moustafa. at nottingham college where she was studying engineering, they described her death as shocking, saying she was keen and able and well liked. she was a hard worker, she always put all her effort in to be an engineer. they say her death is being treated seriously by the police. a 17—year—old girl is being questioned on suspicion of assaulting her. they are keeping an open mind on whether it was a hate crime. bbc news, nottingham. four african countries with the world's largest elephant populations are expected to call on britain and the european union to ban the legal sale of antique ivory today. ministers will sign a petition at a wildlife summit in botswana urging european countries to follow china's lead in outlawing the sale of all ivory products. alistair leithead reports. africa's elephants are still severely under threat, with less animals being born

than the number killed every year year by poachers. here in botswana, the last true sanctuary for elephants on the continent, politicians, scientists and conservationists are again meeting to try to stop the ivory trade. techniques used for counter—terrorism are now being used to stop poaching and catch the culprits. and they're being showcased at the giants club summit, which aims to protect half of africa's elephants and their habitat by 2020. but they are also talking about the illegal ivory trade in britain and the rest of europe. the uk and the eu are the biggest exporters of legal antique ivory. they are permitted around the world. now, we have seen china has banned their trade in ivory. hong kong is saying they are doing a similar thing. the african leaders meeting

here are hoping the eu and the uk could do likewise and could stop this trade in antique ivory. it won't stop the poachers targeting these elephants for their tusks across africa, but it will send a strong message to try to reduce the demand for ivory. alastair leithead, bbc news, in botswana. syrian activists say nearly 20,000 civilians have fled rebel held areas of eastern ghouta, as government forces continue their advance. it is the biggest exodus from the enclave since the military stepped up an offensive to retake it last month. the seven—year conflict is thought to have claimed more than 400,000 lives and lead to 11 million people being displaced. a report into the failure of northamptonshire county council has recommended that the authority be scrapped after widespread financial and management failures. government—appointed investigators said the problems at the council, which last month announced £40 million worth of cuts, were so deep—rooted that it was impossible to rescue it

in its current form. the leader of the council has now resigned. the first polar bear cub born in britain for a quarter of a century has been filmed for the first time after being born in december. as you can see, mum and cub are doing well. the footage was captured by remote cameras for a channel 4 documentary. highland wildlife park is yet to find out if the cub is a boy or a girl but, it's already proving to be a confident and curious little character. yeah, definitely cute. there you go. the first pictures. the number of prescriptions for powerful painkillers like morphine, tramadol, and fentanil, has risen by almost 80% in england over the last decade. nearly 24 million opioid prescriptions were issued last year. and while the latest data shows the overall figure has stabilised, for some drugs, the numbers are still going up. over the last five years, the number of morphine prescriptions has risen by more than 50%, and codeine by a third. long—term opiod users say they have experienced terrible side effects. they made my skin itch, they dulled

all my senses. there were hallucinations. i lost myjob. i have not been able to hold down a job. it has been complete and utter hell. we'rejoined now by dr yasir abbasi, clinical directorfor addiction services at mersey care nhs trust. and we are also joined by gp, barbara murray. you may be familiar with her, she is often on the sofa with us. doctor, first of all, give us an idea of the sense of the problems. when you hear the statistics and the leap of painkillers in the past year, it's alarming. not enough attention has been paid to it. so many are on

these medications without realising these medications without realising the potential for addiction and other dangerous side—effects. as research and evidence has shown, the use of these painkillers for chronic pain is not really very efficient. so there needs to be more effort in trying to make sure it is controlled. there is an obvious point, it is not thejob of controlled. there is an obvious point, it is not the job of the patients to know all of the side—effects of something prescribed, it is the job of the clinician and to monitor whether they should take the painkiller. that is where the problem lies. there needs to be an understanding in the overall usefulness of the drug everywhere, both within the public domain and also within the medical community. there needs to be a collaborative approach in terms of how to manage this. when someone comes in with difficult to manage pain, the easiest option is to give

them tablets. there are... there are not that many services out there available, or alternative treatments available, or alternative treatments available, for doctors to refer patients to. you have been a gp for a long time, 20 years. what you think what he is saying? we do have to take a certain amount of responsibility because we are writing prescriptions for these patients. often the options are limited. over the last few years, i was trying to think why would it be opioid medications are being prescribed more in the last decade. we have had a few different types of medication withdrawn from the market because of side—effects, cardiac problems, that kind of thing. the options are quite minimal. as he was saying, there is nowhere else to refer people to if they have chronic pain, apart from perhaps a hospital pains in —— pain clinic. they are

overwhelmed and have no resources. you try to do the best for a patient. they have had terrible pain, perhaps surgery, starting on morphine after surgery, they cannot come off it, and the gp has to take them off the medication slowly, ween them, over months. there are no resources in general practice and you have to make a regime for them and bring them back every week and put them on weekly descriptions. the fa ct put them on weekly descriptions. the fact surgeries are crammed, they get lost to the service. they go to a doctor and the doctor does not know the history. they continue the prescription. it is complex. we expect these days to live without any pain at all. and come to that a cce pta nce any pain at all. and come to that acceptance that we have to try and manage the pain in a different way. i think that's the stage where at now. let's talk about the risks

people are taking! long—term, what are the risks? if you been taking opiates painkillers for a long time... a long time is what? chronic pain would be described as pain experienced repeatedly and taking a medication for longer than six months so if you've been taking opiates painkillers for that amount of time or longer, it has an effect on your mood, it can make you feel anxious, it can have an effect on your immune system, it has an effect on your sexual health. but also the fa ct on your sexual health. but also the fact that that the american psychiatry association predictive medicine suggests when you get addicted or dependent to painkillers, that forms a gateway to more hardcore drugs. and i have seen

patients slowly reduced the medication and they are buying it over the counter and they were buying around 120 tablets every day. taking them every day? 16 in the morning, 16 in the evening. are you familiar with that? i suspect virtually every gp will have to or three patients who are doing that. they go to different pharmacists and getting recognised and thenjudged and labelled and stigmatised. it's a downward spiral of depression. and it isn't their fault at all. we have a responsibility to recognise that and try do something to help them. thank you very much the time this morning. the museum ship hms belfast has been a landmark on the thames in central london since 1971 —

