hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2: a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. meanwhile, china's ambassador to britain urges countries not to panic about the virus. hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. derek mckay's conduct fell far short of what is expected of a minister. indeed, he offered his resignation to me and i accepted. it was not an option for him to remain in government. an end to automatic release of terror prisoners — the government says it wants to change the law within three weeks. and a new record is set by astronaut christina koch, who's spent more days in space than any other woman.

coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with huw ferris. five changes for england's six nations match against scotland on saturday, including scrum half ben youngs dropped to the bench, while scotland make just one change. more later. thanks, huw. and matt taylor has all the weather. hotair hot air balloons up today, a sign of beautiful conditions out there. light winds, clear skies. beautiful conditions out there. light winds, clearskies. it beautiful conditions out there. light winds, clear skies. it will not be like that this weekend. thanks, matt. also coming up... i'm spartacus... tributes to one of the last hollywood legends of the golden era. hollywood legends actor kirk douglas, whose film career spanned seven decades, has died at the age of 103.

hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. in the past hour, the department of health has said that a third patient in the uk has tested positive for coronavirus. the individual caught the infection abroad. in a statement, england's chief medical officer said that... the patient is being transferred to a specialist nhs centre, and we are using robust infection control measures to prevent any possible further spread of the virus. the nhs is well prepared to manage these cases and we are now working quickly to identify any contacts the patient has had. let's get some more details from our health correspondent james gallagher who's in our newsroom. what do we know so far? the most important thing is this is not a surprise. so long as there are tens of thousands of cases they will be exported around the world, including to the uk. this is a moment that has been prepared for. it's a different

situation to the one faced by the chinese authorities, particularly in the city of wuhan. this patient had travelled abroad and caught the infection there. that tells us that this is not directly connected to those cases in york, it is not a cases of those people in york transferring the infection to this third case but there is so much we don't know. we don't know where in the uk this person is and we don't know where they have been taken to. there are few specialist centres in the uk, england, that will look after these kinds of cases, that have the dedicated facilities to minimise the risk of a patient with a contagious disease spreading it, so a contagious disease spreading it, so that is where they will be taken to minimise that risk and they will move to the next stage which is detective work. health officials will go around looking at all the people this person came into close contact with to see if there was any risk of those people catching the virus. that is the problem because

we are not sure of the incubation period but whoever this person had beenin period but whoever this person had been in contact with could have been at risk. it is not every single person this person came into contact with will be at risk. it is not the case if you went into a coffee shop and bought a coffee from someone behind the counter, they would not behind the counter, they would not be at risk. people will be focusing on those in close contact, within two metres and four more than 15 minutes, so it is a relatively sustained contact. it is not every single person he may have brushed past in the street that may be at risk of infection. a lot of the evidence is suggesting that the risk of this so—called asymptomatic spread, spreading the virus before any signs of symptoms, is quite small. the biggest risk is from people developing systems, they are coughing the virus up and into somebody else. those people will be those who came into contact with the

person in the later stages of disease. from york and we will assume it is the same here, those people that did come into close contact, they will be advised of what symptoms to look out for but will not be put into quarantine themselves. the number of people in mainland china known to have died from coronavirus has risen to over 560. this morning, the chinese ambassador to the uk accused the british government of over—reacting and insisted the crisis was under control. in the united states, more than 19 million people have fallen ill with a flu so far this season, with the death toll being 10,000. this is a more serious than coronavirus infection. currently in china, the number of cured patients is rising, and we are fully confident in beating the virus.

0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale is with me now. that is what he says but what is happening in china, building hospitals, suggest they are worried than that. what he was doing was he was trying to mount a defence of the chinese handling of this. he is not the usual ambassador, he is one of their most senior diplomats and he is used by the chinese state because he is in the uk, good for time zones, getting the message out to east and west of the world that the chinese are responding to it and how they have been out controlling, preventing and they hope curing it. but what was interesting was during the questioning, he did admit as the chinese have admitted, there have been some shortcomings but his response is what the chinese government have done now is very effective in his view and he has

