you're watching bbc news at nine with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: plans to evacuate 200 britons from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. now the ministry of defence say they've sent a small team of medics to china. it comes as the death toll of the coronavirus rises to 170. the virus has now spread to every region in mainland china. a boost for hsz. the chancellor gives his backing to the scheme ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. new figures show that nearly 2,000

prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress, anxiety or depression. astronomers reveal remarkable, never before seen images of the surface of the sun — all captured by a solar telescope in hawaii. estate agents in some parts of france have report a ‘brexit boost‘, with uk buyers in a race to find a home there before britain leaves the eu. we'll have more at quarter past nine. and she deserves it. and an upset at the australian open women's semi final as spain's garbine muguruza beats the world number three simona halep to reach the final.

good morning, and welcome to the bbc news at 9. 200 british citizens who are trapped in wuhan, the city at the heart of the coronavirus, won't be flown home today as planned. british officials are still waiting for permission to fly from the chinese authorities. the foreign office says it's trying to re—organise the flight as soon as possible. and the ministry of defence has confirmed a small team of medics is being sent to china. the death toll from the virus has now risen to 170 and with a confirmed case in tibet, it has now spread to every region in mainland china. chinese health authorities have confirmed there are more than 7,700 confirmed cases in the country. and the infection has also spread to at least 16 other countries. the world health organization will meet again today to decide whether to declare a a global health emergency over the coronavirus. andy moore has the

story. in wuhan, the brits are busy packing. they were due to be on their way home but now there's no certainty when their flight will leave. we want to get back to the uk. we felt it would be a safer place to be at this time because we are at the epicentre of the coronavirus problem. at the moment we are sitting tight and we were told it would be on friday morning and we are leaving this evening because we have to get there six hours before, so we are just sitting tight waiting for that. in china, the virus has now caused more than 170 deaths. it has spread to at least 16 other nations. some countries have already got their citizens out of wuhan. this was a japanese plane arriving in tokyo yesterday. it's now been revealed that three people on that flight had the virus. two of them weren't showing any symptoms. that's why the britons returning home from wuhan will have to go into quarantine

for two weeks, though where that will be hasn't been confirmed. this was a charter plane arriving yesterday carrying american nationals back to a military base in california. similarflights from other countries are now encountering problems. the departure of the british plane has been delayed. south korea was due to send two planes today. that's now been cut back tojust one. it's not known why china is refusing permission for some flights. andy moore, bbc news. in a minute, we'llspeak to mariko 0i in hong kong, but first let's cross to our correpsondent robin brant in shanghai. what's the issue causing evacuation flights to be delayed? it isa it is a bureaucratic hurdle regarding the citizenship and status of the people who plan to be on board. it's not unusual in china when it comes to people who

have dual nationality or people who hold foreign citizenship and are married to brits, so britain wants to bring home around 200 british nationals on the flight and for some people, the bbc speaking to one man called nick and his indonesian wife, for some people their partners are not british and this presents a problem for the chinese who think the british government should be responsible for removing british people. the foreign office is optimistic it can overcome this administrative issue and says it is working urgently on getting the plane in the air and it does think that both british nationals and their partners will be able to accompany them. the bbc understands in the last half an hour that the mod are sending a small team of military medics who will come on the plane and stay on the plane and will be part of assessing and treating the brits on board and they will return to the uk with them. it's likely that they are working on the finer details back in the

uk on where these people will go but it is one specialist centre and they will be treated there and there will be quarantine for all these people as well. there is clearly concerned that the virus has spread to every pa rt that the virus has spread to every part of china despite the efforts to contain it and that is probably not entirely surprising because no one is suggesting that we are near the peak of the virus. no, i mean the rate of those people killed is at a significant number today, so 170 dead, up 30% on yesterday and 7000 affected about 25 on numbers on the official numbers so it is still rising at a significant number and it is everywhere on mainland china but with a viral spread like this you expect a significant spread to

happen in the country of origin and then free to go beyond. interestingly with this type of coronavirus there was some reporting in foreign countries first which was a bit of an anomaly by the chinese officials are doing what they can to essentially lockdown wuhan and restrict the movement of people across china and we are due to have half a billion people getting back on planes and trains this week because it's the end of the china lunar new year festival. the government has postponed the end of the festival but it will come soon and people will come in huge numbers back to cities like shanghai from where i am speaking to you from. nonetheless, the chinese in some quarters in terms of the national health commission remain optimistic and they think that the relatively low numbers of infections abroad as a positive sign and they think it is a positive sign and they think it is a sign they are containing it to a certain extent and others feel it will peak in mid february and be

over by the end of march but i have to say compared to the views of others in hong kong and others in the uk as well, they think it's hugely optimistic. let's go to our correspondent in hong kong. what is the situation there? i am standing outside west kowloon station where the high—speed rail from china normally arrives and departs, but as of midnight all railway services have been suspended as well as ferries so that is why it is rather empty and some of the border crossings, six out of 14 have been shot to limit the number of buses entering from the mainland and the flights have been halved as well. the authorities are hoping that by doing so they can reduce the number of chinese visitors by 70% and to give you an idea on how many people normally come from

