the this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 3pm... no ships and now — n0 contract — the government cancels a controversial agreement for extra ferries in case of a ‘no—deal brexit‘. new allegations of sexual and racial harassment by former employees of the retail tycoon, sir philip green — are published. he denies any crime or misconduct. counting the cost of knife crime — the number of young victims admitted to hospitals in england — has risen by more than 50 percent in 5 years. also coming up — the signs causing confusion in essex. we hear from the psychologist who took on the council and won — over the amount of signs at a chelmsford bus gate. in the six nations, scotland fight back from behind at murrayfield, but they currently trail ireland by two points. and coming up in half an hour — the click team explore one

of the world's fastest growing social media apps, tik tok. a controversial ferry contract — awarded to a company which had no ships — has been scrapped. seaborne freight would have earned 13.8 million pounds — under a deal with the department for transport — intended to provide extra capacity in the event of a no—deal brexit. the transport secretary, chris grayling, had defended the deal — saying he would make no apologies for supporting a new british business . his department says it's cancelled the contract, because the company's irish backer pulled out. our business correspondent, rob young, reports. preparations have been under way for weeks.

dredging started at ramsgate port at the beginning of january. the work was meant to ensure the port would be ready at the end of march, should britain leave the european union without a deal. the plan was for seaborne freight to run regular services to ostend in belgium once it managed to get it hands on some ships, but now the company has now been stripped of its contract. the government says seaborne freight‘s main backer has pulled out, meaning it could not mean its contractual requirements. we first flagged problems with seaborne freight in april of last year, and we have been tracking it since then, both in terms of its attempts to find vessels, which have failed without exception. largely because this port is very small. it is thought that backer, arklow shipping, has reasons. ferry services haven't operated from ramsgate since 2013. the government hopes the port could

offer extra capacity should dover become clogged after brexit. so it is still possible ferries will once again sail from here. the department for transport says it's in advanced talks with other companies to supply freight services. with less than two months to go until brexit timing is tight. tight. earlier rob joined us from ramsgate — to talk about the reaction from the town. decision to award a £40 million contract decision to award a £40 million co ntra ct to decision to award a £40 million contract to a shipping company which had no ships was controversial from the start. critics derided the gum —— government for doing that. some the town said the decision 20 contract was inevitable. the local authorities considering cutting the amount of money gets to the port because it says it is strapped for cash. that decision may be taken in the next month. that may be at some

point in the future and could be impossible for ferry services to run from ramsgate anyway. 0thers impossible for ferry services to run from ramsgate anyway. others in the town are concerned about the level of traffic, extra traffic that are decision to operate a ferry service here may lead to. some leave missing out on extra business that might be brought to this area is a disadvantage. the department for transport says it is advanced discussion with other companies which may mean there is some no—deal brexit ferry service going to operate in ramsgate should there be no deal come the end of march. we we re no deal come the end of march. we were listening to one of the contributors in your pc saying ramsgate was never going to happen, the suitability was never there in the suitability was never there in the first place? ramsgate has not had a regularferry the first place? ramsgate has not had a regular ferry service the first place? ramsgate has not had a regularferry service run the first place? ramsgate has not had a regular ferry service run from here since 2013 when the last

operator decided to no longer run that service. then the porters silted up which is why dredging work has been taking place. —— the port has been taking place. —— the port has silted up. it was taking place a few days ago and people that use the media not know whether it is finished. it is not clear whether dredging work with continue. local see if the port was staged, it would be possible to restart 30 service. it would offer extra capacity which the department for transport believes would be necessary if there was no deal. ramsgate was chosen because it is further away from dover. there is a concern that post brexit, if cheques are put in place at dover and calais, that may be to at dover and calais, that may be to at dover and it might be quickerfor some services to from here. that was

rob young in ramsgate. and our political correspondent matt cole joined me earlier to talk about the fallout. there was a fallout. two other firms will continue to cover this 10%. this was about relieving the pressure on dover. the government has come back and said we were criticised at the time that this was a company with no boats. this day it has plenty because it is backed by this huge irish firm, it would have owned 60% of seaborne freight. therefore due diligence was done but it is clear that what they had not done that ensured that the company had set up a route from ramsgate to 0stend on which this new extra capacity could be piggybacked. yes, a credible firm is underpinning this but the contacts had not been fully

signed for a brand—new service from ramsgate without which this extra capacity could not be guaranteed which is why politically labour are so strongly on the attack today after chris grayling for once again being at the heart of what they see asa being at the heart of what they see as a failure. it followed criticism for when he was just a secretary for failed reforms to the prison service and as transport secretary for failures to the rail timetable and for the crisis around gatwick and jones at christmas time. he is much underfire as jones at christmas time. he is much under fire as a minister again today. more importantly, in the meantime, alternatives need to be fined. there was a deadline at the beginning of march for a contract to beginning of march for a contract to be signed? march 29 is at the moment brexit date. unless things change. admittedly, negotiations are stuck. theresa may met yesterday in dublin