some pretty stiff words for the british government as well. he was not happy with their advice to say that the remaining 30,000 or so brits there should leave. there is a financial implication for china. yes macro. he said they would be a short—term impact on china's economy, particularly on the service sector but he said that would be short—term and temporary and insisted china's economy was resilient enough to deal with it. this will be its biggest test. the amount of impact, i was talking to a contact yesterday in the old business who were saying the loss of demand in the world economy means this is not just demand in the world economy means this is notjust potentially bad for china's economy but could have ripple effects elsewhere. little doubt that he would have been told to give this news conference on instruction from beijing, this is the message to the well, you are

planning and don't need to. don't overrea ct, planning and don't need to. don't overreact, don't panic. he gave a long list of how the death rate, the infection rates were much lower than other diseases, he mentioned sars, ebola, various other outbreaks. to try and say, let's put this in perspective. i said to him, look, on the one hand, shows the chinese state being quite effective in terms of the building of these hospitals in sucha of the building of these hospitals in such a short period of time, could western nations build hospitals that quickly? but on the other hand, the slowness of the response that the chinese have admitted already has also prompted some criticism of the chinese state, is that structured the best way, the lack of transparency, the blame culture, the unwillingness of officials to report things perhaps is not necessarily the best way of dealing with those kinds of outbreaks, where in the west, there

is social media transparency. the moment that happens, everyone knows about it. at 330 we will answer your questions about coronavirus with our health correspondent. send your questions in if you have anything raised by what james questions in if you have anything raised by whatjames hasjust questions in if you have anything raised by what james has just said. scotland's finance secretary has resigned over personal messages he sent to a 16—year—old boy on social media. the scottish sun newspaper reported that derek mackay contacted the boy hundreds of times over a six—month period. the first minister nicola sturgeon said his conduct had been unacceptable, and that it fell far short of what was expected of a minister. in a statement mr mackay, who was due to present the scottish budget to msps this afternoon, admitted he'd "behaved foolishly" and said he took full responsibility for his actions. this report from our scotland correspondent james shaw contains flash photography.

derek mackay was seen as a rising star of the scottish national party, perhaps a future first minister. but in his resignation letter, he admits he has behaved foolishly and apologises unreservedly to the teenager and his family. he first contacted the boy out of the blue via social media about six months ago. there were hundreds of messages, including an invitation to dinner and rugby events. during one exchange about a photo, mr mackay commented on the boy's haircut. he said: the boy replied: later, mr mackay repeated that the boy looked cute and went on... nicola sturgeon has spoken in the scottish parliament about mr mackay‘s resignation. derek mackay has apologised unreservedly for his conduct

and recognised, as i do, that it was unacceptable and falls seriously below the standards required of a minister. i can also advise that he has this morning been suspended from both the snp and our parliamentary group pending further investigation. this was the response from the acting leader of the scottish conservatives. i have to ask the first minister, can the reputation of scottish politics and this parliament be maintained with the full confidence of the public or even his constituents if mr mackay remains as a member? mr mackay‘s budget speech will now have to be delivered by a junior minister. it has all come as a shock to derek mackay‘s constituents in the town of renfrew. it's a scandal. if that was somebody else in parliament, he would be demanding they resign. nicola sturgeon will hope that mr mackay‘s resignation can limit the damage to her government and party, but she has lost a key minister at a crucial moment.

steadying the ship will be a top priority. james shaw, bbc news, glasgow. you are watching afternoon live. 0ur headlines: a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — headlines: firmed in the uk — england's chief medical officer says the patient is now being transferred to on of the uk's infectious disease centres for treatment. scotland's finance secretary derek mckay steps down — after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. the government plans to change the law within weeks, to stop the automatic release of people convicted of terror offences, from prison. and coming up, tributes to hollywood legend kirk douglas, who has died at the age of 103. and in sport, ben youngs has been dropped to the bench for england's calcutta cup match with scotland on saturday. willi heinz will start in

