the chinese government says at least 170 people are now confirmed to have died from the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 7,000 confirmed cases of the virus. the world health organization will meet later on thursday to decide whether to declare a global health emergency. the white house has warned president trump's former national security advisor, john bolton, that his new book cannot be published unless classified information is deleted. mr bolton's lawyer said nothing in it should be considered classified. comments in the book have been seized upon by supporters of president trump's impeachment. the european parliament has ratified the brexit transition agreement. it was the final hurdle before the united kingdom leaves the european union on friday after 47 years. negotiations will now begin on a final agreement, which the british government wants concluded before the end of the year.

you up—to—date on the headlines and now on bbc news: wednesday in parliament. hello and welcome to wednesday in parliament. on this programme: as the clock ticks down to brexit, mps are as divided as ever over whether it's time for cheers orjeers. i hope the prime minister has the humility to recognise that not everybody will be celebrating on friday night. we are celebrating of leaving the eu on friday with a big brexit bash. there's a call for the government to go further in increasing police numbers. and in westminster hall there's a row over planning rules for gypsies and traveller sites. i don't personally see why the public purse should subsidize sites specifically

for one ethnic group. the tories are trying, in the words of the chair of the gypsy council, to criminalise gypsies to hide their own failures. but first: the end of the week will bring a momentus change. at ”pm on friday night the uk will leave the european union. since the vote in 2016, there has been three years of often heated debate as pro and anti—brexiters argue over whether the decision was the right one and whether or not voters should have a second referendum. in the commons, borisjohnson faced mps for the last pmqs before the big day. labour leaderjeremy corbyn ranged far and wide in his six questions, touching on climate change, president trump's peace plan for the middle east and the situation in yemen. but he finished with this thought... britain is at a crossroads. we are leaving the eu and britain's place in the world is going to change. the question is what direction it takes. the signs are that this

government is prepared to sacrifice our country's interests and values for short—term political advantage. and a sell—out trade deal with donald trump. as foreign secretary, he embarrassed this country! and as prime minister, he shows every sign of being prepared to sell it off. when will the prime minister accept the only chance of an internationalist britain is to work with our global partners to tackle the climate catastrophe, expand trade, right human rights abuses and promote peace? boris johnson attacked jeremy corbyn‘s record on security and defence, and painted a positive picture of the uk outside the eu. this is a government that is leading the world, leading the world in tackling abuses, sticking up for human rights, and championing the struggle against climate change, and in leading the fight. that every single goal in the world should have access to 12 years of quality education.

that is what global britain under this government is delivering. he would isolate this country and deprive us of our most crucial allies. we are going to take this country forward outwards into the world and in case i forgot to mention before, we are going to deliver on our promises and take us out of the eu despite everything that he and all the parties opposite try to do this friday! the snp's westminster leader also focused on life after brexit. he attacked the prime minister for not backing nicola sturgeon‘s call for powers to be devolved to holyrood to set up a "scottish visa" system to boost immigration. the scottish government proposals will boost scotland's population, grow our economy, and protect public services. the uk government policies threaten our age population. we were told we would have the most profitable parliament in the world.

we were told we would be an equal partner in the family of nations. will the prime minister now listen to scottish government's proposal? listen to the evidence and deliver a table to migration policy for scotland. we will have exactly such thing. we will have a points—based system which will deliver the immigration for his whole country. can i say also, the way to boost the population and scotland is not to have a scottish government that taxes the population of scotland. that fails to deliver results. it may interest you to know, mr speaker, that the snp have not had a debate in the parliament on education for two years. what are they debating today? whether or not to fly the eu flag. they should get on with their dayjob, mr speaker. for one conservative, the 31st of january brexit day was something to celebrate. up in yorkshire, in your conservative brexit heartlands, we are celebrating us leaving the eu

on friday with a big brexit bash. i wish to congratulate the prime minister on achieving us leaving the eu when so many deemed it impossible. does he agree with me that this is an opportunity for a new chapter in our great country? when we will finally control our laws, borders and money and become a truly global trading nation. i dojoin her in her celebration. i'm sorry i can't be there personally but i wish everybody a very enjoyable big brexit bash. i hope the prime minister has the humility to recognise not everybody will be celebrating on friday night. we have been promised that leaving the eu will bring power closer to the people. give us a greater say in our communities. instead, there are many people who feel they have so far been ignored and disempowered. will he demonstrate his willingness to listen to all voices by meeting the plaid cmryu leader and myself

