i hope, are currently tobogganing. i hope, and a bit of homework, that's the beauty of computers, it can come down the wires, i hope you're listening at home. a good afternoon to you, wherever you may be. of course it isn't all doom and gloom. once it stops snowing and the sun comes out it can looked like a winter wonderland. they are getting very arty on the south side of glasgow, that some ice balloon, —8 last night under clear skies. a bit further north, what a wonderful sighting of the aurora, but if you are on the move in rush hour, lying snow and ice will be a further consideration. disruption is distinctly possible because the weather front that brought so much chaos with in recent hours hasn't quite done with this just yet. certainly for the southern counties, further north, you have your own supply of showers if you fully exposed to the north—easterly wind, that's the north and east of scotland, the north—eastern quarter of england, and don't discount what's going onjust of england, and don't discount what's going on just as we speak around the bristol and

gloucestershire area, around the bristol and gloucestershi re area, west wiltshire, significant snowfall there probably drifting further south and east with time. that in its own right could be a few centimetres, just what you don't need and then the showers there to be had at the line of the ai, need and then the showers there to be had at the line of the a1, to the north york moors and then the line down through the great glen from the northern isles with the odd shower still wintry getting into northern ireland as well. that's all to come in the next few hours through the rest of the night. clear skies out towards the west, not so much in the way of breeze, so it's going to be another bitter night, widespread problem with ice, a lot of warnings out from the met office, somewhere in the scottish blends will be about -10 in the scottish blends will be about —10 or so so a lot of ice around. —— with the scottish glens. the weather front with the scottish glens. the weather fro nt ta kes with the scottish glens. the weather front takes its time to get away from the south—east on saturday, a ridge of high pressure toppling in from the atlantic, saturday a cold start and a decent sort of day if you can get out and stay upright. but there still is a chance of some showers there, wintry and nature across northern and eastern parts of the british isles. still a bit about

that wind coming in from a cold, cold direction and the temperature regime pretty much where we are just now. tops i can find for you about seven degrees oi’ so. now. tops i can find for you about seven degrees or so. another really cold night, a sparkling start to saturday, then that weather front works its way across all parts of the british isles during the course of sunday. snow event to gain from the northern half of the british isles, i think it's more wintry perhaps on the higher ground as you get into the southern half of the british isles, but it certainly want to watch again if you are coming back from the weekend. the theme for the weekend, yes, it stays cold, a write—off, there will be some sunshine and wintry showers and you have the front to consider on sunday. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. heavy snow across the west country and large parts of southern england as the uk suffers its coldest night for seven years. that's all from the bbc news at one. it's goodbye from me.

on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon, the latest sport. play resumes in less than half an hourin play resumes in less than half an hour in the second test in antigua with plenty for england to do against the west indies after another batting collapse on day one. play begins in around half an hour's time. daniel moorcroftjoins play begins in around half an hour's time. daniel moorcroft joins us here. what did you make of day one? was it a batting collapse or more to do with an awkward pitch?‘ combination of factors. the west indies bowled really well. their fast bowler was on a spicy pitch. we weren't expecting it to be as treacherous as it was. west indies

1-0 treacherous as it was. west indies 1—0 up. expected a flattened deck because they are ahead in a three match series, so it would be in the interest to make it a flat batting track. instead, it is a spicy pitch with lots of different areas of unevenness. with lots of different areas of unevenness. the ball is moving sideways. it wasn't a great batting performance. there were some dismissals the batsmen would be unhappy with. but credit to the bowlers. we can see some of those dismissals. will england approach it with a ball in hand now? they need to look at their lengths. there was criticism of that. a little fuller, closer to the batsmen, they will try to pull the west indies batsmen forward , to pull the west indies batsmen forward, hope for a weary bounce. because when that happens it increasingly difficult to play. the bulls are shooting up, some are keeping low, i think england will say that the 21 overs they bowled last night they were not at their best, but they west indies did not get away from them. they only scored

