this is bbc news. the headlines at 2pm: the death toll from the coronavirus in china rises to 56 — officials warn the spread of the virus is accelerating and the country faces a "grave situation". as the united states announces plans to fly some of its citizens home, the foreign office is urging britons to leave the province where the outbreak began — and advising against further travel there. a member of the grenfell tower inquiry panel resigns over links with the firm that supplied the tower block's deadly cladding. 35 people are dead after the powerful earthquake in eastern turkey — more than 1,600 are injured. three million brexit coins go into circulation on friday to commemorate the day britain leaves the european union.

and, we'll have highlights of this week's proceedings in westminster — that's in the week in parliament in half an hour. the president of china has said his country is facing a "grave situation" after the number of cases of coronavirus rose sharply, to more than 2,000. chinese officials say the virus is infectious in its incubation period, before symptoms show, making it harder to contain. chinese state media say 56 people have now died. chinese president xijinping held a special goverment meeting on the lunar new year public holiday, where he warned that the spread of the

virus is accelerating. a nationwide ban on the sale of wildlife has been imposed. it's believed the outbreak stemmed from the illegal sale of animals at a wuhan fish market. elsewhere, the us has announced that staff at its wuhan consulate will be evacuated on a special flight on tuesday. and here, the foreign office has warned against travel to hubei province, where the virus began, and urged britons there to leave if they can. angus crawford has this report. warnings echo through wuhan, a city of 11 million almost deserted. 0nly medical staff are free to travel. checkpoints ring the city. leaving the zone is not an option. hospitals stretched to capacity. foreign nationals unable to get home. the us and japanese governments plan to evacuate citizens, but some british travellers say

they're getting no clear guidance. the government is saying that people should leave if they can, but then the uk government is aware now that all the transport links are closed. so i find it a little bit surprising that we are being told to leave if we can, when there is no possible route. all the transport links have been closed down. the home secretary says all options are being considered. in light of the urgency of the situation, and rightly so, we are working with the chinese authorities, the world health organization, public health england, to look at what is going on and to ensure that we are doing our utmost to stop the virus from coming to the united kingdom. and obviously becoming a widespread problem. chinese health officials revealed more about the virus which has killed over 50 people, spreading to humans from animals. it's contagious during incubation, with no symptoms. that incubation can

last up to two weeks. as a result, all wildlife sales are being banned. but there is evidence the illness has already spread abroad. in france, three passengers from china are known to have been infected. in hong kong, with five cases, as a precaution the authorities even closed disneyland. every part of daily life affected by the fear of a virus which knows no borders. angus crawford, bbc news. authorities in hong kong have declared an emergency because of the spread of the virus. 0ur correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes is there. the statistics and the predictions as to what is going to happen in the coming days are quite frightening. we should remember that this virus appears to have a fairly low mortality rate of around 3%, so it

is not as serious as the sars virus which had a higher mortality rate. but this virus can spread much more quickly. they are saying in china that there are 2000 cases so far discovered. a study done by scientists in britain has suggested there may actually be more than that, perhaps up to 9000 cases, many of which have not been detected yet. but those same scientists in the uk at imperial college are predicting that, by the end of next week, by february the 4th, in wuhan alone, there could be 400 cases. that shows you how fast this virus is likely to spread. families of people who died in the grenfell tower fire have welcomed a decision by a member of the inquiry panel to resign. benita mehra stepped down yesterday, after it emerged she had links to a company that supplied the cladding on the tower block. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports.

every year since the granville fire, people come to remember those who lost their lives. they hope the public enquiry that has been set up will provide answers as to how the fire took hold. but now there are fresh concerns about the process from survivors and the bereaved after an enquiry panel member resigned. the engineer was going to provide expert advice to the enquiry, but it has emerged she had a past link to the company which supplied the external cladding for the tower block. the enquiry has found the cladding did not comply with building regulations, and was the principal reason for the rapid spread of the fire. she said her former role as president of the women's engineering society, which had accepted a donation from the charity had caused serious concern to the families. charity had caused serious concern to the families.

