hello. this is the briefing. these are ourtop hello. this is the briefing. these are our top stories. one of antarctica's largest ice sheets is mild melting faster than previously thought. the findings of a team of scientists who drilled to the bottom of the iglesia in a world first witnessed by the bbc. beneath the 600 metres of ice below me is the most important part of all, the point at which the ice meets the ocean water. china tightens travel restrictions as it confirms over 100 deaths and four and a half thousand cases of coronavirus. lawyers representing accusers of jeffrey epstein say they are outraged at

claims prince andrew has not cooperated with american prosecutors. and in business, to ban 01’ prosecutors. and in business, to ban or not to ban? uk decides whether to freeze huawei out of its 56 infrastructure. hello there. a warm welcome to the programme. good to see you. i will brief you on all you need to know in global news business and sport. today, a big insurer apologises after it e—mails thousands of its customers calling them all michael. i would like to know what problems do you have with your name? or your worst e—mail mistake. just use our hashtag.

thwa ites thwaites glazier, one of the biggest in antarctica is melting faster than originally thought. it is roughly the size of written. if it disappears completely it could lead toa disappears completely it could lead to a huge rise in global sea levels. the biggest scientific field project in the history of the antarctic is trying to work out how fast the ice is vanishing. as part of our our planet matters series,, we travelled across west antarctica to reach the front of the iglesia. —— one mac. until this year, only four people had ever been here, the front of what they call the doomsday glacier. but understanding what is happening here is crucial for us all. if we are thinking about what sea level will be like in ten years, this glacier is the place to be and this

is the location to ask these questions at. the chaos of broken ice at front is almost 100 miles wide and it is collapsing into the sea at two miles a year to it sits at the heart of the vast reason of ice in west antarctica, the glacier is the size of britain and contains more than half metre of sea level rise. and if thwaites goes, most of the west antarctic ice sheet will as well and there is three metres smaller up in that. it is enough to swamp many of the great cities of the world and drive hundreds of millions of people from their homes. getting here is not easy. it takes five weeks just to get the science teams and their equipment to the front of the glacier. this is an historic moment. the first time anyone has tried to drill down through this glacier. beneath the 600 metres of ice below me is the most important point of all, the point at which the ice meets the ocean water. it is difficult work

but deploying instruments under the ice is the only way to begin to understand the processes at work here and to make accurate predictions of how sea level will rise in the future. this is a world first, the first time anyone has seen the place where this glacier goes afloat. the point where it begins to melt. i was yelling and screaming, oh my god! we are there, we're there! you can see the water, theice we're there! you can see the water, the ice coming down, the sea floor coming up at you, a huge rush of energy. the bed of glacier is a place we have never been and particularly here where it starts to float. and thwaites matters because it is so vulnerable. strip away the ice from west antarctica and look, most of this part of the continent is below sea level. that means the glacier and indeed the whole region could again to retreat increasingly rapidly. this year's work has already confirmed the scientist's

worst fears. the deep warm ocean water that circles antarctica is flowing into the coast here and because the seabed slopes downwards, as the ice melts it willjust expose more and more ice to that water. it will take decades, may be more a century for thwa ites will take decades, may be more a century for thwaites to melt but it is melting and we need to know how quickly if we are going to protect ourselves as the world's oceans rise. invasion, authorities have confirmed the first death from the new coronavirus in the chinese capital. more than 100 people have now died from it in total. in china there are 110w from it in total. in china there are now more than four and a half thousand confirmed cases and the bavarian health ministry has confirmed the first case in germany. joining me now is how shanghai correspondent. robin, every day you andi correspondent. robin, every day you and i seem to speak about efforts to contain it. it does not seem to be

working. what can they do now? we have something close to an attempt to lock down largest waves of the country with the extension of the chinese new year holiday yesterday by the national government. that is to prevent what would have been tens and tens of millions of people taking two planes trains and buses over the coming days to head to big cities like shanghai. the government has told people to stay where they are and is extending the holiday, hoping to buy some time to deal with containment. but you are right, it appears we are nowhere close to a peak in terms of the spread of this virus. yesterday the official death toll was 81 and today that has gone toll was 81 and today that has gone to 160/20 5% increase in terms of reported deaths attributed to this type of coronavirus. at this stage

we know because government officials have said so, it is more severe in terms of virulence. the president has spoken about a great time ahead —— grave time ahead. a medical experts that for everyone infected person, this version of the virus is affect ring —— infecting another two 01’ affect ring —— infecting another two or three. the trend will go up and up or three. the trend will go up and up until containment efforts are successful, if indeed they can be successful. an update from this morning's media addressed by the government. in were hand they say there will be 10,000 —— wuhan they say there will be new hospitals to treat the affected that there are terms of —— problems in terms of supplies for medical professionals. that gives you an insight into the problems in terms of supplies being faced by the chinese authorities here. thank you