the mainland, it's normally 4 million people from mainland china coming to the city, so mainland china coming to the city, so roughly about hundred and 40,000 each day and all these measures are unprecedented even during the sars outbreak in 2003, critics say that doesn't go far enough and back in 2003, the small city lost nearly 300 people and that is why there has beena people and that is why there has been a lot of pressure on the hong kong government to do more to prevent the spread of the virus. thank you very much. natalie francis is a teacher, originally from york, and she's in wuhan with her three—year—old son. she's been told she can evacuate but not her son who has a chinese passport. we have been under lockdown, as has been reported and a few days ago,

sorry, two days ago now we got m essa 9 es sorry, two days ago now we got m essa g es to sorry, two days ago now we got messages to say to register with the beijing embassy and i rang up and i registered for me and my three—year—old son because we were really worried about the reports of younger and younger children becoming sick and at the time they said it was fine and then i received a call the next day and they said that only i could go and my son would have to stay and obviously was very devastating to hear. we have been abiding by the restrictions and there are we are hearing reports as it has been reported in other places around the world that it might be

spreading in a way we don't fully understand yet and last winter my son actually came down with pneumonia, just regular pneumonia, but obviously still very serious and we had to spend a week in hospital and it took two months before he was fully well again and and we are worried it might be spreading in a way we don't fully understand. and it is affecting young children and we might not be the only ones at risk. dr ngozi erondu is a biosecurity expert and associate fellow, of the global health programme, at chatham house. shejoins me live now from dubai. hello to you and thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. how concerned would should —— should we be about the

virus in the uk? the uk actually has quite a low risk of the virus being circulated and right now everyone who has been tested that has come from wuhan province, eve ryo ne that has come from wuhan province, everyone has tested negative and we have a low risk of transmission in the uk and we should still be concerned that we will see one or two cases as we saw in germany. it's too early to assess how deadly the viruses are we do have the context and numbers one would need to do that but have you been impressed by the scale of response?” that but have you been impressed by the scale of response? i have been impressed and i want to commend the chinese health authorities. this has been a very different situation than we saw in 2003 with the sars outbreak. since the response has been given to the national level chinese authorities and we have been more communicative and the chinese

have been more communicated with the international community and the director—general of the world health 0rganization actually spoke to the chinese president and a lot of information has been received by countries so they can prepare adequately. and good data is honestly needed in the response to this. is this like starting from scratch to find a vaccine for the virus? no, it is not starting from scratch and you know the coronavirus isa scratch and you know the coronavirus is a virus we have seen in other diseases such as sars and the middle east in repertory system —— syndrome and there are researchers in australia who have started to understand the genetic make—up as as researchers around the world so we are not starting from scratch per se, this is a novel virus and it will take time to develop a vaccine and right now the people who are developing vaccines, individuals

are the most important component in the response and in protecting themselves because that is how we will be able to stifle the outbreak, not just waiting will be able to stifle the outbreak, notjust waiting on a vaccine. so in the meantime it's about the basic hygiene precautions we would hopefully all take if we had the flu or the common cold. if you see someone or the common cold. if you see someone that is stick —— sit, stay away from them. and if you have a fever and you go to the health facility. and the more you stay at home and bear it out and you go to the workplace, the more likely you are to expose other people to whatever you have. thank you very much, speaking to us from chatham house and to let you know, later we have a report from our global health correspondent who has been to the states to see how work is

progressing on the development of a vaccine to tackle the coronavirus. the chancellor sajid javid is giving his backing to the high speed 2 rail line at a meeting with the prime minister and transport secretary later today. a decision on the future of the high—speed rail line is expected in the coming days. it has been criticised for the spiralling cost of the scheme — latest estimates put the total at more than £100 billion. editor norman smith. let's get more from our assistant political editor norman smith. is this the clincher in terms of the decision—making process?” is this the clincher in terms of the decision-making process? i think it is because the key stumbling block to going ahead with hst was simply the money. i'm going into hs2 it is a fa ct the money. i'm going into hs2 it is a fact double from a billion. and it is doable and viable

and it represents a better bang for your buck than the alternatives and therefore, with that argument out therefore, with that argument out the way, you would say that politics is overwhelmingly in favour of going ahead because borisjohnson has made it clear again ahead because borisjohnson has made it clearagain and ahead because borisjohnson has made it clear again and again his mission is to level up and deliver for the folk in the north, so were he to renege on hs2, he would face accusations of betrayal and of going back on that promise and so soon in his premiership, you just think that is really not a runner and too much ofa is really not a runner and too much of a risk, added to which, as we leave the eu, tojust of a risk, added to which, as we leave the eu, to just abandon the project would suggest a loss of nerve and self—confidence in brexit britain, so it probably is the moment when hs2, without getting the formal public approval, does get the