today she celebrates her 80th birthday so we've sent matt to have a look. just walking through into the captain ‘s bridge. the operations room were all the main radar was in place. this is the comfort —— the compass platform as well. it was launched in 1938. as steph said, 1971, it came through the thames. eight years since that launch. a fascinating ship. it weighs over 11,000 tons and the length of it is as long as to big ben is laid one next to the other. we will be taking a further look around. let's get on with the weather. it's not too bad outside. here and across the rest of the uk,

a big shock away. after seeing temperatures, 16 degrees in parts of wales, some will struggle to get above freezing. today, snow ltd are the hills of the grampians in central southern highlands, particularly eastern hills. rain around, showers in northern ireland to go through the morning. areas of rain across northern england, the north midlands and east anglia. we'll see what to showers towards the far south of wales will the bristol channel over the next hour or two. they will drift northwards and through the day, sunny spells across the south. nice in the sun is out but that will set off a few more showers and some of those could become heavy and bunbury. northern england, fairly cloudy, as will northern ireland. north—east england and parts of scotland with more snow to come in the hills. tebbit ‘s only three degrees in the north. further south across the country with those

sunny spells between the showers, we could get up to around 14, 15 degrees in one of two spots. tonight, what shall all of a sudden that rain and snow mix across scotla nd that rain and snow mix across scotland and north—east england pushes its way to the south. a few snow flurries anywhere. temperatures really start to drop. many below freezing as we start tomorrow morning. a cold day, a windy day tomorrow with an icy wind chill. snow flurries possible just about anywhere. we could see some longer spells of snow across parts of lincolnshire in yorkshire. snow blowing around in the strong winds as well. really fine, dry snow. parts of northern scotland will stay dry throughout but all, it will be a very, very chilly day. temperatures in the teams this week but very few will get much above around two, three degrees. saturday night in the

sunday, a spell of more significant snow pushing across. it looks like england and wales. the forecast could change. clearing to sunshine and showers later on but even on sunday, the icy wind will be making itself known. temperatures staying below freezing all day long. a big change on the way compare to what we have seen so far this week but a fairly short—lived icy blast, temperatures slowly, slowly climbing as we go into next week as high pressure gradually builds. a short icy blast. it may come as a shock to discover that the uk is the biggest exporter of legal ivory in the world, with antique carvings, jewellery and ornaments often fetching thousands of pounds in antique sales. but four african countries with the largest remaining elephant populations are now calling on the uk and european countries to follow china's example and stop all forms of ivory trading. joining us now from botswana is our africa correspondent alastair leithead. joining us —— tell is a bit about

what is happening there. the president of botswana is speaking to the various dignitaries and experts in botswana to talk about the issues affecting elephants and their habitats across africa. 0ne and their habitats across africa. one issue is that of trade in ivory. and that legal trade in ivory in europe is something they are hoping to try and stop. there was a big uk government consultation. the minister to africa is here and certainly says the government is working towards it. as things stand, the emphasis is on the fact that

although poaching has dropped slightly across africa, still the really big problem. more elephants are killed by... every year... that is... alistair, thank you very much. james lewis, the first auctioneer to ban legal ivory at his auction house. when do you make that decision? just over two years ago. what was the thinking? i'd be a patron of born free to 15 years. animals are my main love, my passion, i've been to africa three times a year passion, i've been to africa three timesa yearand passion, i've been to africa three times a year and i have seen the elephants out there, worked with the ivory sniffer dogs at nairobi airport tracing that ivory from the fields of tenure right the way through to the oriental carving ivory workshops. other people are free to go to other houses, auction

houses. would it be the correct thing to say no, this stuff cannot be sold here. unless we decide unilaterally, it can't happen. we've got to be very careful because what we don't want to do is cause one problem by trying to solve another. if you take, for example, a bronze we re if you take, for example, a bronze were the figure might be 100,000, 200,000. whether hands and face are made of ivory but if we ban that elephant ivory is that those pieces, because the majority of the figure is bronze, those people will be sent to the carving workshops we are trying to close down in china and vietnam's and they will be re— carved. into hippo ivory. we have less hip open elephants. we don't wa nt to less hip open elephants. we don't want to cause another problem by an outright ban. nobody would think

that sitting at home in the living room with granny's piano, oh, my goodness, i'm an ivory collector because the keys on the piano are likely to be made from ivory. there isa likely to be made from ivory. there is a huge difference between solid lumps of big ivory and smaller pieces that make up something else. why does it have to be made of any ivory? hippo's teeth, elephants, why any of it? can't you ban it all? the problem is, when you ban one thing, they will always find someone else —— something else to replace it with. why do you replace it with hippo ivory? those collectors who wa nt to hippo ivory? those collectors who want to have something of that value, they will not want it replaced with plastic. is there any way of devaluing it? wanting to point out is that in the uk, those people that have collected ivory figures from the late 19th century and earlier have collected them

mostly to the artform, not because of the material. in some cases, a little figure carved out of bamboo can be worth the same as the figure carved out of ivory. it's not the ivory value we are talking about where as in china, they value the actual material. had it since the chinese market is opened up that we have the problem. pieces of antique crude ivory, things like snooker balls from the 19th century, but five years ago had no value at all here. they are now making hundreds of pounds going out to china and being recast. that isn't the case for everything. have a look at that little miniature. today we have mobile phones, we take self is. this little chap is 1820 and if he was a loved one, that is what you would ta ke loved one, that is what you would take away with you. there is no value in the ivory bear and you wouldn't even know that it is

painted on ivory. the background is ivory? do we want to see that band? that is the question. hundreds of yea rs of that is the question. hundreds of years of art history, managers of napoleon, well some common —— napoleon, well some common —— napoleon, nelson, wellington. the heart is as bad at all. think first so we don't have unforeseen circumstances. there are interesting, james. james lewis, auctioneer, speaking to us. ben is talking tourism in edinburgh this morning, talking tourism. i promised we were going to come outside and not that the wetherby does. 0n the roof of the wetherby does. 0n the roof of the national museum of scotland. this place at place of topped the list of attractions outside london. great news for them. they have been investing a lot of money to make sure to get the tourists here, what

difference would it make to the local economy and crucially, what difference can it make to the rest of the country? before that, let's get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london news. the cost of clearing up rubbish left by flytippers in london is rising — with reported cases more than doubling in the last five years. government figures show that there were more than 1,000 incidents reported each day in the last year — creating a cost of more than £18 million. more police will be at west ham united's next home game at the london stadium — after crowd trouble on saturday as the team lost to burnley. at an emergency meeting yesterday, the club was also warned it could play behind closed doors if there's a repeat of the trouble. the family of a toddler from carshalton say they need to find £80,000 to fund treatment before he loses his hearing altogether. benjamin needs cochlear implants, but they can't be funded by the nhs under current guidelines. we want him to be able to hear

