this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at midday: the home secretary, sajid javid, is facing criticism after the death of the baby son of shamima begum, the british teenager whose citizenship he revoked forjoining the islamic state group. a man charged with murdering jodie chesney has been remanded in custody. the 17—year—old was stabbed to death in a park in east london last friday. the brexit secretary accuses michel barnier, the eu chief negotiator, of trying "to rerun old arguments" as talks continue between the uk and eu. also coming up this hour... increased activity at a missile site in north korea. satellite images of a facility near pyongyang suggest the country may be preparing to launch a missile or a satellite.

good afternoon. welcome to bbc news. the baby son of shamima begum, the british teenager who joined the islamic state group, has died in syria. the boy, who was less than three weeks old, is thought to have contracted a lung infection. his mother travelled to syria as a 15—year—old four years ago. the home office had recently taken the decision to strip her of her british citizenship. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford has this report. when the bbc first interviewed shamima begum two and a half weeks ago, she'd just given birth to a baby boy, jarrah. in his short life, he lived in one internment camp and then another. his mother said her two other children had already died at the end of last year.

losing my children, the way i lost them, i don't want to lose this baby as well, and this is really not a place to raise children, this camp. now, medical staff in the roj camp where she's living and the local military forces, the sdf, have confirmed to the bbc that her baby died on thursday in a nearby hospital, after having breathing difficulties. he's already been buried. the family are devastated. the family are not surprised. there were concerns about the child's welfare. shamima has lost herfood card — she's made that quite clear — and wasn't able to feed herself, let alone the baby. shamima begum's family had asked the home office for help, but the home secretary sajid javid's response was to take away her british citizenship, and the government gave them no assistance in trying to bring her two—week—old baby boy to the safety of the uk. in a letter sent by the home office this week to shamima begum's sister, renu, an official wrote... but then the official wrote that...

it was a point sajid javid reinforced yesterday, after reports of the baby boy's death first surfaced. the foreign office has been clear for many years, there is no british consulate presence, there is no way that anyone can be helped in any way, including innocent children. this is why it's so dangerous. labour has described the home secretary's decision—making as callous and inhumane. save the children said that more than 60 children under the age of five had now died in the camps, and called on the uk and other countries to take responsibility for their citizens in north—east syria and take them home. daniel sandford, bbc news. the bbc‘s middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville, is in northern syria. he first met with shamima begum not long after she'd given birth to her son, named jarrah.

quentin told us a little earlier about the conditions shamima is now living in. the circumstances that people are being held, whether they're victims of is or supporters of is here in northern syria, are pretty grim. when i metjarrah, who wasjust a few days old, he was in good health, and i asked shamima begum how her baby was doing. she said he was doing well at that time. but it's very cold here, the camps don't have enough blankets, they don't have enough tents and there isn't enough food in some cases. and the people there are struggling, and they're angry, and it's a dangerous situation as well — it's still a stressful situation. so jarrah was in good health then but he deteriorated, and yesterday we heard that him and his mother had been taken under armed escort to a hospital, and he died shortly after lunchtime. the cause of death was listed as pneumonia. it's worth remembering that in the long, miserable story of the islamic state, the suffering isn't yet over.

people who are trapped inside or stayed inside with the islamic state till the very end were starving. many of those who've left suffered from malnutrition. more than 100 people have died leaving that last is stronghold. and now in the camps, just in the last few days in the camps, we've seen 16,000 people arrive. it's a huge number — far more is supporters than everybody realised. the bombardment was very difficult for them, but that intense fighting, the circumstances were awful. and as a result, an increasing number of people have fallen ill and in some cases, as with jarrah, have died. that was quentin sommerville. kirsty mcneill from the charity save the children told me time ago in our westminster studio that the decision to stop shamima begum returning to the uk was wrong. it's utterly tragic. so this is a little baby boy, not yet three weeks old, who's died

of pneumonia. a british child who could have been here in safety, and unfortunately he has been terribly let down by britain. you say he could have been here. the home secretary was interviewed yesterday, and said there hasn't been consular access in syria since the war began, pretty much, that it's not a safe place for example where british officials could go and be involved in any attempt to bring the baby out, and that therefore there wasn't really anything the government could have done. well, britishjournalists have been able to get into the camp and of course it is serviced by aid workers. it is not up to a humanitarian organisation like save the children to comment on what kind of private diplomacy might have been able to get the mother and child out, but it is clear the decision to strip the mother of citizenship was taken not thinking about the best interests of a child, the third child lost to this particular mother, and against a backdrop where 84 people have died on their way to or arriving at this camp — two thirds of which are little children under five years old. just on that question of the the scale of the pressure that is now on that refugee camp, because of the larger

