coming up on sportsday on bbc news — the full line—up for the champions league, including a messy draw for chelsea, who face barcelona in the last 16. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. snow, ice and plunging temperatures have caused major disruption across swathes of the country today. more than 1,000 schools have been closed in wales, the midlands, the south west and other areas. rail travel across england and wales has been disrupted and hundreds of flights cancelled. tonight, conditions on many roads are treacherous. forecasters are warning that temperatures could hit minus 13 degrees overnight. that would make it the coldest night of the winter so far. 0ur correspondent sima kotecha sent this report from the west midlands. a blanket of snow, covering large parts of the uk. an ideal playground for children, many of whom have had the day off with hundreds of schools closed due to treacherous conditions. here in birmingham the council run schools are closed today. the local authority has faced criticism with some saying there was no need because roads like this one have been cleared throughout the day. the council says tomorrow it will be up to individual headteachers as to whether they open 01’ headteachers as to whether they open or remain closed and that the priority of them is the safety of children. it's not just priority of them is the safety of children. it's notjust here, schools and buckinghamshire, shropshire and staffordshire have also been closed. many roads have been layered with ice is making driving difficult. some vehicle emergency services are claiming they've had almost 111,000 calls today from people struggling on the roads. yesterday we did 14,000, 600 of those were vehicles stuck in snow. main advice would be take it very steady. pack a few extras in the car like a blanket, and make sure your mobile phone is charged. make sure you have your main contacts saved in phone. in south wales to laurie got its tyres stuck in the snow, while in northern ireland a postcard picture emerged on the belfast to londonderry route. in the highest village in surrey, freezing temperatures combined with strong winds proved challenging but some of the locals cannot get enough. up here we sometimes get a flurry but it never really settles and this is the first time in about three years we've had some decent snowfall. in the west midlands and nhs trusts put an appeal allowed for four wheel drive vehicles to help stranded nurses get to hospitals. we offered a number to our colleagues because there's pressure on them in the moment to get patients to hospital. we have well—trained drivers and good vehicles that we are happy to lend. a quarter of the flights from heathrow have been cancelled, while the port of calais has reopened. however it says there are still some delays to ferry services between the port and dover. the met office says it will be an extremely cold night with some places experiencing temperatures of around minus 12 celsius. much of the snow will turn to ice, raising more concerns about getting out and about tomorrow. 0ur correspondentjon kay is at a gritting station at stroud in gloucestershire. this weather was forecast, so shouldn't councils have been better prepared? some councils have faced a lot of criticism, notjust today but especially over the weekend. here in gloucestershire they would say they are doing everything they possibly can, they have been working flat out for days to try to keep things moving. to give you an example, this depot was full of gritting salt on friday night. you can see now it's only half full, that's how much they have been spreading on the roads. 450 tonnes of salt will be spread on the roads in this county alone tonight, that's just this county just a night. but it's notjust gloucestershire where they are expecting incredibly low temperatures over the next few hours. in the scottish borders, temperatures tonight expected to drop to about minus nine celsius. in rural parts of cheshire are expected to be down to minus 10 celsius and the met office thinks the coldest place in the uk this evening could be in mid wales, down to minus 13 celsius, possibly even colder than that so you can see why there's a for salt, notjust here but in many parts of the country. it is when the salt is spread which is crucial. they are trying to do their sums to follow the forecast but also data from sensors in the road to make sure it's not too cold or worked to make sure they spread the salt at the optimum time. rush hour tomorrow is expected to be very difficult for commuters of all kinds. 0ne is expected to be very difficult for commuters of all kinds. one last fa ct — commuters of all kinds. one last fact — if you are sprinkling salt on your fish fact — if you are sprinkling salt on yourfish and fact — if you are sprinkling salt on your fish and chips watching television right now, enough salt will be spread in this county tonight to cover 300 million portions of fish and chips. so now you know. thank you very much. scientists are hailing a major breakthrough in the search for a treatment for the brain disease huntington's. a research team at university college london has managed to correct the defect which causes the disease. it's being described as potentially the biggest breakthrough in 50 years, as scientists look for a way to treat this and other brain—wasting diseases. our health correspondent james gallagher was given exclusive access to the trial and has this report. when you've got something that's degenerative, you know every day, the last day was probably better than the next one is going to be. this family has been blighted by huntington's, they have seen their mother stephanie, uncle keith and grandmother lived all dying from it. they describe it as parkinson's, alzheimer's and motor neuron disease rolled into one. frank, his sister sunday and also their brother peter's brains will all slowly degenerate from huntington's too but now they have hope. the treatment is called gene silencing. huntington's disease is the result of a corrupted gene that leads to the creation of a toxic protein which destroys the brain. a messenger carries the blueprint from the corrupted gene. this treatment sticks to the messenger, disabling it and lowering the production of the toxic protein. 