at the front of the glacier. then, the really hard work began. digging snow, and lots of it. the scientists need 10 tonnes of the stuff to fill what they call the "flubber" — a water container the size of a small swimming pool. this will be the most southerly jacuzzi in the world, i think! a bank of boilers heats the water to just below boiling and then it's sprayed down onto the ice, to melt a hole almost half a mile down to where the ocean water meets the glacier. only now can the scientists deploy their instruments. only by taking measurements here can we hope to get accurate predictions of how sea—level is going to rise in the future. even if it means arousing the curiosity of some of the creatures that live here. in terms of the answers that we can produce over the next six years, and the savings that that represents to people who are trying to predict sea level and build sea defences, this is a drop in the ocean and a really good investment. this year's work has confirmed that warm sea water is melting the ice

here increasingly rapidly, raising sea levels worldwide. the challenge now is for the rest of us, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for the rising oceans we will face in the decades to come. justin rowlatt, bbc news, west antarctica. now it's time for the weather with nick miller. hello. we've had our coldest weather of the week, this latest very brief flirtation with winter is coming to an end and we've seen a bit of snow, more especially in parts of highland scotland. minimal impacts in southern parts. we've been in the blue, though, it's been colder, frosty and icy in places but look at the change for the rest of the week with the warmer colours and the milderaircoming with the warmer colours and the milder air coming back into the uk but there's complications. i have left the weather fronts on to indicate there will be from the fronts cloud, rain at times and it will be quite windy. already for thursday morning, a very different

look and feel to things with cloud, some rain in places, hill fog and poor visibility with patchy rain in south wales and southern england. more substantial rain affecting northern scotland and close to low pressure here it will be very windy the further north you are, may be just around 60 mph or so, blustery in the north—west but temperatures have rebounded above average, 14 in south—east england. low pressure close to northern scotland, pulling away as we go into friday, so the wind is easing for a time here. low pressure in the atlantic and hello, more weather fronts coming our way so more weather fronts coming our way so for someone friday, a wet start, especially to the north and west. the rain pushing further south across england and wales, tending to weaken. behind that, brightening up with a future is an blustery again. anywhere could see wind gusts up to 40-50 anywhere could see wind gusts up to 40—50 mph on friday either with the shower is moving in or with the band of rain moving south, doesn't do too much to impact temperatures again

with 14 celsius showing up in the mildest areas. this next area of low pressure as we go into the start of the weekend is close to scotland. a set of weather fronts approaching southern england, so we could see another brief spell of rain pushing across southernmost part. in scotland, the rain sinks further south to northern ireland and northern england, something brighter between the two bands of wet weather. turning colder in scotland behind this area of wet weather moving south. that takes us on to pa rt moving south. that takes us on to part two of the weekend. a bit of a lull on saturday night but not long before we see more weather fronts on sunday. uncertainty this far out on sunday. uncertainty this far out on sunday about how things will pan out and particularly how far north rain will push. if you've got outdoor plans, keep checking, because it might not look exactly like this. where the rain sits, north of that you will be colder and south of it, you will be colder and south of it, you will be colder and south of it, you will still be very mild. that ta kes you will still be very mild. that takes us to the start of next week, hello, more weather fronts!

takes us to the start of next week, hello, more weatherfronts! taking more of a southerly track here again with a bit of uncertainty about where the rain will be. it looks like affecting southern parts. the idea is these weather systems end up edging further south and the colder airto the edging further south and the colder air to the north extends further south, limiting how mild it is in southern areas. when they are gone from tuesday onwards, we open the door to colder air pushing down across the uk, initially quite windy with showers with that. looks like high pressure will topple in through the week, turning things quieter with a bit of uncertainty about where the high pressure will sit. the idea for next week as it will turn colder, frosty nights returning. showery at first, wintry showers too, but high pressure will turn things drier. how cold it is and for how long it is as high pressure m oves and for how long it is as high pressure moves in as one to watch. bye— bye. hello. this is bbc news with rebecca jones.