the genfell united group welcomed mrs mehra ‘s resignation, but accuse the government of failing to carry out basic checks before appointing her. they said a new panellist with expertise in community relations must be found urgently. a cabinet minister has said it is his gut feeling that hs2 should go ahead. brexit secretary steve barclay described the rail project as a "key part" of the government's "levelling up" agenda. ministers are mulling over whether or not to go ahead with the high—speed line, with a decision expected in the coming weeks. i'm joined by our political correspondent, pete saull. let's talk about this gut feeling first of all. an awful lot of noise around westminster at the moment about this rail project, reports of the costs spiralling north of £100

billion, much, much more than it was initially expected to cost. in and around parliament, mps are mulling over whether they think it should go ahead, including some of the newly elected mps, many of whom are deeply sceptical about it. i dare say this has been discussed at cabinet level at length as well, and what's interesting is that, up until this point, ministers have been really keen not to go there in terms of which way this is going to go. however, we heard from steve barclay this morning on the andrew marr programme, perhaps giving the strongest hint yet about what the thinking of the government now is. we have a strong commitment to level all parts of the united kingdom. hsz isa all parts of the united kingdom. hsz is a key part of that, not just for speed, but for a capacity point of view. gut feeling, yes or no? yes.

we will find out quite how accurate his gut feeling is in a matter of weeks, and the decision is expected next month. but steve barclay is not a person who will be making the decision, it lies ultimately with the prime minister, who will be having conversations with his chancellor and the transport secretary about it. steve barclay ‘s influence is limited, and indeed, his seat at the cabinet table might not be there for too much longer because the government is about to disband the department for exiting the european union. remember, we will be doing that on friday of this week. you go where i was about to 90, week. you go where i was about to go, this friday. and the consequences of that with regard to trade and future arrangements. yes, so trade and future arrangements. yes, so today we have had the publication of the commemorative coin to mark oui’ of the commemorative coin to mark our departure from the eu. a 50p piece that has on its "peace, prosperity, and friendship with all nations". much more important than

the coin, of course, is the next phase of our negotiations. we will close the first chapter of the brexit story on friday, and then we will talk about what our future relationship with the european union will look like. steve barclay, again, was asked about this by andrew marr this morning, and he said the government would be coming forward with a little bit more detail about what exactly they're hoping to achieve from those negotiations. we will publish our objectives and we will set that out. the key issue... they will be a speech from the prime minister after the 31st, setting that out. but the keyissue the 31st, setting that out. but the key issue is that we will have control of our rules, we will not diverge for the sake of diverging. we start from a position of alignment. the key opportunity is that we will be able to set our standards, high standards, and workers' rights, the environment, on state aid as part of that trade policy. a word about labour, still for people trying to become the next

leader. any developments there? unite, the biggest financial backer of the labour party, their general secretary has been doing the rounds this morning. his union came out and endorsed rebecca long bailey on friday. no surprise there. many people consider rebecca to be the continuityjeremy corbyn people consider rebecca to be the continuity jeremy corbyn candidate. she disputes that, she is of the opinion that she is her own person and has a new agenda to take the labour party forward. but len mccluskey staunch in his defence of rebecca long bailey this morning. she is absolutely brilliant. she was brilliant on the day, very good. i think she is brave, courageous, her capabilities are beyond doubt. i think she is the one that can actually unite the party and take a message to not only our heartlands, which we need to wind back, but to

the rest of our nation. she is somebody who believes in lots of the radical policies that have been developed over the years. she has something else as well, she wants to talk to the aspirational views of ordinary people. and of course, that process still has some way to go. an awful long way to go when it comes to the labour leadership contest. we are currently in the phase when candidates are trying to get the backing of trade unions like unite to ultimately make it onto the ballot. this endorsement effectively means that rebecca long bailey is pretty much there, we can expect her to get the support she needs in the next few days. keir starmer is also there. so all eyes in the next couple of weeks on emily thornbury, the fourth candidate in this race to see whether she can make it onto the ballot that will go out to members. when we eventually get to that ballot, still another six weeks to