by the irish prime minister. both of them have been in belfast and brussels trying to find accommodation, not least with what happens with the northern ireland border post brexit. that is the key sticking point. at the moment it does not like any time soon that will be resolved so the calls for the brexit date to be delayed and the brexit date to be delayed and the negotiating process to be extended, they grow louder. theresa may says it will be then but it begs the question, if a deal does not get done and the date remains for march 20 nine, one happens know this extra capacity will not be there? will the roads local and end over? i have until today signs are going up around m23. directing traffic as pa rt around m23. directing traffic as part of the contingency process. the question is that happens, will there be enough places for other traffic to go? thank you very much.

the owner of topshop paid a female employee more than1 million pounds to keep quiet — after she accused him of kissing and groping her. the daily telegraph says the senior female employee — which it hasn't named for legal reasons was 1 of 5 members of staff who signed ‘gagging orders' after being bullied or harassed — by sir philip green. chi chi izundu has more. aggressive and intimidating. sexual harassment and racism. those are the accusations making headline news on the front of today's telegraph newspaper. details of the allegations against sir philip green, one of britain's best known businessmen involving five employees were published in the paper after a judge allowed him to drop action against it, which lasted six months. the allegations include one senior female executive at the arcadia group, which owns shops including, topshop who was allegedly called "a naughty girl" by sir philip. he's accused of slapping her bottom and kissing her face. the telegraph reports how sir philip allegedly drew attention to the dreadlocks of a black employee, in front of other staff,

and referred to him as "still throwing spears in the jungle". both are said to have received payments of around £1 million. the telegraph says the payments were dependent on the employee signing a non—disclosure agreement, which means they weren't allowed to talk about what happened or the money, and now sir philip is threatening legal action against them. in general confidentiality agreements can be legally binding, there are some circumstances in which they will not bite. for exxample, they can't prevent reporting a crime to the police, and in some cases they can't report other reports to other individuals, the media and regulators, but on the whole they may still be binding. sir philip says the newspaper has pursued a vendetta against him and his employees, and denies any wrongdoing. he told the paper he categorically denies any unlawful sexual behaviour and any unlawful racist behaviour. tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in paris —

for the thirteenth consecutive saturday — of the so—called ‘yellow vests' protests. security is tight and riot police have again fired tear gas in the champs elysees area. a number of marchers have reportedly been injured. 0thers threw missiles at police. the demonstrators are angry about the cost of living and the policies of president macron‘s government — and are demanding more direct democracy. there are also demonstrations taking place in other towns and cities across france. we heard from some of the protesters a little earlier. translation: for decades now we have seen our elected representatives have not been working in the interests of the people. they have been working for lobbies and other interests i know they want to transfer sovereignty to brussels and i do not want brussels to decide everything the french have to do. it is not a referendum story because what does the refendum mean?

like the big debate, what does that mean? everyone is talking but what is the point? it is absolutely useless. it is the institutions that are bad at the moment, justice is really borderline and we need to change the institutions institutions but that is a big job. when i see poverty in france, when i see the people abandoned by a government and not just this one but for decades, whether it be sarkozy all the others, i say to myself we must act. i do not believe in the polls much anymore. thousands of bus routes in england are under threat — because councils say they can't afford to pay for them. they say they're having to fill a gap of over 650 million pounds in funding — for the scheme which provides free bus passes for elderly people — and that the situation is "unsustainable". councils in england subsidise 44 percent of all bus routes — and say without extra funding some could be cut.

just over a thousand stabbing victims aged between 10 and 19 spent at a least 1 night in hospital in the 12 months to last march. there's been a 54 per cent rise in the number of young people treated for knife wounds in england over the past 5 years — according to nhs figures. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw, reports. the youngest victim to die in a knife attack this year. jayden moodie was stabbed to death after being knocked off a moped. an 18—year—old man has been charged with murder. jayden was just 14. doctors say they're treating increasing numbers of people for knife wounds, and the victims are getting younger. what has changed is we are seeing a lot more adolescents and young people who have severe injuries. and that used to be an occasional occurrence and that's now the norm.

i expect to admit somebody of school age under the care of our service this week, as a matter of course. the figures for hospital admissions for injuries from knives or sharp objects show there were almost 5,000 people treated for stab wounds last year. over 1,000 of them were aged 10—19 — that's a rise of 54%, compared with five years earlier. another trend doctors have observed is that more girls are involved in knife crime. some victims face threats that footage of their stabbing will be posted online. there's a shift in what we're seeing. in that i'm seeing young women who've come in having had their mobile phones taken off them in an attack, and having their attack filmed, as part of a humiliation. "this is what's going to happen to you if you say anything, we'll put it on the internet." doctors say the rise in knife crime is putting extra pressure on emergency services. the home office has set up a serious violence strategy to tackle the problem and has launched a review of the links between violent crime and the trade in illegal drugs. danny shaw, bbc news.

