this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: a first world alpine ski gold medal for slovakia — as petra vlhova takes gold in the giant slalom. the holders and the host nation are drawn together in the newly revamped davis cup tournament. and caster semenya will next week challenge an iaaf rule that aims to restrict the levels of testosterone in female runners. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with news from the alpine skiing world championships in sweden where petra vlhova made history on thursday. her victory in the giant slalom made her the first slovakian to win gold in an individual event. the olympic champion mikaela shiffrin had to settle for bronze — as colm harrison reports. mikaela shiffrin knew she had all to

do to add that the slalom gold to her title. after finishing a disappointing fourth in the first time to put herself in contention in the second. on a day when a of skiers crashed out, she managed to safely negotiate the course. a solid run gave the overall lead, but it would be all too brief. minutes later, it was petra vlhova's big moment. already a silver medallist in the alpine combined, she would in a near faultless performance. in the alpine combined, she would in a nearfaultless performance. her superb descent put in the gold medal decision with just viktoria rebensburg to go. the german, the fastest early in the day, got off to a blistering start and stayed ahead of petra vlhova on the split times. it looked for all the world like victory was going to be hers, but her advantage fell away in the final third. and it was petra vlhova by

the smallest of margins. as you watch nervously, the moment of victory sunk in. the world title was hers, and with a piece of history for slovakia —— as you watch nervously. colm harrison, bbc news. for me it is an amazing day. i am world champion. i did not expect that. today i did two perfect runs. iamso that. today i did two perfect runs. i am so happy. maybe sometimes it is much better to be so close. if amab one second in front i would have lost everything, it depends —— if i am at maybe. maybe it is better if i like this and we can push. it was a good fight today. tennis, and the draw for the first edition of the re—vamped davis cup was made in madrid on thursday.

it threw the holders and the host nation together. the old world group format of 16 teams playing in a straight knock—out competition — spread throughout the year is gone. in its place is a new 18—nation world cup—style tournament played over the course of one week in one country — and madrid will host this year's event. here's the draw in full. the 18 teams have been divided into six groups of three. the reigning champions croatia have been drawn in group b with the host nation spain and russia. the usa — who have a record 32 davis cup wins to their name — are in group f, along with italy and canada. each tie will consist of two singles rubbers and one doubles match. the six group winners and the best two runners—up will qualify for the quarter—finals. the competition re—vamp is worth 2.75 billion dollars over 25 years — and it's funded by an investment group led by the barcelona footballer gerard pique. this competition can be an amazing

competition for tennis. and i wanted to change the format because i understood that the old format wasn't right for the competition. the biggest players were not playing it. it was very difficult for the players, because they had to play four different weeks. but now they have two play it one or two, depending on whether they are very qualified or not. they had to travel, they had to change the surface and adapt to the risk of injuries, et cetera. i think at the end of the day what we wanted is to put things much easier for the players and to create an incredible event for fans, for the countries, for everyone who will watch it. simona halep is through to the semifinals of the qatar open after beating germany's julia gorges. the world number one, who's bidding to regain the title that she won back in 2014, came through in straight sets —

but she was made to work hard for the victory, with both sets going all the way to tie—breaks before she finally sealed the win. halep will now play the number four seed elina svitolina who beat the czech qualifier karolina mutzovar in straight sets. in the other half of the draw, the number three seed angelique kerber is through to the semifinals, but needed three sets to see off the world number 49 ba rbora strycova. after the czech had raced through the first set 6—1, kerber won the next two 6—2, 7—6 to seal her place in the last four. she'll face elise mertens who beat the numberfive seed kiki bertens in straight sets. five time winners sevilla remain on course to make the last 16 of the europa league after winning the first leg of their last 32 tie by a goal to nil away to lazio. elsewhere, chelsea manager maurizio sarri has seen the pressure ease ever so slightly following last weekend's 6—0 loss to manchester city

in the premier league. his side were 2—1 winners away to swedish side malmo in the first leg of their tie, but it wasn't such good news for arsenal as they lost their opening leg i—o away to bate borisov in a match that also saw alexandre lacazette sent off late on. albicans, our big opportunities, challenges our next week at home —— oui’ challenges our next week at home —— our big chance. and i think today the result is not the result is like what we want. and on the pitch, we deserved more. but also they worked for that. and next week is going to be different. i'd think that we could, we are

better. we could be better. better because we had three, four goal opportunities on 2—0. so we could kill the match, i think. opportunities on 2—0. so we could kill the match, ithink. but opportunities on 2—0. so we could kill the match, i think. but i am happy for the confidence. because it wasn't easy to play with this confidence after the last match. the landmark case of caster semenya will face a crucial moment next week when the court of arbitration for sport hears the south african athlete's challenge to a proposed iaaf rule. the new regulation aims to restrict the levels of testosterone in female runners. on wednesday, the iaaf issued a statement denying one media report that it wanted to call semenya a ‘biological male', even though she'd still be classified as a female. our sports editor dan roan explains. it was back in 2015 that they iaaf‘s regulations, which required athletes