his place. 0ne saturday. willi heinz will start in his place. one of five changes to the starting 15. england jofra archer faces three months out with an elbow injury. he will also miss the whole of the indian premier league season. indian premier league season. in the premier league has voted to go back to closing the transfer window at the end of august for two yea rs window at the end of august for two years it shutjust before the start of the season but complaints from managers have led them to reverse the decision. ministers want to rush emergency laws through parliament to stop the automatic early release of convicted terror offenders — before the next prisoner is freed at the end of the month. a shopkeeperfrom sunderland is due to be released after serving half of his sentence for supporting the islamic state group. thejustice secretary robert buckland was asked to explain why he thought the change was necessary. we have a cohort of around 50 people who will be due to be released under the automatic provisions. i think it

is therefore a timely for me to take action to get legislation through both houses of parliament as quickly as possible. you have described it as possible. you have described it as an early release but it is actually people being released at exactly the point the courts have decided they should be. it is early release because the full term of their custodial sentence is actually. it is not all custodial. what i am trying to explain as someone who has spent their life in the criminal justice someone who has spent their life in the criminaljustice process is a sentence is made up of a custodial and non—custodial element. we are seeking to deal with the administration of that sentence as opposed to the length or type of it. that seems perfectly lawful, appropriate and proportionate. that seems perfectly lawful, appropriate and proportionatem looks likely you will be challenged for using this legislation retrospectively. can you not understand why a lawyer might be upset if his client is kept in jail for longer than the judging

intended? the administration of a sentence is a matterfor the government. the type of length of the sentence is a matter for the court. we are not interfering with that. this is taking a sensible measure to seek the maximum level of public protection, that is myjob and what i think i had to do. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw, joins me in the studio. this follows two cases where convicted terrorists released early from theirfull convicted terrorists released early from their full sentence have gone on to commit crime. two convicted terrorists have gone on to commit crime, prison in calne last year and then sudesh amman last sunday, just ten days after he was released. there has also been an attack in whitemoor prison involving a terrorist prison as well and so clearly the government feels it has to ta ke clearly the government feels it has to take some drastic action here. it cannot really afford for there to be another incident where someone comes

out of prison at the halfway point and goes on to attack people in this way. that is why it wants to apply these measures retrospectively, in other words, people who have already been convicted, sentence, expecting to come out on a particular day will be told, no, you are not, you are staying in prison for longer. they left on the day they were supposed to leave. under the law as it stands, if you get a particular determinate sentence, whether for terrorism offences or other offences, in most cases you will be released at the halfway point of your sentence and you are told that in court that the time of sentence, so this is where it gets controversial. prison is expecting their release, perhaps being planned, there is a whole planning around that for their release date, are suddenly and i understand some of them are getting letters saying, you are going to come out in march but you are not because parliament is likely to pass these provisions so you will be kept inside at least

until the two thirds point when the pa role until the two thirds point when the parole board will assess your case and decide if it is safe for your release. if not, you will be held in custody for the entirety of your sentence. a lot of lawyers will go, hang on, you cannot change the law at this point. there will be legal challenges, lawyers are preparing the groundwork for that and as soon as this bill becomes law, probably the company is hoping february 27, there will be a stream of lawyers going to the courts to bring judicial review. the courts usually have a lot of weight to the government in terms of national security. when there is an issue when they had to weigh up national security against individual liberty, fair trial, they give a lot of weight to what the government is saying about national security. it will be a surprise if the lower

court overturned this ruling, however there will undoubtedly be an appeal and they would assess the case more fully, might come to a different view. it is quite evenly balanced, the case law goes one way with some cases and the other with other cases. thank you very much. donald trump's first speech after being found not guilty in his impeachment trial. let's hear from him. in america we celebrate faith. we cherish religion. we lift our voices in prayer. and we raise our sights to the glory of god. applause. so much of the greatness we have achieved, the mysteries we have unlocked and the wonders we have built, the challenges we have met and the incredible heights that we have reached has come from the faith

of our families and the prayers of out of our families and the prayers of our people. before america declared independence, patriots in all 13 colonies came together in days of fasting and prayer. in the bitter cold, the valley forged washington and his men had no food, no supplies and his men had no food, no supplies and very little chance of victory. reminded me a little bit of 2016, we had very little chance of victory except for the people in this room and some others believed we were going to win. i believed we were going to win. i believed we were going to win. but what they did was have an unwavering belief that god was with them. i believe that too. god is with the people in this room. before a single skyscraper rose up in new york city, thousands of poor