the ocean, to hear the birds, to dance to a song, to hear the singing in the car. around the dinner table, we want him to be able tojoin in with the conversation and not feel isolated because he can't understand what's going on. let's have a look at the travel situation now. 0n the tube, there's a good service on all lines. 0n the roads, in shadwell: the highway is down to one lane in both directions for ongoing repairs to a burst water main near to king david lane. it's been causing long delays the past few days. central london: st james street closed southbound from piccadilly for repairs to a water main. in kingston, portsmouth road is closed until the 21st for roadworks. and finally the a24 tooting high street remains closed south of tooting broadway tube for repairs to the large water main that burst last week. a check on the weather now

with elizabeth rizzini. good morning. a pretty dramatic change happening again at the weekend. it is going to turn bitterly cold with a chilly easterly wind and we'll probably see some snow but for today, a fairly pleasant day of weather, lots of dry weather around with some good spells of sunshine, just watch out for one or two showers which could pop up here and there. towards western areas, outbreaks of showery rain first thing but for most of us, a nice dry start. lots of brightness around this morning. good spells of sunshine as well this afternoon, just a bit more cloud bubbling up. watch out for one or two heavy thundery downpours. top temperatures as high as 12 or 14 degrees. the changes are happening overnight tonight. that cold air is coming in from the east, the wind will start to pick up. we could see showers across parts of essex and hertfordshire that could fall as snow. perhaps a couple of centimetres here. maybe some snow showers first thing across parts of kent and east london.

the further south—west you are, from the more likely you are to hold just above freezing into tomorrow morning. met office weather warnings out for snow and ice. on sunday, we could possibly see some more widespread snowjust through the early hours on sunday. keep an eye on the forecast. it will be quite a snappy cold snap. temperatures should recover by the time we get to monday. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half an hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. writing in the guardian, the labour leader cautioned against rushing to a "hasty judgement" despite criticism from some in his party over his approach. he warned against a drift towards a new cold war. moscow said there

would be a fitting reply to the 23 diplomats expelled from britain. at least four people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a major road in miami. eight cars waiting at traffic lights below were crushed. the footbridge was put in place less than a week ago. investigators from the national transportation safety board say they will now conduct a full investigation. once we have completed search and rescue operations, we will remain on the scene and help with recovery efforts as well. this has been an incredibly tragic event and our hearts go out to the families of the victims. mps from egypt are travelling to the uk today to monitor investigations into the death of an egyptian student in nottingham. 18—year—old, mariam moustafa, died on wednesday, three weeks after being attacked by a group of women outside a shopping centre. police say they are keeping an "open mind" about whether the assault was a hate crime. syrian activists say nearly 20,000 civilians have fled rebel held areas

of eastern ghouta, as government forces continue their advance. it is the biggest exodus from the enclave since the military stepped up an offensive to retake it last month. the seven—year conflict is thought to have claimed more than 400,000 lives and lead to 11 million people being displaced. mps haven't been able to find appropriate technology operating anywhere in the world that would allow an invisible border to continue between northern ireland and the irish republic after brexit. the northern ireland affairs committee is asking the government to give more details on how it will manage the movement of people and goods across the irish border. it's also warned that, without a transition period, there won't be time to put new arrangements in place by the end of march next year. fashion retailer, topman, are coming under pressure

to withdraw a shirt that some people believe refers to the hillsborough disaster. the red shirt with a large number 96 is being seen by some liverpool fans as a reference to the club's kit and number of victims killed in the 1989 disaster. topman are yet to say anything about the shirt but there is no suggestion of a deliberate reference. back to the main story, the comments from jeremy corbyn about the nerve agent attack in salisbury. he asks for calm the heads and a level response. we can speak to a guest. thank you for your time. could you give us your thoughts on your party leader's comments. rushing ahead of the evidence is what he is suggesting. talking about a fevered parliamentary atmosphere. do you

agree with those two comments? jeremy corbyn's concerns seems to be we could be rushing to an armed conflict with russia. no one is talking about that, no one is talking about that, no one is talking about that, no one is talking about invading russia, launching airstrikes in moscow. he is talking about targeted measures not of a military nature, but we hope will send a clear message to russia. we wanted to know their behaviour is unacceptable. i do not see a rush to war on the agenda at all. a number of the areas he has picked up on, jeremy corbyn, has picked up on, jeremy corbyn, has picked up on, jeremy corbyn, has picked up on, for example, has been about the process we are going through, and the evidence. he has agreed there are two possible scenarios. 0ne agreed there are two possible scenarios. one is that it is

state—sponsored. the other is that it has fallen out of their control. he raised the prospect it could be done by the mafia. was that the right thing to say? in either case the russian state is at fault. they have either produced this stuff and allowed it to slip into the hands of some other actor, or they are directly orchestrating the murder, attempted murder, of people on the streets of salisbury. in either case, the russian state has to receive a clear message from us that this is a violation of our sovereignty, a violation of international law, and it is com pletely international law, and it is completely unacceptable. i believe that we should be going further and should be approaching fifa with our allies and requesting that the world cup be moved to another host country or countries, all postponed until 2019. --

or countries, all postponed until 2019. —— or. i cannot imagine celebrating the beautiful game this summer playing directly into the hands of vladimir putin, almost a vindication of his regime and a great opportunity for him to score a huge pr goal. in light of what they are implicated in, the kremlin is implicated in, in some form, the attempted assassination of people on the streets of the uk. we have to stand firm with allies at this point and we need to talk more about using the world cup as leverage. vladimir putin has invested billions of ru bles putin has invested billions of rubles in the world cup. millions of russian citizens are looking forward to it. if we want to undermine his reputation among his own public support base, which has got to be the number one target here, then i think the world cup is the way to do it. can i ask you a very straightforward question? it is hypothetical, so indulge me if you will. given whatjeremy corbyn has

said in the criticism he has received from some people, including yourself and labour backbenchers, do yourself and labour backbenchers, do you have confidence, would you have confidence, injeremy corbyn if he was prime minister in what you could call significant moments of crisis in uk? look, jeremy corbyn has had victory in two leadership election. his question of leadership is settled. that was not quite my question. my question was would you have confidence if he was your prime minister? to be honest, our prime minister, in a moment when effectively britain has been attacked by a foreign state. that is how this is being played out. would you have confidence injeremy corbyn being our prime minister in these circumstances? i think that we have gotan circumstances? i think that we have got an opportunity now as a party to