with dsd or differences of sexual development undergo medication to bring elevated testosterone levels down, because they felt it gave an unfair advantage to those athletes, was effectively defeated at the court of arbitration for sport. last year they tried again. they said they were going to reintroduce these regulations for certain events from between the a00m and the mile, which applies to caster semenya, who was 110w applies to caster semenya, who was now twice time olympic champion at the 800m. that has now been challenged by caster semenya, it was challenged by caster semenya, it was challenge last year, in fact. this hearing next week will be greater. that is when the iaaf will try to win the argument that, as i said, it does present an unfair advantage to those athletes. they say if something is not done and those women who are in that dsd category don't have those testosterone levels brought down, it will mean that the same people, the same competitors dominate the podiums and the prize money and women who don't have abnormal testosterone levels never

have a chance. south africa's cricketers remain on top heading into the third day of the first test against sri lanka in durban — thanks to pace bowler dale steyn. he took four for 48 as the tourists were bowled out forjust 191 in reply to the home side's first innings total of 235. the home side closed on 126 for four in their second innings — an overall lead of 170. west indies fast bowler shannon gabriel has revealed exactly what he said to england captain joe root — which has led to him being banned for four matches, gabriel admits asking root, if he likes boys. root, was heard on a microphone telling gabriel, "there's nothing wrong with being gay", and not to use it, as an insult. gabriel says he's ‘deeply sorry‘ for his comments. just enough time to look at the three nba matches. three shops on the cards at the moment. the orlando magic are on the verge of beating

charlotte. leading 103—72. the pelicans charlotte. leading 103—72. the pelica ns up charlotte. leading 103—72. the pelicans up against the —— oklahoma city thunder. they lead. and the new york knicks have lost their last eight ina york knicks have lost their last eight in a row. they lead 56—51 in the third quarter. until next time, goodbye. hello. it was not just love in the air on valentine's day, spring in the air too, as the uk recorded its highest valentine's day temperature in 21 years. and that was at wales. here's a view from aberystwyth, but it was at bala, the temperatures reached 16.1 celsius, top of the valentine's day shop. you can see the extent of temperatures in double figures elsewhere and how far removed from average they are at this time of year. and there is more mild to very mild weather on the way in hte next few days. but we know the nights are quite chilly and actually friday starts on a colder note in scotland and northern ireland compared with thursday morning, and especially in parts of england and wales. there will be a touch of frost

around in places and, the further south you are, the chance of seeing some maybe dense fog patches, that could be rather slow to clear. but th last of those shouyld be gone by late morning, lunchtime. but then, for most of us, it is blue skies and sunshine all the way. though cloud will increase in northern ireland, especially to the west, and in western scotland. and into the north—west and the western isles some outbreaks of rains slowly moving in. but the colours indicate just how much temperatures are going to rebound after that chilly start, on towards the midteens again, on again towards 15 or even 16 celsius, though it is quite breezy. if anything a touch windier than it was on thursday, especially towards the north—west and the western isles. these are average speeds. there could be some gusts of up to around 50 miles per hour or so. friday night is not going to be as chilly as more cloud moves into the uk, courtesy of these fairly weak weather fronts. another system will come in towards the uk later in the weekend. they are just going to deliver glancing blows but at least giving more cloud in places. but the important thing, the flow of air around these weather systems will maintain a feed coming in from the south and that means it is goin go stay mild, with temperatures above average. so this is what we are expecting for the weekend — mild, yes, breezy, also, still.

dry for many but these weather systems i've pointed out will bring the threat of seeing a bit of rain. we may welcome that in the garden, especially down towards the west of the uk. but there will be more cloud in southern england, east anglia and the midlands, into wales, on saturday. maybe a bit of drizzle into the far south—west. northern england seeing sunny spells. broken cloud in northern ireland, eastern scotland. cloudy in north—west scotland, where there is some patchy rain. early rain clearing from shetland. still breezy, still mild. on then on sunday, more sunshine around at least to start the day. but this weather system comes in from the west, delivering some rather patchy outbreaks of rain, more appreciativley so towards north—west scotland. it is still breezy but it is still mild, especially where you see the best of the sunshine down the eastern side of the uk. bye— bye. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: president trump set to declare a national emergency to secure funding for a border wall with mexico. he faces a battle with democrats, and some republicans. a teenager who ran away to syria to join the islamic state group is told she could face prosecution if she tries to return home to the uk. the ayes to the right, 258. the noes to the left, 303. cheering another big parliamentary defeat for the british government over its vision for brexit. a year after one of the deadliest school shootings in us history, we report from parkland, florida, where calls for gun control