approval, albeit there are a sizeable clutch of tory mps deeply unhappy with the project. some in the north will say that's not what we wa nt the north will say that's not what we want and some in the south, constituencies in the south who have the line hammering through their seat are furious at the environmental damage, and one of them this morning, greg smith, he was saying he would be ready to vote against the government if it decides to go ahead with hs2. against the government if it decides to go ahead with hszi against the government if it decides to go ahead with h52. i was very clear in the general election campaign that i'm opposed to hsz clear in the general election campaign that i'm opposed to h52 and it's absolutely wrong for my constituency and i believe it to be wrong for the country and i made clear commitments in the general election that come what may i would oppose hsz. what i really want to get on with is convincing government that there are better projects we can deliver that will improve peoples lives. the argument from people like greg smith is that it is far better to spend the cash on boosting existing commuter lines in the north because what people want, it

is argued is easier journeys to what people want, it is argued is easierjourneys to work, better access to carlisle, sheffield, leeds rather than a spanking new line to london which they might only use once or twice a year and the problem with that is if you are going to improve than rail network in the north it will involve a lot of disruption, if you're going to extend platforms and put down new track that will mean closing lines, we working, so very quickly on a day—to—day basis there is a risk that services will get worse in the north, added to which, symbolically, it will look like people in the north are having to make do with cast—offs rather than getting the standout symbolism of a spanking new line, so all the indications are that hsz line, so all the indications are that hs2 is going to go ahead. norman, thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news. plans to evacuate 200 britons

from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. the ministry of defence say they've sent a small team of medics to china. the chancellor, sajid javid, gives his backing to hs2 ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. new figures show that nearly 2000 prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress, anxiety or depression. in sport, there will be a new australian open winner after simona halep was defeated in straight sets. the american put out the home favourite, ashleigh barty. manchester city will be aston villa in the league cup final despite losing 1—0 to manchester united in the second leg of the semifinal. city went through 3—2 on aggregate. unlivable's relentless march to the premier league title continued. they

are now 19 points clear of manchester city at the top of the table manchester city at the top of the ta ble after manchester city at the top of the table after beating west ham 2—0. more for you on all of those stories after half past. new figures from france suggest that the number of british people owning property there has fallen since the brexit refendum in 2016 but in some pockets of the country, estate agents have reported a ‘brexit boost‘, with uk buyers in a race to find a home there before britain leaves the eu. 0ur paris correspondent, lucy williamson, reports from the dordogne. karen and her husband came to europe to find a lifestyle they say britain has lost. the kennels they run in the dordogne have been home for the family since april. now they say they will stay here no matter what happens following brexit, even if it needs becoming french. quite a change for a couple, who, back in 2016 voted to leave

the eu. if i had a crystal ball and i could say "in three years' time...? 0h? suddenly we're in france?" you know, it's like — oh, and now brexit‘s going to happen? it'sjust like, ‘oh!', you know... from our own personal thing now, if i were voting just for myself, it would be stay. but for the uk, i still think leave is... could be beneficial for the uk. the family live near the pretty town of eymet in the dordogne, where17% of the population is british. there's even a weekly fish and chip van. terrie simpson owns nine estate agents in the region. after an initial dip in interest, she says brexit has been good for business. as time's gone on i think people have become either used to it or frustrated with it, or they'll actually bought despite it. a lot of people have tried to work to the deadlines around

brexit, so last year was the busiest year we've ever had. now, i've got a big picture that will go... frieda has just moved here from scotland at the age of 80 to be close to her daughter, joanne. this is nice... planning where to hang her paintings is the easy part. planning for her healthcare and residency rights after brexit is much harder. though, little will change until the transition period ends. there's no way that we would go home. if france didn't want us, we would look for another european country to go to. i voted to remain, i love free travel. and i feel sorry that that's been taken away. but we'll make the best of it. uncertainty over brexit has become part of daily life here. the weak pound has made everything more expensive, but in this british heartland of france, panic over brexit has largely faded into stoicism, denial and determination to stay. frieda is already a regular

at the weekly market in eymet, where local goods mix with favourites from back home. president macron is fond of saying that the british will always be neighbours. here in eymet, anglo—french relations don't span the channel, but the width of a garden wall. lucy williamson, bbc news, eymet. working in the prison services is understandably high pressure, but now it has emerged that 1000 prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress, and 800 were absent because of anxiety or depression. the figures, obtained by freedom of information requests, represent a significant increase on previous years. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. just a foreboding inside your belly. the fear of a prison officer. for 13 years, bob worked out some