american families donated all they could to build the magnificent saint patrick's cathedral. applause. when buzz aldrin landed on the moon, he said, euston, iwould when buzz aldrin landed on the moon, he said, euston, i would like to a few moments of silence, then he read from the bible. at every stage our nation's long march foreseeable rights was lifted by faith, prayer and devotion of religious believers. to protect faith communities i have taken historic action to defend religious liberty, including their constitutional rights to pray in public schools. applause

we can also talk about the johnson amendment, we can talk about mexico city policy, we have done a lot. but i also recently took executive action to stop taxpayer dollars from going to colleges and universities that spread the poison of anti—semitism and bad things about christianity. applause

we are upholding the sanctity of life. sanctity of life. and we are doing that like nobody has ever done it before from this position. you had better get out and vote on november three. because you have a lot of people out there that are not liking what we are doing. and we are pursuing medical breakthroughs to save premature babies because every child is a sacred gift from god.

together we are building the world's most prosperous and inclusive society. we are lifting up citizens of every race, colour, religion and creed. we are bringing hope to forgotten communities and more americans are working today, 160 million, a little bit short, just a little bit. 160 million. we have never even been close. than ever before. think of it, more americans are working today, almost 160 million, than ever before. 0ur unemployment numbers are the best in the history of our country. a more specific... number and numbers

the history of our country. a more specific... numberand numbers that you hear me say, if you listen, african—american, asian american, hispanic american, the best unemployment numbers in the history of our country. women, best in 71 years. sorry, we will have you there soon. had to apologise for the women, only 71 years, but the best unemployment numbers. we are doing things that nobody thought possible. we are setting records that nobody thought achievable. and to give former prisoners a second chance at life which so many people have worked on for so long. we passed criminal justice worked on for so long. we passed criminaljustice reform into law and i signed it nine months ago. applause

. and it is proving more and more that america is indeed a nation that believes in redemption. what has happened with prisoners, prisoners would come out, nobody would give them a job would come out, nobody would give them ajob and would come out, nobody would give them a job and often times, most of them a job and often times, most of the time, almost all of the time they would go back to prison, get caught doing something bad. they had no money, they had no hope, they had no money, they had no hope, they had nojob. now they no money, they had no hope, they had no job. now they are coming no money, they had no hope, they had nojob. now they are coming out into a booming economy and employers are hiring them and to a certain extent, maybe because they're having a hard time getting people. first time in our country's history we are running out of people, we have plants moving in by the thousands. we have car companies coming from japan and germany. from lots of other places. and we need people. and employers

are hiring prisoners and they would have never done it except for what we have done with criminaljustice reform, but even before that because the economy has become so powerful, and these prisoners have done an incredible job. the employers are saying, why didn't i do this 20 years ago? so it is an incredible thing what is happening to people that have been given a second chance and sometimes a third chance in all fairness and it is something that everybody should be very proud about, because you have always felt that way long before it was fashionable, so i want to thank you for that. as we revive our economy, we are also renewing our national spirit. today we proudly proclaim that faith is alive and well and thriving in america, and we are

going to keep it that way, nobody will have it changed, it won't happen as long as i am here. it will never ever happen. something which wasn't done nearly enough, i could also say wasn't done at all, we are standing up for persecuted christians and religious minorities all around the world. like nobody has ever done. last year at the united nations, iwas has ever done. last year at the united nations, i was honoured to be the first president to host a meeting of religious freedom. it was based all on religious freedom, that was the first meeting of its kind ever held at the united nations. they are called upon all nations to combat the terrible injustice of

religious persecution. an unusual prayer breakfast there in washington. donald trump using it very much as part of the preamble to the next election. the us on something of a high. we will hear more from him later this afternoon when he is expected to specifically refer to his being found not guilty in his impeachment trial, but there we re in his impeachment trial, but there were some sniper bits there at mitt romney who voted against him at his impeachment trial. also nancy pelosi, but we will bring you more on that and that speech scheduled for five o'clock london time and we will take you to washington for that. let's have a look at the weather. strong carer, just give you an update. it will head to the us where

