a re are trying to “haw-a ' mw“ world are trying to batten down the hatches. in the us you have passengers coming from the province being checked and those coming from the uk are reporting that they have been handed leaflets. how do authorities reacted to clamp down on this? currently up to 10,000 people are meant to be infected in china alone and the death toll has been about 17 and the origins are said to be from snakes. reminiscent to sars which happened a few years ago and that was said to be caused by bats, in the caves of china, so this is another animal respiratory problem. but given that thousands of people infected, it is noteworthy that tha n kfu lly infected, it is noteworthy that thankfully the fatality rate is only in the dozen or so, comparatively low. hopefully fingers crossed, the headlines should not be so dramatic,

but is right to be on guard about it. we were speaking to an expert who said at the moment as a ratio the numberof who said at the moment as a ratio the number of people who have died asa the number of people who have died as a percentage of those who have got it is much lower than sars but the metro also is talking about the china virus, make it sound like it's only a matter of time. it is a scary story, and they are talking about how the symptoms take about two weeks to appear, not everyone infected seriously ill, so again that sounds pretty scary to read when you are on the way to work in the morning. quite a terrifying story, but again, i would the morning. quite a terrifying story, but again, iwould reiterate what you said, at the moment it has killed around 17, and maybe these headlines are a bit too scary. the suggestion is that people who have died were those who already had

trouble, older people with lung problems, and so on. the striker thing is they have closed out the travel and transport in a city of 9 million people, wuhan. imagine if they did that in london. this is how china operates. it is geopolitics, of course. if china or the us sneezes, everyone else catches a cold, so that is the riskier. with sars they kept it to themselves for a bit too long but now they are talking about the global picture and eve ryo ne talking about the global picture and everyone doing their bit. and out of the guardian, this is an extraordinary story. the hacking of the phone of geoff —— jeff bezos.

extraordinary story. the hacking of the phone of geoff -- jeff bezos. he is one of the richest people on the planet, associated with amazon, but he is the owner of the washington post. this really comes down to it. his relationship with the saudi arabian crown prince. there are allegations that basically he sent through what looked like a video through what looked like a video through whatsapp and it was something which allowed people to hack his phone and then there was a story that came out about an alleged affair as story that came out about an alleged affairasa story that came out about an alleged affair as a result. this now is becoming an even bigger story and we might see later on that there are questions about boris johnson might see later on that there are questions about borisjohnson having whatsapp him as well, the crown prince. clearly he is on a lot of people's phone numbers. when you have the richest man in the world and the owner of the washington

post, the saudi arabian embassy deny any impropriety. they say it is ludicrous. the un are very convinced so we can take that as a compelling authority on this. something smells with this. it will rumble on. now to your territory again, we are going in to the sun newspaper, to see boris crossing the finishing line, asa boris crossing the finishing line, as a brexit is over the line, it says. very quietly. thanks to the wapping conservative majority which means no more drama any more and no more knife edge drama because the house of lords got it through. —— whopping. the house of lords has decided to accept it and everyone is content. very understated in my very british way, the marathon, the gruelling drama of the last four years, formerly is now going to be

nearing an end, next friday will be the night of brexit. mark that in your diaries. after that, the night of brexit. mark that in your diaries. afterthat, our relations with the rugby become part of standard foreign policy. —— with the eu become part of standard foreign policy. you make it sound so easy! it was incredible to think it has been hitting the —— hasn't been hitting the front pages because we we re hitting the front pages because we were obsessing over the parliamentary shenanigans of the last few years and there were these lords amendments and they brought up some serious concerns and did a lot of work cross bench to build consensus about these concerns, about child refugees and a provision which was put into the bill for that under theresa may and then boris johnson went back on it. he promises to put that in at a later bill but we will see what happens. we have been doing brexit on the front pages for so long but that was on a page one. the times, britain heads for

clashes with the united states. three pronged attack essentially. can you tell us about them. yes, quite a few rows going on at the first big one is the tech tax and sajid javid was talking about this at davos and he said we are going to go ahead with it, and the americans may have their concerns but we think this is a proportionate tax, a temporary tax, and it is needed. france is having the same battle as well with the us, saying they will impose a 3% levy, and they believe this is fair. on top of that tech tax we have the 5g plan and that is something that went on under theresa may as well. that caused a huge row and a resignation. in the cabinet. and also the iran nuclear tensions

are growing. the tensions between donald trump and borisjohnson have come at a bad sign for borisjohnson when he is reliant on the americans. the prime minister says he is having talks of equal value with the us and the eu, offending neither. at some point he would have to make choices that may well compromise his ability to do deals with the other lot. at davos when sajid javid said he believes he is going to talk to them both at the same time, the us counterpart stephen nugent said, i thought we would be first! he did not seem to be joking. bite them not putting america first, you have to have a delicate balancing act —— by them. because the uk still wants to stand close with angela merkel and emmanuel macron on iran, for