of the most challenging jails in the country, dealing with outbreaks of violence and disorder, and having to help prisoners who'd harmed themselves. this former soldier — who doesn't want his real name to be known — eventually cracked under the pressure. i started to be, on occasion, sick on the way to work. actually physically vomiting. my sleep was disordered. my personal relationships were strained, and certainly i lost one relationship through the period. and i started to shrink back socially as well. the stressful nature of prison work is seldom talked about and the impact on staff even less so. but figures obtained by bbc news suggest increasing numbers of prison officers in state—run jails are suffering from mental health problems — 1,900 last year. alanjones became depressed after a prisoner hit him with a chair. he sustained serious

injuries to his arm — a metal plate had to be inserted. the former prisoner officers sued the ministry ofjustice for failing to handle the incident properly and won, but he says his mental health suffered due to a lack of support. i always thought i'd be covered, you know? if anything happened, that the prison service would have something in place to look after me and say, "everything will be fine, there's this in place, that in place." and i just felt so alone. the prison service says staff have access to trauma support, occupational health advice and counselling, 24 hours a day. let's discuss this more with gerard stilliard, head of personal injury strategy at thompson's solicitors. tell us more about the kinds of psychological injuries that your clients are dealing with. there are a whole range of psychological injuries from the more minor ones,

adjustment disorders, right through to more long—lived depression and anxiety to the very extreme end of the scale and very debilitating post—traumatic stress disorder which can leave people unable to work and even outside of the prison service and in some cases which we have witnessed unable to leave their homes. do we know the full extent of the problem and we have the full picture? no, i don't. the prison service is reliant on people reporting their own illness and people are often reluctant to do that, and they end up losing their jobs and livelihoods and end up with people tending to use their own coping mechanisms and there is probably not enough proactive monitoring of people's mental health, especially in you

and you can easily stressful job. health, especially in you and you can easily stressfuljob. the prison service says it gives staff access to services including 24 slash seven counselling and eu saying it needs to go beyond that? it does. that is reactive and relies on the staff themselves seeking out the service rather than having it provided to them and for it to be offered to them and for it to be offered to them proactively and for surveys to be carried out among staff to get the real full picture to be collated. we often talk to prison officer representatives on bbc news andi officer representatives on bbc news and ijust officer representatives on bbc news and i just wonder what your thoughts are on the impact this is having on retention of staff and also the balance between experienced officers and more junior officers. balance between experienced officers and morejunior officers. clearly people are leaving the prison service in droves and there is a real recruitment issue. and what that means is the more experienced

staff who can effectively run the jail properly are simply not there and that whole slice of staff have been cut significantly over recent yea rs been cut significantly over recent years and we are left with very inexperienced staff trying to cope with an increasingly difficult and troubled prison population. gerald, thanks for talking to us and for telling us becomes an goings, and for coping with what was going on in the background. in a moment the weather but first let's here's victoria derbyshire with what she's got coming up in her programme at 10. more brits stranded in wuhan who cannot get home and the benefits adviser on the single mum who is taking the dwp to court because it forced into debt and in his first tv interview since he was announced that he was running for london

mayor, we arejoined by drill minister. now time for a look at the weather forecast with carol. it's a cloudy start of the day and generally speaking it will remain fairly cloudy but we have not yet stepped out you will find its mild and through the day we will see temperatures in double figures but we also have rain and we have been watching patchy rain move from the south—west of england and it continues through day to push over towards the south—east with murky conditions and the rest of england and wales that is hanging onto the cloud with one or two showers and for northern ireland we could see showers as well but most of the showers as well but most of the showers will be across the north—west of scotland and some of them will merge and it is blustery where ever you are, particularly so with the exposure across the north and west and later the wind will pick up across the pennines and to the east of the pennines. temperatures in double figures more or less across the board and we are looking at between eight and 14. through the evening and overnight weather front sinking southwards

and weather front sinking southwards and we have a drier interlude and then the next band of weather sweeps across northern ireland, scotland, northern england and north wales. ahead of that in the north it will bea ahead of that in the north it will be a cold night with some pockets of frost if you are in the shelter of the wind and further south, very mild. hello, this is bbc news with annita mcveigh. the headlines... plans to evacuate 200 britons from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. now the ministry of defence say they've sent a small team of medics to china. it comes as the death toll of the coronavirus rises to 170. the virus has now spread to every region in mainland china. the chancellor, sajid javid, gives his backing to hs2 ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. new figures show that nearly 2,000 prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress,

anxiety or depression. astronomers reveal remarkable, never before seen images of the surface of the sun. time now for the morning briefing, where we bring you up to speed on the stories people are watching, reading and sharing. kobe bryant's widow, vanessa, has made herfirst comments since the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star, one of their daughters and seven others last sunday. in an instagram post that has nearly six million likes, vanessa said she was "completely devastated" and that there were not "enough words to describe our pain". she posted a family photo of the couple and their four daughters, including 13—year—old gianna who died in the crash. some incredible footage has emerged from new south wales in australia where firefighters have been tackling wildfires.