we'll be taking a look at tomorrow mornings papers in a moment. first, the headlines: as the authorities in china fight to contain the spread of the coronavirus, we understand tonight that a flight to evacuate britons from wuhan will not happen as planned tomorrow. it's the end of the line for northern, the troubled rail operator is losing its franchise and being taken back into public hands at the beginning of march. it was like, you know, you don't get on, it is too busy, and i've had to wait for the next train and sometimes even the train after that. at one point we had a game with the northern twitter account, which is how many people can you fit in your toile — which is eight, if you want to know. a lawyer representing the victims of the grenfell tower fire has criticised a request by companies involved in the building's revamp to be guaranteed protection when they give evidence. 999 under pressure. every week, thousands of seriously ill patients are waiting more

than an hourfor an ambulance. it's farewell as the european parliament gives its final approval to the brexit deal, sealing the uk's exit from the eu. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the daily mirror political editor, pippa crerar, and the spectator‘s deputy political editor, katy balls. lovely to have you both with us. many of tomorrow's front pages are already in. the ft says the chancellor sajid javid is preparing to throw his support behind the hs2 rail scheme, making it, acccording to the paper, "almost certain" the project will go ahead.

the metro leads with the bbc‘s plans to cut a50 jobs in its news division as part of proposals to save £80 million by 2022. the telegraph also has the hs2 story, and a photo of nigel farage in the eu parliament, as british meps completed their final official duties earlier today. the guardian headlines the plight of british citizens trapped in china amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. the i leads with the news that the northern railfranchise will be brought under government control after years of chaos. the mail headlines alastair stewart quitting his job as a newsreader at itn after making what he described as a misjudgement on social media. and the mirror leads with lord lucan for a second day! it says detectives at scotland yard are preparing to investigate the claim that lord lucan is alive and living in australia.

there you go! i was going to say you heard it here first, but actually you heard it in the mirror yesterday, so that doesn't quite work. let's move forward with the times, hs2 on the front of several of the papers, isn't it? johnson set to back hs2 in defiance of top aide. the story suggesting his aide, dominic cummings, is against hs2. is this bother saying, "i'm my own man?" that's what is suggested in the article but it is worth pointing out it is in a lot of the papers tonight, the idea sajid javid, the chancellor, has now decided he will back hs2, at least the first part, meaning it is likely, given all the moving is we have had, that the government will say yes to hs2. this

is apparently in defiance of dominic cummings, because he's previously been critical of hs2, because in the past he described it as a disaster zone. he thinks it could be spent on other infrastructure projects. they aren't suggesting there is a live conversation going on. he's been sceptical in the past so buzzer appears to be ploughing ahead with his own views on this. i think boris johnson is pro— infrastructure generally and they see infrastructure is key to their government and part of the reason hs2 looks like it will survive in some form is if you make your whole pitch during a general election that you are the government of big infrastructure and you are going to use it to level up the country, it looks a bit weird, even if it is incredibly overbudget that access you're ready to go infrastructure projects. the times is suggesting the pm will order savings as costs near £100 billion. how can you order

savings? the idea is they would carry on building the first leg to birmingham and the former chairman recommended in a review that they ta ke recommended in a review that they take six months to take stock to see whether they can make substantial savings of hundreds of millions on the next bit to lead us into manchester. there's been an argument in the comments... in politics generally, this is cross—party, about first of all whether the project should go ahead but if it does go ahead, whether it could be reversed or started again. there's a feeling among the new tory administration and also amongst labour that it should be started in the north and go south. given there's been this post—electoral focus on the north and the midlands, it's impossible for borisjohnson focus on the north and the midlands, it's impossible for boris johnson to cancel now. it will be interesting to see the second prong up to the north and crucially whether the government also manages to find money to invest in the trans— pen route, hs three, which will link up

