this is bbc news. the headlines at 6pm. no ships and now, no 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. the democratic senator, elizabeth warren, launches her bid to become the party's candidate for 2020, promising to champion ordinary, working people. millions and millions and millions of american families are also struggling to survive in a system that has been rigged, rigged by the wealthy and the well—connected. also coming up, more violence on the streets of paris. tens of thousands of people take to the streets of the french capital, for the thirteenth consecutive saturday of the so—called "yellow vest" protests. and in the six nations,

ireland beat scotland 22—13 at murrayfield. we'll have more on that in sportsday at 6.30. a controversial ferry contract, awarded to a company which had no ships, has been scrapped. seaborne freight would have earned £118 million, 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 ofjanuary. 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 0stend 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 it is thought that backer, arklow shipping, has withdrawn for commercial reasons.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. earlier, our political correspondent is iain watson said questions are now being raised about whether the government did due diligence before awarding the contract. you can imagine from opposition it's not been entirely positive reaction, labour or calling the transport secretary to resign, they say that this contract has been in the humiliation notjust for government but for the country, another labour front bench pressing who was at the conference today said that he was the worst secretary of state ever. and that takes quite some doing, but the question expect

the opposition to say that and what you will not necessarily expect of christ is from the government side to perhaps pylon had without asking the questions about preparedness for no deal. as far as chris grayling is concerned, tonight downing street to saying they have full confidence in him, and the department for transport are saying they did indeed do proper due diligence on the seaborne freight because the irish company standing behind them made a big credible up until the point of course that the irish company pulled out but the questions that other people off tonight including conservative mps, is whether the government will be fully prepared for no deal should not be the outcome in seven weeks‘ time, and whether they should have started spreading some of the £4 billion they are prepared to put aside for the no deal preparations a lot earlier in the process. lots of questions and one of those is they still need to meet the deadline,

so what sort of back—up plan do we know about? but the government will say is 90% of the extra capacity is coming from well—established ferry companies and in any case if there is an ideal scenario other companies will provide extra capacity themselves and their still in talks of what they can do in ramsgate and provided south, it looks to be pretty difficult because the ramsgate service recently had the people there who are in charge is that they may have difficulty accommodating a new ferry service before march the 29th, but it's only one aspect of the nokia preparations, the bbc recently commissioned a report from an independent think tank, and they said now that things have become simply too late to avoid anything other than minor disruptions in the 29th of march, in fact there are two problems. first getting the necessary infrastructure in place for a no deal scenario including extra customs officers, but also simply in this place here, passing of legislation to make a note ideal move smoothly they say they're simply far too much weight of methylation,

and please feel they are in a holding pattern and not sitting here every day passing the laws and sell it there let the prime minister brings back from brussels and when she will put her deal to parliament for either acceptance or rejection and that looks like it won't happen until the end of this month. thank you very much. the owner of topshop, sir philip green paid a female employee more than £1 million to keep quiet after she accused him of kissing and groping her. the daily telegraph says the senior female employee who it hasn't named for legal reasons was i 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. footage shows police baton charges, and some injured protesters, while others threw missiles at officers. 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 referendum 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 the way instutions work, we need to change the 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 any more. figures from nhs england show the number of people aged between ten and i9 who‘ve been admitted to hospital with stab wounds has gone up by more than 50% over the past five years. just over a thousand stabbing victims, some aged as young as ten, spent at a least one night in hospital, in the year to last march. the home office says it‘s very concerned by the situation. the left—wing democratic senator, elizabeth warren, has announced that she‘s standing for the us presidency in 2020. mrs warren, a former law professor at harvard university, is expected to make the fight against economic inequality the centrepiece of her campaign. she‘s been speaking at a rally in the city of lawrence in her home

state of massachusetts — at the site of a historic labour strike in 1912 that was led by women and immigrants. look at any other major issue in america, gun violence, student loan debt, the crushing cost of health care. mis—treatment of our veterans, a broken criminaljustice system. cheering. and immigration system that lacks common sense and under this administration, lacks a conscience. cheering 0verwhelming majorities of americans want action. huge crowds march on washington demanding change. letters, phone calls, protests, but nothing happens. nothing. why? because if you don‘t have money, and you don‘t have connections, washington doesn‘t want to hear from you. when government works

