welcome to bbc news — i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: the uk has left the european union, with a countdown clock in downing street marking the moment. outside parliament, brexit supporters celebrated, elsewhere the mood was more subdued. us senators vote against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, making the acquittal of the president all but certain. the authorities in the chinese province of hubei declare 1,300 new cases of the coronavirus, and confirm at least 45 more deaths.

britain has now officially left the european union after 47 years. there have been celebrations and commiserations across the united kingdom with many people gathering in the streets to mark the moment of history. prime minister boris johnson says it's not an end but a beginning — but many questions remain over what the future holds. freya cole reports. big ben bongs it is done. at the strike of 11 gmt, britain left the european union. this moment will go down in history. a cause worthy of great jubilation for some... it's amazing. we are very happy, very happy.

this face is happy. its freedom. i'm extremely pleased at last after 3.5 years of procrastination. we've actually got what we wanted, what the majority voted for. a great disappointment for others. as remainers, obviously very disappointed and sad today. we've spent the last three and a half years trying to stop brexit from happening. and, actually, the room today was actually reconciled to the fact it is happening and that makes us very sad. it's been a long, drawn—out process. at times it felt like it would never happen, but it has. and there's no going back — not any time soon. prime minister boris johnson issued a statement saying "it's time to unleash the full potential of this brilliant country". brexit party leader nigel farage said he's fought for this moment for 27 years. let us celebrate tonight as we've never done before.

you — and all of us — have made history. and this is the greatest moment in the modern history of our great nation. thank you! but for scotland, who voted to remain, it's a profound moment of sadness, according to its leader nicola sturgeon. tonight in edinburgh, a sea of european scottish flags side—by—side. they say now they'll ramp up the fight for their own exit from the uk. the fact of the matter is that the only way back into the european union for scotland is if we regain our statehood and regain our independence. across the channel in brussels,

the union flag was not lowered and neatly put away. a historic moment of the end of ties known for almost half a century. but it's no great loss, according to the crowd of a brexiteers in parliament square. it's a short reprieve before a bumperyearahead. talks over trade and the future relationship will be tough. uncertainty isn't over. the transition period is only just begun. freya cole, bbc news. with brexit now under way, trade talks can start with some of the uk's biggest political and economic relations. earlier this week, us secretary of state mike pompeo says he hopes to have a new post—brexit trade deal with the uk signed by the end of this year. well, to discuss the prospects of such a deal, we're joined from washington by daniel lippman, a white house reporter for politico. thank you forjoining us daniel. a deal do you think for

the presidential elections at the presidential elections at the end of this year, is that going to be likely do you think knowing how the us does trade talks? and how long they normally takes? i think it is a priority for president trump. he has a good relationship with borisjohnson he has a good relationship with boris johnson and doesn't he has a good relationship with borisjohnson and doesn't want to let him down. but i do think that there huawei decision it was a blow to the us uk relationship but i think if you think about the actual benefits that a deal would accrue to both the us and the uk, i think that there is going to be a deal to be had and that, clearly, the us is not going to wa nt to clearly, the us is not going to want to lose access for preferential trade treatment for its businesses in the uk. you say that he wants to keep prime minister boris johnson onside and yet, the mantra with president trump has always been

america first, america first, america first, america first, america first. there's no reason to think he's going to think differently this time. that's accurate although he does think borisjohnson is a bit like him in terms of someone bit like him in terms of someone from the elites who really speaks to populist, populist understandings and also has kind of, has not really ta ke n also has kind of, has not really ta ken advantage also has kind of, has not really taken advantage of the... basically getting the uk into a more populist element. but i do think that president trump understands america first but that also means helping corporate america which wants a big deal with the uk and to preserve a ccess big deal with the uk and to preserve access and for the us to sell lots of goods to the uk. very briefly, here are the uk, obviously we have the national health service, we have drugs pricing, low drugs prices, food safety is a key issue and these are all major

issues that are worrying a lot of people here when it comes to trade with the us. they are and i don't think people from england should worry too much because i don't think president trump and the us wants to block off access to american fighter pharmaceutical products or key ingredients or to make it harderfor british ingredients or to make it harder for british people to come over and visit the us and study here. i think that both sides will try to hush out a deal other president trump will be distracted by his recollection. good to talk to you daniel. thank you very much. us senators have voted against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, a move which brings the end of the process much closer. the democrats failed to persuade enough republicans that witness testimony was necessary. the final vote will take please on wednesday. —— place. let's go live to the bbc‘s