now — i should say that the video is mute, but i do want to show you it all — in its entirety because it shows so starklyjust how quickly the fire has been spreading. now the pictures were released by the dunmore rural fire brigade and date from earlier this month. the firefighters you can see in the foreground now had been dispatched to protect houses that were being threatened in shoalhaven, after record breaking temperatures and months of severe drought fulled a series of massive fires. high winds hit the area a few minutes earlier than forecast, leaving the crews on the road to run back to their trucks to get to safety. let's allow these pictures to run just to show you how quickly the situation changed.

just as the firefighters leave the scene you can see the fire start to spread across the road. fire officials in new south wales have released the video in order to remind the population to follow alerts given by the authorities. really dramatic pictures illustrating how dangerous and volatile the situation is and are so many parts of australia, affected, and continuing to be affected by these bushfires which started, let's remember last september. thankfully, they all managed to get to safety just in time. high up on the bbc‘s list of most read articles today is the news that us officials have discovered the longest smuggling tunnel ever found on the border with mexico. the1.3 kilometre tunnel had a lift, rail track, drainage and air

ventilation systems, and high voltage electrical cables. the passageway connected the mexian city of tijuana to the san diego area in california. there were no arrests made or drugs found but mexico's sinaloa cartel, described by the us government as one of the largest drug—trafficking organisations in the world, operates in the area. a pair of trainers which help athletes run faster could be restricted by world athletics, which is expected to announce its decision regarding the controversial nike vaporflys tomorrow. eliot kipchoge wore the shoes last year when he became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours. a new york times study of results from more than one million amateur races suggested runners using vaporflys ran 4—5% faster than they would in an ‘average' running shoe. many are concerned the technology — which includes an embedded carbon plate which supposedly helps propel the wearer forward — has distorted the record books, and prevents fair competition with athletes not sponsored

by nike. now, over the past few weeks you might have seen our china correspondent stephen mcdonell on your screens talking about the coronavirus — well, he and his team are currently in quarantine after reporting from wuhan. his camera man edward lawrence wrote on twitter: "waking up to another day of quarantine. it feels like a very boring episode of big brother, and now my netflix account has stopped working." let's look at what you are reading and watching. the number one story, the flight to evacuate britons out of wuhan, the area which is the epicentre of the coronavirus, that flight epicentre of the coronavirus, that flight has been delayed. as you heard, the mod flying in literary medics on a repatriation flight,

hoping to get those people back to the uk soon. at two, the news that the uk soon. at two, the news that the widow of kobe bryant has been speaking about the devastating loss of her husband and her 13—year—old daughter. moving on to the most watched. number one. that story we we re watched. number one. that story we were bringing you about prison officers being assaulted. danny shaw talking to two prison officers about their experience and how it has affected their lives, beyond the prison. at home and in terms of other things they can do. and two. something, yes, a little bit lighter but potentially dangerous, i suppose, it's got a lot of people talking. current spotted with a greenhouse on its roof. this was in greater manchester. people managed to film this car as you can see driving around with the greenhouse on top of the car. it was on the rochdale road travelling towards

hayward. if you were in the area you can't fail to have noticed this. it looks like it's balanced, but you know, it seems on the face of it, quite precarious. you can see how the audience is reacting to that. a twitter account called ‘grow like grandad', who says he is the dorking allottment association chairman, said "it's how we all move a greenhouse, isn't it?" that's it for today's morning briefing. just before we go to sport the bbc has been given exclusive access to scientists in the us racing to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus. they are working at record speed to come up with a vaccine that will protect people against the deadly disease, as the number of people infected in china soars. inovio pharmaceuticals has told the bbc it plans to start human trials by the early summer. the bbc‘s global health correspondent tulip mazumdar reports from their labs in

san diego. developing a new vaccine can take years, sometimes decades. but international research facilities all around the world like this one here in san diego are trying to come up with a vaccine for the new coronavirus in record time. let's find out how they're doing it. so this is doctor kate broderick. hello, kate. she heads up research and development here at inovio. and you can tell us about how you even start creating a vaccine? how does it work? absolutely, tulip. so what you're looking at here is the actual dna sequence of the virus from the outbreak in china. we received this virus sequence when the chinese authorities put it online. we downloaded it. we started working on it immediately. and essentially overnight we designed the vaccine that you can see here. the next step then is to put that into manufacture. so, let's go and have a look at that now. great.