numbers of people coming into it — some of them of course will have been fighters with the group calling itself islamic state, and others will have been girls and women who were married or living with those men. what sort of pressure is that putting on? what is the ability to supply food, shelter, warmth, for that large number of people? our understanding is that over 90% of the people in this camp are women and children. there are about 5a,000 people there in freezing temperatures, so a lot of the people who have died have died of hypothermia or because they haven't had enough food. this particular little boy, as i say not even three weeks old, died of pneumonia. so your viewers will understand how a child dies of pneumonia, they essentially die of exhaustion because they little body gives up fighting because it is so hard to breathe. these are no places for children and certainly no places for newborns. i'm sure everyone would agree with what you're saying there. i suppose the practical difficulty in the case of shamima begum, this is a woman who had

voluntarily left this country to live in another country to be involved in a conflict situation. is that really something where it can be the obligation, you think, on politicians and officials in this country to do something about? well, the best interests of her children, regardless of how we feel about the parent, the best interests of the children come first. but it is worth remembering in the specific case she was 15 when she left, a child herself. someone who has been radicalised in britain remains britain's responsibility, and we all have questions to answer about how that could have happened in our country and what obligations we owe notjust to her but crucially as i say to her little ones now. you say 90% of those coming into the camp are women. presumably at least some of them will be british and many will have had children since they were out there since that is sort of part of the package, as it were, of going to live with the group that calls itself islamic state.

what then happens to those children? clearly they haven't had the spotlight or the attention that shamima begum's case has had. do they have legal status as british citizens if their mothers were british? so we found about 2500 children in the camp that are the children of foreign nationals — not of course all britain but different countries. 2500 children who are born to mothers who were not originally from syria but came to syria. exactly. around 2500 children born to mothers who are owed an obligation from their own states. we can't keep passing this problem around. if you are a citizen of a country you remain that country's responsibility. but notjust 2500 of foreign nationals — we also found 50 children completely unaccompanied without anyone to look after them and they are of course not in the spotlight but they are the number one concern of save the children. kirsty mcneill there. we can cross live now

to paris where yellow vest protestors are at charles de gaulle airport. a few moments ago there was a man in a fez who was dancing around. the mid seems very cheerful, in contrast to some of the protests. this is the seventh weekend in succession opponents of president macron have demonstrated. they wear these yellow vests because all drivers in france are required to carry them. originally this was a protest about fuel pricing and it has of course become a much wider protest now expressing frustration about the way france operates, particularly, as hugh schofield in paris has told first night before, many people outside paris, who feel their experience of french life is very different from that of people in paris and in particular the president. it is interesting just this week we had the former

president of chile calling for a full investigation into allegations of excessive force may have been used on some occasions by police against the yellow vest protesters. no force inside shall the gaul airport, by the look of it. everybody in a pretty festive mood. i don't know how that is going down with the travellers —— in charles de gaulle airport. i wish now, i we're just weeks away from the uk's departure from the eu, but both sides are still struggling to agree on changes to the prime minister's brexit deal, because of mps‘ objections to the irish backstop. yesterday, the eu's chief negotiator michel barnier said the britain would be free to pull out of the proposed single customs territory, designed to avoid physical checks on the irish border.

but the government has rejected this, because northern ireland would have to remain within it. well, a little earlier i spoke to our political correspondent matt cole, and i asked him what could and i asked him what could break the deadlock. the sticking point still revolves around this crucial aspect of what do you do to keep northern ireland border opened with the republic, in the event that, further down the line, there is no trade deal and all the shutters go down, the barriers go up? something that no one wants — this hard border, as they call it, between northern ireland. now, brexiteers rejected theresa may's big deal about a month ago now, by a record, about 230, vote majority margin. that sticking point was largely about brexiteers and the dup not wanting this backstop, this insurance policy, which they saw would keep britain in a customs union, and northern ireland with the eu, to make sure those goods could keep going, until they found another trade deal. they still haven't found an alternative solution to that. last night, michel barnier, in a series of tweets, the chief negotiator of the eu, saying, "what we could do, we could allow the uk to leave unilaterally, you're not trapped in it." but you would have to leave northern ireland in it."