chris buckler in washington. it's highly unusual not unheard of for it's highly unusual not unheard offoran it's highly unusual not unheard of for an impeachment trial like this not to have new witnesses at this stage. of course an impeachment trial itself is pretty unusual for the united states. certainly what republicans did not want to do was to extend this trial any longer than it would go as it is. and ultimately, they have been pushing for no witnesses and they have succeeded by the narrowest of margins. the final vote was 51-49. margins. the final vote was 51—19. two republicans did vote with the democrats but that was half the number they needed. and ultimately now, it will mean that president trump's impeachment trial will come to an end at some stage next week. probably wednesday and that will probably be of great relief to the president himself but at the democrats will push this argument that can you really have a fair trial when you haven't heard from witnesses and they had hoped to hear from the likes ofjohn

bolton who is president trump's former national security advisor and a man who a p pa re ntly advisor and a man who apparently has details of the president's plan to put pressure on the uk to launch investigations into his political opponents. but is denied by the white house but there was the chance of mr bolton coming to the senate and giving some very damaging testimony. and yet, even without that testimony, even if the impeachment trial ends very quickly as we expected to now in favour of the president, do you think there has been a huge amount of damage done to him and what is an election year? do you know, i don't really know because i think truthfully, people went to this impeachment trial on one side or the other and i'm not sure really it has changed that much during that time. the american public are over with president trump against him and there is a small number in the middle who during the next nine or ten months are going to push very ha rd to months are going to push very hard to be persuaded to fall into either the democrats or the republicans before that vote in november 2020. it is a

matter of miles away. here is what is very clear from this whole impeachment trial. the whole impeachment trial. the whole feeling in america has made it much more better. the push divisions that exist in this country even further. but ultimately, it is coming to an end and the focus will shift to an election. to give you an idea what will happen in the coming days. on monday, both sides will give their closing arguments and then on wednesday, it will be the final vote. as we say though, they will need two—thirds of the senate to vote in favour of removing the president for donald trump to be removed from office. there's absolutely no chance of that happening. even president trump's opponents acknowledge that. thank you chris. the united states has announced that foreign citizens who've been in china in the past 14 days will be barred from entering the us, to control the spread of the coronavirus. the authorities in hubei — where the outbreak originated — have declared 1,300 new cases of the virus, and confirmed at least 45 more deaths.

let's go live to hong kong and speak to the bbc‘s mariko 0i. this is a big move from the united states but one that other countries have been taking ever since the world health organization announced an emergency. exactly. this is why beijing didn't want to the who to declare this as a global emergency. that has been the speculation of critics of the who that they might have been some pressure on the united nations organisation and not to declare it as such because countries can then restrict, not just travel, but also trade with china. as you said, since the declaration of global emergency, we've heard from a number of countries who have restricted travel. some countries are now seeing all

mainland chinese passport holders are being barred from entering their countries. under this comes as the deaf toll continues to rise as you mentioned. as of this morning, according to the authorities, 259 people have died and just under 12,000 confirmed cases just in china. the virus continues to spread outside. now there are confirmed cases of infection in more than 20 countries. where you are in hong kong, obviously a place very badly hit by the sales virus. —— the sars virus. very careful that to make sure there is no repeat. what is the government they're doing? that close some of the borders of mainland china. critics of the hong kong government say they should close all the borders in order to prevent the virus from spreading. as you said, memories of the sars outbreak are very

memories of the sars outbreak are very fresh here stop almost 300 people lost their lives, including some medical professionals so they are calling for an even threatening to go on strike unless the hong kong government closes all the borders. we will find out more later as the union members meet later as the union members meet later today. but there has been a lot of pressure on the hong kong government to do more. the same time, all the schools are closed until beginning of march. and a lot of pressure relief on a carrie lam, the city's chief executive, who was already in a lot of trouble with the ongoing protests, the pro—democracy protests that have continued for months. of course now that this out break of coronavirus has happened, we're not seeing any of this process but in terms the demand of those protesters, none of that has been resolved. thank you marika. increasing unease

across asia as a number of coronavirus infections rise in china. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. the ban on the african national congress is lifted immediately, and the anc leader, nelson mandela, is to be set free unconditionally. ..four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, its this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a launch, that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given

the yachtswoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: britain has officially left the european union, bringing to an end nearly half a century of membership. the moment of departure was marked by a countdown clock projected onto the prime minister's residence in downing street. us senators have voted against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, making the acquittal of the president all but certain. more now on the outbreak of the coronavirus. since news of the spread of infections has increased, so have reports of countries closing their borders to travellers who have recently been in china. there have also been reports in social media of racism against chinese people. this isjust one example —