so, here we are, tulip in the plasma manufacturing lab. so what you can see here is that we have taken the dna medicine, the plasma, and now we have added it to bacteria and the incubators in the back, you can see the bacteria growing. and also in these flasks you can see on the benchtop here. it's a very musty smell. very smelly — you do get used to it after a while. so the next stage will be to purify the dna from the bacteria, that will give us a pure product which then can be used for preclinical testing which is going to start this week. and we hope to get the final product into human testing by early summer. 0k, kate broderick from inovio, thank you for telling us about that. well, as you heard there, the hope is to get this into human trials by the early summer. there are a number of international pharmaceuticals doing similar work. it's unclear, of course, how long this outbreak in china is going to continue for, but it is hoped

that they will have a vaccine in time to help people in this outbreak. tulip mazumdar, bbc news, san diego. sport now and time for a full round up from the bbc sport centre. here is jane. tennis, i presume, to begin? good morning. roger federer and novak djokovic are on court, playing each other for the 50th time in the men's semi final of the australian open. let's go straight to melbourne wherejohn watson is braving the heat for us. john, who's looking the stronger of the two? difficult to say if this opening set is anything to go by. these crates of the game, what we've seen by playing out in the opening set, we could be in for a very long night, exchanging breaks between the pair of them, roger federer and serving for the opening set, novak djokovic broke back. currently on serve at the moment in the opening set. as

you say, 50th meeting. worth pointing out novak djokovic has a stranglehold over roger federer when it comes to the grand slams. federer has not beaten him in a grand slam since 2012. back at wimbledon. we know about the dominance of novak djokovic on the hard courts, the defending champion in australia. he will be hoping to win yet another title here. to extend his record to eight australian open titles. you won't want to take your eyes of this if you're watching this morning. british hopes not over yet. joe salisbury to thank for that in the men ‘s doubles, former semifinalist at wimbledon, one set better this year reaching the final alongside his playing partner. they had their opponents to thank, five double fa u lts opponents to thank, five double faults in the penultimate game of the match. helping them to victory. you can imagine, he is delighted to have made it one step better than he did at wimbledon some years ago.

his first grand slam doubles final.m feels great. we are really happy to be in the final. but yes, we want to go one further, we are here to win the tournament, to win the grand slam. it will be a first for me playing on the big show courts at the grand slam, i've never played on court numberone, and the grand slam, i've never played on court number one, and centre, it will be a first for me. that will be exciting. sorry john, i interrupted you, but moving on to the women ‘s draw? unexpected final? yes, i don't think we would have predicted this. the party for ashleigh barty is over. the australian, hoping to become the first australian woman to reach the final of her home grand slam in 40 years, coming up against sofia kenin from the united states, 14th seed who came through in straight sets. something of a child

prodigy. failed to kick on from the success she had the juniors. prodigy. failed to kick on from the success she had thejuniors. last year picked up several titles and has carried that form. it means she will go on to face garbine muguruza, huge disappointment as you can imagine for ashleigh barty, carrying the hopes of a nation. you cannot go anywhere here in melbourne without seeing her in adverts or staring down at you from a tv billboard and i think she thought she could go on this year and with the title, she's had huge home support. but another upset, i think it's fair to say, you consider she was playing simona halep, the reigning wimbledon champion, having reached the final, simona halep, some years ago, has real pedigree on the hard courts. certainly out here in australia. she was hopeful of adding to the two grand slam titles but garbine muguruza, we know what a powerful player she is and she was too much. she came through in straight sets and she will be hoping to add to the french open and wimbledon titles she

already has. that will keep one short of a potential career grand slam she can go on and win at the us 0pen. maria sharapova and serena williams the only other women to have achieved that. not perhaps the final we were expecting. we wait to see who between novak djokovic and roger federer will book their place in the men's final. john, thank you. and you can watch this match unfold on bbc two later, as well as highlight‘s of all the day's play — that's at 3.15 this afternoon. manchester city will meet aston villa in the league cup final, despite losing 1—0 to manchester united in the second leg of their semi—final — the strike from nemanja matic who was later sent off. but city go through 3—2 on aggregate and will be aiming to win the cup for the third year in a row. afterwards, both managers condemned the actions of a few city fans, who made aeroplane gestures towards united supporters — a reference to the munich air crash.

we want rivalry, but let's keep it at a sane level and let's make sure we eradicate that, no? so yeah, istand behind pep there and all of us do. we want to make this a nice game. the league is not done yet, according to liverpool managerjurgen klopp — that's despite his side going 19 points clear at the top of the table. they beat west ham 2—0 at the london stadium. mo salah opening the scoring with a penalty. alex 0xlade chamberlain then struck early in the second half. west ham are onlyjust above the relegation zone on goal difference. celtic maintained their five point lead at the top of the scottish premiership with a 3—0 win over stjohnstone. leigh griffiths with the pick of the goals,

which all came in the opening half hour. title rivals rangers kept up the chase by beating ross county 2—0. and last night's football dominates this morning's back pages. the mirror say "it's all over bar the shouting", listing liverpool's impressive stats, including their 41—game unbeaten run the guardian have a great shot of manchester united's disconsolate players, after they went out of the league cup to rivals city, depsite beating them at the etihad. "so close, yet so far" they say and the sun headline is "red mist", referring to matic‘s sending off — and 0le gunnar solskjaer‘s condemnation of the attack on united executive ed woodward's house. that's all from me but don't forget sportsday at 6.30, for all the day's news. jane, thank you. one of the last surviving battle of britain pilots has died at the age of 101. wing commander paul farnes was a fighter ace — a pilot who had brought down five