the storm is starting and these were the storm is starting and these were the scenes yesterday across parts of louisiana and across parts of mississippi as well. big storms, also some tornadoes potentially, lots of strong winds as well, and on the northern edge of that, across parts of oklahoma and texas we saw a good deal of snow. that is just the start of the journey of this area of low pressure. everything is a journey. this is just low pressure. everything is a journey. this isjust starting out. it will change. let me just show you what has been happening this is the scene across the united states at the moment. this is the tennessee valley, edging towards new york as well, huge amounts of snow across parts of new england as we finish today. that area of low pressure, it is not that potent at the moment but as it gets picked up by thejet stream, it will be pushed towards

us, deeper and developed further. the problem comes... that is the big uncertainty, we are still expecting strong winds, how strong still open to question, but the storm keira, the met office have wind warnings out. uk way could see winds of 60, 70 mph. as yesterday, we should explain that the met office is responsible for the uk which is why the storm ends with northern ireland. the met office looks after weather for the uk. this time yesterday we were not sure where it would be, are we clear a today? at the moment it looks so widespread, the moment it looks so widespread, the potential for strong winds. the moment it looks so widespread, the potentialfor strong winds. that is near enough certain, it isjust

how strong is the biggest uncertainty. still the potential for winds around 70, 80 uncertainty. still the potential for winds around 70,80 mph, that uncertainty. still the potential for winds around 70, 80 mph, that could cause a lot of travel disruption and damage. weather warnings coming in force on sunday across the lake district, the western side of the pennines, snowdonia and the brecon beacons. sunday not looking like a great day at the moment. are those new graphics? they look like dog paws. they do! very wet, soggy dog paws! let's have the weather. we will return to that in a minute, but look at the scene on the peak district. blue skies overhead. a little bit of fog through the valley, that lingers, temperatures

one or 2 degrees. fine end to the day. temperatures 7—10d. clear skies in place into the night, light winds, some mist and fog forming. the wednesday light across eastern areas tonight and we are likely to see temperatures drop low enough for a frost just about anywhere as we head to friday morning. a nice crisp, fresh wintry morning once again. plenty of sunshine. dense fog. a bit more cloud in the rest with one or two showers. another fine day with plenty of sunshine around. they come before what is about to happen. first bout of gales will be three friday night into saturday. nothing too untoward as you see rain put eastwards. saturday dry, lots of sunshine around. could see some rain clip into the south—eastern corner and then later, the winds pick up to gale force. rain by the end of the afternoon,

evening. preceded by snow over the hills. that will push its way eastwards. the risk of minor flooding in some areas on western hills. winds temporarily ease down and then storm keira moves in through sunday. an unpleasant weather chart behind me. rain across many parts of the country through the day, some heavy and persistent. maybe something brighter but turning colder from the north and the strength of those winds, just to confirm, we could see winds just about anywhere at this stage anywhere between 60 and 80 miles an hour. there winds will be, keep a close eye but this weekend, keep a close eye but this weekend, keep a close eye but this weekend, keep a close eye on the forecasts. the latest warnings on the website, on the bbc app and beyond this weekend, we will keep things very windy into next week and by next week, we could be looking at the risk of some sleet

and snow. particularly across the western half and more especially on western half and more especially on western parts of scotland. but after the come of today, some stormy weather to come this weekend. we will keep you up—to—date with the latest right here on afternoon live. you are watching afternoon live. the headlines on bbc news... a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. china's ambassador to britain so as not to panic. panicking is more

frightening than the virus itself. hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16 year old boy on social media. derek mckay's conduct fell far short of what is expected of a minister. indeed, he offered his resignation to me and i accepted. it was not an option for him to remain in government. an end to automatic release of terror prisoners — the government says it wants to change the law within three weeks. and a new record is set by astronaut christina koch, who's spent more days in space than any other woman. sport now on afternoon live with hugh ferris. the premier league have changed the closing date of their summer transfer window? changed the closing date it changed the closing date has been changed again, what do you do when plan b doesn't work?