go in this contest, we won't learn who the successor to jeremy go in this contest, we won't learn who the successor tojeremy corbyn is until early april. thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news: the death toll from the coronavirus in china rises to 56 — officials warn the spread of the virus is accelerating and the country faces a "grave situation". a member of the grenfell tower inquiry panel resigns over links with the firm that supplied the tower block's deadly cladding. 35 people are dead after the powerful earthquake in eastern turkey — more than 1,600 are injured. emergency teams in turkey are continuing to search for survivors of friday's earthquake. at least 35 people are known to have been killed and more than 1,600 injured after the quake in the east of the country. our world affairs correspondent richard galpin has the latest.

she is just five years old, and covered in blood, but this girl is now safe. the rescue team pulling her out from under the smashed blocks of concrete and other debris brought down by the earthquake. for the rescue teams, speed is now essential to save lives in freezing temperatures. this emergency worker using a mobile phone to speak to a family trapped underneath the debris, telling them they must keep awake. in the light of morning, the extent of damage was revealed, this just one of 30 buildings to have been brought down. and hundreds of aftershocks over the past 24 hours have added to the fear in this earthquake—prone region. some of the homeless have now found shelter,

as the temperature at night drops to —10 degrees. 0thers, though, are out on the streets. richard galpin, bbc news. a murder investigation has been launched after the death of a non—league footballer in nottinghamshire. 25—year—old jordan sinnot, who played for matlock town, was found unconscious in retford after a night out. a 27—year—old man has been arrested and remains in police custody. the baby food manufacturer, cow and gate, is recalling 15 of its products sold in tesco stores because of concerns that some of them could have been tampered with. customers who bought 200g jars of food for babies aged over seven months are being told not to use them as they may pose a safety risk. cow and gate products sold in other supermarkets are unaffected. people in two italian regions are voting in elections that are being seen as a showdown between the government

and the far—right party of matteo salvini. his anti—immigrant and populist league party is hoping to make big gains in northern emilia romagna, and the southern region, calabria. emilia romagna is considered the spitirual home of italian socialism, and has been governed by the left since the second world war. a victory there could help the league leader to become prime minister. president trump's defence team have opened their case in the senate impeachment trial, accusing the democrats of seeking to overturn the result of the 2016 election. mr trump denies allegations that he abused his power and obstructed a congressional inquiry. from washington, our correspondent chris buckler reports. as the future of his presidency has been facing a congressional challenge, donald trump has been to davos to meet world leaders, to florida to speak to supporters, and ignored other events in washington to attend a pro—life rally. perhaps a sign he is looking past

this impeachment trial and already thinking about drumming up votes for the november presidential election. inside congress, his legal team have been arguing that, in bringing this case, the democrats were not really concerned about his behaviour in office. instead they claim that they are trying to overturn the vote that put him there in the first place. they are asking you to tear up all of the ballots across this country, on your own initiative, take that decision away from the american people. at the start of proceedings, democrats delivered a more than 28,000—page record of evidence and arguments that donald trump abused his power. the republican majority inside the senate makes it inconceivable that president trump be removed from office. what i have learned from all my years in politics and life, if you are right and keep fighting for the truth, you will prevail.