only for the wealthy and the well—connected, that is corruption, plain and simple, and we need to call it out. cheering 0ur washington correspondent, chris buckler has been watching the rally and gave us more on elizabeth warren‘s campaign. she's setting herself up to someone who is deaf or ordinary people are showing the divide between the wealthy in america and american does she regards as suffered because too much wealth and opportunity to people who are at the top. even going to lawrence, massachusetts, a working—class town there's been an attempt to really align herself with those who fought in the past for worker rights, the five worker pay, and she is trying to say that in the moment in america, things are

weighted against —— are weighing towards those who are in privilege and also that the reference to donald trump himself. both of them did not get along, there is an antagonistic relationship between both of them and we have already had a statement from the trump administration for 2020 even before she announced her is to become president —— president, they said that her socialist ideas would raise taxes, killjobs and crush the middle class. you get a sense that there is a very different perspective from the trump campaign and this attempt by elizabeth warren to run for the democratic candidate chair. chris talking to us from washington. 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 the hip—hop artist said... the british horseracing 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. six cases have been confirmed so far at a stables in cheshire, as the authorities work to contain the highly contagious illness. the headlines on bbc news...

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. the democratic senator, elizabeth warren, launches her bid to become the party‘s candidate for 2020, promising to champion ordinary, working people. 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% of all bus routes and say without extra funding some could be cut.

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. (00v) 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. earlier, i spoke to bernadine about why she objected to the signs. i am a cognitive neuropsychologist and my phd was in reading and visual perception in reading. that is basically what you do when you look at a sign, you have to register it and then make sense of it. the problem with these signs was that a, there is so much information on the sign and b, 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 in which 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 now appealing their bills and charges, penalty notice as well, 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. that could have involved me knocking down a pedestrian or having a collision with another driver. 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 maybe have the sign saying do not enter, this area near the roundabout so that people do not accidentally get trapped when i was. or they need to think, do we need a bus gate there at all? a spokesman from essex county council said just before turning on the cameras in 2017, they increased signage at all the junctions and sent more than 3,000 warning notices and painted the words "bus gate" in five foot letters to help make

drivers aware of restrictions so it is not really about compliance of signage, it is overload of the rain? absolutely. the bus gate 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 rain will cut off 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 the rain 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. that was brenda been talking to me earlier. —— bernadine. 50 years ago today the "boeing 747" took to the skies for the very first time ? heralding the start of what was dubbed the "golden age of travel". thejumbojet offered more space, more seats and greater luxury than ever before. it transformed aviation, making far—flung destinations within easy reach, as adam woods explains. newsreel: the jumbos are coming. 1969 and the jumbo jet is unveiled to the world. newsreal: one observer commented that it seemed as though the qe2 had taken to the sky. bigger than anything else at the time, it transformed air travel for millions of people. newsreal: the jumbo jet has brought a new dimension to air travel, space, more room for more passengers. more seats meant more tickets, it shrank the world.

america, africa, australia — now all within reach of the masses. the 7117 was a massive risk for boeing — it nearly bankru pted the company. orders for the new plane were slow to come in. but half a century later it‘s still in service and more are still being built. yet thejumbo‘s days are numbered. british airways plans to retire its fleet within five years. all airlines in america have already grounded theirs. smaller, quieter, more efficient planes are now the future passenger flight. instead, jumbo jets are finding a new life ferrying freight. the queen of the skies for 50 years — and, perhaps, a few more to come. aaron woods, bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins.

hello, storm eric brought widespread gales across the uk yesterday and the area blood pressure responsible is now centred across the northern aisles. you can see the swell of cloud here on the earlier satellite picture. keeping an eye on this bank of cloud that southwest of the uk, it‘ll increase through the evening and bringing outbreaks of rain overnight. and for a time to end the afternoon, still some strong wind asking 40—50 miles an hour, across northern scotland that slowly starting to lose their strength. through this evening and overnight, we see rain settling into parts of wales, central and southern england, and a few shadows across northern ireland and i england and parts of wales, wintry over the hills with persistent rain, but clear skies across eastern scotland, northeast england, a patch of frost here, temperatures is probably freezing but much louder further south. given the cloud and rain, it‘s all tied into this frontal system slowly pulling east through sunday and that a wet start. many central and southern parts of england and parts of wales as well, the rain will gradually be easing away, eastward through the day and lingered ——