or more enemy aircraft. there are nowjust two raf pilots remaining who defended britain from german invasion in the summer of 1940. munaza rafiq has been looking back at his life. archive: the british met the challenge by throwing in everything they had. they were famously described by churchill as ‘the few‘, young fighter pilots who thought daily attacks by enemy planes in the summer of 1940. it became known as the battle of britain. amongst them was 21—year—old paul farnes. by the end of the summer, he was a confirmed ace, having shot down five enemy planes. his own tally was at least six, possibly more. i felt completely confident the whole time. i never felt... i was never afraid. i never became... i was never apprehensive really. slightly apprehensive of planes coming, but never much. at the end of the battle

he was awarded the distinguished flying medal and continue to serve in the raf until 1958. the head of the raf, air chief marshal mike wigston, said he'd been an extraordinary man and one of a band of exceptionally brave aviators to who we know our freedom today. munaza rafiq, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news... plans to evacuate 200 britons from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. the ministry of defence say they've sent a small team of medics to china. the chancellor, sajid javid, gives his backing to hs2 ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. new figures show that nearly 2000 prison officers in england and wales took time off work last year because of stress, anxiety or depression.

astronomers have revealed never before seen images of the sun. the striking high resolution images of our closest star's surface were captured by a solar telescope in hawaii. images showing what looks like a collection of gold nuggets will allow scientists to study the workings of the sun. freya cole spoke to the director of the observatory. bubbling away on the suns service, select structures known scientifically as a solar granulation. never before have they been saying this close. and for astronomers, this discovery is a big step towards unravelling many mysteries. i was just very, step towards unravelling many mysteries. i wasjust very, very happy. we have spent 25 years of work on this telescope. a whole team of engineers and scientists have basically put their lives completely to this. the gold nuggets might look small and the telescope but in

reality, they are about the size of texas. the bright centre is very hot plasma, the dark cracks are where it goes to cool. this is the machine inside the telescope used to capture the images. experts hope it will hold the information needed to predict the sun ‘s erratic weather. the sun generates this immense amount of energy and stores it in a magnetic field. it sometimes becomes u nsta ble magnetic field. it sometimes becomes unstable and leads to solar eruptions, solarflares, unstable and leads to solar eruptions, solar flares, that unstable and leads to solar eruptions, solarflares, that impact us eruptions, solarflares, that impact us very much here on earth. it leads to communication failures, satellites can be taken out by solar storms. there is still a lot to figure out but never before has earth felt so close to its closest store. they've become a familiar sight in cities across the world — you might have seen them or used them on holiday.

but how would you feel about electric scooters now, the department of transport is set to consult on whether riding an electric—scooter on public roads, cycle paths and pavements should be made legal in the uk. greg mackenzie has been out in london to find out what people think. love them or loathe them, electric scooters are appearing in our cities in ever greater numbers but are they outpacing current legislation? riding an e—scooter on the pavement or the road is actually illegal and if you are caught, you can be fined up to £300 and have six points awarded on your license but that's assuming the individual even as a licence. now, last year in london alone, there were 10 serious injuries to riders on e—scooters. last summer, police and the capital attempted to crack down on the use of e—scooters. some unlucky riders got away with a warning or a fine but now the department for transport is to hold the consultation

on whether riding electric scooter on public roads, cycle paths and pavements should be made legal. about the legislation, it's kind of a grey area. you are not allowed to ride them on public property, the road or the pavement, but i've ridden past police most days and not had a problem. what will you make of the consultation? they want to put it into consultation. they should be legal. they are no less safe than a bicycle. so i've been riding the scooter over two years now. the reason why i ride a scooter, i can commute around london much faster, much cheaper so i've invested in the scooter. the department of transport acknowledges that the invention of e—bikes and e—scooters, as well as demand for less polluting modes of transport, is changing the way people get around. mps are due to start the consultation in the coming months. greg mackenzie, bbc news.

the secretary—general of the commonwealth, baroness scotland has been strongly criticised by internal auditors for awarding a lucrative consultancy contract to a company run by a personalfriend. the international organisation's audit committee accused her of "circumventing" the usual competitive tendering rules by awarding a £250,000 commission to kya global. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale joins us with the latest tell us more about the background to this. the commonwealth is an extraordinary organisation, more than 50 sovereign nations, they make an agreement by consensus, it's pretty ha rd to an agreement by consensus, it's pretty hard to manage. it's managed in london by a secretariat that's often been criticised for not being as good as it should be so when lady scotla nd as good as it should be so when lady scotland took over as secretary general in 2016 she wanted to review how the secretariat was working but she got a friend, a fellow labour party pier, had been in the

