the headlines on bbc news... the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the uk rises to 39 as the prime minister warned that it is likely to spread further across the country. the nhs prepares for a major outbreak as the government's cobra meets. the cabinet office is to investigate allegations of bullying by the home secretary following claims by a former senior civil servant. the rain may have eased but dozens of homes in east yorkshire are still under water and are likely to be so for days. the bargaining begins. trade talks get under way in brussels between the uk

and the eu. in a moment it will be time for sportsday but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news. at 7pm on beyond 100 days on the eve of the biggest day in the us election calendar so far, super tuesday, we'll be live at the white house. will mayor pete's withdrawal from the race help the weekend's big winnerjoe biden? at 8:30pm questions will be answered ina at 8:30pm questions will be answered in a special programme about coronavirus. and at 10.40 and 11.30 we'll be taking a look at tomorrow's front pages, my guests this evening will be jack blanchard from the politico website and the spectator‘s economics correspondent, kate andrews. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm jane dougall.

will we start seeing this at stadia around the world? fans being checked for signs of the coronavirus in italy. we look at the impact on world sport. antonyjoshua confirms he will fight to defend his belts in britain this summer, but not against the fans favourite. and, after their worst haul in an olympic year for 20 years, will british cycling get over the shock of the world championships before tokyo? also coming up in the programme: after two spells in administration and the threat of extinction, porstmouth rise again to play arsenal in the fa cup.

welcome to the programme. by its very nature, gathering to watch sport, puts thousands of fans in close proximity to each other. which is why so many sporting events are being affected by the spread of the coronavirus. we start with rugby's six nations. today, the organisers met to discuss the remainder of the tournament, after the match between ireland and italy was postponed. england are due to travel to rome to play italy on the 14th of march, but organisers say all the matches are going ahead as planned. our sports correspondent alex capstick is in paris. here at the headquarters of french by, here at the headquarters of french rugby, the french team have been practising ahead of their game against scotland at the weekend in edinburgh where they hope to preserve their unbeaten record in this year's tournament. in a

statement released earlier today, it was said that as it stands all the other fixtures left in this competition will go ahead as planned. members of these six nations council have been meeting in paris to discuss the ramifications of the coronavirus crisis. they are going to take advice from health experts and from governments. boris johnson has led a high—level meeting today in which he said that he expected the disease to spread but they had a plan of which more details would be revealed in the next days and weeks. there still is a decision to make about what to do with the postponed match between italy and ireland. so far, that is the only game to have been called off in this year's competition but off in this year's competition but of course that could change. so, thatis of course that could change. so, that is the six nations. motor—racing has also been affected with the first two races of the motogp season being cancelled in qatarand thailand. formula one's chinese grand prix has also been cancelled. in football, with the virus spreading to northern italy, serie a matches have either been

postponed or played behind closed doors. for some of those still going ahead, fans were checked for signs of the virus as they entered grounds. the euros are due to take place this summer but, based across 12 countries, it involves a great deal of travel for teams and fans. however, uefa have held talks and say they aren't panicking and it will go ahead. as for the premier league, some managers are refusing to shake hands, others aren't concerned. how much sense it would make to delete all the results of this season delete all the results of this season and stuff like this would be really interesting. obviously, when i saw it first time i really thought, wow, somebody thinks that something like that. so, liverpool fa ns something like that. so, liverpool fans aren't silly enough to believe

in these things. very relaxed. next weekend it's the showpiece event forjump racing in the uk, the cheltenam festival. the british horseracing authority and cheltenham racecourse are both confident that the coronavirus won't affect it. our reporter laura scott has more. cheltenham is the biggest four days in the racing calendar and horses like these are having their final preparations. but the looming large over the racing industry is the threat of coronavirus which threatens to derail the whole festival. and for trainers like nikki, there is a palpable concern about what could be decided over the coming days. it is frightening because it is the combination of a whole years work goes on for days. it is the biggest and financially for the industry, the most important for the industry, the most important for days in that whole year. some sports have been held behind closed doors in recent weeks, including

racing in hong kong. that doesn't seem likely to happen in cheltenham and henderson says if it is called off then it must be rescheduled. honestly, if it isn't on then we have a whole lot of very horses bursting to and nowhere to go. and it would make our life difficult but we could live with that as long as we could live with that as long as we knew there was going to be another date on the horizon where we can have the festival. stables like these need showpiece fixtures and there is undoubtably a sense of uncertainty about what might happen with the festival. at the moment however, it is still all systems go. we have to prepare these horses every day as if it is going to start next tuesday. let's hope it does. that is more detail on coronavirus and its impact on sport on the bbc sport website. if there's one boxing match everyone wants to see, it's tyson fury

against antonyjoshua, an all british unification fight. however, it doesn't look like that will happen soon because confirmation came earlier today that antonyjoshua would be defending his belts this summer, but not against fury. instead, joshua will fight the bulgarian kubrat pulev who he had been scheduled to fight in 2017. joshua confirmed the fight with this picture on social media. it'll take place at tottenham's stadium on the 20th ofjune. earlier i spoke to bbc boxing commentator steve bunce and asked ifjoshua had been obliged to fight pulev? yes, he is stuck or he can surrender that belt. he has plenty of others but if you want to keep all of the belts intact, if he wants to keep his eyes on that enormous prize, the first time ever that two heavyweight champions will fight for all four belts, he has to keep the belt. to keep it, he has a tough fight to be bulgarian. it is that simple. we have been saying it for 18 months.