for a time and price in east anglia, we will see outbreaks of rain across northern scotland slowly sliding their way perhaps bringing wintry precipitation over the hills and persistent rain across northern ireland and south of scotland for the afternoon with squally winds particularly along the irish sea coast and tomorrow afternoon, and northwest interaction they‘ll be a much cooler file again, temperatures not much higher but eight celsius across southern parts of england. because we go through sunday night, here is a feature that could introduce wintry showers across the hills of wales, but as it clears through, behind it we see this area of high pressure developing, so we start the new week on a mainly dry note, the wind will be lighter and there will be good spells of sunshine, maybe a couple wintry showers for the highlands of scotland, but most if you try and find a whip temperatures recovering slightly compared to sunday, the top temperature on monday afternoon will be eight celsius.

this area of high pressure is a dominant feature through much of the week ahead as it moves its way south and east, it enables a milder air to flight across the uk so neatly, but i kay it enables a milder air to flight across the uk so neatly, bite that day if you are much milder but chilly at night with a touch of frost and some patchy mist and fog but away from northwest scotland, it should be mainly dry. goodbye. good evening. a company, controversially awarded a multi—million pound deal to ensure ferries would keep crossing the channel in the event of a no—deal brexit — has had its contract cancelled by the government. the original deal had attracted widespread criticism — after the bbc found that seaborne ferries did not actually have any ships — and had never run a ferry service before. our business correspondent rob young reports. preparations have been under way for weeks.

dredging started at ramsgate port at the beginning ofjanuary. seaborne freight was due to run regular services to 0stend in belgium in the event of a no—deal brexit. once it got hold of some ships. but the company has now been stripped of its contract. the £14 million deal was controversial from the start. the contract‘s cancellation has intensified the criticism of ministers. we first flagged problems with seaborne freight in april of last year. and we‘ve been tracking it since then both in terms of its attempts to find vessels, which have all failed without exception, largely because this port is very small. the government has defended the checks it carried out on seaborne. it says the company‘s main backer, arklow shipping, has pulled out, meaning seaborne could not meet its contractual requirements. it wasn‘t paid any public money. ferries haven‘t operated at ramsgate since 2013.

the government hopes new services from here could help reduce congestion at dover if there are delays come the end of march. but there is now a big question mark over whether ramsgate will be used if there is a no—deal brexit. the department of transport says it‘s in advanced talks with other companies to supply freight services, possibly from ramsgate. with less than two months to go until brexit, timing is tight. it is a disappointment. i don‘t know the commercial reasons why arklow have pulled out. but i want to make sure this port is ready for brexit resilience. however the cash—strapped local authority is considering a cut to the port‘s funding which might prevent a ferry service starting in the future. rob young, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent iain watson is in westminster for us this evening. what‘s the political fallout to today‘s news? well when you award a contract to a

ferry company that simply does not have any ferries and so it was a lwa ys have any ferries and so it was always going to be politically contentious so no surprise that labour tonight is calling for the transport secretary chris grayling to resign. they say the contract being cancelled is a humiliation. of course he has survived other controversies including his handling of the real timetable fiasco and tonight downing street instead of the confidence in him. but there‘s puts the spotlight back on the government reparations for a no deal scenarios about independent institute for government has suggested it was just too late now to have only been disruption if this happens and mps who are quite relaxed about the idea of leaving the with no deal are still questioning whether the government could be better prepared. the owner of topshop — sir phillip green — paid a female employee more than a million pounds to keep quiet after she accused him of kissing and groping her, according to the daily telegraph. the paper says the senior

female employee — who hasn‘t been named for legal reasons — was one of five members of staff who signed gagging orders after being bullied or harassed. for the thirteenth consecutive saturday — thousands of people have demonstrated in paris and many more across france — in the so—called ‘yellow vests‘ protests. in the capital riot police used tear gas to disperse protestors after cars were set alight and banks attacked. the mainly peaceful rallys have been taking place across france to demostrate against president emmanuel macron‘s economic reforms. thousands of women in the uk are not receiving treatment for a debilitating and life changing condition because its being misdiagnosed. doctors and researchers say lipedema causes swollen limbs, pain and immobility but the treatment needed — liposuction — is wrongly classed as a cosmetic surgery and therefore rarely funded by the nhs. alexandra mackenzie has been speaking to one woman struggling with the disease. this is basically the bottom half of a lipedema leg.

