and austria's katharina liensberger won the women's slalom gold at the alpine skiing world championships in cortina. mikaela shiffrin's bid for a record fifth successive title ended with bronze. world cup overall leader petra vlhova of slovakia took the silver. we're just over a month away from the start of the new f1 season. teams are showing off their new cars — the first were mclaren earlier this week. after a tough few years, they're close to challenging the likes of mercedes and red bull and there was a distinctly different tune when mike bushell went to see the car in action this week. # lights out, heart racing... back on track at silverstone. # overcoming the pressure, feel the pulse in my neck, # we're in this together...

but there was a different vibe this week as mclaren got their new driving team of britain's lando norris and daniel ricciardo in tune, after a year in which the pandemic has affected the whole sport, from mechanics, theirfamilies, to superstar drivers. only last month, lando himself came down with coronavirus before a training camp in dubai. i guess i'm reasonably fit. maybe had a few days where i was quite tired, struggling with headaches and everything. apart from that i recovered well and i'm back to normal, but the higher age group and the more vulnerable people, you have to feel for. now 21 and entering his third season, lando has a mind coach, while a first podium finish last summer has helped him believe, while putting fear into his opponents and his new mclaren teammate. everyone's starting at a younger and younger age. and i think when you're that young as well, you don't really have any responsibilities, you've got nothing, you're just driving, and you just want to drive fast, and you're certainly pretty fearless.

i still feel pretty fearless myself. so, uh, i think we're going to have a good balance. the season will feel rather different, they say, a sense of restraint prevails. there'll be the first spending cap brought into the sport, which is being reduced even more now, and there is a new sense of perspective. no—one really kind of thinks such a thing is going to happen. when you're in this period you realise how grateful you are for a lot of the things you're able to do. i'm still a normal person at the end of the day who suffers with different things but also drives a formula i car and have a lot of fun. and after the team bonding session this week, maybe he's got another string to his bow. this is it. thanks, everyone. all the top musicians were given the triangle at school, that's what i remember. everton are still leading liverpool i—o remember. everton are still leading liverpool 1—0 in the merseyside derby, 58 minutes gone, you can

follow it on the bbc sport website and app. i will be back at 7:45pm with more from sportsday. next on bbc news, it's time for ros atkins on covid—i9 and schools. this week, i want to talk about covid—i9 and children. we are at a defining moment for the world's children and young people. the decision of governments and partners taken now will have lasting impacts on hundreds of millions of young people and on the development prospects of countries for decades to come. governments around the world are going to have to decide whether children can be at school. it is one ofjoe biden�*s top goals. it should be a national priority to get our kids back into school and keep them in school. it's the same in the uk. there's nothing i want to do more than reopen schools. _

and most children want to get back to. want to get back too. we've lost a bit of the mentality to want to learn, because, last time, we were all heads down doing it and now, it's, like, well, how long am i going to be doing this for now? i think there are a lot of things that make it really difficult to learn at home. people seem to think that it's just the similar idea of school, - you go in an online class— when you are supposed to be in class and then that's fine, _ but it's much more tiring than that. of course, in an ideal world, everyone wants schools back. the issue is how to do that safely for children and for staff. a number of teachers will still be concerned and perhaps feeling a little bit as if they are the canaries in the mine. and so the question remains, how to educate children in a pandemic? i'm going to look at the science around covid in schools, the different options available to governments and the impact right now of children being stuck at home, because it's hard to overstate the importance of getting children back to the classroom. here's the who.

they are a hugely important part of our social, educational architecture. the baseline of our civilisation. but we can't turn schools into yet another political football in this game. it's not fair on our children. it's also hard to overstate the scale of what's already happened. this is the un's children's charity, unicef. the sheer number of children whose education was completely disrupted for months on end is nothing short of a global education emergency. and, to help us understand the urgency here, we need to look at the pandemic�*s impact on education and the numbers are shocking. unicef estimates that, during the first peak of the virus, 1.6 billion children in 192 countries were sent home. in december, one in five schoolchildren, 320 million, were still out of school. and some children are much more seriously affected than others by this. that's dictated by three

intertwining factors. first of all, government policy. different countries have chosen different routes. these are kenyan children going back injanuary after the authorities closed schools for nine straight months. the second factor is the prevalence of the virus and how that impacts school closures. this is brazil. latin america has some of the highest rates of covid and children there have lost four times as many days as those in the rest of the world. and the third factor is the kind of education children can access while they are at home. children in low income families or living in lower gdp countries are less likely to be able to access online learning. this is one father and son injamaica.

