of these pilots, without whom the second world war could have turned out very differently. and paul farnes was one of the elite. paul farnes, who's died at the age of 101. hello, you're new images of the surface of the sun have been released. watching they were taken by a telescope based afternoon on hawaii — and reveal unprecedented detail. live. these cell—like structures, roughly the size of the state of texas, i'm simon mccoy. today at 2:00pm. are superheated plasma the foreign office confirms a plane bringing britons home reaching the surface. from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan will take off the darker areas show where it's early tomorrow morning. cooling and sinking back it comes as the number of infections into the body of the star. from the corona virus in china scientists say they hope it will help them establish how changes reaches more than 7,000. in the sun the death toll from the virus continues to rise — some families face an agonising can affect weather decision over who can leave and who must stay. conditions here would you be willing to leave your on earth. family behind to they are not the only go and seek ones looking. nick miller is here with safety? it isa family behind to go and seek safety? the weather. we have had our sunshine for the it is a very hard and moral question because my daughter is only four week, it's been bright and cold and yea rs because my daughter is only four there's been a weather years old.

7,000 passengers transformation that not everybody and crew are trapped will appreciate because now it looks a bit like this, it's on a cruise ship in italy amid fears two chinese holidaymakers cloudy, misty, murky, but it's much milder out are carrying the corona virus. chancellor sajid javid there. the uk is under there throws his support behind hs2 — as a number of tory mps consider somewhere, the white is the cloud, rebelling against the government. the blue is where we have the rain. the number of rape prosecutions in england we have seen a spell of and wales has fallen again — rain pushing as the number of suspects gci’oss we have seen a spell of rain pushing across parts of southern england so charged rises slightly. far today, and it's raining across coming up on western scotland. this area of rain afternoon live, it's spreading east. still some rain all the sport in northern scotland to end the with chettan. good afternoon. day. elsewhere it turns a bit brighter. novak djokovic is one win away from a 17th we keep a good deal of cloud grand slam title after beating roger federer elsewhere. there is a lot of hill in straight sets in the semi finals fog particularly through wales and of the australian open. south—west england but it thanks, chettan. and helen has is much all the weather. milder, 1a celsius in south—east england, but it's very blustery out a rather grainy picture for many there. for scotland and northern today with some rain and we will england winds are going to strengthen further going into this ta ke today with some rain and we will take a look at the forecast for the evening so these are wind weekend coming up as well gusts we are seeing here, 50—60 miles as the average global temperatures as well. per hour and the higher parts of a new statement out today from the the met office. pennines, north yorkshire and durham, is could see gusts approaching 70 miles an hour into this evening so there could be some disruption as a result of that,

so be aware for this evening's rush hour. the strongest of the winds will leave slowly overnight. a spell of rainfor will leave slowly overnight. a spell of rain for northern ireland for a time, then into southern and western scotla nd time, then into southern and western scotland and cumbria, and wet end for the night. elsewhere are few clear breaks but double finger temperatures —— double figure temperatures —— double figure temperatures in the south. with rain spreading south in england and wales behind it it will brighten up a bit but further showers, heavy ones into north—west scotland where it will be a windy again. blustery across the uk. temperatures, we could get 15 celsius and in eastern england and it stays on the mild side into the weekend. this is the big picture here, perhaps a little cooler on saturday but you will notice weather fronts close by as we get into the weekend for know it means it will be rain at times. another clears southern england where we will get to see a bit of sunshine. as i hinted earlier the temperatures have come down a couple of degrees but

it's still mild. 0n come down a couple of degrees but it's still mild. on sunday, more weather fronts, more it's still mild. on sunday, more weatherfronts, more rain, pushing north here, with a spell of snow over the high parts of the pennines and scotland. as it reaches into some colder air at this stage. behind the rain it will brighten up a little bit on sunday, so a bigger range of temperatures. cold air across the northern half of the uk aren't actually next week it's the colder air that will win out again for a time but that will mean the return of some sunshine too. a reminder of our top story... the foreign office says a plane will ta ke the foreign office says a plane will take off from china later today as the number of coronavirus infections reaches more than 7000. on bbc one we watch scotland. —— a bit cold towards scotland. good afternoon. you're watching bbc news.

