hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2. the scrapyard in 1963. pressure back on westminster: as the eu agrees to delay brexit beyond the 29th of march, she has fond memories after late night talks in brussels. of the locomotive travelling across america to promote british businesses. i haven't seen this carriage all options will remain open. since we were in the states, and i crossed north america down to san francisco across the rocky and the cliff edge mountains in this carriage, date will be delayed. looking at the beautiful scenery, feather canyon, the wonderful i hope we can all agree we are now rockies. so i have very many happy at the moment of decision. memories travelling in this. i will make every effort to ensure the concorde of the steam age, we are able to leave with a deal and and today as iconic move our country forward. and popular as ever. a two minutes' silence is observed john maguire, bbc news, dorset. in new zealand in memory of the 50 victims of the mass shootings time for a look at the weather. in christchurch one week ago here's lucy martin. rescue operations in south east africa try to reach thousands of people cut off by floodwaters following a massive cyclone. it's turning cooler as we move through today and into the weekend. today predominantly cloudy skies like in this photo from one of our weather watchers. the colour certainly coming from the spring

flowers. if i show you the satellite picture, an area of low pressure up towards the north and shower clouds feeding in for the north west. more in the way of cloud further south and east and we have got a cold front ringing in cooler air behind it and outbreaks of rain, which will spread south—east through the day. today this is how it's looking through the afternoon, outbreaks of rain moving out of scotland and northern ireland, into northern england and northern wales. behind it blustery showers and sunshine, and where we see the sunshine developing the temperatures will drop off. highs of around 13 under the cloud. this evening the cold front works south and east, not a great deal of rain left on it as we move into the early hours. clear rails behind it and blustery showers persisting in the north and west. they could fill as snow on the

higher ground. cooler under the clear skies, temperatures minimum six to eight in the south under the cloud. into tomorrow, the cold front lingering close to the south coast, some uncertainty as to exactly where it looks like southern coastal areas will see a bit more in the way of cloud to begin with. away from that, we are looking at plenty of good spells of sunshine. a cooler feel to things but more in the way of sunshine with that. it could be hazy at times across england and wales, a few showers feeding into the far north again and they could be fairly blustery. temperature is cooler than they have been, between nine and 13 celsius. overnight into sunday, under clear skies we finally see the end of that cold front. temperatures falling away so for some of us, a frosty start on sunday. plenty of sunshine to be had. there will be a few blustery showers moving into the

north, parts of scotland and northern ireland and later into northern england. temperatures fairly similarto northern england. temperatures fairly similar to saturday. into the weekend, it is going to turn cooler. there will be a good deal of dry weather to come but also some sunshine. the chance of the few blustery showers in the north—west. a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. the eu agrees to delay brexit beyond 29th march, after late night talks in brussels. that's all from the bbc news at one, good afternoon. birmingham city have been deducted nine points for breaching the football league's spending rules, they will drop to 18th in the championship, five points above the relegation zone. let's get more on this from our

sports correspodnent, andy swiss. andy, this is a first. yes, it is a landmark moment for the football league. it is the first time that a club has been docked points for breaching these new financial regulations they brought ina financial regulations they brought in a couple of years ago that state clu bs a re in a couple of years ago that state clubs are not allowed losses of more than £13 million per year over a three—year period. birmingham have spent a lot of money on new players and it seems their recent losses have gone beyond this limit. they had already been put under a tra nsfer had already been put under a transfer embargo. a nine—point penalty is obviously very significant. it is the biggest points deduction since leeds united we re points deduction since leeds united were docked 15 points back in 2007. it does leave birmingham in a precarious position. it pushes them down to 18th in the table. that said, some fans will feel this could

have been worse because the maximum penalty for this is a 21 point deduction and as long as they can stay up this season, they should be able to start next season with a clea n able to start next season with a clean slate. peter beardlsey has been charged by the fa with racially abusing youth players while working as a coach with newcastle united. the former england midfielder left his role as the under 23s coach at the club earlier this month while an internal investigation into bullying was carried out. he has denied the allegations. he has until april 12 to respond to the fa charge. gareth southgate has a few selection issues ahead of tonight's opening euro 2020 qualifier against the czech republic. the england manager has had half a dozen withdrawals from the squad so teenagers jadon sancho and callum hudson odoi could both feature at some stage. every time we get together, the team is in every time we get together, the team isina every time we get together, the team is in a different place and different people are available. when

i have looked back over the two yea rs i have looked back over the two years at who scored important goals oi’ years at who scored important goals or made important contributions at different times, the squad has had to evolve. pa rt different times, the squad has had to evolve. part of that has been looking at bringing younger players in but part of that has been because we have always had four, five, six players missing and you have to adapt and adjust. yes, there will be people who have not played as often for us. but you know, all of them are ready to play for england. jo konta is through to the second round of the miami open the british number one recovered from losing the opening game on her serve to beat the qualifier jessica pegula in straight sets in just over an hour. and great britain's dan evans is making the most of reaching the main draw as a lucky loser, he lostjust two games, in beating tunisian malekjaziri. british number two cameron norrie was knocked out though. we saw one of the great games