he isa have been saying it for 18 months. he is a dangerous fighter, when he didn't he is a dangerous fighter, when he didn‘t fight he is a dangerous fighter, when he didn't fightjoshua back in cardiff, at that time, i thought that was going to be the hardest fight of joshua's career and what puvel has got is nothing to lose and in heavyweight boxing that is the most dangerous thing you can deliver to the ring. it happened tojoshua last year, everyone thought it was a walkover butjoshua year, everyone thought it was a walkover but joshua was year, everyone thought it was a walkover butjoshua was knocked out. nothing to lose, that is the danger. he got him back. i tyson fury's win over deontay wilder, its looks like there will be a third wilder and fury match. we will see wilder this year? my gut feeling is that it is in may of next year and it could be in may of next year and it could be in may of next year and it could be in may of next year in las vegas was dubbed if it is this year, it is in

late, late december back in saudi. it would have been nice to see it in britain, and all british unification fight in britain. 90,000 people in wembley, it sells out and about three and a half seconds, it would stop the country for a week. it would be fantastic for the bid would have been lovely to have a tip but it won't happen, we don't get what we want, we get what we know it would negotiate. we have confirmation that the fight against pulev will be here. he is been holding out. anthony joshua pulev will be here. he is been holding out. anthonyjoshua will walk to the ring, and he might walk first. that is odd because he did that in saudi arabia and he loved being in that ring with 20,000 people. he was sucking it in and i think he will do the same in totte n ha m think he will do the same in tottenham stadium. he will walk out

and enjoy every single second of it. let's catch up with some other sports news headlines. organisers of the six nations haven't ruled out taking the championship off free—to—air television. the rights are currently shared between the bbc and itv, but that won't be allowed when the current deal ends in 2021. there are reports today that it would lead to the tournament going behind a paywall. staying with the six nations, maku vunipola is back in the england squad for their game against wales this weekend. the prop missed the ireland game for personal reasons. anthony watson and mark wilson are also back in the squad after injuries. and the former england winger chris ashton has left sale sharks after terminating his contract early. hejoined sale nearly two years after a spell in france with toulon. he's scored 20 tries in 44 tests for england but hasn't been capped in more than a year. we've become used to seeing great britain win time after time in track cycling with a0 olympic medals won since lottery

funding began in 1997. but, the six—time olympic champion sir chris hoy has said he doesn't expect gb cyclists to dominate at tokyo this year, after watching britain come seventh in the medal table at the track cycling world championships in germany. michael redford reports. when the rio olympics were on the horizon in 2016, great britain's track cycling team were on top of the world. now with tokyo just around the corner, they seem to have been brought back down to earth with a bump with a series of disappointing results. laura left bruised and beaten, injuries not allowing her to reach her brilliant best. there is a silver one but finished every second behind the netherlands. a silver in the women's tea m netherlands. a silver in the women's team pursuit was a gold never looked likely, the usa simply too good.

there was a bronze and only one british world champion to celebrate. with the game is just over four months away, former olympic champion chris hoy believes the team have cause for concern for the top you can't put any sort of spin on it. this is a disappointing result for the british team across the board. it is not a time to panic but i think it is a team to really have a quick review, assess where they are and assess how they can make these improvements. he might be right to be worried for stubborn 2016, great britain with a top team at the world championships winning nine medals, this time around they won just four. we're not here to peak this event, we know we are on a journey. a numberof teams around we know we are on a journey. a number of teams around are expecting to peak here and then peak again in july where i am sure you will have heard from all of our riders about the fact that they feel like they are making good progress and they're probably in terms of physical performance probably about eight out

of ten so we have a little bit of work, we have some time. great britain have been dominant for a decade in the velodrome but they now have work to do if they want to remain the team to catch in tokyo. earlier i spoke to team sprint olympic gold medalist callum skinner and began by asking him if he was surprised that gb had come seventh? it was a bit of a shock, last year we definitely had a better world championships. reportedly it is the worst we have had since the olympics since 1999 so for a lot of the athletes and the support team and the staff it will be a bit of a shock but ultimately the world stepped up and did some dilly incredible records. i wouldn't say everything has gone wrong just yet. i think the olympics is the litmus test for that. there are a lot of nations coming out of these world championships, holland, the danish.

things are stepping up and changing so things are stepping up and changing so it is difficult. it is probably a lot of little things. we have been so lot of little things. we have been so used to seeing team gb get a medal both olympics and world championships. is it just medal both olympics and world championships. is itjust a case that other countries have caught up and taken over? historically it has been quite typical so when the gb programmers first started we copied a lot of the best bits from different teams around the world so if there is a new powerhouse nation thatis if there is a new powerhouse nation that is about to develop itself out there i'm sure we will find out what that next will be but i would say at the moment if you ask the majority of the competitors at the world championships, db is still the nation to beat because it is not set undone into the is over. that training camp, is there enough time forgb to peak training camp, is there enough time for gb to peak in time for the olympics? —— it is not said