decide whether we are that believes in the nato alliance, in the european union, as a force for good in the world, or whether we take a different view, and i think the fact thatjeremy corbyn yesterday did come out and say he actually agrees the finger of blame points to russia and that he agrees with the expulsions, i think was a step in the right direction. i think the article he wrote after that muddied the waters somewhat. i think what we need is a very clear line from our leadership stating very clearly that we stand shoulder to shoulder with allies and with the government in the action it is taking. isjeremy corbyn can come forward and clarify that, then i think we can have a really important and profound debate in our party about what we see as britain's role in the world and our relationship with our american and other allies. people will draw their own conclusions from the fact that

in answer to the question, would you have confidence in jeremy in answer to the question, would you have confidence injeremy corbyn as prime minister right now in the crisis we are in, you could not say yes. they will draw their own conclusions. look, i believe in a labour government and i believe that ifjeremy corbyn does make it clear to us that he has the right policies and right approach on these issues, then absolutely i would have confidence in him. but we do need to be absolutely clear where we stand in the world. jeremy corbyn has an admirable record of consistency. he has stated for 30 years and over what his position on nato and the eu is. we need a profound debate in the party. is that stilljeremy corbyn's position? if so, what do we think and believe as a party? i think what we have to do now is focused specifically on this direct challenge to the united kingdom, to our values, to the whole belief

system that russia represents, and ta ke system that russia represents, and take specific and measured action. but absolutely no one is talking about a drift to conflict or bore. i think it is not right to compare it to iraq, afghanistan, libya, because the intelligence gathering that happened around those was of a com pletely happened around those was of a completely different nature. the intelligence and the facts that we have about what happened in salisbury are hard scientific facts gathered by the leading experts of the world from porton down. my apologies, we will have to leave it there. thank you. we will take you straight to cheltenham. it is gold cup day. good morning. good morning. looking forward to the greatest show on turf, the gold cup. willie mullins and gordon elliot, winning

so mullins and gordon elliot, winning so many mullins and gordon elliot, winning so many races. mullins and gordon elliot, winning so many races. the irish, dominating. good morning. so, gordon, six win zaw ready for you this week and 74 willie mullins. what has made the irish so dominant? —— seven for. what has made the irish so dominant? -- seven for. we are in a great position and we are keeping it going. those horses, you have kept hold of the best. there is a lot of support for it. you won it two years ago. what does it mean to win the gold cup? it is the biggest race in the calendar. the horse is in good form. the ground is so soft. you have to take your chances. you are in the foxhunters chase today. you

came from five horses back to win a few years ago. what does this they mean to you? it is the biggest race in the calendar. everyone wants to have it. it is great to win any race at cheltenham, but to get those, it is the icing on the cake. a mixed day on wednesday, a fantastic win but then your brother, ruby, he fell. how is he doing? he is ok. he raced yesterday and is coming again today. he is good. having a bit of a laugh with his mates? as much as one can. it is a bit frustrating. those tough lads are so competitive, they do not want to be in the stands. they want to take part. speaking about things other than irish, nicky henderson going for a hat—trick. it

has never been done before. what do you think of his chances? he is favoured. he has a serious chance. there was a lot of rain last night and you do not know what is going to happen. the gold cup, for me, i wa nted happen. the gold cup, for me, i wanted to go back the way of the irish again. we will have to wait and see. so many races won here, but never the gold cup! yeah. he brought toa never the gold cup! yeah. he brought to a different level for jump trainers. i love the idea of mike being caught by the beer tent. the grand slam is

tomorrow at twickenham. the icing on the take for st patrick's day. in turn out to be paralympics. i'm not too far from the medals plaza that the main attraction has been a snowboarding. the first time stalin has been included in the paralympic programme. benmore, james barnes miller and 0wen pick hoping to get onto the podium. the bank slalom is the best time, the best attempt from those runs. great britain were outside the medals and unfortunately, they all stumbled on that final round which meant more of all of them were outside the medals. really disappointing to the british guys. the first time they have been represented in snowboarding. that means it becomes more and more

difficult for rape —— great britain to get to that target. they have a target drink six and 12 so all pressure is on the alpine skiers over the next few days. i will try and tempt a few horses out to you. arsenal manager, arsene wenger, said he'd prefer to avoid atletico madrid, when the draw is made today for the europa league quarter—finals. his side came from behind to beat ac milan 3—1 last night. danny wellbeck, scoring twice. they won the tie 5—1 overall. and wellbeck is back in the england squad for the friendlies against the netherlands and italy later this month. england manager gareth southgate has named four uncapped players. but arsenal midfielder aaron ramsey needs minor surgery, so he'll miss wales' next tournament, a four—team competiton in china which starts on wednesday. it'll mark ryan giggs' debut as wales manager. bowler mason crane will miss

england's test series in new zealand with a stress fracture in his lower back. he'll be replaced by somerset‘s jack leach, who's been given a first call—up and will fly out in the next couple of days. england rugby head coach, eddiejones, says he loves being under pressure and so do his players, as they head into their final six nations match against ireland tomorrow, trying to avoid a third straight defeat. he's made plenty of changes to the side that lost to france at the weekend. there is always pressure, whether you win or lose. and that's being involved in international rugby. expectation of international teams is high and everyone wants to see their team win is high and everyone wants to see theirteam win and is high and everyone wants to see their team win and we are no exception. bash. . it's how you handle the pressure, the pressure is not the point. our team has handled it pretty well. they have stuck to

their tasks and start the process. ireland have made just one change as they go for the grand slam. ulster‘s iain henderson comes in to replace devin toner. and dan biggar is back at fly—half for wales as they aim for a second—place finish in this year's championship. he takes over from gareth anscombe, who drops to the bench. tiger woods says he has his feel for tournament golf back. his return to form continued with an opening round of 68 at the arnold palmer invitational in orlando. he's just four shots behind leader henrik stenson, who's 8—under. and chris and gabby adcock are through to the quarter—finals of the mixed doubles at the all england badminton championships in birmingham, after beating the south korean pair. the adcocks are hoping to improve on last year where they lost narrowly in the semi—finals. a horse, horse, my kingdom for a horse. they are taking our time. i