to discuss how oils will win —— wales. the tools to forge a better future? mr speaker i certainly share her general sentiment that it is time for the whole country to come together. i think wales wanted to leave the eu from memory, and i think it is time that we regarded this as a beginning. this is curtain up on a fantastic feature for our country —— future. and that is the frame of mind and may i respectfully suggest to the right honourable lady and others in which they should approach it. elsewhere in the session, several mps took the chance to lobby for the high speed rail line hs2. given the prime minister's proven track record in overcoming procrastination and dither and delay, will he repeat that success and do as my other honourable friends suggest and get hsz done? to secure jobs across the country and improving that. i want to reassure all my honourable friends and everybody but whatever

persuasion they are may be about hs2 costs across this chamber, there will be an announcement very shortly. borisjohnson. it was a key conservative election pledge to recruit 20,000 more police officers across england and wales. but with their numbers having been cut by a similar number during the last ten years, and some violent crime rising, labour called on the government to recruit 2,000 more officers in addition to the 20,000 and spend more on neighbourhood policing. the truth is, mr speaker, that it is the tory party and tory ministers who cause such damage to our police when they took an axe to their numbers. it is widely known that they cut more than 20,000 police officers. so to be boasting that you're putting the numbers up now when you cut them in the first place, it will not sit well with our constituents.

labour's promise in the 2017 election and its pledge to increase police after years of government cuts, resonated alot of residents and the public. i take the current government's pledge as something of a tribute to our work. a tribute tojeremy corbyn‘s leadership of the labour party in opposition. she said knife crime was at its highest on record with poor conviction rates for rape and other serious crimes. a home office minister highlighted his own hands on experience of tackling crime. i was deputy mayor for policing in london between 2008 and 2012 as we were wrestling with a terrible rise in the serious violence across the capital. and i can still remember the devastation on the face of the father of the 14—year—old who was stabbed to death in queens park in march 2008.

i was campaigning for the london assembly seat at the time. and when i met them, their family brought home the devastation and destruction and the terror that knife crime had brought to london. kit malthouse said that happened when police numbers were at a high — quantity was no substitute for quality. but the government would recruit more officers. from next year, we are giving forces £700 million for the recruitment of the first 6,000 of the 20,000 additional police officers promised in the manifesto. this represents an increase of almost 10% of the core ground —— grant. funding provided last year. these first 6,000 officers will be shared amongst the 43 territorial forces in england and wales and will be dedicated to territorial functions. the scale of this campaign is unprecedented. no previous government has ever attempted such an ambitious police recruitment drive. these new officers will be a visible and reassuring presence on our streets and within our communities. mps from both sides of the chamber had their own stories of policing and crime. there have been four murders in ten

weeks in milton keynes. all of them involving knives. this is an incredibly touching and emotional subject. four murders in ten weeks is not normal. it should never be normal. we should not let it be normal. we should deal with this. we do need to show our communities a lot more love. but we do need to get tough on crime. a labour mp said it was time to look at the drugs problem she said was driving crime. this is a major public health issue. a major police issue and a major criminaljustice issue. but none of those policy areas can tackle it on their own. i worry that in combination they cannot even tackle the crisis that we face. and that decade of cuts is making that crisis worse. we do now need to look at safe drug consumption rooms. a former leader of westminster city

council had her own concerns. my concern is that the money that comes via reduction units come with too many conditions. it is local authorities like mine, westminster city council, that knows its young people and estates and in those streets and i would urge the minister to make sure that the mayor of london and other policing crime commissioners do trust their local authorities an awful lot more with the funding. mr speaker, there speaks the voice of experience. from westminster council. and the minister himself a former westminster councillor said she was quite right. a newly elected labour mp has accused the government of trying to "criminalise gypsies to hide their own failures". speaking for the first time in the parallel debating chamber of westminster hall, zarah sultana's comments came as a conservative led a debate on gypsies, travellers and the planning system. philip hollobone claimed that the government's planning policy "simply isn't working"

and that "far from reducing tensions, the present planning system was inflaming them because effectively, travellers have preferential treatment." mutual respect works both ways. so on the one hand, gypsies and travellers are demanding respect from the settled communities for their needs. but they don't seem to deliver the respect to the settled communities when they park up on land illegally, build pitches without planning permissions — often terrifying local communities by their presence. now, there will be arguments on both sides of this debate. of course there will but it is an issue which needs to be addressed. and he had some figures. injuly 2018, the number of traveller caravans in this country was just under 23,000. it's gone up something like 30% sincejuly 2008.

that is just under 23,000. injuly 2018, 3,100 of those were on unauthorised sites across the country. and of those 3,100, just under 2,100 were on land bought by travellers. thank you for pointing out it's a very small minority of gypsies and travellers who are on unauthorised land. three quarters are in bricks and mortar there even if they don't wish to be. does he think that the failure of local authorities to provide sites whether they be transit sites or permanent sites and the lack of provision on social housing by way of sites could be a factor at all in the necessity for stopping in areas which are unauthorised or stopping on land that doesn't have planning consent?