46 patients had to be experimental drug injected into the fluid that babes the brain and spinal cord. the therapy was safe and effective, led by scientists at university college london, who say the results are of ground—breaking importance. london, who say the results are of ground-breaking importance. for the first time we have the potential and hope for a therapy that one day may slow or prevent huntington's disease completely. this is the experimental therapy. it is exciting but it is not a cure. it will require far more research and following patients for yea rs research and following patients for years to come. this is a brain dying of huntington's. doctors are starting longer trials to see whether targeting the protein can change the course of this disease forfamilies like change the course of this disease for families like the allens. change the course of this disease for families like the allensm change the course of this disease for families like the allens. if it works and it stops me getting any worse, that will be fantastic. personally i never really thought it would happen, that that would happen. it's all about can we stop it in other people, our children. toxic proteins also build up in the brains of patients with diseases like alzheimer's and parkinson's. trials are now planned to see if gene silencing could help these people too. police in greater manchester have begun a murder investigation after three children died in a house fire in worsley. another child, aged three, is critically ill. their mother is being treated in hospital. detectives have urged the suspect to hand himself in. danny savage reports. a short street of terraced houses on the edge of manchester. early today, it became a murder scene, when someone deliberately set fire to this house. neighbours who knew the victims and saw what happened have been left deeply upset. ijust heard people screaming and shouting, and then ijust opened the bathroom window and just looked over, and it wasjust like... all i can imagine, like a big orange cloud. just a bang and all fireballs coming from the house. susan smith watched in horror as the children who used to pat her dog were rescued. all the ambulances, then the ambulances were pulling up at the side of our house because they couldn't get down. they were carrying the children to the ambulance. awful thing to happen on your own street. very. a 14—year—old girl died at the scene. an eight—year—old boy and seven—year—old girl died later in hospital. the three—year—old girl is in critical condition. their mother is also seriously ill. police are being very forthright about what happened. i want to describe what this incident is. it's the murder — using fire — of three children, and we have a three—year—old girl fighting for her life, who is seriously ill. this will devastate this family forever, and words cannot describe what they're going through. and they believe they know who is responsible. all i will say is he knows who he is, and he should give himself up immediately. in the hours before the fire, there was trouble here and police were called. that means the force has to refer itself to its own watchdog. tonight an investigation continues here at the scene and in the wider area. police won't publicly named their prime suspect but scores of officers are out looking for him. meanwhile friends and family are trying to deal with the events here. for three children to die is bad enough, but knowing it was deliberately started and this is now a murder inquiry makes it even more shocking. danny, thank you. police in new york say an explosion at manhattan's busiest bus terminal during rush hour was an attempted terror attack. the suspect was injured along with three others. he had a homemade bomb strapped to his body. from new york, nick bryant reports. there are disturbing images from the beginning. it is 7:20am, the height of rush—hour, and a security camera appears to show an explosive device going off amidst a crowd of monday morning commuters. a picture taken from cctv appears to show him on the floor shortly afterwards. it was a low—tech bomb which left the bomber himself with the worst injuries. three others were treated afterwards for minor injuries including a police officer, in what the authorities have described as an attempted terror attack. police were called to a reported explosion, responding units found and injured 27—year—old male. we have identified him as akayed ullah. he had wounds to his body. an investigation at the scene to his body. an investigation at the scene indicates he was wearing an improvised low—tech explosive device attached to his body. coming out such a busy time in such a congested place, the intent appears to have been to cause maximum disruption. the port authority bus terminal serves 65 million passengers a year, this could have been so much worse. this was an attempted terrorist attack. thank god the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals. thank god our first responders were there so quickly to address the situation to make sure people were safe. what's remarkable is that within two hours of the attack, new york city has returned to normal. the subways are all open and people are going about their business. this attack failed to cause death and it failed to cause much disruption. the speed at which this city started moving again not only speaks of its determined resilience but also the creeping normalisation of these kind of attacks in the world's major cities. new yorkers know that their transportation systems are vulnerable. we have been learning akayed ullah came here in 2011 with his family, that he got a green card and is now aus that he got a green card and is now a us permanent resident. what the police are not telling us is what his possible motivation may be. whether he was inspired in some way by the group calling itself islamic state or whether he had a direct link with islamic state, but at the moment they think he was acting alone in a very amateurish way. our top story this evening. snow has caused major disruption across the country as road, rail and air travel are all hit. and still to come... six months since the grenfell fire — how a community came together at the very moment it faced its gravest threat. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: tempers flare at old trafford. as city are accused of milking their celebrations — it'sjose mourinho who ends up with milk on his face. the bbc has commissioned one of the largest surveys of sexual harassment at work. the poll of 6,000 men and women, found people working in the hospitality sector, self—employed workers, and those on zero hours contracts, more likely to face unwanted behaviour. among the other findings — 40% of women, and 18% of men said they'd been sexually harassed in the workplace. nearly one in seven women — 14% — said they've been sexually assaulted at work. and 5% of women said they were told their career would be advanced in return for sexual favours. our special corrrespondent, lucy manning, has been listening to some of the women affected. i've had people ask me to send them nude photos in the workplace, and you feel like nothing is going to be done about it. as a waitress, i experience sexual harassment all the time. i almost think of my work as sex work. he's drunk, and tries to come onto me wearing this like bathrobe. he's disgusting. for many young working women, the question is not if they've been harassed doing theirjob, but how many times. it's one of those things where there are so many examples of it, it's difficult to choose one. it's difficult to even pick one thing because it seems so ingrained into every interaction you have. honeyjamie worked in gyms, but had to leave the industry due to harassment by men and women she worked with. the bbc‘s poll of 6,000 people, the largest survey on harassment at work, found 40% of women said it's happened to them. i was a teenager at the time, so i thought, almost in a way as well, that this must be just what it's like to have a job. this is what it's like to be a young woman. this is normal. a work contact of mine who wasn't in my company, a colleague from somewhere else, decided to stick his tongue down my throat, completely uninvited. she has the text sent by the senior colleague who lunged at her. i'm like, you don't remember trying to kiss me? he's like, "oh, my god, i'm devastated. "no, not at all. "i'm so sorry. "i've never done that in my life." the bbc‘s poll shows that 10% of women have experienced harassment in the last year. is that something you find surprising? no. i don't think it's getting any better with time. ijust feel like it's more normalised. i think women just accept it more. not necessarily. people might think it's surprising that so many women are still being harassed in this day and age. ican't imagine... when the whole #metoo happened, it was not a single one of my girlfriends that was remotely surprised at how many people spoke up. the majority of my male friends just looked at me and went, i had no idea that this was so common. female flexible workers are the most likely to suffer harassment at work, with nearly 60% saying they've experienced it. i guess you just feel less worthy in precarious work. i suppose there's more people in our generation who are working like this. nilufer prepares to head to her waitressing job. she works in the industry with the most harassment. the poll shows women in hospitality have experienced the most harassment, where more than half have suffered it, followed by the service industry. high rates of harassment were reported in the public sector and also in retail. i was pouring a bottle of wine for one guest, and a bit of wine splashed out onto his hand, and he told me to lick it off. the poll found few have spoken out. of those women who say they were harassed at work, just 25% reported it to anyone at all. i know that i never reported it. i left twojobs because i didn't feel confident enough to report what was happening. do you think the high profile cases are going to change it for women in the workplace? the high profile cases at the moment are what inspired me to speak up for the first time, because i've never spoken about it before. if famous, prominent women can be treated the way they've now revealed, the reality for women in offices, cafes and shops is still largely hidden. lucy manning, bbc news. and tomorrow we'll be hearing from the older generation of workers and revealing new figures about the levels of harassment they faced. a man has been arrested on suspicion of trespass after attempting to climb a wall into buckingham palace last night. the metropolitan police said the suspect was not carrying any offensive weapon and the incident is not being treated as terror—related. there's major disruption at london's waterloo station this evening after a track—side fire. south western railway says train services have been cancelled or delayed by up to an hour. the disruption is expected to continue until the end of the day. on thursday, survivors and families of the victims of the grenfell tower fire will gather for a special remembrance service at st paul's cathedral — six months to the day that 71 people died in the disaster. this week on the news at six, we'll be featuring some of those affected by the fire. tonight, we hear about the community response from reverend mike long, minister of the notting hill methodist church, which sits in the shadow of the tower. i remember a phone call, waking me up, from one of my church members, telling me that the tower was on fire. we're the closest church to the grenfell tower site, and when the building was opened, obviously, we were very close to what was going on. there was a huge amount of noise. sirens wail. emergency vehicles moving, the streets were full of people. the sights, the sounds, the smells were awful. i think many of us didn't want to look, at that stage. it was too dreadful a