that was basically what was being renegotiated before christmas when the deal got done. we have gone back to the future, what they were saying before the deal got done. either way, not a lot of progress. we understand the intensive talks with michel barnier could continue this weekend, but not the between the big politicians — the foot soldiers doing it behind the scenes. but to what end? given we are at such an impasse it is hard to see what they can produce before the big vote in the commons on tuesday. stephen barclay the brexit secretary was suggesting the uk government had already made a fresh offer to the eu commissioner. do we have any idea what form that fresh offer has taken? we have had a series of requests about trying to find a way that would allow britain to leave this customs union, unilaterally, since brexiteers fear being locked into it. there have been discussions about whether there could be an arbitration system, and language being put into not

the withdrawal agreement because the eu says that is locked down, but the political declaration running alongside it, which is what has been in broad brush strokes setting out potential visions for a future relationship once we have left. the withdrawal agreement is about leaving, the political declaration is about what happens next. so they could toughen up the language there. but people have looked and said, "if there is an arbitration system in britain says we want to leave and the eu says no, how long would that take?" and brexiteers might say, "we may not win and it could take forever, forever, so it is as good as being trapped in." broadly speaking, we are still coming back to the same sticking point that the uk and the prime minister yesterday, saying they need one more push from the eu, and the eu is effectively saying since the ones who want to leave you need to come up with an idea to make this right.

everybody not so much pointing the finger and saying, "you started it" — it is more, "you won't finish it, you won't finish it!" not getting so far ahead of what is a very big week for british politics. that was our political correspondent, matt cole. well, as matt cole says, it is a big week for british politics. let's take a look at what's coming up. on tuesday, mps are due to vote for a second time on theresa may's withdrawal agreement — including any changes she has agreed with the eu. if they reject the deal again, mps have been promised a further vote on wednesday, on whether they support leaving the eu without a deal. and if that fails, then mps have been promised another vote on thursday, on requesting an extension to the two—year article 50 process, thereby delaying brexit beyond the 29th of march. and of course you can follow coverage on bbc news of all of those key votes throughout the week. as we've been hearing, how and when britain will leave the eu remains uncertain — and many key questions, for instance, on border checks

and tariffs, remain unanswered. our business editor simonjack has been speaking to small business owners in north wales to find out about the challenges they face. this tranquillity seems a long way from the brexit war of words, but it's the deafening silence from westminster that is bothering small businesses like seiont nurseries and its manager neil alcock, who counts on frictionless borders, and he wants answers. it takes two days to ship these to holland, any delays at the port will extend that. we could have deaths of plants on the trolleys, because it's a living product after all. so basically, we need answers, we need something sorted as soon as possible, so we can plan our business for this year and next year and beyond. so a three—month delay doesn't really necessarily mean that much? no, it buys a bit of time. but it doesn't answer the big questions? no, no, not at all. so these are corydlines. a plant like this starts life in china, it's flown into the netherlands, shipped within 48 hours to the uk, grown here, under eu licence, then shipped back to the eu.

now, whether there's a delay to brexit or not, some big questions like what licences will i need, how long will the transport take, what checks will be involved, what tariffs will i have to pay? those questions are still unanswered — crucial ones to businesses like this. two minutes down the road, the owner of this nursery for rare plants said her european customers have been rushing to place orders ahead of the march deadline. well, 60% of our business is in europe and we supply a lot of the big botanic gardens, research and private customers as well, but since december, it's probably up to 95% because people are panicking, they want their plants before the 29th of march. so what impact is this uncertainty having on the business? well, i'm hoping we can ride the storm, but i mean it could close us, i don't know. hopefully, we'll pick up extra business in this country. i mean, we do have a big following in this country as well, but it's the unknown, i mean it's the unknown for my staff too. they're just such worrying times.