thought they were going to gallop up here ina thought they were going to gallop up here in a dramatic finish. they seem to not be moving any closer. they are gordon elliott's courses. amongst those is outlander, who loves the mud. i might have to get a bag of carrots out. am i to assume that because you take your off, it is warmed up a bit? a couple of people said i looked silly. my mum doesn't like me and hats. but i've responded to public pressure and removed the hat. references have been made to 0liver removed the hat. references have been made to oliver and the artful dodger. we love it. see you in a bit. you can see the blue sky, and

some clouds, a bit of sunshine. if we look closely, we can see hms belfast there. matters on board with the weather fronts. we are on board hms belfast this morning, this splendid ship, launched in 1938 by the wife of neville chamberlain and this weekend, celebrating 80 years again. straight into maritime blockade is what it was built and launched. 0ne of the first ships to fire a shot in the d—day landings. also, involved in the korean war as well. in 1971, brought to the thames. they have invited people on to help celebrate

80 years. if you are heading here or across the uk, where something warm. it's going to be a bitterly cold weekend. strong easterly winds. at least a little bit of snow. into today, the snow is limited to parts of scotland. across scotland, some snow. the grampians in the highlands. this morning it's a little bit higher than that. 20 centimetres of snow before the day is out. rain towards lower levels of eastern and central scotland. we are seeing some wetter weather arrived across the north of england. to the south of that, dry and clear. some sunny spells. the sunshine warming things upa sunny spells. the sunshine warming things up a touch. through the day

across parts of southern england, the midlands, south wales, we will see showers breakout. northern ireland, scotland. predominantly cloudy. further snow on the hills. 0nly ran three degrees here, around 14, 15 celsius. to take this into tonight, the rain across scotland, northern england. temperatures sub zero as we go to saturday morning. some snow flurries around. more especially over the hills. through saturday, snow showers possiblejust about anywhere through the country. the main exception, northern scotland. some strong winds blowing adding to the chill. temperatures

only a few degrees. a big change of around 10 degrees if not more competitive would have had over the past few days. signs of more persistent spells. but the clearest way westwards as we go into sunday but it will leave a covering of snow. writer with a developing the display to isolated showers but the cold winds will still be there and temperatures are some will stay below freezing but this time, the cold spell, not going to last as long as we have seen recently. still cold at the start of next week but stefa n cold at the start of next week but stefan c, it will not be as cold as it will be next weekend. we got distracted because the guns behind you started moving. i don't what you have done there. the

forecast. those icy blasts causing all kinds of trouble. it did move, it's all stable now. rather beautiful surroundings, ben. we are talking about the uk's top tourist attractions. no guns here that i can see right now. good morning. welcome to edinburgh's national museum of scotland. this place built in 1866. a vast building. a massive refurbishment. it is paying dividends because they topped the list of attractions outside of london to tourists. this is one of them. let me take you to the roof. a great shot right across here to edinburgh castle. that is the number two attraction in scotland. between

them, attracting record numbers of visitors to the uk last year. we we re visitors to the uk last year. we were broadcasting from their own thing it's fair to expect the guests to come up with us. i should introduce you to gordon, the boss of the museum. congratulations, topping the museum. congratulations, topping the list of attractions. it paid dividends. it's a magnificent building. the times formed this museum into one of the great national museums of the world with lots of things to do. and this is about getting all the attractions to work together. a lot of your visitors are from china. a co—ordinated attempt to do that. it's not just here co—ordinated attempt to do that. it's notjust here but its other attractions. there have been huge

expansions of the routes through the airport. people coming from china with a new air route just launched yesterday directly to beijing. thanks premat congratulations again. and bernard is from the company who came up with these numbers. we were just hearing about what they're doing with edinburgh and it's interesting. it's that co—ordinated effo rts interesting. it's that co—ordinated efforts that is so important. it is appropriate here with the aeroplanes. the announcement of direct flights from edinburgh to china and back, that will make a big difference. it's a very successful result after working across the destination to have that direct route so people can come, do business and travel and be across scotla nd business and travel and be across scotland and further out into more geographic regions across scotland. bernard, you have been looking at

the reasons why people are coming here. what is it that the uk stands for? we are globally good at tourism. more people last year went tourism. more people last year went to the science museum and the national history museum then went to venice. when we get it right, we get it right. we saw 7% increase to all attractions last year. scotland, a 13% increase. when we ask overseas visitors wire, it's for our history, heritage and attractions and you can see that. what is it we need to do? there is a lot of concern, the fall in the valley of the pound. it makes it cheaper to come here. a lot of concerns about things like brexit. brexit is a serious concern. just to give you an example, northern ireland have a record year for

visitors to titanic belfast and the giants causeway but the proportion came from the republic of ireland. any sense a higher order or preregistration or visas would affect northern ireland's to as a colony. all of these things matter to tourism, the third largest employer. we are good but we are growing. thank you so much. we will talk more later. that is a view of how the picture changes across the country. one thing we are good at is tourism. 0ne country. one thing we are good at is tourism. one thing we are not so great on is the weather. it's a bit cold, it's a bit wet and it's a bit windy. i don't think anyone comes here expecting good weather. but the news, travel and weather where you are watching breakfast this morning. good morning from bbc london news. the cost of clearing up rubbish left by flytippers in london is rising — with reported cases more than doubling in the last five years.

government figures show that there were more than 1,000 incidents reported each day in the last year — creating a cost of more than £18 million. members of the london assembly's environment committee are calling on the mayor to adopt a london—wide strategy to tackle the problem. more police will be at west ham united's next home game at the london stadium — after crowd trouble on saturday as the team lost to burnley. at an emergency meeting yesterday, the club was also warned it could play behind closed doors if there's a repeat of the trouble. the family of a toddler from carshalton say they need to find £80,000 to fund treatment before he loses his hearing altogether. benjamin needs cochlear implants, but they can't be funded by the nhs under current guidelines. we want him to be able to hear the ocean, to hear the birds, to dance to a song, to hear the singing in the car. around the dinner table, we want him to be able tojoin in with the conversation and not feel isolated because he can't understand what's going on.