i'm ben croucher with your latest sports update. getting to the business end now of the australian open tennis. there'll be a new winner of the women's singles after ash barty and simona halep were both surprised in their semi—finals. in the men's draw — well, can anybody stop novak djokovic? john watson is in melbourne for us. we have the women's final complete, we will come to that in a moment but let's just reflect on another novak djokovic victory in the semifinal to book his place in an eighth australian open final. he brushed the mighty roger federer aside in straight sets. federer clearly struggling as he received a medical timeout at the end of the first set, which he lost. and then it was co mforta ble which he lost. and then it was comfortable in the end for djokovic as he moved through in straight sets. djokovic hoping to successfully defend his title here. and we await who he will face in that final. the victor will come from the other

semifinal tomorrow. it was an upset though in the first of the women's semifinals, ash barty, the world number one in the women pot game, beaten today in straight sets by sofia kenin of the united states. she was in inspired form as she came through co mforta ble. form as she came through comfortable. disappointment as you can imagine for ash barty, who has been carrying the hopes of a nation at this home australian open. hopeful that they would see a first female australian into the final here in a0 years. the party party is over though, sofia kenin goes on to face garbine muguruza, her victory over simona halep, a former australian open finalist, she fell just short this time. garbine muguruza also in straight sets. the multiple grand slam champion she will be hoping to add a third grand slam to her trophy cabinet if she can come through sofia

kenin and saturday's final. of course we will go on to see who faces novak djokovic in the men's final. all eyes on that second semifinal tomorrow. two brits made it through to finals today. in the wheelchair singles, 2016 champion gordon reid reached his fifth grand slam final with victory over belgium's joachim gerard. he'll face the top sea shingo kuneida of japan, who knocked out alfie hewett. and joe salisbury is into his first grand slam final, in the men's doubles, alongside rajeev ram. the 11th seeds face an australian wild card pair on sunday morning. a couple of days out now from the start of the six nations, so we're finding out who'll be starting in the opening games. wales coach wayne pivac has named george north at outside centre for the the beginning of their title defence against italy. uncapped scarlets wing jonny mcnicoll takes north's place on the wing. scotland coach gregor townsend will give edinburgh number eight nick haining his international debut against ireland on saturday. there are ten changes

to the starting 15 that faced japan in theirfinal match of the rugby world cup. sport continues to be affected by the coronavirus in china, with the world motorsport governing body admitting that april's chinese grand prix near shanghai is at risk. the fia says it will take any action necessary to protect the global motorsport community and the wider public. the race is due to be held on the 19th to the 21st of april. that's all the sport for now. it's transfer deadline day tomorrow so to keep up to day with all the moves — bbc.co.uk is your best bet to stay in the loop. all on the app as well. chetan will have lots more throughout afternoon live. ben, thank you. in the last few minutes it's been announced that a flight from wuhan airport to the uk

will leave tomorrow morning at 5am to bring back the british people who've been stuck in the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. the foreign secretary dominic raab said "the safety and security of british nationals is our top priority. plans are in place for their arrival in the uk — they'll be flown into the raf brize norton base in 0xfordshire, and sent to an nhs facility in the north of england, where they will face two weeks quarantine. meanwhile the world health organisation is reconsidering whether to declare a global health emergency. the death toll in china passed 170 today — and almost 8,000 people have been infected. british airways has announced it will halt all flights to and from both beijing and shanghai until the end of february. my colleague annita mcveigh spoke to our beijing correspondent stephen mcdonnell. he's in self—imposed quarantine after visiting wuhan. imean, a i mean, a lot of people at the moment i'm not returning to work in china. big companies like toyota, samsung, have said their factories

are not reopening after the lunar new year break. ikea has said that it shops won't open yet. and they have told people, don't come to work and if you can, work from home. it is the same as what's happened with me. i was in one province where people there are not supposed to be going to work because of the risk that you could be passing on the virus to other people. but this is applying to people all over china. companies are just saying, we are not reopening. the official holiday period is been extended. schools, universities and classes have been cancelled for the moment. they're trying to work out when that will safe. safe for them to start again. and you can imagine the economic impact in china is going to be absolutely enormous. i mean, just look at this one province alone, 60 million people locked down in that province. that is