so the political landscape may have changed, a brexit delay is possible, some would say even likely, but, on the ground, the questions facing businesses have not fundamentally changed. what is it i'm planning for, a deal or no deal? and that uncertainty hasn't gone away. businesses are incredibly frustrated at government and at parliament. they don't see where the consensus is, they don't see where the agreement is, and they don't know how to plan and organise themselves. all this time, politicians are out chasing different ideas, refusing to lead, refusing to come up with a compromise, and businesses just don't know what to do. as we count down the days till brexit, it's still unclear whether we get deal, no deal, a delay of unknown length and uncertain outcome — and those future doubts are stunting business growth now. simon jack, bbc news, gwynedd, north wales. it is just approaching 19 minutes

past midday. the headlines on bbc news: the home secretary, sajid javid, is facing criticism after the death of the baby son of shamima begum — the british teenager whose citizenship he revoked forjoining the islamic state group. a man charged with murdering jodie chesney has been remanded in custody. the 17—year—old was stabbed to death in a park in east london last friday. the brexit secretary stephen barclay accuses michel barnier of trying "to rerun old arguments" as talks continue between the uk and eu. as i was saying a moment ago, a man has appeared in court after being charged with the murder of 17—year—old jodie chesney. jodie was stabbed in a park in east london last friday. 20—year—old manuel petrovic was arrested in leicester on tuesday. another man, who was also arrested, remains in custody. our correspondent jane—frances kelly gave us an update from outside court. well, manuel petrovic

appeared before magistrates. he confirmed his name, his age, which is 20, his address, which is highfield road in romford. and he is charged with the murder ofjodie chesney, who died on the ist of march. she was stabbed in a park while listening to music with friends. police say that she died about an hour later. a postmortem has revealed the cause of death to be trauma and haemorrhage. mr petrovic, who confirmed that he is a croatian national, is to appear at the old bailey on the 11th of march. a second man also remains in custody, on suspicion ofjodie's murder. that was jane—francis kelly. a 15—year—old boy has been charged with the murder of a teenager who was stabbed to death in west london. ayub hassan, aged 17, was found with stab wounds to the chest in lanfrey place, west kensington, on thursday and died in hospital.

scotland yard said the 15—year—old boy was due to appear at westminster magistrates‘ court later. asda has said it will remove all single kitchen knives from sale, because of concerns over their use in stabbings across the uk. the announcement by the supermarket chain follows a wave of fatal stabbings in recent weeks, many involving teenagers. asda says the most frequently stolen knives are the single—use—style, and it adds it has a responsibilty to try and help in the work to bring violent crime under control. for the second time this week, us analysts have reported activity at a military site in north korea. commercial satellite images of a facility near the north korean capital, pyongyang, suggest there are preparations to launch a missile or a satellite. a summit between the north korean leader, kim jong—un, and president donald trump to discuss pyongyang's nuclear weapons ended last week without agreement.

the bbc‘s correspondent in seoul, laura bicker, has been explaining what had raised analysts suspicions. the latest activity is at a site known as sanum dong, just outside pyongyang. it is where north korea makes most of its intercontinental ballistic missiles and most of its rockets for satellite launches. the activity is large trucks, which they have seen going in and out. doesn't sound like much, but it is activity that many believe is consistent with that of preparing for either a missile or a rocket launch. this goes in conjunction with the satellite images which suggest their main rocket launch site is now fully operational. work stopped last year but now seems to have been started again and in fact it seems to have been rebuilt at a rapid pace. all eyes will now be on that site. it seems that trucks have now left

sanum dong, and a train. all eyes will now be on sohae to see if something arrives there for launch. it is unlikely, i'm told by analysts, at this stage that it may be a missile. they believe it is more likely to be a satellite. but that would still breach the agreement reached between donald trump and kimjong—un, according to the us state department spokesman who gave a briefing this week. they would see that as a violation, even if it is a satellite launch. so this is a tense time and one of those times where both kimjong—un and donald trump have difficult decisions to make. if they launch a satellite in north korea it could break all agreements and cause a breakdown of the talks between the united states and north korea. the united states may turn a blind eye and just say it's a satellite, or they may also say that this is a breach of the trust reached between donald trump and kimjong—un. so it is a tense time and everyone is wondering exactly what is going on. i think the best thing we can do

is keep an eye on the situation. that was laura bicker in seoul. let's take at look at some of today's other stories on bbc news. research by the bbc has found only one in ten of the nurses working within the nhs in england are men. figures suggest that last year there were just over 36,000 male nurses compared to more than 285,000 women. the department of health said it had seen a nine per cent increase in men applying for courses in the past 12 months. america's commercial astronaut capsule, the spacex dragon, has successfully completed its six—day test mission into space. the craft, which had a robot on board, re—entered the earth's atmosphere and touched down in the atlantic ocean. the us space agency nasa says that for the first time in eight years it could now consider sending astronauts back into orbit. more than 200 items from george michael's personal art collection are to be auctioned this week in london. the singer — who died

