this is bbc world news today. i'm nancy kacungira. our top stories. china faces growing isolation as countries around the world impose travel bans and suspend flights. france's president macron hails continuing close ties with britain, as the uk considers its post—brexit future. bushfires threaten parts of the australian capital canberra, as a state of emergency is declared. and a new tennis star in the making, as america's sofia kenin pulls off a surprise victory in the australian open.

hello, and welcome to world news today. china is facing increasing isolation as more countries impose travel bans because of the new coronavirus. that's despite advice from the world health organization. the us and australia have blocked chinese citizens, and foreigners who've recently visited china, from entering. major airlines like quantas and delta are suspending flights. there's been 259 deaths so far. all of those are in china — as are most of the 12,000 confirmed cases. the virus is spreading globally — canada, the us and germany have recorded cases in recent days. the outbreak is having a severe effect on the chinese economy with entire cities on lock down and workers being told to stay at home. wuhan and its surrounding cities remain on lockdown. some are let through if they meet certain criteria, and others have to beg to be let out.

translation: i'm very upset because they are treating patients with coronavirus, but my daughter has leukaemia and she also needs to be treated by a doctor. they are eventually let through, but many residents have been denied passage. and now the united states, where there are confirmed cases of the virus, has stepped up its own efforts to contain the outbreak. the president has signed a presidential proclamation temporarily suspending the entry into the us of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the 2019 novel coronavirus. china has called the travel ban unkind, and insists it can contain the virus. there is no reason for measures of unnecessary interfere, with international travel and the trade.

australia, russia, japan, pakistan and italy have also announced similar travel bans. mongolian nationals in wuhan were evacuated and returned hope on saturday. health officials say the coronavirus is more contagious than china's similar sars epidemic in 2003. but it is not as deadly, and they are warning against countries closing their borders. whenever people want to travel, they will, and if the official paths are not open they will find unofficial paths, but the only way to control, to check fever for example, to identify travel is to try to monitor who is coming across your border, and to see whether they have any signs of infection, is through official border crossing points. as china races to build hospitals for those infected with the virus, it fears further isolation from the rest of the world could make matters worse. let's talk to paul hunter, he's a professor in medicine at the university of east anglia, and joins me now from norwich. thank you for talking to us. countries like australia and the us are blocking chinese citizen, but

are blocking chinese citizen, but are travel bans effective, in this case? i think they have, they are likely to have some effects, whether it is enough to ultimately control the outbreak is, i suspect doubtful, in fact we have been, we have a long history, globally of imposing travel bans history, globally of imposing travel ba ns to history, globally of imposing travel bans to controlling infection diseases right back centuries to bubonic plaiz playing and i don't think any has ultimately been successful as controlling the disease. —— plague. one of the issuesit disease. —— plague. one of the issues it is just china, what would happen if other countries started getting self sustained transmission of the disease. how many countries would be banned? it is, the world health organization has very good reasons forkan selling, and i totally support them in that. and just how easy is it to catch this

virus? well, we don't know that well. there is still quite a bit of, that we don't know organisation has very good reasons forkan selling, andi very good reasons forkan selling, and i totally support them in that. and just how easy is it to catch this virus? well, we don't know that well. there is still quite a bit of, that we don't know about its transmit built —— transmisbuilt. we know it is spreading considerably faster than sars did, as the previous person mentioned. in the sars epidemic 20 years ago, we had about 8,000 cases globally, before the outbreak petered out about seven six or seven months and we are already 12,000 in less than six weeks so it is spreading much more quickly. there it will continue to spread rapidly or whether with summer coming it will start to decline, and reverse is something that we will actually not know until it happens, and it is very difficult that there has been variety of models as ho how it might progress,

the bottom line is we don't know and we won't have much of an idea for at least another month or so. we will leave it there, paul hunter thank you forjoining us. me pleasure. european leaders have expressed sadness at the uk leaving the eu. france's emmanuel macron has emphasised britain's "unrivalled ties" with his country. celebrations and anti—brexit protests were held on friday night. but there's still much to finalise about the new relationship, as chris mason reports. a winter's afternoon like any other, and yet symbolically, legally, psychologically, everything has changed. for the first full day in 47 years, the uk isn't part of the club of our nearest neighbours, a triumph for those who partied here last night. we should celebrate the fact that, freed from the constraints of the european union, we once again will be able to find our place in the world.