a chinese doctor reporting in australia about a patient saying he wouldn't shake her hand. another example is of a child in canada being bullied by children at school for being part chinese. for more on the social media storm following the virus outbreak, i'm joined by laurie garrett in new york, who is a pulitzer prize winning science writer and tracked sars across hong kong and china during the 2003 epidemic. it is so good to talk to you. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. let's start festival to talk about misinformation because it is a key point here. the misinformation getting out there in so many forms are so many people, and social media is so much more prolific than it was 16 years ago. i think it is almost impossible for public health metres to be ahead of the curve, leading perception ahead of what is on social

media, what people are hearing from god knows where. what do you think is the most dangerous form of misinformation right now? as i stated, there have been examples of people of chinese origin suffering from racism, being targeted, feeling like they are being targeted. certainly, anything that co nflates the certainly, anything that conflates the virus with underlying racial attitudes in any society is terrible. we only have to look to the 1980s and to what happened with hiv and to what happened with hiv and how easy it was from one country to another to sit back and allow the hiv/aids epidemic to become huge because of homophobia, because they saw the anti— day sentiments as superior to concern about the well—being of the individuals who are sick with the virus. and we have the same unfolding over the world now relating to

how people feel about people of chinese origin, and that is just ridiculous. as i always say, the virus doesn't care what ethnicity, race or religion you are, it has no idea and it doesn't care, but if the public cares, you end up working on the side of the virus. and also, interestingly, there is misinformation medically about masks, how efficient they are, however if they are, who should be wearing them, and that creates confusion, and in some cases may even aide the spread of a virus. this has been a big frustration. every epidemic i have been in, i have seen this problem. we don't have enough masks in this world. the masks that actually work, the masks designed to block viruses. as opposed to hundreds of different alleged masks that you can see online to buy or find in your hardware store. we

are running out of supplies which means we don't have enough to guarantee that every doctor and nurse or healthcare worker will have a clean mask if they needed. that is very dangerous. as for what people are doing out there, i mean, here in new york city where we have not a single case of this virus, we are completely sold out of masks. you can't get them, medical masks, in any drug store in any part of new york. amazon is out. what people are buying is actually masks meant to block dust particles or construction worker masks, things like that, which can't possibly protect you from something as small as a virus. in addition, you wear it all day long and then you don't have enough masks so you wear it all day the next day in the next day, and pretty soon you are having a very moist disgusting interior onto your mask, have been at sailing and it becomes a lovely breeding

colony for bacteria. 0k, thank you very much indeed. thank you. let's get more on president trump's impeachment trial. we can now speak to mary anne marsh who's a democratic political analyst. thank you for your company. we have been speaking about what has happened in terms of witnesses, there will not be witnesses, there will not be witnesses now. what does it mean about what happens next do you think? the longer this trial goes on, the more damaging information that is going to come out, the bigger the price republicans will pay in the 2020 electjim, and i think that is the real story here. it doesn't mean that donald trump won't get acquitted, it will make it harderfor him to get acquitted, it will make it harder for him to get acquitted but it is most likely he will be acquitted sometime next week and you only have to look at what happened today to understand that. 51 republican

senators voted against witnesses even though 72% of all americans wanted witnesses, 67% of republicans wanted witnesses yet they voted against it. your thought donald trump's lawyers for a week now saying, and other republicans also saying he made that call. it was a quid pro quo. he did pressure him to investigate the biden family in exchange for weapons. they are saying he should not be punished, and when you look at the polls, 50% of americans think donald trump should be removed from office even though other republicans say otherwise. why have they done this, if it is so clearly against what the people wanted, this is the beginning of an election year, why are they shooting themselves in the foot so to speak? and that is the $64,000 question. why is it that when the people they have been elected to represent, including republicans, want something different? they want witnesses, they want to hear

from them, and when you look at the 22 senators up for re—election, yes, they have to get through primary is, they can still get someone to run against them, but that doesn't get them to 51% to win their election. when you look at the presidential year when you have the biggest turnout ever, you have to think a lot of these republicans are going to be in a lot of trouble and i think that factored into how much mitch mcconnell has handled this and why is stretching this out to wednesday. donald trump and the white house trial to end tomorrow or tonight, because they wanted him to go to the super bowl, do his half—time interview and declare victory, then go to the site of the union on tuesday night in congress and take a victory lap. he will be denied both of those now because this will go to at least wednesday afternoon and he will use them both to make his case now and his grievances known. the big question is the fact that republicans are walking lockstep with donald trump and turning their backs on the very voters who put them in office. what about the democrats? where do they play in all this?