of snooker at the tour championship in llandudno last night. ronnie o'sullivan was 6—2 down in his semifinal againstjudd trump but came back to win the match on the black in the deciding frame. he won five of the last six frames for a stunning 10—9 victory. he'll play either neil robertson or mark allen in the final. win that and then the five time world champion will also return to the top of the world rankings for the first time in nine years. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. counter—terrorism investigations are underway in birmingham, after windows were smashed at five mosques in city. sledgehammers were used in the attacks, which detectives are treating as coordinated.

the home secretary, sajid javid, has called the incidents ‘hateful‘, saying this has absolutely no place in society. earlier, adil parker, from the birmingham council of mosques, told my colleague annita mcveigh he'd expected something like this to happen. so, yes, it has beenjust about so, yes, it has been just about a week since we are coming to terms with the very sad treatment of our brothers and sisters in new zealand and this entire episode from yesterday has taken us back. we are all to be honest, i have been saying this since yesterday, we are not shocked or surprised, we were expecting something like this to happen once we heard about what happened in new zealand. we do have bigots who come out of the woodwork

and do things like this to our community. is there extra security around the mosques at the moment? the police authorities have been really vigilant. they have been around most of the mosques. they we re around most of the mosques. they were around all of the mosques overnight as well. yes, a big thumbs up overnight as well. yes, a big thumbs up to the pleas authorities around the west midlands. nonetheless, are some members of the community worried about attending mosques at the moment? our community, though defiant, are feeling a bit of angst and they are fearful. they are feeling vulnerable about what has happened. but we hope that it will not put people off coming to the mosque because the monster is a place of worship and we hope that in 2019 and a country like the united kingdom, we should not be fearful of coming to coming to the mosques. have you had messages from outside of the muslim community? after what

happened last week, on friday, in new zealand, since then we have had a lot of support from people across the anglican church, the catholic church, deceit community, the hindu community, the local synagogue, so we have had a lot of support. —— the sikh community. a tougher standard for punctuality will be introduced on britain's railways next month, in an attempt to improve performance. train times will be recorded to the minute at every stop, instead of the current system, which classes them as "on time" if they reach their final destination within five or 10 minutes of the timetable. theo leggett reports. whistle. when is a train delayed but still considered on time? more often than you might think. at the moment, a train is only classed as late if it arrived at its final destination at least five minutes behind schedule. or ten minutes if it is a long—distance service. under the new system, arrival times at every

station will be measured to the nearest minute. that should create a much clearer picture of when delays occur, and where. passengers will be able to see what percentage of trains have been running early, on time, or with different levels of delay. so, for example, this chart for february shows just 67% of trains across the country arriving on time. using the old method, the figure would have been 89%. passengers have said the punctuality measure you use at the moment do not chime with our experience, and do not match them. you say a train is on time. but if it is nine minutes late on a long—distance train, that doesn't feel on time to me. so, we are changing it so it is much more real. what the new system will not do is enable passengers to get more compensation for delays. for the moment, at least. because rail companies are held to the standards laid down in their franchise agreements which do not use the new measurements.

despite that, transport focus has welcomed the plan. it says timetables need to be a work of fact, not fiction. theo leggett, bbc news. 44 people have died in a huge blast at a chemical plant in eastern china, with at least 90 more injured according to state media. the powerful explosion followed a fire at the factory, which produces fertiliser. the death toll makes it one of the country's worst industrial accidents in recent years. ramzan karmali has more. the moment which shock not only a chemicalfactory in the moment which shock not only a chemical factory in eastern china but also the nearby area. in fact, the blast was found three kilometres away. the powerful explosion followed a fire at a factory which produces fertiliser. firefighters from across the whole of the province were brought in to help put out the flames of what is becoming one of the biggest industrial accidents to hit china in recent yea rs. accidents to hit china in recent years. it took them over 12 hours to

bring the fire under control and local residents were evacuated amid concerns about toxic fumes. there we re concerns about toxic fumes. there were reports over 600 people were sent to hospitalfor were reports over 600 people were sent to hospital for treatment. worried relevant —— relatives were quick to try and track down left once. translation: when we heard about the explosion, we did not know which factory it was in and we call people and found out it was in that industrial park so we called my brother, who works there, but no one picked up and we were pretty anxious after another call went unanswered. then a doctor called back and told as my brother was in the emergency room. the factory is owned by a chemical company that in the past has received a number of government penalties over waste management and air pollution. the exact cause of the explosion is currently being investigated but with safety standards often not being enforced properly, these types of industrial ink -- properly, these types of industrial ink —— incidents are becoming more