a couple of miles away in the white house, a confident mr trump is tweeting and encouraging his supporters to tune into televised proceedings. he also made some comments about the democrats his lawyers would not have got away with inside congress. they will continue making their case tomorrow and you can expect their arguments to become a little more pointed and a little more political and perhaps a little nastier. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. let's return to our main news now — the coronavirus, which emerged in china and has led to emergency measures being ta ken across the world. earlier, my colleague ben brown spoke to two british citizens in the chinese city of wuhan, the city that's the source of the outbreak. sophie hunt and jason neal have been stuck in their flat for four days now without being allowed to go out. they told me more about their experience. we have had to stock up on food and water,

and if we do go out, we have to wear a mask, it is now the law to wear a mask outside. all transportation in wuhan has been stopped, so even if we wanted to go anywhere, we can't, there are no taxis, cars, trains, planes. we are in lockdown, pretty much. in lockdown, jason. if you could leave the city, would you leave at this stage? i think at this moment i do just want to get out. we have got a lot of friends who managed to get out before the lockdown, they have gone travelling at they are not allowed back in. they seem like they have got the better end of the deal at the moment. and sophie, you live quite near to the market where it's thought the outbreak of coronavirus began. yes, we are right where the seafood market was where it is suspected that it broke out, so that was, we first heard about the outbreak on the 31st of december, so new year's eve, and since then it has gradually got worse.

and jason, what are your feelings about it? how apprehensive are you? because it is obviously a virus that is pretty dangerous, it has killed 56 people we know in china. and it has now spread to other countries. it's getting more scary by the day, especially as we don't hear that much. i went to the hospital last week for a checkup, and everyone there is in full body suits, masks, it's like you see on the films, very surreal at the moment. so is your temptation just to stay in your apartment, because it is potentially dangerous to go outside, or do you want to get out, are you getting cabin fever? we are getting cabin fever, but we know it is much safer to stay indoors whilst we can, so we are just staying put in playing the waiting game at the moment until we hear anything else. what do you think, jason, from what you've seen of the way that the chinese authorities

have handled this? are they being quite open about it? we are finding out most of our information from friends and co—workers through messaging and a lot of rumours, so we get told to ignore most information and wait for official statements, but they are few and far between. is there much on the chinese state media about it, sophie, that you've seen, are you just getting information from people you know? there are news outlet reports about it, but i think we kind ofjust go with what we hear from our friends and family as well, and just kind of trust that instinct of what to do. but we are just waiting on any information that we can get at the moment. and have you had any contact from the british government, from the foreign office or anybody like that? we e—mailed the embassy today, but we haven't received an e—mail back.

i would imagine they are very busy at the moment. we tried to ring the home office, but they are closed at the weekend, so we are going to ring them again tomorrow to try and get in touch with the home office. and when you go out and about, what is it like? just describe what the city is like. so we went to walmart and it was manic because everyone was getting the same idea as us, of trying to stockpile food because they don't want to leave. we also went to the pharmacy to stock up on the masks to protect ourselves, and they were running out of stock quite quickly. so i think it is either one extreme of the other, it is in a state of chaos or it is a ghost town. so it is really sad because we both love the city, it is a great place to be, but it is sad to see it deteriorate over the past few weeks. that is sophie hunter and jason neil, who have both been teaching english in the city of wuhan, and are now stranded there, stuck in that flat for several days now.

we have heard that the mayor of paris says that the city ‘s chinese new year parade will be cancelled because, in her words, the distress of the city ‘s chinese community over the outbreak. of course, there have been some confirmed outbreaks in france. that development illustrating again how widespread the effects of this are becoming. earlier we spoke to professor peter piot who is the director of the london school of hygiene & tropical medicine. he explained more about the virus and how it spreads. (tx sot) there are so many unknowns are still about this new virus. it is a com pletely about this new virus. it is a completely new virus, and it is remarkable that a less than two weeks after the first cases occurred on december 29, but on the 9th of january already the virus was isolated. 0ne january already the virus was isolated. one of the big questions is, how infectious is it? can you contaminate someone when you are still in the incubation period question mark if that is the case,