very much for that update. let me brief you now and some other stories making the news this hour. american officials have confirmed a military aircraft crashed in afghanistan on monday. it is not known how many we re monday. it is not known how many were on board. the video from a taliban affiliated social media account claims to show the wreckage although we cannot verify the footage. the plane came down in a mountainous area controlled by the taliban. pressure is building on republicans to allow witnesses in the senate impeachment trial of donald trump after reports that the former national security adviser john bolton has directly linked mr trump toa john bolton has directly linked mr trump to a plan to freeze aid to the ukraine in exchange for political favours. some republicans now support democrats and say he should be heard. new zealand ‘s prime minister has called an election for september 19. jacinda ardern came to

power last year and has been praised for her response to the terror attack in christchurch and to climate change but her government is under attack for domestic blooms. the former belgian king albert to has admitted he is the father of belgian artist who was born from his affair with a baroness. he forced to give a dna test came back positive. he had been fighting the paternity claim for more than a decade. she is now officially his fourth child. the uk government may decide later whether to ban chinese telecommunications giant huawei from being involved in britain's 5g network. several western countries, notably the us, of acute the —— accused the company of being a security threat. it is denied by the

company who say the accusations are politically motivated. with me is rebecca harding, the chief executive and founder of a tech group. rebecca, why do you think these concerns are still lingering around huawei? if you look at the issues that are at stake here it is very ha rd to that are at stake here it is very hard to understand how important all this is because it is about information and control of data. so security services, information services want to be able to understand what is going on in case there is a threat of terror or in case there are risks that may emerge. so who controls all of this is very important politically and security wise. that is what the american say. but there is a very real risk that if we allow ourselves to get into 5g with an administration that cannot necessarily be controlled in the same way that, say, the us or europe or australia can be, then the risk

is the data gets into the wrong hands. the problem with a 5g network is very simple, data becomes everything. everything we do, your kettle can decide what your behaviour patterns are like and how many cups of tea you make. everything has a chip in it. and thatis everything has a chip in it. and that is the concern of the us government. so for the uk this becomes politically driven decision to make. so if the uk were to go ahead and let huawei have involvement in building a 5g network, the next speed of mobile collection here, and the us does not like it, what could the potential fallout be? for the forthe uk, for the uk, this is almost an existential post brexit question. it is very hard to understand how important this is for the uk because the uk traditionally has been a bridge between the eu and the united states. there is also a huge network called five eyes which is data

sharing between five allied countries including the uk, the us, canada australia and new zealand. so for the uk make a decision whether or not it will agree with the united states or whether it will face europe where there is some limited engagement. the key thing for europe and the key thing for the uk is actually huawei have been involved with our mobile communications for a long time. they seem it is not the same problem that the us has. thank you very much you'll be back later to go through some stories in the papers with us. an american lawyer who represents women who say they we re who represents women who say they were abused by jeffrey who represents women who say they were abused byjeffrey epstein say they are outraged by claims that prince andrew has failed to co—operate with the investigation into the convicted sex offender. a prosecutor in new york says the fbi has received no response from the princes lawyers, despite repeated approaches. last night, the lawyer said the prince should agree to be interviewed. speaking outside jeffrey

speaking outsidejeffrey epstein ‘s mansion, the american prosecutor said he did not normally comment on whether a witness was cooperating or not. but he would make an exception in this case because prince andrew had publicly offered to help. the southern district of new york and the fbi have contacted prince andrew's attorneys and requested to interview prince andrew and to date prince andrew has provided zero cooperation. prince andrew says he did not see or suspect any suspicious behaviour when visiting the homes of his then friend. now that prince andrew has stepped down from official royal duties, buckingham palace is not commenting. and there has been no response so farfrom prince and there has been no response so far from prince andrew's lawyers. but there has been from some of the women who say they were the victims of jeffrey women who say they were the victims ofjeffrey epstein. i am glad women who say they were the victims of jeffrey epstein. i am glad that he has gone public to try and embarrass prince andrew who made one statement and then behind closed doors is doing something very different. the five victims who i

represent are outraged and disappointed at prince andrew's behaviour. virginia roberts claims that she was forced to have sex with prince andrew by epstein and his associates. andrew completely denies any sexual encounter with her. he knows what happened. i know what happened and there is only one of us telling the truth. in a now infamous interview last november, prince andrew said he was willing to talk to american investigators with some conditions. if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so then i would be duty—bound to do so. ina then i would be duty—bound to do so. in a statement a few days later when he stepped down from royal duties, his commitment was even clearer. he said of course i am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required. american prosecutors say have many questions to ask about his relationship with jeffrey have many questions to ask about his relationship withjeffrey epstein. so far at least, prince andrew seems