sight, and although we didn't know the number of people who'd lost their lives, it was very evident that the death toll would be enormous, and that this was a complete catastrophe. people were, i think, so shocked and horrified, they were galvanised into some form of action. we were inundated not only with people offering their services, but people coming and offering money. we had donation boxes very quickly up and running in our building, and people were stuffing notes, coins... sometimes people were giving us hundreds of pounds so that we could then offer them out to the local community who needed them, people affected by grenfell tower. by early afternoon, we had put signs on the building saying, "no more donations, please" because the building was full. the scenes for the first few days were utter chaos. six months on, it feels like a very long period of time since the fire. for some, i suspect, it's felt interminable. they may have onlyjust received news of loved ones. the recovery operation has onlyjust been completed. it still feels as though the heart has been ripped out of the community. then, it was chaotic, noisy, hot, incredibly busy. six months on, now, it's calmer, it's dark, it's cold, and it still feels as horrible. that was the reverend mike long, minister of the notting hill methodist church. the tv star keith chegwin — better known to fans and friends as cheggers — has died at the age of 60. he became a household name hosting shows like multi—coloured swap shop and cheggers plays pop. in a statement, his family said keith chegwin had passed away after a long battle with a lung condition. 0ur entertainment correspondent, lizo mzimba, looks back at his career. his energy, his sheer enthusiasm, made keith chegwin into a household name. welcome to our very special christmas edition of cheggers plays pop. a career on tv seemed somewhat inevitable, even in his early teens. he was a natural in front of the camera, in productions like this road safety video. do you want to swa p road safety video. do you want to swap this? just a few years later, cheggers, as the public now called him, was sharing the screen with some of entertainment‘s most famous faces. figures who worked with keith chegwin have been paying tribute.|j knew he was very unwell. i spoke to him about four weeks ago, and he said he was recovering, so i didn't expect this. very, very sad news. his one—time presenting partner and former wife, maggie philbin, his one—time presenting partner and formerwife, maggie philbin, said: his career did decline for a time, and the public were shocked to discover that he was an alcoholic, something he spoke about when he appeared on celebrity big brother. what i'd do is all the tricks. you never buy a full bottle of whiskey, because you can't hide it, so you buy 2/2 bottles. in fact, reality tv helped give him a new outlook. he was able to regain much of the fame of his early career, thanks to his honesty, personality, and endless ability to laugh at himself. few tv stars can claim to have had a top—selling chart hit, to have entertained and delighted millions while in their teens, and then to have still been doing the same for viewers decades later. keith chegwin, whose death was announced today. time for a look at the weather. here's darren bett. good evening. the weather is calming down, but it's not necessarily good news, because more places will have clear skies tonight, causing a severe frost and widespread ice overnight and into tomorrow. this picture was taken in essex, where the rain turned into sleet and snow. not much rain falling today, and not much snow either. where we had the snow we had sunshine today here in wales. moving away from the south—east, so skies are clearing and temperatures are falling. i think we will lose those it showers in the scotland, but some still going in the west of england and west wales, and in the southern counties as well. for most of us, very cold, very frosty, headline temperatures down to around —13 over those fields. a much colder night in the south—east. potentially an icy start to tomorrow. showers in the south west tomorrow. increasing cloud in the west, and later some rain in northern ireland and western scotland. ahead of that, winds will be light, it will be dry, with some freezing fog patches. coming into the cold air tomorrow evening, this cold front threatens the hills in scotla nd cold front threatens the hills in scotland and northern england. it allows us to draw in a westerly wind for wednesday, so quite a change. much more cloud around on wednesday and quite heavy rain as it pushes eastwards. the showers will turn a touch wintry, but on the whole a milder day on wednesday. nothing as severe as we are seeing milder day on wednesday. nothing as severe as we are seeing right now. that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me — and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines... more than a thousand school have been closed and households have been left without power as snow and ice cover much of the uk. with warning that temperatures tonight may plunge to minus 13 we'll have the very latest from around the country as well as a detailed weather forecast of what can be expected overnight... police in manchester launch a murder investigation after 3 children die in a house fire. scientists trying to find a treatment for huntington's disease think they may be close to the biggest breakthrough for 50 years. cheering and applause. the broadcaster keith chegwin, one of the familiar faces of children's television in the 1980s, has died at the age of 60 after a long illness. in a moment it will be time for sportsday but first a look at what else is coming up this evening on bbc news... all about the weather — we will get the latest from correspondents in the midlands, the thames valley, gloucestershire and kent about how things are looking into the evening and overnight. plus we'll have a detailed weather forecast... scientists in london have reported a major breakthough in the treatment of huntington's disease — and say it could lead