and more common. let's go to brussels. where the german chancellor angela merkel is speaking. the german chancellor angela merkel is expected to speak. there are reports she has been a little cross with some eu leaders for pushing britain so hard over brexit. it'll be interesting to see what she to say. we will hope to go back to brussels relatively shortly. i think she was supposed to be speaking earlier but she is somewhat delayed. we will take you to brussels as soon as we have angela merkel and we will have the business news shortly but first the headlines. the eu agrees to delay brexit beyond the 29th of march, after late night talks in brussels. theresa may returns to london, to try to convince mps to back her deal — she says mps have "a clear choice". and one week on from the deadly mosque attacks in christchurch, new zealand falls silent, to remember the 50 victims.

time now for the business news. shares in debenhams have dropped by more than a third after it revealed a plan which could see the value of investors' shares reduced to almost nothing. the struggling department store will ask its lenders for an extra £200m to help it resist a bid by sports direct which has offered to lend it £150m — if it puts its boss, mike ashley in charge. late trains are going to be clocked down to the minute under a new system of recording delays. at the moment a train isn't considered late until its five to ten minutes delayed. the new system should help operators see how delays are caused, but it won't mean passengers can claim more compensation. the indonesian airline, garuda, says it wants to cancel a multi—billion dollar order for boeing 737 max 8 aircraft because it says it's "lost trust" in the plane after it was involved in two crashes, one in indonesia, which killed more than 300 people.

it's the first known request to cancel an order for the aircaft which is currently grounded worldwide. up until last night we all assumed there would be one week to go until the uk leaves the eu. now it's three weeks or maybe nine — so a little more breathing space for businesses wondering what kind of brexit to expect. all day today we're talking to regional business voices to get an idea of how they are feeling and what the uncertainty means at a more local level. phil smith is managing director at business west which supports entrepreneurs in bristol, bath, gloucestershire and swindon. are you prepared for a no—deal brexit? absolutely not. that is the last thing we want. that would be disaster, i'm afraid. in terms of

brexit, are you... what preparations are you making? we still have some and answer questions. we have members around here that do not know what regulations we would be operating under or if we are in dispute with an eu company, what court jurisdiction they fall under. there are big unanswered questions. to be honest, we are fed up and frustrated and we need a deal. to be honest, we are fed up and frustrated and we need a dealm to be honest, we are fed up and frustrated and we need a deal. is it just really exporting and importing companies that you are concerned about? and how much do you depend upon those? exporting and importing is important but anybody who employs eu nationals will be worried about that. it is notjust exporters. it is the whole business population. what are the kind of problems they are facing with staff? we have had a company closed down in bristol and moved to the continent because they we re moved to the continent because they were worried. that is 50 redundancies in bristol. yesterday i

spoke to a cheeseman fracture. they had lost customers and it has wasted money and effort. if we do have a deal, do you think that will give companies in your area more opportunities elsewhere? no, ithink area more opportunities elsewhere? no, i think it don't take it off the headlines, the realjob will be done in negotiating the full agreement with the eu. at the least a deal of some sort would take it off the headlines. a deal of some sort, some of our members want to accept the deal now, some would like to revoke it altogether, some would be happy to be honest with a longer... get a better deal, but no deal is not the a nswer better deal, but no deal is not the answer at all. are you getting information from government at all, enough, as that change recently? there is still of —— a lot of

u na nswered there is still of —— a lot of unanswered questions. could you tra nsfer unanswered questions. could you transfer your unanswered questions. could you tra nsfer your staff unanswered questions. could you transfer your staff abroad to your european subsidiary, we don't know the rules about that, we don't know the rules about that, we don't know the rules about customer data. there are unanswered questions and even if we do know the rules and regulations, give us a chance to implement these things. you can't just switch them on overnight. other stories making business news today: more about this man, mike ashley, the owner of sports direct who's been on a high street buying spree and is currently trying to gain control of debenhams. in an interview with the times, he said he's not interested in buying arcadia, the empire of another retail king sir philip green. the arcadia group, which includes topshop and miss selfridge, admitted last week that it's working on a restructuring plan. ashley said he wouldn't even pay £1 for it and for reputational reasons, he did not want to "get involved with its pension deficit". the travel operator thomas cook is closing 21 stores and cutting 320 jobs. it says that more and more of its customers are choosing to book online and also blames the wider challenges of the high street. last year it said its profits had been hit by a heatwave which saw

many holidaymakers stay in the uk. sainsbury‘s and asda have offered to sell between 125 and 150 of their stores along with some petrol stations if competition regulators give their planned merger the green light. earlier this week, the supermarkets promised to invest £1bn a year in price cuts. one of superdry‘s founders says he wants to come back and help run the clothes retailer after he quit over its strategic direction last year. julian dunkerton is appealing to shareholders to allow him return to the board. he says that superdry needs to stop discounting so heavily, improve its online business and abandon plans to sell children's wear and home furnishings. just a quick look at the markets. down pretty sharply having gained a little earlier. the pound is reasonably strong in the context of