unwilling to answer them. stay with us on bbc news, still to come on the briefing: american audiences get ready not just for super bowl but puppy bowl as shelter dogs shine on the field. the shuttle challenger exploded soon after lift—off. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman school teacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening, tahrir square, the heart of official cairo, was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word "revolution". the earthquake singled out buildings and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasing desperation about it as the hours passed. the new government is firmly in control of the entire

republic of uganda. survivors of the auschwitz concentration camp have been commemorating the 40th anniversary of their liberation. they toured the huts, gas chambers and crematoria, and relived the horrifying experiences. you're watching the briefing, i'm ben bland and these are the headlines: the biggest scientific field project in the history of antarctica found the thwaites last year, one of the largest in the region, is melting faster than previously thought. the number of people killed by coronavirus in china has risen to more than 100. in northern spain, there's been angry scenes on the streets of

barcelona in protest against the leader of this protest government being stripped of his position as lawmaker. tensions have been growing between the two main pro—independence parties. rich preston reports. temperatures rising once again in spain's wealthy north—east, these protesters angry at their leader, quim torra, being stripped of his status as lawmaker, and taking their anger to the streets. quim torra has been the region's president since may 2018, leading a coalition of two pro—independence parties — together for catalonia and the republican left of catalonia. but he was found guilty of disobedience for failing to remove pro—independence symbols from official buildings. quim torra called on the parliament to ignore the ruling. translation: i trust this parliament, and i appeal to all lawmakers to immediately revert this irregularity, which is illegal.

and whilst together for catalonia agreed, the republican left of catalonia refused, saying ignoring the court would nullify all decisions taken in the parliament. chanting: torra! the decision to remove torra angered his supporters, as they gathered outside catalonia's parliament chanting his name. those in favour of catalan independence haven't given up their fight with spain's central government in madrid. but, to have enough fuel to fight that fire, they need to extinguish some problems closer to home first. rich preston, bbc news. president donald trump will unveil his proposalfor middle east peace later on tuesday. ahead of the announcement he invited the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, and mr netanyahu's main lytic opponent, ben gantz, to the white house to brief them on its contents.

mrtrump house to brief them on its contents. mr trump says the plan has a chance of success even though the palestinians have already flatly rejected it. barbara plett—usher has more. the details of the plan haven't officially been released but that hasn't stopped here, people hear being talking about it because it has lea ks in being talking about it because it has leaks in it, the palestinians have rejected it again, as they have for a while, because they believe it strongly favours israel. in fact we we re strongly favours israel. in fact we were told president mahmood abbas refused to take a call from president trump to talk about the release. the general view is even if the plan would allow for some kind palestinians, the conditions would be such that no palestinian administration could accept. what will the palestinians do aside from protest, which haven't achieved anything, or what what can they do at this point? the israeli view has been generally that this arrangement looks to be the best israel could get from any american administration, that it will lead to israel taking control or retaining control of large parts of the

occupied west bank. now, it is a roadmap not to be imminently implemented, and we understand from reports that president rob also wa nts to reports that president rob also wants to give their time to the palestinians change their mind. in the meantime analysts believe this will probably give a political boost to prime minister netanyahu ahead of forthcoming elections and he may try to use it as a platform to try to and territory in the west bank. let's breathe you on some of the key events happening later. a court in mali will decide whether to grant pa role mali will decide whether to grant parole to the 2012 cooper leader and the do logo, imprisoned for the deaths of 21 soldiers. in germany this morning newly discovered photos from suburb or nazi camp will be released for public display. and egyptian and ethiopian sudanese delegations meet to resolve the

long—running nile dam dispute in washington. top seed ash barty is through to the semifinals of the australian open. she's the first australian woman to reach that stage in 36 years. let's get the latest from the bbc‘s john watson in melbourne. interesting times in the women's competition? it is, yes. it seems everybody here, ben, is having a party party and i hope ash barty is enjoying the party herself because as you know a lot of expectation on her shoulders. she is shouldering a lotta. it's been a long time since an australian woman reached the semifinals at her home grand slam and certainly hoping to go on and win it and become the first australian to win it in the men's or women's singles since 1978. she is carrying the hopes of the nation but she is cool and relaxed. only a couple of wobbles. in her last match against allison riske she

had a few wobbles. she was put under pressure by petra kvitova, a fierce competitor, two—time wimbledon champion but it hinged on the third set, which ash barty took and then she won it in straight sets. she is looking comfortable and very composed. great celebrations, as you can imagine, with all of the fans that have poured into see her in action. she duly delivered and that barty party will continue and they will hope the culmination of that will hope the culmination of that will be with ash party holding up the trophy come the end of the fortnight stopped as they say, there ain't no party like a barty party. let's turn from the women's competition to the men's. what is happening with that? we have roger federer against tennis anger in, and roger federer looking very cool and composed. he was given a workout againstjohn millman a few matches