in december 2016 — built up his collection by visiting galleries and artists‘ studios. any money made will go to charity. internet—users should have greater control over personal data to ensure their own safety online. it's part of a proposal to change the way big tech companies are regulated. it follows a report from the house of lords communications committee which says companies are failing to regulate themselves effectively. our business correspondent rob young has more. molly russell was 14 years old when she took her own life in 2017. she had viewed graphic images about self harm online. molly's father has said he believes social media was partly to blame for her death. there have been growing concerns about content and behaviour online, and calls for companies to do more. i think that lots of people feel powerless in this situation, but of course we can act. we are a nation state, parliament is sovereign,

as we are discovering in the brexit process. we can legislate if we need to. it would be far better to do it in concert with social media companies, but if we think they need to do things that they are refusing to do, then we can and we must legislate. the house of lords communications committee says the industry's response has been piecemeal and inadequate, so the committee is calling for big tech to be reined in. there are more than a dozen uk regulators covering the digital world, but no one body has complete oversight, so the lords recommend the creation of a new digital authority. it also wants protections given to people in the real world to apply online. one key principle for regulation would be respect for privacy, to keep our growing volume of online data safe. there's also a call for a classification framework, similar to that for films. the government is currently working on its own plans to more strictly regulate web companies. internet firms say they work hard to keep their services free of some

of the most serious issues people are concerned about, but they say they recognise that more needs to be done to address potential online harms. rob young, bbc news. the world's oldest living woman has been recognised by guinness world records. she is 116—year old japanese woman, kane tanaka, who was born and lives on the southern island of kyushu. she's in a nursing home these days, where staff organised a party to celebrate the recognition. tanka says the secret to her long life are family, sleep and her shinto faith. still in good health, her hobbies include board games and calligraphy but she also confesses to a weakness for sweets and canned coffee drinks. congratulations to her. there may yet be hope for me! now it's time for a look at the weather with helen willetts. hello there. a turbulent weekend of weather. it's been windy, we've had hill snow through saturday morning. the afternoon brings further snow showers to the hills, rain and snow to the north, but fewer showers, more sunshine and an easing in the wind for southern areas, so some good spells of sunshine.

but this is waiting in the wings, and this is going to give us a headache. one weather system approaching from the south, and later one from the west, so although it will feel relatively pleasant out and about in the south this afternoon, a very different complexion to the weather will take place through the night. this comes north, bumping into the cold air, so potentially giving us some more hill snow, and as itjoins forces with this next weather system coming in from the west, which will give more significant snow, the potential is also there for it to really whip up into a deep area of low pressure, potentially bringing some very windy weather, but significant snow, even a couple of centimetres at lower levels, but 10—15 centimetres over the hills in the north. clearly a colder day for most of us and feeling so in that potentially very windy weather. hello — this is bbc news, with shaun ley. the headlines: the home secretary, sajid javid, is facing criticism after the death of the baby son of shamima begum — the british teenager whose

citizenship he revoked forjoining the islamic state group. a man charged with murdering jodie chesney has been remanded in custody. the 17—year—old was stabbed to death in a park in east london last friday. the brexit secretary accuses michel barnier of trying "to rerun old arguments" — as talks continue between the uk and eu. increased activity at a missile site in north korea — satellite images of a facility near pyongyang suggest the country may be preparing to launch a missile or a satellite. sport — and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre — here's mike bushell. good morning. they've swept all before them for 12 matches running, but today wales come up

against a scotland side, who can be a force to reckoned with at home. wells are still on course on the six nations. england coach, eddiejones, called this welsh team, the gritty side ever. that one is live on bbc one, with coverage starting at 115. head coach, eddie jones, one, with coverage starting at 115. head coach, eddiejones, of england says he wants to see improvement against italy today. ourjob is to get better. we have the opportunity to play in front of 82,000 people, to play in front of 82,000 people, to play in front of 82,000 people, to play a good game of rugby. we have had great preparation for two weeks, some good training against georgia last week. this week, we have had some good fast intense sessions. scotland agains wales coverage on bbc 1 from 13.15 with kick—off at 14.15,

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