obviously the democrats are pretty discouraged and pretty frustrated by all of this, but they are going to use all of this, including the votes taken tonight on amendment against every republican in the election in november. that is what this is all about. if they can't remove donald trump, they have impeached him in a house that will always follow him. if they can't remove him next week on these counts, they will make the republicans in the senate, in the house and running, and donald trump pay a price in the elections in november. that is the last card that democrats have to play is the political card. 0k, thank you so much for your analysis. let's return to our main story once again. britain leaving the european union. one of the most difficult challenges facing negotiators throughout the last two years was the status of northern ireland. we were at

the british border minutes after it became the only land border with the eu. all of a sudden, this invisible geographical line takes on a great new significance. this, where i am standing, is now the new land border between the uk and the eu. there was no great fa nfa re, fanfare, no singing. a small band of protesters gathered here to mark the moment. nothing will change but it will have implications for thousands of businesses across the island. keeping this border open was always such an difficult part of brexit negotiations. in the end, a resolution was found through a controversial compromise, which effectively moves this border to the irish sea and leaves northern ireland in a halfway house in the future, abiding by eu single market rules, but it is staying part of the uk's global trading arrangements. of course i figured it was always so important to people to keep the border open because having an open irish border and a fundamental part of the p process in northern ireland

after decades of conflict. it has been achieved by people are still far from has been achieved by people are still farfrom happy, has been achieved by people are still far from happy, the majority of people in northern ireland voted to remain. they are still upset they are being taken out of the eu against their will. whereas others are angry that northern ireland has to remain in different arrangements of the rest of the uk. after all those battles over british and irish identity, really now negotiations over the next 11 months will determine exactly how it is all going to work in practice. a quick reminder of our top story. britain has officially left the european union, bringing to an end nearly half a century of membership. the moment was marked by a countdown clock projected onto the prime minister's residence in downing street. now, if you wa nt in downing street. now, if you want more on that story, you can get it on our website. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @bbcmaryam.

thank you for your company. to stay with us here on bbc news. goodbye. hello there. it was another windy day on friday. as we head on into the weekend, low pressure will always be nearby. so it will stay rather unsettled. mild for most, and there will be some rain at times, but also some sunshine too. so here it is — low pressure to the north of the uk on saturday. this will bring some rain to northern areas. quite a few isobars on the chart there, hence the windy weather. and this area of low pressure will arrive saturday night into sunday. the very mild air will be pushed off into the near continent on saturday, and something a little less mild will move in. but it's still going to be pretty mild across the south. so, a blustery day for most.

that weather fronts i showed you, affecting scotland, northern ireland and northern england. we could see a little bit of rain across the south—east but that will clear away and then for many it will be sunshine and showers into the afternoon. most of those showers across western areas. the winds dig down from the north across scotland, so blustery here, but also blustery across england and wales. here, the wind is coming in from the south—west, so it will be much milder across the south and further north. turning chilly. a few wintry showers here. 10 or 11 degrees in the south, not quite as mild as it was on friday. as we head through saturday night, one or two showers around, wintry on the hills in scotland. a quieter spell before that next area of low pressure comes hurtling in, to bring up ranks of rain into northern ireland, england and wales. some of it will be mild and heavy through saturday night, turning mild again in the south as the rain arrives, quite a chilly night to come across the north and north—east. so, here it is. a bit of a complicated picture through sunday morning. that weather sliding north, tending to clear away from eastern england

as the morning wears on, but it could be quite a damp start for northern, eastern england, northern ireland and central and southern scotland, as that rain bumps into the cold air across scotland we might see some snow over the mountains there. into the afternoon, it improves for many, sunny spells around, one or two showers across western areas. you will notice the milder air will be back, 11 to 14 degrees here, much chillier in the north. as we head into monday, this area of low pressure, deep low, will bring a swathe of severe gales to the north of the country, certainly to scotland. we could see some snow on the high ground. the windy weather clears away into tuesday and then we see a big area of high pressure building around the middle parts, that will settle things down, but it will be a bit colder. a milder day on monday with some rain around. mid week, high pressure bills and it will settle down to brighter, with overnight frost and gradually milder by the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines: britain has officially left the european union, bringing an end to nearly half a century of membership. the moment of departure triggered celebrations by brexit supporters around the country, with many people waving union flags. for others though, it was a sad moment. there have been muted counter—rallies by people who wanted to remain in the eu, saying they feel disenfranchised by the move. us senators have voted against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, a move which brings the end of the process much closer. the democrats failed to persuade enough republicans that witness testimony was necessary. the authorities in the chinese province of hubei have declared 1300 new cases of the coronavirus, and confirm at least 45 more deaths. the us has announced it will bar foreigners who have been to china from entering the country.