some of those areas that have suffered for a long time across the east and the west of the country, along the pennines. all the towns that have suffered when it comes to proper transport infrastructure. that have suffered when it comes to proper transport infrastructurem is worth saying there is a crunch meeting tomorrow between boris johnson, sajid javid and grant shapps. we were led to believe there might be announcement on this this week but you are suggesting that might not happen. the feeling out of numberio earlier might not happen. the feeling out of number 10 earlier was we shouldn't expect anything this week, but i would be amazed if that meeting wasn't crucial when it comes to deciding to go ahead with it. whether they can control that announcement and delay it or whether it leaks out, we will have to wait and see. moving on to northern, not necessarily unconnected possibly, end of the line after what the i calls years of rail chaos. i'm sure lots of commuters wouldn't disagree. the train operator that's been

running this franchise, northern, has been renationalised as the transport secretary, grant shapps, says, passengers in the north deserve better. candy blamed the holy laid at the franchise... feet of the operator? it is fair to say northern rail particularly are very unpopular. looking at cut no customer satisfaction, it's the lowest of the companies when you look at that. the government are saying they have seen how bad it is and they are taking action. it is complicated when you look at blaine. those key issues with the way northern has been running itself —— blame. the government has a role with infrastructure and what they have been doing and the platforms and elsewhere. today... you can easily see how the government have had a win from this today saying that we are in effect firing northern rail and we are taking it back in. given that the problems

can't be solved overnight, this is the start of a longer process where it will be harder for the government to then on blame other companies. it's part of a trend. if you think about east coast, there's the government having to take it into public ownership, a labour policy, temporary measure under this government, so clearly there's a franchising model issue with trains as the government has it. this government is a new one. it has been in government for some time under the conservative party. they will have to work out how to improve franchising. the fact you are having to move it from so many companies suggests it isn't down to one dud company. there's a much deeper running issue. given the trend you mention, when privatisation and franchising first pain in, it seems to be broadly successful and now yet we seem to

hear about all these companies and it's not working. what has changed? initially it was all run by british rail. people were split as to how successful that was. obviously there we re lots of successful that was. obviously there were lots of industrial disputes and real underinvestment in terms of infrastructure and with the initial injection of cash that came with the initial franchising process, that enabled some immediate improvements to take place. network rail, the bit that runs the railways, the track and the signalling and so on, has remained in—house with the government and is publicly—funded. that is one of the key areas that lots of the train companies, and northern rail is one of them, blame for some of the delays and the problems. about half of delays across the country are caused by signalling problems. that rests with network rail and they were warned la st network rail and they were warned last month that needed to improve.

there's lots of problems with this particular decision to take for the government to take northern rail in—house. initially passengers will be really happy about it because things are going badly wrong and they wanted action, and andy burnham in manchester are happy because they feel it could be management contracted instead. dramatic changes still need to happen. they will need to get rid of the old pacer trains that trundle across the north. they will have to extend platforms in 30 stations and introduce technology to best address issues of overcrowding. that's a big problem. they have an ongoing industrial dispute with the rmt and the infrastructure problem we talked about with network rail. the short—term problems aren't going away so it will be a battle for the government to persuade unhappy passengers who have high expectations that it will take a substantial amount of time. ultimately they will have to totally

rethink the franchise model, which clearly isn't working. let's turn to the guardian and the other big story of course, the coronavirus and its spread. we are hearing tonight from at least afp newsagency that the number of people known to have died in china has risen. evacuated written space two weeks in quarantine. the first bit of that headline has been overtaken by events because we now understand they are not going to be evacuated from china as we were thinking they would be yesterday. exactly. it was supposed to be an emergency government organised flight ringing back uk nationals who are going to be put in quarantine to make sure they didn't have the virus for two weeks. that flight is now not expected. it could still happen but we are not expecting like in this piece but i think it is, while the iron out those difficulties, it's still the case, what happens when

eventually you get all these it's back. they do need to be tested to make sure they haven't developed this. as if yes, we haven't had a single case of it in the uk but looking at what's happened in china, how quickly its spread and become such a serious issue, a serious global health issue, it's the case what the department of health and the cobra meeting has done, the idea is you put them in quarantine for two weeks. i think it's just a series of measures the government are going to have to take because as soon as you have one case here, you see how it severely escalates. this whole quarantine thing raises questions. all these people who potentially might have the virus. what happens if you discover one of them has and also the other thing that i do wonder, what happens if somebody has a family emergency.