but look at this. the european flag still flying outside the scottish parliament. those wanting scottish independence claim brexit proves why breaking away from the uk is necessary. we can look the people of scotland in the eye and say, look, we really did try to turn this around, but because the people of scotland aren't in charge of events, we are suffering the loss of our european status, and what comes next is going to be the challenge, but today is just a sad day. from paris today, a letter. but, he added, ease of access to the eu's markets would depend on how many of its rules the uk accepted. i think in a way, none of us are able to take onboard the enormity of what has happened, and the words can't describe the uncertainty of the future, for both ourselves and the european union, and indeed in the united kingdom.

and for that reason, the scaffolding needed to create that new long—term relationship will soon be as visible as the real thing here. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. iraq has a new prime minister after three months of anti—government demonstrations. the president chose former communications minister mohammed tawfiq allawi. allawi immediately signalled support for the protestors,who want major changes to the political system, and told them to keep up their demonstrations. the secretary general of the arab league has condemned donald trump's middle east plan, saying it would subject the palestinians to permanent israeli occupation. addressing an emergency meeting of the league, ahmed aboul gheit said the initiative would create a form of apartheid, making palestinians second—class citizens. america's top diplomat, mike pompeo, has become the first us secretary of state to visit belarus for a quarter of a century.

he's seeking to normalise ties at a time of tension between belarus and its closest ally, russia. mr pompeo told the belarussian president alexander lukashenko that it was not about choosing between washington and moscow. president trump is a step closer to being acquitted in his impeachment trial, after the us senate voted against calling witnesses. he has been accused of abusing his power and obstructing congress. one senior democrat accused republicans of being accomplices to a presidential cover—up. from washington, ben wright reports. are there any senators in the chamber wishing to change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are a9, the nays are 51. and with that vote, the beginning of the end of president trump's impeachment trial. just two republican senators broke ranks with their party and joined democrats demanding more evidence.

it was their last chance to try and trip up a president who left the white house for florida last night more confident than ever that the senate will acquit him of obstructing congress and abusing his power. democrats had been desperate to hear testimony from this man. donald trump's former national security advisorjohn bolton. according to the new york times, mr bolton writes in a forthcoming book that president trump instructed him to withhold military aid from ukraine, in exchange for dirt on democratic rivals. if the president is acquitted with no witnesses, no documents, the acquittal will have no value. but white house lawyers insist their transcript of phone calls between the president and ukraine's leader, president zelensky, show the president did nothing wrong. let me read you what our ukrainian allies said. it was normal. we spoke about many things. ithink, and you read it, that nobody pushed me. only the thing presidential impeachment trial in us history

will wrap up next week with closing arguments starting on monday and a final vote on wednesday. the republican—led senate is virtually certain to acquit president trump, who will try and frame this bitterly partisan saga as a washington witch hunt as he revs up his re—election campaign. this is our moment in history. but democrats campaigning in iowa ahead of monday's caucus, the first poll in this election season, hope voters will pass a different verdict on president trump's fitness for office, come november. frank bowman is professor of law at the university of missouri, and the author of the book "high crimes & misdemeanors: a history of impeachment for the age of trump". he joins me from washington good to talk to you, thank you for joining us. the numbers in the senate have been in president

trump's favour, so is it any surprise at all, that they voted not to hear any more evidence against him? it will never be a surprise when, as i think is going to happen, he will by a quitted. it ought to be perhaps a small surprise that the republicans were so resistant to actually hearing facts. on the other hand, the cynical political calculation from their perspective was that the evidence, the witnesses, the democratic managers from the house wanted to hear would have produced negative information, no question about that, i mean logic tells you that, if the witnesses being with held by the white house could exonerate him, trump would give them you know, limousines down pennsylvania avenue to testify, it is plainly they would have testified in ways that would hurt his case, but republicans didn't want to hear

it because they are pretty much bound at the hip to this man, president trump, they are going to acquit him and to hear additional evidence would make the embarrassment greater. so, it is a bit disheartening, there was seemed to bea bit disheartening, there was seemed to be a moment or two during the past week when enough republicans might break from the party line to allow witnesses, but in the end, senator managed to pressure his caucus enough to keep them in line. well democrat senators have been calling this trial a sham. earlier, bernie sanders tweeted he has never seen a tuile without witness, is there any chance this whole process might be revisited? there is no practical chance, i think. might be revisited? there is no practical chance, ithink. in theory, the house of representatives could reimpeach him for this or other matters but certainly during the current trial that is

practically speaking impossible what i think is going to happen, and the house managers reiterated this point multiple times, is that additional evidence about the ukraine affair is going to keep bleeding out notjust in the form of mr bolton's book but it turns out, last night after the vote not to subpoena witness, the white house put out a sort of late—night announcement that oh, by the way, there has been a, we got 12 or 13 e—mails directly relating to the lead into this ukraine aid withhold, and the president's involvement in it, but we are not producing then. these kinds of thing are going to drip out time after time over the ensuing months to the president and the republican's considerable embarrassment. thank you very much. thank you very much.

stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: the coronavirus. we're in hong kong where a new health union is threatening to strike unless the authorities close the border with mainland china

china faces growing isolation as countries around the world impose travel bans and suspend flights, to stop the coronavirus. france's president macron has hailed continuing close ties with britain as the uk considers its post—brexit future. thousands of nurses, doctors and hospital staff in hong kong have voted in favour of strike action which could start

as early as monday. a newly—formed pro—democracy union is demanding the government shuts down the border completely with mainland china. mariko oi reports. tensions are high. this city feels on edge. almost every one is wearing a face mask. this new epidemic brings back memories of the sars outbreak of 2003, which killed nearly 300 people here. as coronavirus spreads, some medical staff want the government to stop mainlanders from entering the territory. this union says it represents 18,000 medical staff who work for public hospitals. that is more than a fifth of the total of public health workers. the hospital authority employees

alliance is a new union that was formed late last year, during the pro—democracy protests. 60% of the members are young nurses, and it grew rapidly in the last few week, since the outbreak. they've just voted to walk out from monday morning, unless the government gives in to their demands. they will be negotiating with the authorities on sunday, but if the strike goes ahead it would add to the pressure on hong kong's leader carrie lam. the move is highly political. one of the groups leaders says the possible strike is their response to the government's uneffective measures. the whole action or strike is to prevent, because the government do not do the right thing, to prevent outbreak, and also, that is why, what we would do, we are not repressing for democracy at moment. even this medical emergency has been politicised. in a city that has experienced so much political

upheavals in the past year. and you can keep up to date with latest developments on the coronvirus by visiting our website. just go to the bbc website or download the bbc news app onto your smartphone or tablet. there are also a number of handy background articles on subjects like the process of ‘quarantine' and what lessons health officials learnt from the sars outbreak in 2003. residents to the south of australia's capital canberra have been put on alert over fears that bushfires may spread. a state of emergency was declared on friday — the first in the area since deadly fires there in 2003. the territory's emergency services chief says she is keen to avoid panic — but said that evacuations may be necessary. the bbc‘s shaimaa khalil has more.

the bush fire south of canberra in the national park has been burning for more than a week now, today was meant to be the worst day. it is already ravaged through 115,000 hectares, about 15% or more of the australian capital. the head of the emergency services here has said there is no immediate danger to suburbs in canberra, but said the situation could change for areas south of the capital. so in the suburb here, people have been told to keep a close eye on fire activity. you have the combination of sweltering heat. today has been a really hot day. the wind picking up and tinder dry landscape. that is how things can get worse. the fire itself has been been behaving erratically, spreading in all directions. there are the embers, theyjump way ahead of the main front causing fires.

we understand that embers from this blaze have caused spot fires in new south wales. that is what worries people, in the southern suburb, the damage that embers can cause. something else has been weighing heavily on people here is the memory of a devastating fire of 2003, when four people were killed, and 500 homes were destroyed. that is why the authorities are not taking any chances. a state of emergency has been called, there are constant warnings, we have seen aircraft fly over the blaze dumping water, the military has been knocking on some doors, advising them on what to do the case of evacuation, everybody is watching closely and waiting to see how the fire is going to behave. olly foster has all the sport. hello, and thanks forjoining us. liverpool are 22 points clear at the top of the table after they beat southampton 4—0 at anfield. no premier league side has had that big a lead before all the goals no premier league side has had that big a lead before — all the goals came in the second half,

alex oxlade—chamberlain and captain jordan henderson on target before mo salah struck twice. that takes their unbeaten league run to 42 games across two seasons, arsenal hold the record with 49. the goal we scored was after a situation where southampton on the penalty but we were better in the game, had much more, better possession, not more, did better things with it. found direction and a couple of times my team starts rolling, then it is, the power we create in these moments is is really incredible, i have to say. so, iam really ha p py incredible, i have to say. so, iam really happy about the performance and the game and the result. in the day's other games. fourth placed chelsea drew 2—2 at third placed leicester. it was goalless between manchester united and wolves. watford let a two goal lead slip, to lose at home to everton. and west ham drop into the relegation zone, they drew 3—3 with brighton, having led 3—1 in the second half. wins too for bournemouth and sheffield united.