30, so today could be crucial. where will england be sitting in 2a hours' time? will the west indies be the ones to take the advantage? the way the west indies batted it was incredibly assured. if they bat through the day they are in a position to potentially win the series. that is how critical it is for them. if england can bowl to the best of their abilities, get back into this game, if the west indies are still batting this could be their game. you can listen from around 1:45pm on the bbc sport website. thank you forjoining us. the reigning super league man of steel ben barba has been sacked by his new club north oueensand cowboys over an alleged incident in a casino. barba has yet to play a game for the cowboys, sincejoining from st helens in october. prior to arriving in england, he'd been sacked by another nrl team, cronulla sharks, forfailing a drugs test, three years ago. this year's six nations begins this eveing, with a match you can watch live on bbc1 later,

as france host wales. but some welsh fans may not make it to paris, due to the poor travel conditions in fact wales's women were unable to leave bristol airport and will fly from heathrow in the morning instead. warren gatland's welshmen have arrived, they finished second in last year's tournament, a full 11 points behind this year's favourites, ireland. but wales go to paris aiming for a tenth test win in a row and that's left him in confident mood. i have been pretty open about it. i think we have a good chance of winning the six nations. given we have home games. we finished second last year, which was ok, it would be great for us to win the six nations. it'll help us for their world cup warm up it'll help us for their world cup warm up games, and it'll help us for their world cup warm up games, and obviously the world cup. australia's top racehorse trainer darren weir faces suspension after being charged with possessing devices used to give electric shots to horses to make them run faster. police seized four of the taser—like devices at weir's stables, as well as a firearm and a substance

believed to be cocaine. weir and two other men, face six charges from racing victoria. weir notably won the 2015 melbourne cup with jockey michelle payne aboard prince of penzance. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. mike pompeo is addressing media from the state department, we can listen to that alive. i would like to give a special thanks to our nato allies, who stood with us in our mission to uphold the rule of law and protect our people. their solidarity reflects the solid strength and unity of the nato alliance. their support is good for oui’ alliance. their support is good for our shared community. it is good for

transatlantic unity. it's good for international peace and security. president trump is grateful for all that you have done. the us is hopeful we can put our relationship with russia back on a better footing. but the onus is on russia to change the pattern of course on destabilising activity, not just to change the pattern of course on destabilising activity, notjust on this issue but others, as well. the us stands ready to engage with russia about arms control. it must also include all of the partners. they must all responsibly comply with their obligations. as we remain hopeful of a fundamental shift in russia plus micro—postu re hopeful of a fundamental shift in russia plus micro—posture the us will continue to do what's best for oui’ will continue to do what's best for our people and those of our allies. i'm happy to take questions this morning. —— shift in russia's posture. one of the big things everybody is worried about is that this could eventually spark a arms

race. what are you doing to prevent that. how concerned are you that russia will not engage in that six months. and we could see this posture as a threat and take it on. the risk you identified as the one we are suffering with today, the russians are in violation of the agreement. this agreement, which has beenin agreement. this agreement, which has been in place for an awfully long time, the russians have been violating it, they have begun to move towards what has been identified. we will continue to have conversations with them. we hope they will come back into compliance. we have had conversations at every level, at senior levels, at technical levels. conversations about the nature of these systems. there is no mistaking that the russians have chosen not to comply with this treaty and to present the risk of continued arms growth in a way they had committed to when they signed this treaty that they said

they wouldn't do. we will continue to work with the russians to achieve an outcome which gets us to a place. president trump very much wants to have an agreement which is verifiable and enforceable on these systems and we hope we can convince the russians that it is in their best interests. we believe it is. wall street journal. the trump administration has withdrawn from agreements it doesn't like, the gc poa, and you have indicated your intentions about the inf because of the alleged violation by the russians. the question is, what new agreements can be put in place to ta ke agreements can be put in place to take their place? the russians have said they are prepared to start a new extension. the treaty expires in two years which isn't a lot of time if the administration plans to take a new approach. when will the us be

prepared to discuss the future of strategic arms control, and what is your vision of how do undergo limiting the world's most dangerous arms? incredibly important questions. i would wager to say that president trump has put this risk of proliferation as his highest national security interest. we are endeavouring to do everything we can to ensure the risks of proliferation increase in these weapons systems is diminished. there is no good in signing an agreement if one party won't comply with it. if the piece of paper isn't being complied with it doesn't reduce the risk. this is being violated by the russians. it is the agreement they signed up to. we didn't force them. they decided it was in their best interests. they've now decided it isn't in their best interest to comply with