let's have a look at the travel situation now. 0n the tube, there's a good service on all lines. 0n the roads, in shadwell: the highway is down to one lane in both directions for ongoing repairs to a burst water main near to king david lane. it's been causing long delays the past few days. central london: st james street closed southbound from piccadilly for repairs to a water main. in kingston, portsmouth road is closed until the 21st for roadworks. and finally the a24 tooting high street remains closed south of tooting broadway tube for repairs to the large water main that burst last week. a check on the weather now with elizabeth rizzini. hello, good morning. a pretty dramatic change happening again at the weekend. it is going to turn bitterly cold with a chilly easterly wind and we'll probably see some snow but for today, a fairly pleasant day of weather, lots of dry weather around with some good spells of sunshine,

just watch out for one or two showers which could pop up here and there. towards western areas, outbreaks of showery rain first thing but for most of us, a nice dry start. lots of brightness around this morning. good spells of sunshine as well this afternoon, just a bit more cloud bubbling up. watch out for one or two heavy thundery downpours. top temperatures as high as 12 or 14 degrees. the changes are happening overnight tonight. that cold air is coming in from the east, the wind will start to pick up. we could see showers across parts of essex and hertfordshire that could fall as snow. perhaps a couple of centimetres here. maybe some snow showers first thing across parts of kent and east london. the further south—west you are, from the more likely you are to hold just above freezing into tomorrow morning. met office weather warnings out for snow and ice.

temperatures should recover by the time we get to monday. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom hello, this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and steph mcgovern. jeremy corbyn warns against drifting into a "new cold war" and talks of a fevered atmosphere at westminster. the labour leader described the nerve agent attack as "barbaric and beyond reckless" but warned the prime minister against rushing "way ahead of the evidence" in blaming moscow. it's friday march 16. also this morning, at least four people have died after a newly built a bridge collapsed onto a busy motorway in miami. they made my skin itch, they dulled all my senses. the human cost of england's painkiller addiction. bbc news discovers almost 3,000

are prescribed every hour. good morning. a record number of tourists came to the uk last year, and edinburgh was the biggest destination outside london. we are here at the national museum of scotla nd here at the national museum of scotland that topped the list. and good morning from cheltenham on gold cup day when the overnight rain has made it all green. and the green of ireland trying to dominate again today, trying to stop what's nicky henderson would achieve, a potential historic treble. is it sunny where matt is with the weather today? it certainly is. sunny with me on hms barham first this morning. it was launched this week and 80 years ago. we are celebrating that this morning. —— hms belfast. through

this weekend the rain will be turning to snow. it's set to turn much colder. good morning. first our main story. jeremy corbyn has cautioned against rushing "ahead of the evidence" over who carried out the nerve agent poisoning in salisbury. in an article in the guardian, the labour leader warned against the drift towards a "new cold war". moscow said there would be a "fitting" and "symmetrical" reaction to the expulsion of 23 diplomats by britain. 0ur political correspondent ben wrightjoins us from westminster. good morning. a couple of comments from jeremy corbyn, rushing ahead of the evidence, he talked of a fevered atmosphere at westminster, and then references back to the iraq war and a dodgy dossier. give us a sense of what mr corbyn is putting forward. it's an article that tries quite a delicate balancing act. 0n the one

hand he is unequivocally condemning the attacks and saying they are barbaric and reckless. he certainly believed russia has a role in this, but maintains there are two possibilities and stop first, it could be direct action from the russian state. that's the government's view now. all he says the possibility remains that this nerve agent found its way onto the market and was used by a mafia like gangster group in this attack. —— or, he says. he says that remains a possibility. he says it's time for calm heads and a measured response was that he suggests the atmosphere in westminster is rather feverish and not open to listening to the sorts of questions he thinks are legitimate to raise. he draws another link again, and he has turned to get misery, with iraq, the iraq war, saying it was a result of flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers, a war that he fiercely opposed. i think his tone and some of the language he has used has been

a cause of real frustration and some anger to a number of labour backbench mps, who think he's not in the right place with this and should giving unequivocal support to the government. stephen kinnock is one of those mps and he spoke to bbc news earlier. i thinkjeremy came out yesterday and said he thinks the finger of blame points at russia and he agrees with the expulsions and that was a step in the right direction. the article he wrote after that then muddied the waters somewhat. i think what we need is a very clear line from our leadership stating very clearly that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, and with the government, in the action it has taken. 22 labour mps have signed a parliamentary motion already giving their unequivocal support to the government on this. it's clear divisions are there within the parliamentary labour party on foreign policy again. butjeremy

corbyn is strongly of the view that it is legitimate to be asking these questions and querying the government's approach to this. but it's a very sensitive issue considering the nature of this attack. ben wright, thank you very much. and we'll be speaking to a former british ambassador to russia in a few minutes time. at least four people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a major road in miami. eight cars waiting at traffic lights below were crushed. investigators from the national transportation safety board say they will now conduct a full investigation. rescue teams are still searching for suvivors. mps from egypt are travelling to the uk today to monitor

investigations into the death of an egyptian student in nottingham. 18 year old mariam moustafa died on wednesday, three weeks after being attacked by a group of women outside a shopping centre. police say they are keeping an "open mind" about whether the assault was a hate crime. she was so kind and always wanted to help people out. i do not know why they would do that to her. she was a hard worker, she always put all her effort in to be an engineer. one in four council—run secondary schools in england is running at a loss, leading to fears of staff cuts and larger class sizes. that number has nearly trebled in the last four years according to the education policy institute, with those in the south—west most likely to be in deficit. the government says it doesn't recognise the report's findings and is putting an extra £1.3 billion into schools. four african countries with the

world's largest elephant populations are expected to call on britain and the european union to brand the legal sale of antique ivory today. ministers will sign a petition at a wildlife summit in botswana urging european countries to follow china's lead in outlawing the sale of all ivory products. allister whitehead has more. africa's elephants are still severely under threat, with less animals being born than the number killed every year by poachers. here in botswana, the last true sanctuary for elephants on the continent, politicians, scientists and conservationists are again meeting to try to stop the ivory trade. techniques used for counterterrorism are now being used to stop poaching and catch the culprits. and they're being showcased at the giants club summit, which aims to protect half of africa's elephants and their habitat by 2020. but there's another target. the legal trade of antique ivory