the last four months. —— the last few months. that's all the business news. adverts claiming autism can be cured are to be banned by the uk's advertising standards authority. the advertising watchdog has ordered one 150 homeopaths to stop claiming they can cure autism with a treatment that claims to detox heavy metals, vaccines and antibiotics from the child's system. samantha fenwick reports. when this woman's son was diagnosed as autistic, she felt she had no support. you've been through loads of uncertainty. is he, isn't it? and you finally get an appointment with the paediatrician and you get the yeah, his autistic anything, let's help him and then nothing. just nothing. so to try and get help, this to a treatment called cease, complete and limitation of autism spectrum exhibition. i was stupid. i thought it can't hurt, it's a tribe and i don't really

believe in homoeopathy but you are reaching out for something to help and they give you a remedy and you go back after two weeks and say, well, i think the eye contact was a bit better or perhaps he is communicating a bit more. did you see any changes? no, but i desperately wanted to. cease therapy is homoeopathy based on the idea that toxins in the environment and vaccines may cause autism but these claims have been found to be false and experts say this treatment is potentially harmful. there is no scientific basis whatsoever. it talks about curing autism and autism is not a disease. it's not something that needs to be cured. psychologically, it's really harmful to give parents the idea that the way to love and nurture their autistic child is to try and cure their autism. the treatment also recommends giving

autistic children 11—5 times more zinc than is recommended by the department of health and 200 times more vitamin c, which might cause diarrhoea and vomiting. the practice of homoeopathy in the uk is not regulated and this angers some campaigners. as an autistic adult, it disgusts me that these charlatans are taking advantage of parents and in turn making children very sick. i've been campaigning for five years for legislation against fake cures for autism. there needs to be a legislation brought in to stop these snake oil salesman taking advantage of parents. there are 150 cease therapists in the uk and all of them have been told that they must stop claiming the treatment can cure autism. five face prosecution and the advertising standards watchdog has told the bbc they will take further action if others don't comply. the society of homeopaths is now

thinking about renaming cease therapy to make sure claims are not made that can't be substantiated. this mum, who spent a few hundred pounds on the treatment, has this advice to parents. don't go for the stupid therapy, put your purse away and go for something more sensible. it began 50 years ago in birmingham, england, and has gone on to spread to every corner of the world. now, bands and fans from across the globe are gathering in london to celebrate a great british invention. david sillito now reports on the first ever world metal congress, a celebration and critical analysis of heavy metal. the world metal congress. it's the first ever global gathering of musicians from around the world to celebrate the good and the great of metal culture.

it's been 50 years since the birth of heavy metal if you count the first record by black sabbath as ground zero. they came from birmingham. it began here in birmingham. black sabbath in 1969 and a culture that has now truly spread around the world and is today gathering in london. this is japan's endon and they‘ re rather loud. and they're not alone. there are now metal bands in over 140 countries. to my mind, i never expected heavy

metal to come from places tell me, what's it like playing a gig in damascus when the war is on? all right, i will tell you this. all the gigs we did in damascus, mortar shells were dropping at the place that was like, i won't even express how it is. so 50 years on, a celebration of the global appeal of a great british invention. # god bless you all.# time now for a look at the weather

forecast. it is turning cooler as we move through today and into the weekend. a lot of cloud in this photo sent in by one of our weather watchers. we have brighter skies on the way. you can see this dotted colour on the map is some shower clouds and that is what is on the way as we move through tonight and into tomorrow. this cold front will sinking to the south. clearer skies behind and showers in the north and west. this afternoon, that cold front bringing outbreaks of rain. into northern england and northern parts of wales. behind it, some sunshine developing. fairly breezy. cloudy skies ahead of it. temperatures staying in the double figures. we have the clearer spells, temperatures starting to dip off. overnight, that cloud syncing

to the south and east. behind it, clearer skies and further blustery showers to be had in the north and west. some of those falling as snow over higher ground. temperatures falling away to three celsius. as we move into tomorrow, that cold front will be fairly close to the south. for coastal areas, i think there will be a fair amount of cloud around to begin the day tomorrow. away from that, we are looking at plenty of sunshine. the cloud could be thick enough ratio spots of drizzle. good spells of sunshine away from southern coastal areas. the senchenko be hazy across england and wales. looks chilly overnight saturday into sunday. we will see that cold front eventually clearing. temperatures

with clear skies will be falling away. a touch of frost in the north. there will be plenty of good spells of sunshine to come. some showers moving into north and scotland were northern ireland. cabbages simmer to saturday. maximum around 13 celsius. —— temperatures similar to saturday.