example, and the tech tax is popular with voters, going after the likes of google. sajid javid said this is a temporary tax and that the whole point is they should be resolving this on a global scale. when you have someone like ugo who wants to protect what he sees as us innovators —— when you have someone like president trump who wants. so he will rattle a sabre and have reciprocal taxes on nice car manufacturers that you have their... do you want to call his bluff? he has tried it with the eu. that is probably why he said it is harder to do with the eu then it is with china. the us is talking about making america great again and boris johnson has won the election on a similar message of making britain great again with brexit, so this is bound to happen, when these powers

talk about basically protectionist policies in a lot of ways. the presidential election is coming up and donald trump needs big deals, big progress, to show voters he is delivering internationally, he is a serious statesman. there is talk of having borisjohnson serious statesman. there is talk of having boris johnson addressing serious statesman. there is talk of having borisjohnson addressing both houses of congress. clearly it is likely he will abandon the aggressive behaviour because he wants to have a deal to show because then he can show off his statement ship. maybe if we hold our nerve long enough he will cave? yes, just like the first days of brexit! we can't finish without making reference to terryjones, the monty python star who has died at the age of 77 and this is a lovely picture on the front of the independent from a smiling terryjones in his younger days. wonderful. i'm far too young to have experienced it at the time but i love monty python growing up because it is one of those things

that passes down the generations. we all watch life of brian and appreciate his genius. i remember him being very political, very outspoken about things, torture in the us and wars, he did not hold back from talking about political opinions. so nice to hear about him beyond the perform at he was clearly a real polymath. —— and. beyond the perform at he was clearly a real polymath. -- and. a real character, and the fellow monty python performers have responded with the line, two down, four to go, kind of thing! but we have got some great pictures. the site with pictures of him as the naked pianist and of course him in his best role as brian's mother. not the messiah smother, just a very naughty boy! —— the messiah's mother. that's it for the papers this hour.

asa and sienna will be back at 2330 for another look at the papers, and don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at... and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you asa bennett and sienna rodgers. goodbye. hello there. we saw a lot of cloud around, gloomy skies and mist and fog and the best of the weather in aberdeen. tomorrow will be a cloudy day with mist and fog. quite windy for the northern isles but for much of the country it will be mainly dry but for a bit of drizzle and some dense fog patches for england and wales especially through the morning where it will lift into low cloud. gloomy skies up and down the country, and the best of the brightness in eastern

scotla nd of the brightness in eastern scotland and north—east england and may be the far south—west of england, an easterly breeze running through the channel and it will be windy in the north of scotland and there is the weather front bringing outbreaks of rain. a mild day for the north—east of scotland but 8—9 elsewhere. as we head three friday night another cloudy largely frost free day, windy though, but elsewhere may be the odd spot of drizzle. similar picture on friday, holding onto the high pressure, not a cloud iran, summerhill fog and the odd spot of drizzle —— a lot of cloud around. the area of high pressure retreats into the high continent and we start to see low pressure working in off the atlantic so pressure working in off the atlantic so that will set a change to our weather. a gradual change. saturday breezy for scotland and northern ireland, with a bit of sunshine developing, and the weather front pushing to the hebrides and out into northern ireland later in the day. much of england and wales with light

winds and temperatures ranging from 7-10. the winds and temperatures ranging from 7—10. the saturday night, we start see low 7—10. the saturday night, we start see low pressure 7—10. the saturday night, we start see low pressure influencing the weather more, the weather front will be spreading its way east and there are more isobars on the charts. sunday will be a breezy and windy day, and we have the band of rain spreading its way east, patchy rain, some of it could be quite heavy through england and wales, scotland and northern ireland a brighter day view with sunshine and a few blustery showers which will be wintry on the high ground and it will turn a bit colder here. highs of 9-11. will turn a bit colder here. highs of 9—11. next week it remains u nsettled, of 9—11. next week it remains unsettled, earlier in the week, low pressure will bring a spell of gales, with heavy rain for a while. goodbye.

the chinese city at the heart of a public health crisis is shutting its public transport network to try to prevent the spead of a virus which has killed 17 people. experts around the world are assessing the risks posed by the virus as they consider declaring it an international public health emergency. the international community a right to be concerned about this. we don't know what to do. the government's plans to tax the uk profits of big tech companies cause more tension between britain and the usa. the third impeachment trial in us history is underway with democrats putting forward their arguments in the case against president trump.