the entire population of italy completely locked down. and in isolation. and all over the country, you have got very quiet cities here. shanghai, beijing and others, look out on the street, no one is out, the shops are closed, people are staying indoors. they don't want to risk contracting this potentially deadly virus. and yet when you talk to ordinary people they can understand why the authorities are taking these very harsh measures because it seems that is what is going to be required to bring this under control. on top of all that we have had russia also announcing that a000 kilometres of border with china are also going to be shot down. russia will start issuing visas to chinese tourists wanting to come into that country. more cases in vietnam and the problem isjust, well, it is spreading and spreading. but the authorities, given the moves they have put in place will be saying that they have stopped it from being

a much worse situation than it has been already. are they perhaps not surprising then that despite these efforts, the quarantine, the shutdowns and so on, that this virus is now in every single province of mainland china? yeah, i mean it is already worse than sars. in 2002 with the sars emergency, more than 700 people died. so we don't have the same death toll but we do have a much bigger infection rate. what people are worried is that that infection rate could eventually turn into the death toll if we are not getting the figures of those who have died. of course you have a lot of people who are in that category of people who are in that category of probably have the virus. i mean, that category according to official figures is more than 12,000 people 110w. figures is more than 12,000 people now. and yet strangely, in terms of the numbers of those who become better, who have been released from hospital, it is only a little over

100. i'm not sure it's because the authorities are not paying much attention to that figure or it is keeping people in hospitalfor much longerfor the risk keeping people in hospitalfor much longer for the risk that they would spread the virus to others. the white house has warned the former us national security advisor, john bolton, not to publish a book which it says contains classified information. speculation is growing that he may give evidence at the president's impeachment trial after lea ks of his memoirs appeared to contradict the defence put forward by donald trump's lawyers. they wrapped up their arguments earlier triggering two days of questioning by senators. 0ur washington correspondent chris buckler has more. for many, many hours both president from's defence lawyers and the democrats prosecution team and had a series of questions from senators in this impeachment trial. however, the one question that everyone wants a nswered one question that everyone wants answered is whether or not mr trump's former security adviser john bolton will be cold to give

evidence during the hearings. mr bolton has a p pa re ntly during the hearings. mr bolton has apparently written a book and according to lea ks apparently written a book and according to leaks of it he says that mr trump significantly linked the withholding of military aid to ukraine to his desire for the country to launch investigations into his political opponents, including his potential presidential rivaljoe biden. that has been denied by mrjohn‘s lawyers so far. it is clear that the white house is trying to stop the publication of this book. they say that it is full of confidential information that cannot be published although that is denied by mr bolton's lawyers. whether or not he is cold to the senate floor to answer questions there, that is up to a straight vote of senators. at this stage it is not clear that democrats have won over enough republicans to support them pulling him as a witness. the vote itself will take place on friday. the headlines on bbc news... it's understood that up to 200 british citizens due to fly back from wuhan will land

at raf brize norton. they will be quarentined for 1a days the bank of england leaves interest rates unchanged at 0.75% a boost for hs2 — the chancellor gives his backing to the scheme ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. the number of rape prosecutions in england and wales has fallen. new figures show there were around 2,300 prosecutions for the year to september compared with around 3000 in the year to march of last year. the number of suspects being charged has increased slightly. the crown prosecution service has published its first quarterly rape prosecution statistics in an effort to be more transparent, amid concern about the low number of convictions. kate ellis is a solicitor with the centre for women's justice — here's her response to the new figures. the numbers of complainants coming forward to report rain remains very high, down i think to the courage of the women who come forward after this horrendous crime.