what they've asked people to do is to sign up to stay there for two weeks when they get back to the uk. they can't force them, can they? unless they evoke some emergency powers. they are saying they would go into quarantine for two weeks. the suggestion is now that they have looked at hotels and they had looked at what other countries had done and they had looked at other military bases and come to the conclusion they think the idea is to land at raf brize norton, not a public airport, so presumably some sort of hospital that can house 200 people and it raises questions because medical isolation varies, individual rooms, families, what you do with young children and coping with parents only seeing people in many back outfits with masks, and our

health authorities are incredibly experienced. the chief medical officer as well. they very much been led by them. they don't view, and not planning on bringing anyone back of his infected and signs of them getting on the plane, they might not allow them on so the hope is ending back 200 people who are absolutely clear but it raises many more questions despite the fact they are there for two weeks. there is a picture on the front the guardian of afamily picture on the front the guardian of a family which is also on the front of the metro. you can go but your wife stays. this is putting a very human face on this. it's a man who can come back with his daughter but his chinese wife has got to stay behind in china. this is one of the complications. british family in china but because the mother has a chinese passport, and not recognising that she is a british

citizen, she is banned by all the same rules over those who are chinese citizens and that is that she is supposed to stay there while they are dealing with this virus. because the flight issues, it's not a choice they had to make in that sense but there was a choice which is, does a husband and daughterfly back without her and they leave their relative there or do they all try and stay there. it's difficult situation. it's difficult to come back two weeks in quarantine stop those coming back and facing two weeks in quarantine, it won't be a nice experience but the general public will think you've got to be better safe than sorry but this kind of decision is clearly quite agonising. wide absolutely. the telegraph, picture of nigel farage

waving the union flag but, pm will accept border checks to free britain from eu rules. ithink this accept border checks to free britain from eu rules. i think this is a speech that dorisjohnson is making this week or next. is he saying anything in this we didn't already know? it's about the timing, we are leaving at the end of the week and borisjohnson has said many times and is government has said britain would be a rule taker once it leaves the eu but the conflict has been over whether britain manages to align with the eu rules in future trade deals which would mean frictionless trade across the border, makes it much easier for companies and a lot paperwork and much quicker if you're importing food in parts to move quickly. for weeks on end. but ultimately it sounds like he is saying, i'm prepared to compromise, we don't wa nt prepared to compromise, we don't want the economy to be damaged and we don't want checks but ultimately

it's about making sure we deliver the brexit we promised. sorry to sound like a cynic but i suspect pa rt of sound like a cynic but i suspect part of this is sounding tough now at the beginning, his crossed redlines in the past, i think you might do it again. the ability to diverged. thank you for keeping it brief. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget, you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — 7 days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you, pippa crerar and katy balls. lovely having you with us. argue watching. until next time, goodbye. —— thank you for watching. good evening — here's your latest sports news. it's manchester city

who will meet aston villa in the final of the league cup. good evening — here's your latest sports news. it's manchester city who will meet aston villa in the final of the league cup. pep guardiola's side failed to score in the second leg of their semi—final against manchester united — but progressed 3—2 on aggregate. the first leg demonstrated in 90 minutes what's been obvious for several years, that city have stepped decisively ahead of united. theiraim stepped decisively ahead of united. their aim now, to move fully out of reach. the problem, david dahir‘s reach. the problem, david dahir‘s reach. he denied aguero. edward, as chief executive, had his house vandalised last night but suddenly a thunderbolt. the semi—final smashed open. things became but was. finally, sterling found himself through time. games still not over but in chasing this, matic was too