when the transfer window previously closed at the end of august. well, everybody complained — they wanted their squads ready for the beginning of the season so they changed it to that — problem was, nobody else did, so you have a situation where a club could buy your players after the window had shut, but you couldn't replace them. hence more complaints, from exactly the people that wanted it changed in the first place. so it was armed with that information that the clubs met this morning to vote to change the summer transfer window. so from this year it'll be back at the end of august although as that's a bank holiday it'll end on september 1st.

big changes for england in the rugby? fairly major surgery by eddiejones after losing in france — wasn't a great performance. nor was it in their previous game albeit a world cup final. so five changes for the calcutta cup match against scotland at murrayfield. scrum half ben youngs has been dropped in favour of willi heinz. he was replaced by him in the second half of their defeat to france on sunday. this is the starting 15. flanker lewis ludlam is in for courtney lawes. prop mako vunipola and lock george kruis return, with jonathan joseph replacing the injured manu tuilagi in the centre. the injured manu tuilagi we the injured manu tuilagi feel benny, where at the l the we feel benny, where at the end of the game, at murrayfield, the game brea ks the game, at murrayfield, the game breaks upa the game, at murrayfield, the game breaks up a bit and he will be able to use his running skills, which we wa nt to to use his running skills, which we want to get back into his game. and then at the start of the game,

willie plays with a fair bit of control, he has a good kicking game, and has a calming influence on the people around him. scotland have made one change. back row magnus bradbury replaces nick hayning. as for wales — wayne pivac has made just the one change ahead of their match with ireland. centre nick tompkins has been given his first start after impressing as a replacement on his debut against italy. scoring this superb try, too. england won't havejofra archer back until the summer after a scan revealed he has a stress fracture in his elbow. he's already flown home from the tour of south africa where he could only play one of the four tests. archer will miss the tour of sri lanka and also the whole of the indian premier league. he's hoping to return forjune's three—test series against the west indies. one of the team he's left behind in south africa is tom curran.

it is part of sport nowadays, and yeah, disappointing forjofra but hopefully he comes back stronger and better. what is it like being a pace bowler, what are the strains?m better. what is it like being a pace bowler, what are the strains? it is tough work. it is pretty well known now, but that is just part of it, you get a lot of satisfaction out of it, as well, but it was a bit harder than just twisting the arm over for a few overs. ahead of the tokyo 0lympic and paralympics later this year, organisers say there are no plans to postpone or cancel the games due to the coronavirus. ipc spokesman, craig spence, says fear is spreading quicker than the actual virus. i'm really pleased that the organising committee has established this task force, it is the sensible thing to do in this regard, it is what we did with rio, but we need to put things into perspective. i'm told the world health organization tells —— until the world health

organisation tells us otherwise, it will go on, and tokyo is open for business and it will deliver a spectacular 0lympic business and it will deliver a spectacular olympic games. that's all the sport for now. the legendary hollywood actor kirk douglas has died at the age of 103. he starred in more than 80 films over six decades. he will perhaps be best remembered for the 1960 classic spartacus. his son michael douglas said he "leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations to come". 0ur arts correspondent david sillito looks back at his life — his report does contain some flash photography. for the first time in my life, people cheering for me. it was 70 years ago that kirk douglas made his name in the film champion, a story a tough guy from a hard background who would do anything to get to the top. there were more than a few echoes of his own life. i can beat him. i can beat him! born issur danielovitch demsky,

he'd grown up in poverty, life was a struggle but on screen, he was hollywood alpha male. he was good at playing ruthless. i tell you why, because the guy in there is dying. just hearing him in all those films, he was an incredible man. he was a brilliant actor, but also, he had a grace to him that you know, is rare, especially these days, i think. would you like me to suggest what you can do wit that promotion? in kubrick's paths of glory he was and producer. he was a hollywood player. spartacus was his project. i'm spartacus. and it also created a stir for crediting a writer who had been on the hollywood blacklist for his political beliefs. i never thought of becoming a tycoon or anything. it gave me a chance to do movies

that i wanted to do. he called me, dad. what's he calling you about? his son michael also followed his father's lead, producing and acting. his friends and colleagues were a catalogue of names from a golden era, lancaster, bacall, astaire, sinatra. i knew him quite well. we did a movie together. he was a friend? he was a friend, yes. he was great. the last of the golden age, he was the best. when i get old, when i get old! you know, all life is glorious... yes, even as he passed 100 and struggling with the effects of a stroke, there was still some of the old vigour. he was a hollywood patriarch and a performer to the end. # maybe it's cos i'm a londoner # that i love london town!