i think there are probably two issues and we are probably going to disagree on this. i struggle with the idea that local authorities should be obliged to provide such sites. i don't see why the public purse should purchase land for a particular group of people to live in. 0n the other hand, were travellers to purchase land and then apply for planning permission for a traveller site, then if it is a suitable site in the right location, then local authorities should give planning permission for that. but i don't personally see why the public purse should subsidize sites specifically for one ethnic group. but a labour mp attacked that view. i must say i have listened with alarm at what the member for kettering and others on the opposite side have said. gypsies and the traveller community are not a problem that need to be tackled.

nor should legislation crack down on them. they are citizens who are entitled to equal treatment and the protection of their way of life. and this dehumanizing language has no place in society or in the halls of power. the tories are trying, in the words of the chair of the gypsy council, to criminalise gypsies to hide their own failures. and i know that the member who secured this debate, who's called for oppressive measures on the traveller and gypsy community, has also demanded for things to be banned. because some people, very often children born to wealthy families, sent to expensive private schools and educated at prestigious universities, are intent on blaming people they deem to be outsiders. well, i know where the real blame lies, and it's not the gypsies or travellers. it is not with migrants and refugees. it is not withjewish people or muslims. it is with a class of people born into privilege who dominate society and use that power and privilege

to deflect blame for the failing economy away from themselves and scapegoat others. zarah sultana. you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. don't forget you can follow me on twitter at bbcalicia. the government has insisted controlling tuberculosis in cattle requires a mixed approach, which includes badger culling. badgers have been blamed for the spread of the disease, but the practice of cullling them has proved controversial. just over a year ago, the godfray review found that culling could have a "modest" effect. last year, a cull in derbyshire was rejected by the government much to the anger of local farmers. in the lords, a renowned expert on bovine tb said cattle—to—cattle transmission was an important factor. he cited the example of progress that had been made at gatcombe farm in devon. the problem with the current arrangements is that the skin test, the standard test, detects only 50% of the affected animals.

therefore it's highly likely that a hidden reservoir have infected cattle herds. in gatcombe, a battery of tests were used to detect infected cattle as well as detecting tb in the environment. does the noble lord, the minister, agree that the that the gatcombe method appears to be effective and humane? and he wondered whether it would work on a more general basis. the minister said the government and the farming industry had already developed a five point plan. all of these things are tremendously important, but as the professor godfray said, there are no easy answers to reducing disease levels and that is why we have a range of activities that we are undertaking. a former labour agriculture minister reminded the house that 20 years ago, he instructed lord krebs

to investigate just this issue. cattle—to—cattle transmission is probably as important, if not more so, than badger—to—cattle infection. how can we go on justifying the slaughter of badgers in these... there is no country in which tuberculosis in the herd has been completely eradicated without the need for a cull. therefore, in a limited way, a cull must be part of part of the tools that are left to our disposal. it's still unclear when the government are gonna release the data from the badger culls from 2019, but it looks to be the largest ever. what is the acceptable number of maximum badger culls that the government is happy with? my lords, the cull is taking place in the high—risk areas, and that is precisely on the advice and the consent of the chief scientific adviser and the chief

veterinary officer. no one takes these matters lightly. this is about a very prevalent disease in certain areas and there is no other country that has got tb—free status unless they undertake something which may not be very desirable and is necessary, my lords. lord gardiner. a few years ago, the government committed to providing sanctuary to 23 thousand refugees from the middle east and north africa by 2020. a lords committee is investigating how local authorities and the devolved administrations have managed the process of settling refugees, many from syria, into their communities. it heard about the challenges, but there were also stories of "hope and integration". we now have refugees in about six of our larger towns, but the towns are closer to the city. we thought that was a good thing because it meant better access to other communities in the city, but as it turns out, they quite like staying where they are.

they like the village feel of our small towns and villages, and the integration part has worked really well. they very quickly became part of that community in those towns and villages, and they‘ re not looking to the bigger city for support. i think there was anxiety in wales, particularly in rural areas, about receiving refugees, but actually, there are the most astonishing stories of hope and integration and of kind of a community sense of goodwill. one of the syrian refugees is now teaching welsh, so there are all sorts of benefits. there are all sorts of cultural benefits that we have seen. we know that the reality is, it's not just with local authorities. with the general public,

there is an anxiety and in some cases, a fear of accepting immigrants, accepting asylum—seekers, and ijust wonder whether it is realistic to have such a rosy picture of what these programmes produce. there have generally been no problems, and i think because we are very carefully doing things low—key, there's been no big hurrah about how people have been sent to this village, it just happened slowly. one example is a family who, probably quite rightly, came to the council concerned that syrians have been moved in next door. we went through the whole thing and explained it.