in britain and the rest of europe. the uk and the eu are the biggest exporters of legal antique ivory. these are sales that are permitted and are allowed around the world. now, we have seen china has banned their trade in ivory. hong kong is saying it's doing a similarthing. the african leaders meeting here with their governments are hoping the eu and the uk could do likewise and could stop this trade in antique ivory. it won't stop the poachers targeting these animals for their tusks across africa, but it will send a strong message to try and reduce the demand for ivory. alastair leithead, bbc news, in botswana. the first polar bear cub born in britain for a quarter of a century has been filmed for the first time after being born in december. as you can see, mum and cub are doing well. the footage was captured by remote cameras for a channel 4 documentary. highland wildlife park is yet to find out if the cub is a boy or a girl but,

it's already proving to be a confident and curious little character. and unbelievably cute! those are the main stories this morning. we will have the weather in a few moments time. mike is at cheltenham with the sport. we can go back to the main story now. tensions between the west and russia continue to grow as moscow plans its response to theresa may's expulsion of 23 diplomats, who she said were undeclared intelligence officers. it's a story that is still dominating a lot of the front pages this morning. the times have gone in to more detail about the west uniting in condeming russia for the attack. claims have also now been made about how the nerve agent ended up in the uk. that's on the front of the

telegraph. and the guardian focuses on some ofjeremy corbyn's thoughts on some ofjeremy corbyn's thoughts on quite how we are proceeding about the evidence —based enquiry and his concerns that we are leaping ahead of the evidence so far revealed in terms of our diplomatic response. sir tony brenton is a former british ambassador to russia. hejoins us from cambridge. there is a lot of noise around everything that's happened, not leastjeremy corbyn this morning warning of rushing way ahead of the evidence. what do you make of what he has said? i think the evidence is pretty clear. the chemical used, not for chuck, was only produced in russia. —— not a chock. that sort of detail in russia will be carefully protected unguarded, particularly since they claim they have destroyed all the stocks. i be anyone would be

ina all the stocks. i be anyone would be in a position to deploy it apart from the russian state. so you don't believe the possibility russian gang would get hold of it? this sort of thing is carefully protected in russia and i think it's highly unlikely. looking at what else is happening around this, the us, germany and france are giving their support to the uk. how crucial is that support? i think the british government has done extremely well, locking in support from the united states, france and germany with a joint statement yesterday is a key step in demonstrating western solidarity on this appalling outrage. we'll have to see how the russians react to the measures we have taken, but if the russians over anyway, we have a rather good coalition of people who we hope will help us injoining our sanctions or supporting them. given your experience, how do you think they will react? i missed that question. how do you think russia will react

to this? the hope is, and in a sense, the tradition is they will find a set of measures which roughly speaking balance hours. sadly, i think ourfriends speaking balance hours. sadly, i think our friends and colleagues working in the embassy in moscow are living with the uncertainty they might be leaving in the near future. they also might look for outside measures, possible action against other brits in the uk or what have you. provided it feels reasonably proportionate, i would you. provided it feels reasonably proportionate, iwould hope you. provided it feels reasonably proportionate, i would hope the tit—for—tat stops there. the worry is, if the russians are so angered by the speed and effectiveness of our response they step up the ante, then we will also have to raise the level of our sanctions and we could be in level of our sanctions and we could beina level of our sanctions and we could be in a bit of level of our sanctions and we could be ina bit ofa level of our sanctions and we could be in a bit of a spiral. what's the worst case scenario? again, i didn't hear you. what is the worst-case scenario, you say? both sides know that we don't want to get into an

eye ball to that we don't want to get into an eyeball to eyeball confrontation. so both sides will be working overtime to level things out and get into a very cold stalemate. it's a matter of whether stalemate ends up. could we end up expelling each of the's ambassadors, for example? i hope not, but i wouldn't rule it out. with the world cup coming up in russia, could it have any impact on the football? the russians are keen to runa the football? the russians are keen to run a successful world cup. we have said we will not send official representation but obviously our tea m representation but obviously our team will be there. people have expressed concerns about the safety of ourfans, expressed concerns about the safety of our fans, which expressed concerns about the safety of ourfans, which i think is mistaken. i think the russians want a successful world cup. i have been present in russia where there have been international football matches before and british fans have been there in large numbers and they have been well protected and looked after. i think we can be reasonably confident the russians will make the same effort this time around. that's good to hear. looking back at all the speculation in the papers at the

moment about this, the telegraph has a story saying that the nerve agent could have been planted in the daughter's suitcase. do you think that's feasible? of course it is feasible. i'm not an expert at poisoning people but it does sound feasible. if that were the case there would have been no visible culprit in the uk, we cannot check flight records to identify the people who did it but we have to see how the investigation proceeds. thank you for your time this morning. former british ambassador to russia there. the time is 8:16am so to russia there. the time is 8:16am so let's take a moment to have a look around the uk. we are blessed with beautiful scenery where our cameras are at the moment. ben is in

scotland, on the roof at edinburgh castle. here is the view at cheltenham, where mike is this morning, they are gearing up for the gold cup. it is great but the sun is managing to peek through. mike said it is warming upa peek through. mike said it is warming up a little bit so let's get the full detail on the weather. matt is celebrating this morning on hms belfast, that is a look at the top of the buildings. i think you can just see the foreground. good morning, matt. good morning, i have the best of the weather this morning and we are on board hms belfast. big celebrations this weekend, 80 years ago the ship was launched. it has been a hugely active ship, weighing 11,000 tonnes. you can lay two big bens end to end on this, that is how long it is, and

the deck during the cold war was covered by concrete in case it got covered by concrete in case it got covered in atomic particles and they we re covered in atomic particles and they were easier to wash off as a result. let's ta ke were easier to wash off as a result. let's take a look at the forecast because if you are coming to celebrate this weekend you will need something warm on. there is bitter wind and snow flurries across many parts of the uk. smokes will be limited across the high ground of the grampians, we could see up to 20 centimetres of snow blowing around in the wind. not as wet in the west. further rain across the north—east of england, then a drier slot and more wet weather pushing into southern parts of england effect in east anglia at the moment. after a wet start of the day in the midlands, things are drier, and a

good deal of sunny spells breaking through the cloud at the moment. the winds stronger than they were yesterday but once you have got the sunshine overhead it will feel quite pleasant. we will see showers become more abundant than yesterday, some of those slow—moving and fonda rae. much of england, northern ireland and scotland stays cloudy with further snow over the higher ground. temperatures as we finish this afternoon ranging from about three degrees across the north of scotland, made to feel colder by the wind, but still in the teens in the southern areas. don't be fooled, temperatures will drop by about 10 degrees tomorrow compared to this afternoon and that process starts tonight. you will notice the sleet and snow, that pushes southwards as the winds get stronger. probably frost free to start the day across southern england and southern wales,