we love it! kirk douglas, who has died at the age of 103. the nasa astronaut christina koch has landed safely back on earth after completing the longest ever single spaceflight by a woman. she's spent 328 days in space — orbiting the earth more than 5,000 times. the 41—year—old says she wants to inspire the next generation of space explorers. here's our science correspondent pallab ghosh. christina koch, you're a record—holder! she's out. so pleased to be back on earth... after nearly a year on the international space station, she's glad to be home. sliding off the soyuz space capsule that brought her back, she's getting used to the earth's gravity, after being in space so long. earlier, there were hugs with the crew, as they said their goodbyes. she returned on the soyuz

with two other crew members. 10:50pm central time. her stay is just 12 days short of the all—time us record, set by scott kelly in 2016. separation burn... before setting off, during a live linkup with the iss, she had this to say about her historic achievement. well, for me, it'sjust all about the honour that i feel to follow in the footsteps of my heroes and, hopefully, i can make it about paying homage to them. they're the ones that paved the way for us to all be where we are today. and also, i look at it as an opportunity to hopefully inspire the next generation of future explorers. among those heroes was valentina tereshkova — the first female cosmonaut, in 1963, early on in the soviet union's space programme. but she didn't get a second mission. five years ago, at an event to unveil her space capsule at the science museum in london, she told me that it was because of sexism by her superiors. translation: we had been preparing

for a female flight, but it was korolev's decision not to risk women's lives, because one of the women in the space corps already had a family. we were against that decision. we were talking about it and, indeed, we were writing to the central party committee disagreeing with that decision. even now, 90% of all those who've been in space have been men. men and women are just as capable of being astronauts. all astronauts should be chosen for their mission based on the skills and qualities that they have, and gender isn't one of them. late last year, christina koch was involved in another piece of history, as she took part in the first all—female spacewalk in more than half a century of space travel. nasa plans to send astronauts back to the moon within the next four years. christina koch is among the favourites to be the first woman to set foot on the moon.

pallab ghosh, bbc news. let's return to the resignation of scotland's finance secretary after it was revealed he sent personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. 0ur correspondent, james shaw, is in glasgow. how serious is this for the snp? on the face of it, it looks very serious indeed. 0n the face of it, it looks very serious indeed. on a key day, budget day, in the scottish parliament, when the scottish government is supposed to lay out its spending plans for the next year, a key member of the administration has been forced to resign because of very embarrassing allegations in a national newspaper. how far the repercussions go it's difficult to tell at the moment but there has been a lot of condemnation and harsh criticism from the snp cosmic opposition in the scottish parliament. patrick harvey of the greens described derek mckay's

behaviour is utterly unacceptable —— snp's behaviour is utterly unacceptable —— snp‘s opposition. 0ne behaviour is utterly unacceptable —— snp‘s opposition. one person it said it was viewed similar as grooming, what derek mckay had said. what happens now? his position as msp is also under question? yes, we know he has resigned as the finance secretary and we know he has been suspended as a member of the snp while an inquiry goes on into his conduct and we are told nicola sturgeon, the leader of the party, is anxious there should be due process , is anxious there should be due process, that that inquiry should continue until it reaches robust conclusions, and that might also have a bearing on what happens in terms of whether he remains an msp.