all of which means the un describes the situation this way. the covid—19 pandemic has led to the largest i disruption of education ever. and it's notjust about short—term disruption, there is a long—term warning, too. now we face a generation - of catastrophe, that would waste untold human potential, undermine decades of. progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. | well, to try and avoid that, governments want children back at school as soon as possible and a number of strategies are being explored. they all begin with the science and an assessment of how to make sure teachers and children stay covid safe at school. now, we know that the virus spreads inside schools in a way that is directly connected in the way that it spreads outside of schools. here's the who again. there are many countries around the world where schools are reopening, successfully and safely, because countries have dealt with the real problem, community transmission. so, in countries like australia

and new zealand, where community transmission is very, very low, schools can open. those countries, though, are the exception right now. look at these numbers. this is the global infection rate. it's decreasing but it still much higher than it was for most of last year and, in most countries, the virus is not contained. it's spreading within the community. so what do you do about schools in that situation? well, the authorities in the us suggest that schools can still open. we know that most of the disease that comes into the school comes into the community and, with universal mask wearing, we know that there is very limited transmission within the schools and that that transmission is largely from staff to staff. the argument here being that, with the right measures in schools and across the community, schools are not a particular risk. here's more from the cdc. it says...

the point being not that there is no risk, just not a greater one. this, though, is not a closed discussion. as the huffpost—uk put it at the end of last year... and now they are closed, there is a similar debate about whether to open them and, to assess this, we need to break this down into two considerations. one is the health risk to children and teachers from the virus and the other is the risk that they will pass the virus on to others. well, on health, the advice for children is very clear. the chances of children catching covid and then getting long—term serious problems as a result of it solely due to going to school are incredibly small. then on the risk that children can pass the virus to others, well, it varies according to age, as the who explains. there appear to be differences in transmission amongst the younger children,

transmitting less to each other, compared to teenage children, which appear to transmit at the same rate that adults do. and that brings us to teacher to teacher, adult to adult transmission in schools. as we've seen in the us, that is an issue. here's the president of the american federation of teachers. ultimately, all the risk is on the adults who are doing the education. that's why we are trying to make sure that things are safe. but we know that the benefits are huge for kids, that's why we are trying to take this risk. some teachers in the us went further, demanding notjust better safety measures in school, but, also, the vaccine before they would go back. this clip is from msnbc. on the verge of a strike, chicago public schools will not return to in—person learning as planned today. the authorities, though, didn't agree with that. nor are teachers in the uk being prioritised for a vaccine. and perhaps these disagreements are inevitable. just after schools shut again

in the uk injanuary, the guardian published this article by professor devi sridhar. she is chair of global public health at the university of edinburgh, under the headline "when should uk schools reopen for all pupils" we are told there was no simple answer and, after reviewing all available data, professor sridhar concludes the issue is farfrom clear—cut, the science is still unfolding but she adds that, when we look at european data, we may have overestimated the effectiveness of closing schools. now, if we have looked at the risk to teachers and pupils on the scale of the disruption to children, the final consideration here is broader government policy, because schools are part of a broader calculation. there are four examples. take scotland, it is currently in lockdown and its government have choices about where to ease those restrictions first. it could be hospitality, or, in this case, it will be schools. we are very deliberately choosing to use the very limited headroom we have right now to get at least some children back to school,

because children's education and well—being is such an overriding priority, but being able to get children back to education may mean the rest of us living with some other restrictions for longer. that is a choice. it is the managed risk of opening schools in exchange for the known benefits for children. next, you could look at denmark. it was one of the first countries to reopen schools and they have largely remained open. it uses smaller, local lockdowns to contain outbreaks and its number of cases and deaths are below comparable european nations. or there is israel. it's prioritised vaccinating students so they can sit exams. in south korea, well, it went to great lengths to ensure exams went ahead. temperatures were tested, students separated and doctors in ppe delivered exam papers to the few in hospital with covid—i9. these are all calculations, judgments, but governments are now making these decisions amid an avalanche of information on the catastrophic consequences of closing schools both now

and for decades to come. this is the chair of the education committee in westminster. we need to do everything we can to be safe but there could be an epidemic of educational poverty, a growing digital divide and a safeguarding crisis with vulnerable children being affected by mental health. for these reasons and many more, governments are pushing to get schools open again because, while there are many elements of this pandemic we don't fully understand, the detrimental consequences of closing schools are already in plain sight around the world. it's been an exceptionally mild saturday for many of us, but for some an exceptionally wet saturday as well. parts of wales, western and north western england, and scotland,

there are flood warnings in force. the rain falling is now beginning to ease off and will continue to do so through tonight. still some showers into the far north—west of the uk and a band of cloud and rain in the far south—east. brisk winds becoming confined to the north—west of scotland, and temperatures between 6—11 degrees. a very mild night in the south—east. tomorrow, this band of cloud and patchy rain will be across parts of england, drifting west into eastern and southern wales. northern england should stay bright and mostly dry. northern ireland and scotland seeing a mixture of sunshine and showers, with top temperatures of between 11 and 15 celsius. a little cooler for some on monday, but only a little. on tuesday, some heavy rain will push back into the north—west with the risk of some further flooding.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at seven... care home residents in england will be allowed to have one person, visit them regularly from the 8th of march as easing of lockdown measures start to be revealed. number ten says reuniting families and allowing people to have more social contact will be an absolute priority in easing lockdown after schools reopen. prince charles has visited the king edward vii hospital in central london, where his father, the duke of edinburgh is being treated. a court in russia upholds a decision to jail opposition leader alexei navalny forjust over two and a half years and finds him guilty of a further charge. president biden declares a major disaster in texas, as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure. and a 21—year—old briton has become the youngest woman to row solo across the atlantic.