but there will be a covering of snow here and there to start saturday. strong gale force winds across the country. the far north of scotland should be dry however, and the snow should be dry however, and the snow should be dry however, and the snow should be blowing around, not bringing too much disruption although keep checking the forecast. the subzero wind chill will continue into sunday. we could have seen heavy smoke through saturday night into sunday so great chances of disruption on sunday morning, then that will break up and we will see sunshine and snow showers to take us through into the afternoon. the lightest winds by the end of the weekend will be in northern scotland but wherever you are it will feel much colder once again. the good news is this cold spell will not last as long as the last one, it should turn less cold next week. thank goodness. matt, hold for a moment, we have someone thank goodness. matt, hold for a

moment, we have someone on thank goodness. matt, hold for a moment, we have someone on the phone who would like a personalised forecast, greg james radio dj. matt has been on my show as the doommonger! greg will be going up ben nevis, what is it like? severe gale force winds up to 80 mph, and hill fog, he has his work cut out andi hill fog, he has his work cut out and i feel bad saying that, he's lovely. 80 mph! the wind chill of minus 20 at the top as well. we have heard enough from him! just forget what he said, don't worry about the forecast. how's things, how are you feeling this morning? it is nice to

speak to you both, hello by the way. lam speak to you both, hello by the way. i am sitting on ben nevis at the moment, we started to climb half an hour ago. it is for sport relief, the gregathlon, and we have been doing this is a couple of weeks because we were curtailed by the weather. but i decided to come back and finish the thing off. i cycled 180 miles over the last day and a half to get to fort william, i got here last night and i'm feeling very tired and sore but somehow i'm awake and we are moving, going up ben nevis today to finish the three peaks and cycle between them, that was the whole challenge. so far we have raised 800 grand which i'm blown away by, literally blown off the mountain bike. how does it feel having to have the pause in the middle because i know at the time you are devastated but now you are backin you are devastated but now you are back in it, do you feel like you

have a stronger purpose because you were stopped? i do actually, i had a week or so to regroup, to read the messages and work out what people we re messages and work out what people were enjoying about the challenge but also saying about their own mental health struggle. the outpouring of support from the listeners has been something i've never experienced before. all of the djs have been excited to be part of it because we have said things on radio about mental health that we have never said before. that was the reason to come back because the support for the challenge was so enormous that i wanted to come back and get it done, but also keep the conversation going around it all because the listeners have really responded to it and they trust us with their secrets. greg, we have a little film of your challenge so far so we are little film of your challenge so far so we are going to have a look at that. it is unbelievably cold but we are going to give it our best go.

the whole reason for doing it is to raise obviously the money for all the causes of sport relief. snowdon, done! yeah! scafell pike, done. we can't continue. it's too dangerous to go and they've had to call it off. people are really invested in the story, they love what we were talking about around the mental health awareness. that is why i wanted to get back here and keep the conversation going. we have seen some of your endeavours

so we have seen some of your endeavours so far, looking ahead at the challenge the thing to remember, and i say this from the comfort of the sofa in the studio is that people love it when plans don't go entirely correctly. they respect you all the more. yes, there is definitely some truth to that. every story needs a bad guy and the beast from the east was our bad guy. according to the weather forecast ijust was our bad guy. according to the weather forecast i just heard was our bad guy. according to the weather forecast ijust heard it sounds like it might come back for an awful sequel nobody wants to see. yes, nothing is going to stop you, don't worry. 0ver yes, nothing is going to stop you, don't worry. over £800,000 raised so far, that is staggering some good luck for the rest of it. if your viewers would like to donate, they can send the word greg to 72025. i'm

well versed, i learn that off by heart. that's very impressive, good luck and well done. we have been talking about tourism this morning because we have new statistics about where you're going and how often, and one of the sport is edinburgh so thenis and one of the sport is edinburgh so then is there this morning.” and one of the sport is edinburgh so then is there this morning. i like your use of the word hotspot because it is anything apart from hot. people come for the culture and the a rts people come for the culture and the arts and the history of the place and you are right because we are on the roof of the national museum of scotland. it has gone through a massive refurbishment and that has been paying off with record numbers of visitors last year, and also this place across the way, edinburgh castle, the number two destination

in scotland. the crucial thing is most of the popular ones are in london but for the first time scotla nd london but for the first time scotland has come top of the list of the attractions outside london. we have been looking this morning about what it means for the local economy, what it means for the local economy, what it means for the local economy, what it means forjobs and people and we will discuss that later but before that lets get the news, the travel and the weather where you are watching breakfast this morning. looks like winter is backjust in time for the weekend. bitterly cold weather and some snow showers forecast. good spells of sunshine across central and southern england. the early showers were clear to

north—west england, parts of northern ireland with cloudy and patchy outbreaks of rain. heavier and persistent rain in north—east england, some falling as snow over the high ground. temperatures in the south, maximum 14 celsius. this evening and overnight, the rain in the north—east starts to change to snow and slowly sinks south and west into parts of wales, the midlands and east anglia, and some snow showers might follow. the south—west staying milder but many areas falling below freezing. into the weekend, high—pressure sitting out over scandinavia dragging in cold airfrom the over scandinavia dragging in cold air from the east on a brisk easterly wind. we could see some nice first thing. patchy rain, sleet and snow clearing the south—west first thing and then snow showers feeding in on the brisk easterly wind. temperatures in the low single figures but when you add in the easterly wind it will feel

significantly colder and the wind chill will make it feel like —8 in norwich. the far north—west of scotland might escape those snow showers. overnight into sunday, a speu showers. overnight into sunday, a spell of longer snow for central and southern parts of england and wales and a bit of uncertainty about that, but we could see some ice patches first thing. the snow clearing away to the west as we had through sunday, becoming drier. still cloud around and holding onto the easterly wind, so to feel cold with temperatures struggling into the low single figures. feeling colder in the weekend, with some snow and potential disruption. this is business live from bbc news with jamie robertson and david eades. trading threats — raising tensions. fears of a global trade war set to dominate as g20 finance chiefs gather this weekend. live from london, that's our top story on friday the 16th of march. with jobs and trade

on the line, the united states is demanding more from its biggest partners so will they hit back with action of their own? also in the programme... singapore—based chipmaker broadcom hints it will look to buy smaller rivals after president trump blocked its $140 billion dealfor qualcomm.