it‘s all swollen, very, very cold to touch. and it bruises really easily. anne noticed there was something wrong when she was just 17. she‘s waiting for liposuction on the nhs in scotland. it‘s a treatment for lipedema that‘s rarely available in the uk unless it‘s done privately. they estimate there will be about 5.5 litres of excess fat removed from each leg. despite countless doctor‘s appointments, 30 years passed before anne was finally diagnosed. i think i‘ve been overlooked. i think there‘s thousands of women with lipedema being overlooked. we have been categorised as obese... these are typical images showing lipedema that has progressed. the legs have become

deformed by deposits of irregular and painful fact. —— fat. experts say it‘s usually only women who are affected. it‘s not known how many, but they saved could be thousands in the uk. researchers here at st george‘s hospital in london are working to discover what causes this genetic condition. it‘s believed it could be triggered at times of hormonal change. like puberty, pregnancy, or the menopause. doctors are also calling for more nhs funding for liposuction operations. for select patients there will be a real benefit and it‘s incorrect to say that liposuction for lipedema is a cosmetic procedure. it is a treatment for this disease. there is one nhs surgeon in the uk currently performing this procedure, but he acknowledges he cannot help everyone. women are clamouring for treatment on the nhs. the nhs, as i say, i don‘t think has the resources to support that. and i think women have got to understand it will only be a minority that may get that opportunity.

as anne waits for her operation, she hopes more can be done for the next generation of young women to prevent further lives being blighted by lipedema. alexandra mackenzie, bbc news. in the last few minutes, buckingham palace has announced the duke of edinburgh will be giving up his driving license. in a statement, the palace said "the duke of edinburgh has taken the decision to voluntarily surrender his driving licence." last month the prince was involved in a car crash while driving near the queen‘s sandringham estate. with all the sport now, here‘s hugh woozencroft at the bbc sport centre. the second weekend of this year‘s six nations championship in rugby union is proving to be as enthralling as the first. defending champions ireland got back to winning ways with a hard fought win over scotland. it finished 22—13 at murrayfield, as katie gornall reports. momentum can blow one way and then

the next day the six nations. scotla nd the next day the six nations. scotland have it at the end of the opening weekend, ireland did not. a bruising defeat to england last week meant ireland arrived at murrayfield knowing their hopes of retaining their six nations title were on the line. scotland have their own title aspirations. although mistakes like this won‘t help. an early error that was ruthlessly punished. it would get worse for scotland when stuart hogg was forced off the pitch with a shoulder injury afterjust 16 minutes. before he had even made it down the tunnel, ireland had struck again. last year‘s player of the tournament, jacob stockdale, too slick, too quick. with stuart hogg gone it was time for scotland‘s other star to step forward. finn russell seems to view the game in slow motion. and his composure put sam johnson through. now the pressure was all on ireland. at half—time they weathered the scottish storm to lead 12—10. the second half saw ireland edge further in front as joey carberry pierced the scottish defence and keith earls did the rest. the penalty for scotland kept them in touch but these were nervy times

for the home side as they tried and eventually failed to reel ireland in. well ireland will be feeling very relieved after this one. it was just the win they needed to get their title ambitions back on track. as for scotland, they will feel this was an opportunity missed but they will have a chance to get their own back before too long in their opening game against ireland in the world cup injapan in the autumn. the second game of the day in the six nations saw warren gatland‘s wales travel to italy. well struggle to create much but they muscled their way to victory in rome. liverpool have moved back to the top of the premier league table thanks to a 3 nil win over bournemouth at anfield. manchester united have moved into the top 4, beating fulham 3 nil at craven cottage. paul pogba kept us his good form, scoring twice to make it 10 wins in 11 games under caretaker manager 0le gunnar solskjaer. cardiff city scored a 93rd minute winner to beat southampton and move out of the relegation zone.

and everton manager marco silva‘s return to former club watford ended in a 1 nil defeat. dundee united are into the quarter finals of the scottish cup