that agreement. we are prepared to enter into negotiations over these complex arms control issues all around the world, including conversations about the renewal of other arms—control agreements as we move forward. make no mistake about president trump's mission, his mission is to make sure any agreement we enter into has america's best interests, that is it protects the american people, it protects the american people, it protects our allies around the world, as well, it has provisions that other countries are capable and willing to comply with and allow us to verify they have complied with those agreements. absent of that, it is just sitting around a table and talking. it's incredibly important we make sure that the provisions of these agreements are enforceable, and verifiable. that's our aim. that's our aim and verifiable. that's our aim. that's ouraim in and verifiable. that's our aim. that's our aim in every set of foreign arms discussion this administration will engage with. thank you all, have a great day. thanks, everybody. mike pompeo, the secretary of state, saying the us will provide final notice to russia that it is withdrawing from that missile treaty withdrawing from that missile treaty with russia. the inf missile treaty

in six months. because, he said, it is being violated by the russians, and therefore they will terminate it. he said that the us is ready to engage with russia on arms control negotiations. we will get more reaction on that. back now to our main story this lunchtime, the snow which has affected large parts of the uk. the west country has been particularly badly hit. hundreds of schools are closed in that region, some roads there are impassable in places and thousands of passengers have had their flights cancelled at bristol airport. scott ellis reports from bristol. snow falling on the runway in bristol this morning almost as fast as they could clear it. flights from the airport were suspended late yesterday. it is still a no—fly zone. 106 flights have been cancelled with more than 15,000 passengers facing disruption. welsh rugby fans rallied amid the despair. katiejeffrey from yate was hoping for a hen—do in amsterdam. we've got to travel to london and get a flight tomorrow morning. so, we will see if that goes ahead.

also now heading for gatwick is matt willis from kingswood, who was hoping for a stag do in prague. it's a bit of a shame because i lived in finland for a while and they cope with this all the time. i'm surprised there's not haters on the runway, or something along those lines. for this family, a more serious delay. —— i'm surprised there's not heaters on the runway, or something along those lines. for this family, a more serious delay. they were trying to get to a funeral. we never function with the snow in this country. bristol airport's the second highest in the country and had 20 centimetres of snow last night. this is a rare occurrence for us here in the uk, thankfully. as the snow continues to fall, you know, we clearly need a break in the weather for us to be able to completely clear the air field surfaces. so, the team of 17 vehicles, including localfarmers with tractors, are still hard at it. flight disruption, though, is likely to continue all day. scott ellis, bbc points west, bristol airport. hundreds of schools

are shut across wales, mainly in the south, and travel is affected by heavy snowfall overnight. fans travelling to paris for the opening game of the six nations rugby tonight have faced flight cancellations at cardiff airport. jordan davies reports. no school for tabatha today. instead, a trip into brecon. the best bits of a snow day for her? building a snowman and throwing it at my mum. like much of south—east wales, brecon woke up to a picturesque blanket of snow. but no major issues on main roads, they were by and large kept clear. there were, though, problems for some getting to work. you couldn't get up the road. cars couldn't get up there. normally the gritters are up there every winter back and forward, back and forward. but for some reason last night, nothing. high ground, as always, bore the brunt of the bad weather with parts of the south wales valleys hit particularly hard. dyfed—powys police urged people to only contact them with urgent weather—related problems. so, brecon has seen

some of the heaviest snowfall overnight, and up to eight centimetres, and it's not been immune from the school closures. schools across the wider area are closed today. across wales more than 500 schools shut their doors, mainly in the south wales valleys. so, how is the white stuff affecting the red army due to descend on france for the rugby? cardiff airport have now cancelled their paris flight. i'm on the eurostar now so i'm going to get a car to london and then jump on the eurostar. so, if not, i might end up doing some regional work for the bbc in cardiff, or something. but, yeah, give ita go, got nothing to lose. watch it in cardiff, by the looks of things. not a bad place to watch it. no, not at all. but obviously it would be better in the stade de france, but there we go. we'll go down to west wales for a spa weekend instead. and watch the game down there.