government of lord gordon brown, to look at the secretariat. that raised eyebrows at the time. a lot of money was involved. according to the audit committee the contracts were worth a quarter of £1 million. last year at the commonwealth bigwigs on the board of governors said we need to look at this, sent in auditors, i've got hold of the report. it makes pretty extraordinary reading. they've claimed lady scotland circumvented the usual competitive tendering procedures here. only one company was looked at. the waiver was signed by a deputy and then she countersigned it herself. the auditors say the company was quote a p pa re ntly auditors say the company was quote apparently insolvent at the time. the auditors also say despite requests, they were not provided with any report setting out this company ‘s final recommendations so from an auditing point of view, pretty robust report. james, what response has there been from baroness scotland ? response has there been from baroness scotland? we got a fairly

robust response back from lady scotla nd robust response back from lady scotland ‘s lawyer saying specifically the decision to award this contract was fully justifiable, they say lady scotland was advised that this all complied with the procurement procedures in force at the time, they deny the company was ever insolvent. they question the amount of money the contract was worth, they say it was worth a little less, about 180000 and they insist the decision to award k by a global, the firm, was fully justified in light of the recent success of the secretariat. robust response from her lawyers. 0k, james, thank you. the time is 9:55am. the latest weather for you very soon. baby twin pandas have been unveiled to the public for the first time at a zoo in berlin. meng xiang and meng yuan are both five months old. they're the first panda cubs born at a german zoo — which probably explains why their names mean ‘long—awaited dream' and ‘dream come

true'. they've been nicknamed pit and powler by their keepers. the swedish climate activist greta thunberg has applied to trademark her name, to stop people impersonating her. the 17—year—old has also registered her ‘friday‘s for future' movement, the banner under which she first started protesting outside the swedish parliament every friday, instead of attending school. she's also announced plans to set up a non—profit foundation, promoting sustainability and mental health. i won't back at 11am. let's check out the weather now, simon king has the details. simon, good morning. good morning everyone. rather cloudy

started the day, mr and work, but one thing many of you will have noticed if you are outside this morning is how mild it was compared to yesterday morning. we have a south—westerly wind bringing in mild airthe uk, you can south—westerly wind bringing in mild air the uk, you can see the uk covered in these yellow covers rather than play we had earlier in the week. but we still have another weather system in play, across the south giving outbreaks of rain, the other one this area of low pressure bringing more significant rain to north—western areas. but as i mentioned, quite cloudy this morning, that was the scene in birmingham this morning. we keep a lot of cloud for many parts of the uk, still some fabrics of rain affecting the far south of england, south wales, rain in mid and north wales, northern england. rain becoming confined to the far north—west of scotland this afternoon, holes in the cloud in the north—east of scotland. quite windy across northern areas, 50—60 miles an hour, especially over the hills of northern england, we could see gusts of 70 miles an hour later this afternoon, into evening. look at

those temperatures. 11—14d, way above the average for the time of year. now, through this evening and night, we see more rain moving into northern ireland, into scotland, it will be a mild night across most areas, 7—11d, the exception of the far north—east of scotland, temperatures down to one or two celsius. the end of the way, we still have low pressure dominating things. that weather system bringing outbreaks of rain into northern ireland, scotland, during the morning. apple gradually moved further south and east. breaking up as it moves into the south—east of england. we will be left with just a few showers by the end of the day in the south—east. some brighter skies perhaps coming through before further rain spreads into scotland and again, look at those temperatures. 12, 13, 14 perhaps even 15 degrees and one or two spots. way above the average. the weekend, we still have this south—westerly feed of weather systems moving their way in.

sunday perhaps more significant weather front moving its way in across the uk. it will be quite wet at times over the weekend. dominated by an area of low pressure. rain on saturday moving eastwards across england and wales. some rain for scotla nd england and wales. some rain for scotland and northern ireland, significant rain spreading from the south—west on sunday. still mild, temperatures 9—13d, not quite as mild as it will be over the next couple of days. next week, signs it could turn a bit colder again. goodbye.

hello, it's thursday, it's 10 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, and we're live from new broadcasting house. around 200 brits stranded in wuhan aren't coming home today, as planned, because the plane wasn't given permission to take off. so when are they coming back? we'll talk to people trying to escape the coronovirus, which has killed 170 people and spread to every region in china. we'll talk to the benefits advisor who says poverty shaming will not stop her from taking a stand against universal credit rules, which she says forced her into £2,000 of debt.

single mum nichola salvato is taking the department of work and pensions to the high court. and the latest candidate to announce he's running for london mayor is this rapper. # like, how many times have we gone to the ballot box and seen no change? # mps lie in parliament, on tv, and in our face. # like, how many times have we heard them scream out "brexit" — what's that mean? # the single market don't mean nothing on road. # don't sell my dreams... #. we'll be speaking to drillminister, who says he's running for the capital's highest office on behalf of all those who feel "forgotten, persecuted, or ignored".