un security council members have called for tougher action on sexual violence in conflict — where victims, mainly women and children, are raped and assaulted by fighting forces. at the meeting in new york, nations including the uk and germany discussed how to increase criminal accountability for attacks. the un secretary general‘s advisor 0n sexual violence in conflict, said action to prevent rape and assualt had to be stepped up. as long as it remains cost free to rape a woman, a child or a man in a situation of conflict, we will never stand the tide of these crimes so essentially the council has recognised we must use all means available to increase the cost and

the consequences for those who commit, command or condone sexual violence, including the use of sanctions and other targeted measures. sanctions and other targeted measures. the headlines on bbc news... the government has cancelled a controversial agreement to provide extra ferries in case of a no—deal brexit. new allegations of sexual and racial harassment by former employees of the retail tycoon, sir philip green have been published in the telegraph — he denies any crime or misconduct. the number of young victims of knife crime admitted to hospitals in england has risen by more than fifty percent in the past five years. in sport, that is a battle taking place at murrayfield. defending champions ireland are fighting for a first win in this year's six nations, they need scotland going into the second half. you can watch

the conclusion on bbc one. paul pogba sparkles once again for manchester united with two goals in their win against fulham which takes up their win against fulham which takes up to the top four in the premier league. keatonjennings up to the top four in the premier league. keaton jennings is up to the top four in the premier league. keatonjennings is recalled to open the batting for england in the final test against west indies. a short while ago england were 14 without loss. more sport in the next hour. work has begun in the italian city of genoa — to dismantle what's left of the motorway bridge which collapsed in august of last year — killing 43 people and injuring dozens more. the structure will be replaced by a new bridge of a different design. caroline rigby has more. it's the demolition project described by italy's transport minister as the image of the country's revival. thousands of tonnes of steel and concrete were removed from genoa's morandi bridge in order to make it lighter before a huge crane began to carefully lower

the first section to the ground. decked out in a red hard hat, the italian prime minister looked on. translation: it is an important day, because this is the first step of a path that i hope will be the quickest possible. what we can say today, and i've spoken with all the demolition companies, is that the new bridge will be up by the end of the year. the deconstruction process is expected to last around six months, and engineers will draw on heavy machinery previously used to right the costa concordia cruise liner, which capsized off the coast of tuscany in 2013. a new bridge will be built in place of the existing structure, designed for his hometown by the famed italian architect renzo piano. it's likely to be one of the most expensive in europe, at a cost of more than 200 million euros. it will feature 43 lamps in memory of each of the victims of last

august's disaster and is expected to be open to traffic by april of next year. almost six months on from the partial collapse of the city's viaduct, many in the city are still reeling, but as investigations continue into the cause and accountability, the authorities hope demolition of the old bridge and construction of the new will help residents to move on from what happened. caroline rigby, bbc news. let's have a look at some of the other stories on bbc news. seven people have been sentenced to life in prison for 2 jihadist attacks in tunisia in 2015. 21 foreign tourists were killed at the bardo museum in tunis. 38 people died — 30 of them british — when a gunman attacked a beach resort near sousse. a man has been shot by police — as they carried out arrests in south east london this morning. in all, 7 men were detained for

allegedly holding a woman captive. the man, thought to be in his twenties — was shot after an officer opened fire near blackheath. his injuries are not believed to be life—threatening. the us envoy, stephen beegun, says he's held three days of productive talks in north korea to prepare for the second meeting between president trump and kimjong—un. speaking after arriving in south korea, mr beegun said the us and north korea still had some work to do before the summit which, it's been announced, will be in the vietnamese city of hanoi later this month. the rapper cadet has died at the age of 28. the family of the artist, whose real name is blaine cameron johnson, said he died while travelling in a taxi on his way to a performance. his management told radio1 newsbeat he was a passenger in a vehicle which crashed in staffordshire. cadet‘s cousin krept led the tributes online,

saying he was "heartbroken," and thatjohnson had "finally started getting the attention he deserved". dj semtex also posted on twitter — saying he was on stage with him just last week and he had never seen a man so happy. and hip hop artist loyle carner said cadet was a "true story teller." a woman fined for driving through a bus gate — has won her appeal after arguing — there were too many signs for the brain to process. bernadine king's penalty charge notice was quashed. but in the last 18 months thousands of drivers were fined for using the chelmsford ‘bus gate' — generating 1.5 million pounds. essex county council says, the penalty has reduced the number of people using the gate. i am a cognitive neuropsychologist and my phd was in