we would go for a major epidemic, if not a pandemic. we are at the early stages, let's not forget that this virus was isolated only a few weeks ago and it is very new, but we can't ta ke ago and it is very new, but we can't take any risk. what is clear is that the virus is spreading much faster than we anticipated at the beginning. it is all over china, we have cases in a number of countries, although no secondary cases have been documented in countries like thailand or france or singapore. that is a big unknown as well, but we can't take any risks and we need to make some really serious contingency planning in case there isa contingency planning in case there is a major spread of this new coronavirus. just a line from the department of health on this, the latest figures they are publishing. more than 50 people have now been tested for coronavirus in the uk, but it's important to stress that

there are still no confirmed cases. 52 people across england, wales, scotla nd 52 people across england, wales, scotland and northern ireland, as of sunday afternoon, have been tested for the virus, but all tests were confirmed as negative. that is the latest from the department of health. it's pretty tough for any teacher trying to keep a classroom full of primary school children fully engaged, so imagine how hard it must be for one who's profoundly deaf, relying on sign language and lip reading. but that's exactly the challenge for alysha allen at a school in north london, and she'sjust won an award for her achievements. they were looking at my hand and already i had got them... this is a typical maths lesson for year twos in alicia's class. even though she is profoundly deaf, she teaches at a mainstream school using british sign language and lip—reading.

she has just received a national award for her outstanding teaching methods. itjust breaks it down for them visually. so today... it's notjust for maths, it helps the skills to grow. we have to say, good morning, look at each other during the register. their friends look at them. saying good morning to each other, eye contact. alicia's is not the only class that uses british sign language at this school. every single pupil learns it. we are going to have a little peek at the zebras, a year 5 class, and see what they are up to. it is very rare for all children in a uk school to learn british sign language. the head teacher introduced it 2.5

yea rs the head teacher introduced it 2.5 years ago. initially there were some reservations from some parents when she started. however, i think when they see how amazing she is and the progress of the children, and how quickly they pick up the different signs, and for a lot of the children now, they have learned sign language for a couple of years, so they have already got some of that knowledge as well. and then there are other adults in the classroom, supporting different children and supporting across the whole classroom, and they see that actually, it's a team effort as well, and everybody is supporting and working together for the best of the children. it's my favourite thing to do at school! it makes me feel happy. if you learn how to sign, you can communicate with deaf people. alicia started as a teaching assistant at a special needs school before training as a teacher. anybody thinking about becoming a teacher, think about it and do it. because children need more role models. and anybody thinking,

you can't do it, you can. now it's time for a look at the weather. a good afternoon to you. the weather is, at long last changing, after all these days of grey and gloomy weather, there is something rather different on the way. this band of cloud has been bringing rain eastwards. behind it, the speckled cloud is showers, some of which will be wintry. still parts of east anglia and the south—east yet to see this band of rain. behind it, the sky is turning brighter than of late. some showers pushing in and some over higher ground in scotland will be wintry, with temperatures coming down through the rest of the afternoon. the cold air is digging its way in. tonight, showers pushing in from the west, some will be heavy with hail and thunder. northern

england, northern ireland and scotland, there will be snow to relatively low levels. it won't snow everywhere, but it could give some icy conditions for tomorrow morning ‘s rush hour. a chilly start to the new week with snow and ice fulsome of us. drier midweek, and then it turns mild and unsettled later in the week. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the death toll from the coronavirus in china rises to 56 — officials warn the spread of the virus is accelerating and the country faces a "grave situation". as the united states announces plans to fly some of its citizens home, the foreign office is urging britons to leave the province where the outbreak began, and advising against further travel there. a member of the grenfell tower inquiry panel resigns over links with the firm that supplied the tower block's deadly cladding. 35 people are dead after

the powerful earthquake in eastern turkey — more than 1,600 are injured. 3 million brexit coins go into circulation on friday, to commemorate the day britain leaves the european union. now on bbc news it's time for the week in parliament with mandy baker. hello, and welcome to the week in parliament, a week in which a key piece of government brexit legislation finally becomes law. her majesty has signified her royal assent to the following act, european union withdrawal agreement, act 2020. 0rder, order. a former hospital consultant warns

of the dangers of the virus,