the snow is already starting to thaw. all eyes are now on the temperature gauge to see whether the white stuff turns to ice. in a moment we'll have all the business news, but first the headlines on bbc news... heavy snow has swept across south wales and southern england, leaving motorists stranded and causing travel disruption. there are yellow warnings for snow and ice covering southern, eastern and north—eastern england, as well as parts of wales and scotland. the three main health screening programmes in england, for bowel, breast and cervical cancer, have all failed to meet government targets. i'm jamie robertson in the business news: the tsb bank has revealed how much its computer meltdown cost last year, £330 million which pushed the bank into a loss in 2018 of over 100 million. it made a profit in 2017. uk manufacturers are preparing for brexit by stockpiling raw materials at the fastest pace on record. the research, by ihs markit reported two other findings: employment

in the sector has dropped and: export orders are "near—stagnant". oddbins, the off—licence chain, has gone into administration, putting hundreds ofjobs at risk. an administrator has been appointed to run the business while they attempt to find a buyer. one in four uk households do not have insurance cover for their possessions, according to the association of british insurers. that is despite the average cost of home contents insurance now standing at a record annual low of £127 a year, or £2.40 a week, says the abi's home insurance premium tracker. laura hughes from the association of british insurers. what strikes me isn't the number of people who are not insured, but the low cost, why is it so low? we have a very competitive insurance industry which often keeps the cost

of insurance low, so people shopping around, making sure they are getting the best deal, keep things low. and also recognising that we haven't had any major severe weather incidents such as major flooding any major severe weather incidents such as majorflooding of any major severe weather incidents such as major flooding of the last few years, which feed into it. you said it is competitive. is it the fa ct said it is competitive. is it the fact people are taking advantage of the competitiveness by shopping around online? because you go to the comparison websites, and that is where you see comparisons, and that makes you shop around in a way you couldn't do, say, ten years ago. that could be. we encourage people to shop around to get the best deal. iam here to shop around to get the best deal. i am here today talking about the low cost of contents insurance, it's also important to make sure you have the right insurance for your needs. notjust shopping on price alone but making sure it covers everything you need to cover. one of the things which puts off is it is complicated. you are looking at all of the

different things, whether you should have locks on your windows, locks on your car, looks on your doors, and other conditions, how do you get around that? today we are talking about contents insurance and the importance of having that. at the moment, one in four don't have contents insurance. looking at the value of that, the insurance industry pays out £8 million a day on insurance for domestic properties. it's really there if the worst happens. you know, a flood, a fire. we see a lot of people not purchasing contents insurance. it falls into three camps. those willing to take the risk and hope it willing to take the risk and hope it will not happen to them, those who don't consider they have enough contents don't consider they have enough co nte nts to don't consider they have enough contents to really bother to ensure them, andi contents to really bother to ensure them, and i think it is important to recognise that you probably do have more than you think you have if you add it up. we estimate the average contents add it up. we estimate the average co nte nts of add it up. we estimate the average contents of the average home to be about £35,000 worth. so it's really

worth thinking. especially if you rent. make sure you work out what you've got and think about getting contents insurance. the third group we see is those who have lower incomes and don't view contents insurance as a necessity. the insurance as a necessity. the insurance industry has recognised this is an issue and there are lots of schemes out there that provide basic cover. you can speak to a local authority housing association and understand what scheme exists which might suit you. thanks very much. and some other stories in the news today. incidents of shoplifting in uk supermarkets rose by nearly 8% between 2014 and 2017, according to figures gathered by the press association. the british retail consortium says the cost is shared between shoppers and owners and the police say cutbacks meant they were increasingly unlikely to respond to callouts. duty on a bottle of wine has risen — the day after the end of the dry january challenge.

in theory it pushes up the cost of a bottle by 8p. there is better news for beer, cider, and scotch whisky drinkers, as duty has been frozen. these are all from the october budget, but comes into force now. british broadband provider talktalk said it's not going to make the kind of profits it originally expected this last year because its spending so much getting new customers. different accounting rules have changed things too, but it said the cost of getting new subscribers and switching customers to superfast fibre would cost it an additional £15 million. talktalk shares sank 8% to a more than seven—month low after the broadband firm said full—year earnings would fall short of expectations due to higher costs from attracting more customers and changing its accounting standard the pound is still very influenced by brexit talk. not much of that

this week. we are having a bit of a breather. the ftse macro up. good job news from the us, but we shall see if things change when the new york market opens. thanks very much indeed. the snow leopard is an animal in serious danger. native to central and southern asia, there are estimated to be fewer than 10,000 of them still alive. and that figure's expected to go down in the coming years. but conservationists are trying to do something about it as tim allman reports. there is a bleak splendour to the altai mountains. cold and unforgiving, you have to be tough to survive here. mergen markov has lived here all his life. he is on the hunt for snow leopards — not to kill, but to photograph, these automatic cameras helping to monitor the snow leopard population. translation: i am really happy i have this job which allows me to spend all this time outside and admire all the animals i've managed to photograph.