who report rain. although these figures are going to be very concerning for those who are considering what has happened to them to the authorities. the volume of suspects charge has risen very, very slightly but we have to put that in the context of a drop last year of about 37.7% i believe on the previous year. and the number of completed prosecutions has seen a further massive drop. so that means that when suspects are charged, that doesn't necessarily mean that their case is making it all the way to conviction. the crown prosecution service has been reporting on rain outcomes for a number of years. and what they have done today is report simply on a quarterly basis rather than on the annual basis that there used to report on. in actual fact it makes it quite difficult to compare the statistics on first reading in this report to the statistics

in previous reports. so if anything i think at a time when the record low number of prosecutions under scrutiny. i think at that time the crown prosecution service has changed the way it is reporting and actually making it ha rd to reporting and actually making it hard to compare with previous reports, i think if anything that is making it less transparent and less open to scrutiny. max hill qc is director of public prosecutions — he spoke to my colleague annita mcveigh on the new way the rape prosecution figures are recorded and whether they do create more transparency. well, i'm very keen that we do everything we can to give confidence to victims of crime and particularly this appalling crime in coming forward and playing their vital part in the system. and that is why we are publishing statistics on a quarterly basis and not making people wait for a whole year. yes, there is some complexity in the figures and they are open for all to comment. but while we are seeing a

fall in the absolute number of offences, what today's figures show is there is increasing proportion of cases in which we are bringing charges and we are taking those cases to court. and that is a positive outcome. but to accept that in the first instance as you change from an annual report to a quarterly report, it is perhaps more difficult to make those comparisons that people are looking for? we have tried to show the figures on a rolling year—to—date basis so that people can actually perform an annual comparison. as we continue quarter by quarter we will continue to get a full picture but we are recording the same things. we are making them available to people much more frequently and that is a positive thing to do. you say you have ambitious plans to change the way that you handle these types of prosecutions and the way that you will assess the cases. talk to us about what those plans are. the prosecution of these serious sexual

offences is an absolute high priority for me and for the cps. we have played our part in the ongoing ci’oss government have played our part in the ongoing cross government review, we have received a report from the independent inspectorate. that is actually a mixed report. there is a big positive that is no evidence was found of risk aversion, in other words, we are not picking and choosing easy cases. what the inspectorate told us to do and we are now setting out doing is to work more closely with our police colleagues, to work on case quality, to work on progression of cases through the system. to ensure that both as police and as prosecutors we have the digital capability to match the complexity of these cases. that is what action planning is all about. because digital evidence of course is likely to become more and more crucial to cases like this or possibly most criminal cases. you have talked about bringing the right cases to court, that been in the interest of the complainant, the suspects and ultimately the public.

imean, suspects and ultimately the public. i mean, where do you stand on the criticism that women are coming forward with campaigners say compelling cases but those cases are not been put forward. the notion that sometimes cases are chosen because it is thought, well, you know, we have a really good chance you think of getting the conviction and therefore those conviction rates, the statistics, go up. this is obviously really important. we don't decide to charge a case because we think that it will fit a certain statistic. we don't charge cases because we are trying to hit a target of convictions. we aim to try to charge the right person with the right offence every time and we apply the same test to every case, whether it is any type of crime. and if the evidence is there to charge the case and it is in the public interest to charge it, we will charge it. and in these cases, my message to victims is provided the evidence is there, there is always

going to be very powerful public interest reasons why we should charge. and that is why we have dedicated, specialist, highly trained prosecutors, who spent all of their time looking at these cases. which brings me to my last question and possibly the most important one in this interview, to someone important one in this interview, to someone who is a victim, what you say is them if they look at figures and wonder if there is a good chance of, you know, if they go through this ordeal, of the case actually be prosecuted. i say we will continue to work with our police colleagues. it is important that we work with the government on an end to end review of this area of crime. but as we work through that it is so important to anybody who is a victim ofan important to anybody who is a victim of an appalling offence like this that they do come forward. that they do have confidence that their case will be taken seriously. that they will be taken seriously. that they will be taken seriously. that they will be given personal attention. yes, in the first instance that

would be by investigative police officers. when the cases come to us and we know that numbers have fallen but there aren't a number of conflict reasons why that may be the case. i'm not blaming the police for that. but when the cases come to us we will apply the same test and if we will apply the same test and if we can charge we will. and the figures released today show that although we are receiving fewer cases, we are charging in a higher proportion of those cases. so please have confidence, come forward. max hill qc. (pres)0n the eve of the uk's departure from the european union, former commission presidentjean claudejuncker has told bbc hardtalk britain might reconsider its decision to leave in 20 or 30 years time and suggested the door would be open to rejoining. he was speaking to our colleague stephen sackur. britain alone will be a player, i never thought that