real madrid are six points clear at the top of la liga after a 1—0 win over city rivals atletico. karim benzema got the winner. barca can close the gap to three points, if they can beat levante on sunday. bayern munich are top of the bundesliga after a 3—1win at mainz. they leapfrog leipzig who drew with borussia moenchengladbach. dortmund go third. erling haaland scored twice in their 5—0 win against union berlin. that was the 19—year—old norwegians first start, but he's now got seven goals in three games since joining from salzburg. sofia kenin is the surprise champion at the australian open. the 21—year—old american had never been beyond the fourth round at any major tournament before but came from a set down to beat the two—time grand slam champion garbine muguruza. i feel like at this level you can

play and you can win any match, as long as you believe in myself. yourself, it is great going on in women's tennis, there are a lot of new names coming up women's tennis, there are a lot of new names coming up and i'm a new name so it is superexciting, i am superproud of myself, it is an honour to be holding this beautiful trophy. i think that. .. honour to be holding this beautiful trophy. ithink that... i honour to be holding this beautiful trophy. i think that... i think i had to play better today, because you know, she came up with a great level, and i think at important moments i didn't found my shots. she found hers, i didn't find mine. i did feel a lack of energy after so many matches, and physically, it was a tough battle out there. rugby union's six nations championship is under way, and there have been wins for two of the the new coaches, andy farrell's ireland beat scotland 19—12 in dublin and wayne pivac saw his wales side open the defence of their title by thrashing ireland a2—nil in cardiff.

we have plenty to work on, it was far from perfect. there is a lot of work we can do at the break down, i thought at times, defensively we held defensively, we held too much as opposed to, you know, putting a lot more pressure on them, on the man on the ball, when we had the numbers. so, there are plenty of things to work on. the set piece at times were good but in the scrummaging i think both teams played a part in the referee. at the end of the day, we had too many resits, i thought, but it is something to work on. that's all the sport for now. a reminder of the top story. china is facing increasing isolation, as increasing numbers of countries impose travel bans because of fears

over the coronavirus. united states and australia have blocked chinese citizens is. thank you for watching world news today. bye. hello. it is pretty quiet out there at the moment but there is rain in the forecast. it is heading our way and, for some others, sunday is going to be quite a soggy one, but not everywhere. there is some sunshine in the forecast. let's have a look at the bigger picture across the uk. as we head towards midnight, the rain reaches south—western part of the uk. notice that through the night for many of us across the north, and certainly scotland, it is a dry and clear night. there is a frost, there, in aberdeen and across the highlands. that wet weather, through the course of sunday morning, is going to spread northwards, so certainly reaching most of yorkshire by early in the morning, the south of scotland by mid—morning and certainly some rain on the way to glasgow and for edinburgh and also a bit of snow there possibly across the hills.

however, to the south you whether it will improve. the weather it will improve. for example, for wales and much of the midlands, east anglia and the south, the afternoon on sunday isn't looking bad at all. bright, quite breezy and a0 degrees. bright, quite breezy and 1a degrees. the showers across the northern half of the uk will continue into sunday night and then we are in for a spell of some pretty stormy weather, particularly in the northern half of the uk, so here is monday's weather map. low pressure moving across scotland, this is going to be quite a nasty low, and that is going to bring very strong winds initially to western parts of scotland earlier on monday and then, through the course of the day, those wins will strengthen and strengthen. nasty weather, story of the west of scotland through the course of monday. pretty windy across the rest of the uk, but actually it is going to be a relatively bright, if not sunny, day. let us focus on those winds across scotland, in excess of 70 miles per hour, on top of that we have got some snow across the mountains and then,

later on monday, the severe gales will transfer further east across scotland, saint murray and aberdeenshire. we could see winds in excess of 70 mph, even inland as well. very windy across the north of england as well. in newcastle, an excess of 50 mph. it will be very windy right across the country as we head through tuesday, these isobars mean strong winds spreading right across the uk, while the weather is going to be mostly bright for many of us on tuesday. however, the strength of the wind will make it if you quite a bit colder. goodbye.

this is bbc world news, the headlines: china is facing deepening isolation as growing numbers of countries impose travel bans because of fears over the new coronavirus. the us and australia have blocked chinese citizens and foreigners who've recently visited china from entering their countries. european leaders have expressed sadness at the uk finally leaving the eu. france's emmanuel macron has emphasised britain's "unrivalled ties" with the french. president trump is a step closer to being acquitted in his impeachment trial after the us senate voted against calling witnesses. he has been accused of abusing his power and obstructing congress. in tennis, the american, sofia kenin, has won herfirst ever grand slam title.