is it better than killing them? yes, they are so beautiful in the photographs. this is the village of argut. after the collapse of the soviet union, the collective farms went bankrupt. many people took to hunting the local wildlife. the fur of a snow leopard could sell for more than $500. so the world wildlife fund pays former poachers, mergen included, to try to protect them instead. translation: he quickly understood that if he kept on poaching and selling furs, he would earn money only once with each animal he'd killed. whereas with us, he earns money regularly. local volunteers are also paid to go on patrol and monitor this vast area of land.

over time, the hope is the number of snow leopards will rise. these animals will return home. tim allman, bbc news. there's just over a week to go until the annual british academy of film and television art awards, an event regarded as a curtain—raiser for the oscars at the end of the month. and while this year's nominees may be busy rehearsing their acceptance speeches, craftspeople at a west london foundry have been hard at work creating the iconic mask awards. take a look. how are they made? the first step is to make the cause and the moulds.

once they are made, they are then sprayed up with a prefatory coating, fired, and then the parts are put together and prepared with weights and cuts. and then we pour the metal in. and once the metal‘s been poured, we give it a while to make it all solid, and then we knock them out, remove the sand, and then we shock blast them to remove the excess sand. we cut off the rudders and riders, and then we fettle them, ready to go polishing. this is an honest piece of work, because what you see made is exactly what you get. something like the oscars are not the same. they are a diecast product made out of britannia metal, which are then gold—plated, so they are not, you can't trace it directly to what you get. but you can, but, you know, it's not the same. i haven't got a clue. i really don't know who the nominations are. i don't know. it'll be whoever gets nominated,

or whoever wins it. i'm sure they'll deserve it. now it's time for a look at the weather. we can cross the newsroom... it isn't all doom and gloom. glorious conditions in perth and kinross. where you have snow, well, much in the heart of an area we have concerns about, the snowjust keeps on coming. even if you do have snow and it stops and the sun comes out, well, it is picture postcard stuff, but if you are trying to move, well, through the rest of the day and into rush hour, the lying snow and lying eyes, things won't get warm and disruption is decidedly likely. the feature that brought it to us, it is there for everyone to see. the flow

is important, because it can leave you fully exposed to more wintry showers in northern and eastern parts of scotland, northern parts of england, and further south. we have an area close by to bristol and the river severn, that'll gradually drift further south and east with time towards the rush hour. another one to three centimetres decidedly possible there, as well as the wintry showers pour into the eastern side of the pennines, and down the line of the great glen and into the grampians, and away, a great raft of showers across the northern isles, as well. quite towards northern ireland, the odd wintry shower cannot be ruled out, and skies stay clear in these western areas during the course of the night. at this time of year, you know what that means, widespread frost, and somewhere will get down to around _9’ somewhere will get down to around -9, -10, somewhere will get down to around —9, —10, across the snow fields in scotland. the weekend, the weather front gradually pulls away from the south—east and quarter of the british isles. the isobar is beginning to open up a touch.

saturday is a pretty decent day, lots of sunshine, cold start, mind you, but we have showers again for northern areas, and some across the eastern shores, as well. something about that wind coming from the north and north—west across central and eastern parts of the british isles. and not a very warm. we are still around three, five, six, seven, something of that order, and another cold night to follow. crisp start to the new day on sunday to say the very least. another weather front is on its way. concerns about this because it'll mean snow to lower levels of scotland, northern england, northern ireland, further south will be more confined to the higher ground. this is the theme for the weekend, it stays cold, there will be sunshine, further wintry showers, then we bring the front from west to east on sunday. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm ben brown,

live in chippenham in wiltshire. this is one of many counties in southern england where there has been heavy snowfall. the wintry weather has caused widespread disruption to a large parts of southern england have very cold weather and britain suffered its cold est weather and britain suffered its coldest night for seven years. the conditions brought chaos on the roads as commuters tried to get to work, hundreds of schools were closed and rail services disrupted. take extreme care, drive with caution, take everything nice and gentle, the throttle, the brakes, the steering. the road is very, very treacherous indeed. my advice, personally — stay at home. we'll have reports with the very latest conditions from our correspondents across the country