britain will disappear from the international landscape. britain is an old nation with so many traditions, with so many noble virtues that britain will not disappear. but these virtues, these advantages britain was offering us again and again to the world can be more developed inside the european union than outside the european union. that is very interesting you give me that thought because i want to end with this thought that it is possible, who knows, but it is possible to imagine 10, 20, 30 years away the british people and the british government may take a different view of europe. they might possibly consider wanting to rejoin. do you believe europe would be ready to listen? is it a possibility for the future, do you think? i don't know if this is a possibility. when britainjoined, britain was in favour of the european union. without that, it wouldn't of joined. now they have taken the opposite decision. it could easily be that in 20, 30 years from now they will reconsider their point of view. who knows how the international world will develop in the next coming decades? but if britain, at some juncture, would present itself or herself

at the door of the european union, who would be the one who would keep this door closed? it is better for britain and for the european union to have britain with us than to have britain beside us. well, you put it a long way ahead but, to be frank, mrjuncker, do you believe that it is possible britain might seek to rejoin the european union and, as you say, the door would be open. do you think it is possible within your lifetime? you know, you're still what, in your mid—60s, you are not an old man. is it possible in your lifetime? it depends on my lifetime but it would be great. it would reflect whatever i thought on the relation between britain and the european union if britain, one day, were to rejoin the european union. but it is not up to me to lecture the british people.

they are... they don't like being lectured from the outside. maybe they feel they've had enough lectures from you? no, but maybe the europeans have the impression that we did listen to offer to britain. but i don't think that we listened to offer to britain but i know that in the majority of countries, britain has not improved its popularity after brexit. and you can see the whole of stephen sackur‘s interview with jean—claude juncker on hard talk at half past midnight tonight, here on bbc news and if you can't stay up that late, you can see it on the iplayer. 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 sun's surface, solar structures known as 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, 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 under 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 unstable and leads to solar eruptions, solar flares, 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 star. freya cole, bbc news. it would be the closest we get to it for a while because it lets have a look at the weather forecast. if you because it lets have a look at the weatherforecast. if you prefer your work winter weather chilly but bright you are having to endure quite a transformation of the last 2a hours because now it is misty and murky. the sunshine has gone. all this cloud across the uk and a bit of rain as you can see topping and tailing the uk. the spell of rain pushing eastwards through this afternoon. not amounting to two much. heavier bursts of

rain in scotla nd much. heavier bursts of rain in scotland confined to the north and north—west through the afternoon. any where towards the west along hills will stay down and drizzly. temperatures well up compared with how we side the week. as high as 1a celsius but a very blustery day. the wind will get stronger this afternoon through scotland and northern england. there are wind gusts going into the evening rush hour. a0, 50 miles an hour or may be as high as 70 miles an hour across parts of durham and north yorkshire. these winds could be disruptive so be aware of that heading out and about tonight. it remains blustery overnight although the strongest winds will ease. dry weather with clear spells around, rain comes back to northern ireland through the night, running into scotland and cumbria are very wet into the night here. chilly enough may be for frost in spots of scotland on friday morning but for many others friday as another cloudy day

with rain spreading south eastwards. it wea ke ns spreading south eastwards. it weakens going through the afternoon. further showers following to the north—west, merging to give longer spells of rain in north—west scotland. windy again, gusts of a0 to 50 miles an hour. a very mild though. milder remains over the weekend, may be a little bit cooler on saturday. notice while the isobars close together, the weather fronts it is unsettled with rain stopped saturday, the spell of rain pushing through scotland, northern ireland and northern england. parts of england and wales will see sunny spells on saturday on another windy day. sunday, more wet weather pushing north here. a bit of snow to parts of the pennines and the hills and mountains in scotland. blustery and mountains in scotland. blustery and mild to the south. turning colder across scotland and it is the colder across scotland and it is the colder air that remains for a time 00:28:55,744 --> 2147483051:51:12,587 next 2147483051:51:12,587 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 week.