reading and visual perception. that is basically what you do when you look at a sign, you have to register it and make sense of it. the problem with these signs was that is so much information on the sign and the sign is contradictory. you also have the fact that there are so many signs telling you to do different things that it totally confuses the motorist. if you are travelling at 30 miles an hour you have a short time to take in the signs. you have to look at a sequence of signs and you will have travelled 20 metres down the road and that is a busy area where this bus gate is, there are lots of pedestrians running across the road and all sorts of distractions. obviously, you set a precedent

for future signage and also for people appealing their bills and charges, what would you like to see in future to make sure that drivers are safe on the road because as you pointed out this is dangerous? absolutely. that is why i did it from a safety point of view. my only option in this area was to go through the bus gate, that was the only safe option. i could have done a u—turn or reversed back to the roundabout which would have been very dangerous. i could have knocked down a pedestrian. i made a risk assessment and the only thing was to go through the bus gate. they need to get rid of that area. and have the sign saying do not

enter, near the roundabout so that people do not accidentally get trapped when i was. or do we need a bus gate there at all? a spokesman from the essex council said just before turning on the cameras in 2017, they increased signage at all the junctions and sent more than 3000 warning notices and painted the of restrictions so it is not really about reading. so it is overload of the brain? absolutely.

the bus lane is directly under the bridge which is where the bus gate is so you do not get to the sign until you are right on top of it. that is difficult from a perspective point of view to read that at that point. they need to make things clear, just by adding more signs does not make it better and can make it worse because the brain will cancel things which not make sense to it or get into system overload as you said and it will look for a particular feature. in a complex environment, that is what their brain does, it looks for a particular feature. when you have all these different signs telling you different things about height restriction, you do not have the time to read what is on the road. the british horse racing authority says there have been no further positive tests for equine flu, which has forced the cancellation of races across the country. in a statement, it said more tests would be made in coming days, and a decision about upcoming race—meetings will be made on monday.

174 racing stables across britain are in lockdown this weekend and all meetings have been cancelled following the outbreak. six cases have been confirmed so far at a stables in cheshire, as the authorities work to contain the highly contagious illness. it's a year to the day since the olympic dreams of british snowboarder katie 0rmerod were smashed when she was badly injured. but after a year of difficult recovery, she's celebrating the anniversary by going back on the slopes for the first time. nick hope, our 0lympics correspondent, has been to meet her. kate 0rmerod back in her natural environment, feeling literally on top of the world. a stark contrast to life 12 months ago. while her british team—mates celebrated a record haul of winter olympics in pyeongchang, she was in hospital with a broken heel and wrist. i qualified for my first 0lympics

and i was really confident to show the world what i could do in snowboarding, i thought i could do well. but as i broke my heel, i knew i was instantly out of the game. i felt like the olympic dream was over then. how tough has this last year been? it was really bad. i did not expect it to hit me as hard as it did. i was on crutches, sometimes a wheelchair if i had to get out. i was in so much pain, i could never experience pain like it. it did cross my mind it was career ending. it was devastating, i could not imagine my life without snowboarding because i have been snowboarding as long as i can remember. i had to keep believing, even when it felt impossible, that i would get through it. that really helped me work hard in the gym and i had that determination and motivation to do it. despite seven rounds of surgery and a heel graft made from a skin graft of her hip, combined with that of a pig, 0rmerod has fought back and made a full return

to the slopes this week. it feels amazing. the first time i went over, the adrenaline rush, i'm buzzing. does being here make it feel real, your fight back, you're fully on the comeback trail and back in the sport? i feel so happy and grateful to be back. i feel ijust want to be the best snowboarder i can be. i just want to get back to getting medals again and hopefully make everyone proud. now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. the best of any sunshine in the east, more showers in the west strong winds across to scotland and northern england, touching 50 miles an hour. they will come down. 0utbreaks an hour. they will come down. outbreaks of rain overnight into england, further north are scattering of showers. when she over

the hills of scotland, a pix of rain for northern scotland and 0rkneys. credo spy —— skies for north—east england. away start to the day for much of central england, it will linger in east anglia. some persistent rain free time across northern ireland and southern scotla nd northern ireland and southern scotland through the afternoon. strong and gusty north—westerly wins. a colder feeling strong and gusty north—westerly wins. a colderfeeling day strong and gusty north—westerly wins. a colder feeling day tomorrow, temperatures no higher than six sales is. mainly dry for the weekend away from north—west scotland. patching mist and fog overnight. goodbye. hello, this is bbc news with lu kwesa burak. the headlines... the government has cancelled a controversial agreement to provide extra ferries in case of a no—deal brexit.