keen on they would be shortstaffed for their final keen on they would be shortstaffed for theirfinal push. too much of an ask against the city team and agero might have asked for the full stoppage. city's was the bigger the tree and they are off to wembley again. liverpool are now 19 points clear of manchester city at the top of the premier league after a beating west ham united 2—0 at london stadium. mo salah opened the scoring from the penalty spot and alex oxlade chamberlain scored early in the second half. west ham are now only above the relegation zone on goal difference. there were wins for both leaders celtic and 2nd placed rangers in the scottish premiership. rangers won two nil at home to ross country meaning they remain 5 points behind celtic, but have a game in hand. they won three nil away at stjohnstone. lee griffiths scored the pick of the goals

which all came in the first thirty minutes, olivier ntcham and james forrest were the other names on the scoresheet. it was also semi final night in the women's league cup. arsenal are through the final after a 2—1win over manchester city. and it was two of their dutch contingent that got them there. vivianne miedema and danielle van de donk with the goals. they will meet chelsea, after they beat manchester united 1 nil. maren mjelde with the goal for their first appearance in the league cup final. the wait for a record equalling 20th grand slam title goes on for rafa nadal. the world number one is out of the australian open. the spaniard was beaten in the quarterfinals by the austrian dominic thiem in what was a four set thriller in melbourne. with news of that and the rest of the day's play, here's john watson. we have witnessed a huge upset on day ten. rafael nadal knocked out by fifth—seeded dominic thiem, coming overfor fifth—seeded dominic thiem, coming over for sets fifth—seeded dominic thiem, coming overfor sets in a fifth—seeded dominic thiem, coming over for sets in a topsy—turvy match, the team racing into a two sets to love lead before nadal hit

back and then dominic thiem had three match points, taking it on the third fourth set tie—break. it means it's the earliest exit of raphael madel from the grand slam since he lost at this stage in the tournament backin lost at this stage in the tournament back in 2018. —— rafael nadal. dominic thiem will march on where he will face zverev, who defeated wawrinka. and he promised to donate his winners chekhov to billy —— £2 million to the bushfire relief effort if he wins. the women's semifinals is complete. we saw simona halep defeat kontaveit. all eyes to the women's semifinals which will be played tomorrow. we will see world number one ash barty and the australian hope. muguruza and simona

halep will be in action and roger fetter u p halep will be in action and roger fetter up against the defending champion, mode —— novak djokovic. the big talking point, that exit of rafael nadal. —— roger fetter. that's all the sport for now. wednesday was a day of contrast across the country. for england and wales, decent sunny spells. a little milder. a different story in the far north of scotland. this instant rain bringing a couple of inches to western scotland in 2a hours. this low pressure will be an issue into tomorrow but one unifying factor, a south—westerly flow driving milder air right across the country through the end of this week. so what a difference a day makes. wednesday morning pretty much all of us were greeted by temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. thursday morning, temperatures around seven

or eight degrees. a mild start, murky. a lot of cloud around, they can offer a spot of drizzle, misty conditions, a few showers in the south—western may be some dog as well. rain still continues into scotla nd well. rain still continues into scotland although it drifts its way steadily north. still pretty windy here with the rain. mild for all. temperatures will peak widely into double digits by the middle of the afternoon so highs ranging from ten until 1a degrees. as we moved out of thursday into friday, more wet weather to come. this front, isobars with it, stronger winds and rain quite heavy particularly on west racing coast ‘s. we start off wet and windy, that rain drifting east and windy, that rain drifting east and weakening into a band of showers and weakening into a band of showers and by the end of the afternoon, more persistent rain ringing onto the north of the great glen but

again, those temperatures very respectable for this time of year. 8-14 respectable for this time of year. 8— 1a degrees. i wish i could say the trend for the weekend quietened down but on fortunately it's not going to. low pressure never too far away, plenty of fronts moving across the uk is one clears away. it's going to be replaced by another so you can get the general gist of the weather for the weekend. basically wherever you live, showers or longer spells of rain through saturday and sunday. some drier interludes from time to time and when that happens, it's going to continue to feel mild.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: blockades and barriers. china's villages try to keep out strangers and coronavirus. president trump accuses his former national security advisor of betrayal and the white house warns him not to publish his book. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: fraternal singing from some, flag waving from others — brexit clears its final legal hurdle in the european parliament.