they were not satisfied, but they were placated to some extent. when the family moved in, there was some deliberate news by her officers to introduce people, and scorns were exchanged. in northern ireland, there have been 26 reported hate incidents involving syrian families on the resettlement programme. given the number of families we've had is about 450, i think there's a degree of underreporting. two it's very difficult. it's difficult to know precisely, i think in some cases, the most severe incidents the family had to move because they were attacked, but there's no pattern to this. you can't really draw numbers to patterns and in one of the cases, the assailant was identified as an eastern european national. all local authorities in scotland and wales are accepting refugees but that's not the case in england.

it seemed to be quite a positive scheme, and yet there are still some that say no. representing english councils on refugees matters was david simmonds also recently elected as an mp. one of the reasons why london on the whole has been less keen to see people arriving under a syrian scheme is because they are already have status who will be on those waiting lists, so those new arrivals will be competing for that housing and other communities who are already here. whereas other parts of the country, what other issues as the population, there barely keen to do that to revitalise communities.

david simmonds. finally, new mps have been continuing to make their first or maiden speeches. among them, the mp for devizes who used to be david cameron's speech writer and has worked for borisjohnson too. as is tradition, he paid tribute to his predecessor claire perry 0'neill. thanks to her we have the promise of a new health centre which is badly needed. i have inherited the tradition opposing the health secretary and an empty field. i pledge that i will he see that project through a soon as possible. another tradition is to pay tribute to the beauty of your constituency. it was described by bonds as honest men and bonnie lasses.

who am i to argue with him? another spoke of her fight to become an mp. my journey into politics hasn't been easy. i didn't come from a political background. i remember i wanted to get — i said i want to get to politics, and i was laughed at and told that the chances of someone like me getting a job in parliament would be very slim and not even bother trying. i hope he's watching me now. abayna 0ppong asa ray. and that's it from me for now, but do join me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day at westminster. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello there. we started off this week with a wintry flavour, cold for all of us. but wednesday brought a day of contrast. it was a glorious afternoon across much of england and wales with some sunshine coming through, as you can see in bedford, and a little milder with it. different story, though, further north as we saw some heavy, persistent rain. some areas of scotland seeing over a couple of inches in a 24—hour period. now that weather front continues to drift its way steadily north. we've got a weaker area of low pressure pushing its way in from the south—west. but one unifying factor as we move into thursday and friday is a south—westerly flow will drive mild air right across the country. so wednesday morning we saw temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. but thursday morning, and it really looks as though it will be a different story. we're going to start of mild, 7—8 degrees widely across the country. so, yes, it's a mild start, but it's a rather cloudy, grey, drab one, unfortunately. there'll be some rain, some of it heavy and persistent, moving its way up through western scotland to the north. and then behind it we've got quite a lot of cloud, thick enough for the odd spot or two drizzle, light patchy rain, misty,

murky weather conditions, maybe some dense fog lingering in the far south—west. lighter winds to the south, but always strongest the further north and west with that rain. but look at this. those temperatures widely double digits. 10—14 degrees our afternoon highs. as we move out of thursday into friday, unfortunately, yet again, there's another frontal system that's going to push in from the west and that's going to bring more wet weather with it. now, the heaviest of the rain is likely to be through western areas for a time on wednesday. and as it pushes its way steadily eastwards it'll weaken, fragment to showers into the afternoon. but we're likely to see more persistent rain just clinging on to the north—west of the great glen. however, the wind direction's still a south—westerly, still mild for all, 8—11; the high. now, as we move out of friday for the start of the weekend, unfortunately it looks as though we're stuck in repeat. low pressure never too far away, but weather fronts crossing the uk,

they ease away, a brief respite before the next weather front which is in. so it does look likely that it's going to stay pretty unsettled. so this is our city forecast for both saturday and sunday. it's going to be a case showers or longer spells of rain, but it's still on the mild side for this time of year, with temperatures widely into double figures. take care.

welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: blockades and barriers — china's villages try to keep out strangers and the coronavirus. president trump accuses his former national security advisor of betrayal — and the white house warns him not to publish his book. fraternal singing from some, flag waving from others. brexit clears its final legal hurdle in the european parliament. the sun as it's never been seen before. we'll talk to one of the scientists behind these new high resolution images of its surface.