ago, a realfive set againstjohn millman a few matches ago, a real five set thriller, againstjohn millman a few matches ago, a realfive set thriller, we wondered whether or not those matches and the time in the legs would take its toll by roger federer has the ability to accelerate rematches and he is doing that once again. and novak djokovic in action, the defending champion. this will. they have played nine times before and djokovic has won all nine. he has been playing well and he loves the courts in australia and it is ha rd to the courts in australia and it is hard to see an upset against milos raonic for novak djokovic. i don't think there will be one for federer. tennys sandgren,100 think there will be one for federer. tennys sandgren, 100 in the world, roger federer has never lost to a player as low as that in the australian open. looking good for them because we talk about the big three, and they are certainly delivering again with rafa nadal doing the business against nick geary ‘s. we will wait to see how

that unfolds a bit later but looking good so farfor ash that unfolds a bit later but looking good so far for ash barty and novak djokovic and roger federer. and indeed looking good for the spectators with the sunshine breaking through. thank you tojohn watson in melbourne. this weekend sees one of the world's biggest sporting events, the 54th super bowl. the kansas city chiefs will take on the san francisco 49ers in miami, but before the main event there will be an appetiser involving competitors who are a little more fairy. tim allman explains —— furry. top—level athletes these are not, but sporting glory awaits nonetheless. this is the puppy bowl, where team ruff and team fluff go head—to—head. and the rules are so easy, it seems you can teach a young dog new tricks. it's drag a chew toy or kick a chew toy into the endzone. doesn't matter which endzone, doesn't matter which chew toy. as long as you're there, it counts.

like all american sporting events, they aim to put on a show for the cameras. the puppy bowl has become almost as grand a tradition as the super bowl. well, almost. we air it right before the super bowl, so families are gathering with their friends on super bowl sunday. it's something to have on the background, and sit and watch adorable puppies while you get ready to watch the big game. 96 puppies aged between 12 and 26 weeks are taken from animal shelters across america and around the world. and what are they looking for in their canine competitors? she's good at looking pretty. she was wagging her tail. she checked out every dog that came on the field. we like to stand in the touchdown area and wait for a pass. each animal taking part is available for adoption. as for who the most valuable puppy will be, you'll have to wait until sunday to find out. tim allman, bbc news.

i thought i would let you paws and enjoy that! i'll see you soon. hello there. wintry weather could cause one or two headaches if you're travelling early on tuesday morning. there's a combination of snow and ice in the forecast, affecting some northern and western parts of the uk. the showers have already been rattling in from the west and they continue through the early morning. slightly more persistent rain, sleet and mostly snow running in across southern and eastern scotland. in the south—west, any snowfall will be over high ground and we could see a covering over the highest round here and for wales, certainly some snowfall in the hills and mountains. pretty icy extending also into northern england, and some places could have lying snow and similar in

northern ireland. in scotland, by the rush—hour, we could have snow lying on the ground even at low levels in the central belt and with those icy conditions, yes, this combination could cause issues. through the day, it turns into a fairly straightforward sunshine and showers day with the showers most plentiful in the west. by this stage any wintry weather increasingly confined to high ground, not as many showers further east but some will be blown on on a brisk when, particularly windy to the south of england and the channel islands. temperatures on the face of it, not too impressive, 5—8, but add in the strength of the wind and this is what it will feel like. it will feel like it's barely got above freezing in many parts of the uk. through tuesday night, we will continue to showers feeding in from the north—west and still getting further accumulations of snow i suspect across high ground in western scotla nd across high ground in western scotland and the showers showing signs of fizzling out in the south in another chilly night, so ice for

some to start wednesday. wednesday is quieterfor some to start wednesday. wednesday is quieter for many thanks to this bump in the isobars here, a ridge of high pressure is a temporary feature but it means some dry weather through the day. however, you will see outbreaks of rain pushing in across scotland and some of the rain heavy across high ground in the west with a bit of snow over the mountains. temperatures on wednesday starting to creep upwards, ranging from 6—11 degrees. to the end of the week, it will turn milderfor all of us week, it will turn milderfor all of us with that we will see some outbreaks of rain at times. that's all the for now. —— that's all from the for now. so far at least, prince andrew seems

unwilling to answer them.

hello. this is the business briefing. crunch day for huawei. the uk decides whether to ban the chinese firm's equipment from its 5g network. and countdown to brexit. uk firms get ready for life outside the eu. and on the markets, the asian markets, many tumbled again on tuesday extending a global sell—off as the toll from the rapidly‘s reading chinese virus spikes. —— rapidly spreading chinese virus.