we have heard scottish labour think that he should not stay as an msp but nicola sturgeon and the scottish government have not commented on that issue as yet. it remains to be seen. we are waiting for the budget announcement any moment now. thanks for joining announcement any moment now. thanks forjoining us. in a moment we have the latest business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. scotland's finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16 year old boy on social media. the government plans to change the law within weeks, to stop the automatic release of people convicted of terror offences, from prison. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. a leading economic forecaster has claimed there's only a one in five chance of the government achieving its target

of doubling economic growth. the chancellor sajid javid is expected to set out his plans to reach growth of 2.8% a year in his budget next month. but the national institute of economic and social research has said that hitting this growth rate, not seen since 2006, would be difficult and it expects the economy to grow by 1.5% this year. china plans to reduce tariffs — by half — on around £57 billion worth of imports from the united states. the world's two biggest economies recently signed a new trade agreement. the latest move by china comes as large parts of its manufacturing industry have been shut down to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. the government has announced a plan to make all public buses in england electric by 2025. towns and cities will be able to bid forfunding to help electrify their fleet. it's part of a £170 million investment to improve bus services across england.

why has amazon's been accused of betraying its customers trust? the accusation coming from the consumer group which. if you go onto amazon you will see a particular item, if you have searched for something, you will see something listed as amazon's choice, and you will be phased with a bewildering number of options, so how do you make the informed choice? —— faced with. the label amazon's choice perhaps suggest it has a badge of approval, but actually which says it doesn't and this is just based on how fast the merchant can deliver the item and whether the shipping is free and it is based on some customer reviews but the point made by which is a lot of the customer reviews are false anyway. amazon have not reviewed this personally. neena bhati head of campaigns at which explains

their concerns. amazon choice is an algorithm where a high overall star rating is one of the factors for how sellers can get the factors for how sellers can get the rating and get the amazon choice label, but what we find when we looked at a snapshot investigation, 200 listings of the amazon choice label, there were dozens of examples of where sellers have incentivised or put fake reviews on their listings in order to artificially boost the overall rating in order to get an amazon choice label. we have spoken to people use the amazon choice label and they say they trust it and they think it's a mark of quality and they are more likely to buy a product if it has an amazon choice label but we have found in dozens of examples of where there are fake reviews and actually it is only a snapshot investigation so we think amazon needs to do more to make sure its customers are not being misled about the products that are being recommended to them. now the markets?

markets are having a good day. they are reaching record highs thanks to a gesture by china to cut tariffs in half on £57 billion worth of imports from us. this is seen as a de—escalation of the trade war. we know there was a tentative trade deal signed between the us and china in the last few weeks. michelle fleury, our business correspondentjoins us from the new york stock exchange. what does the gesture from china mean? this announcement in some ways was partly expected, the halving of tariffs on some us imports, and it was contained in part of the phase one trade deal that donald trump signed with china's top trade representative a couple of weeks ago in washington. where they have gone a step further is making this rollback on some of the tariffs more permanent and i think in part it is to allay concerns as a result of the coronavirus that china might not have been able to live up to some parts of the trade agreement. you may recall that as part of it it had

committed to buying a huge chunk of american goods and we heard last week from larry kudlow of the economic adviser to the white house, basically saying that might be delayed as a result of the coronavirus and the impact it is having on the chinese economy. this is an attempt now to say that may be the case but we are still acting in good faith and we want to proceed with this. it is a recognition of the importance of the us economy and the importance of the us economy and the chinese economy in the trade that goes on between these giants of the global economy. the trade war cast a shadow over global markets ever since it broke out, and this latest development is reversing the concerns they had been on the markets, or at least alleviating. concerns they had been on the markets, orat least alleviating. is this a symbolic rally in as much as this a symbolic rally in as much as this is the first proof that the markets have seen that the trade war is the escalating? can we expect

more rallies like this every time there is a further gesture of de—escalation? there is a further gesture of de-escalation? we will have to wait and see, the next date is for every the 14th, when the tariff reductions coming toa the 14th, when the tariff reductions coming to a flat, not just the 14th, when the tariff reductions coming to a flat, notjust on the 14th, when the tariff reductions coming to a flat, not just on the chinese side but on the american side. —— come in to effect. markets tend to look ahead and pry stings in so you are seeing a sigh of relief because there had been concerns that some of the gains which had been achieved by the us in this trade deal might have been delayed by this, and so the next phase, when we get past the virus commits what happens to a phase two trade deal which is where we will see volatility. —— when we get past the virus, and what happens. michelle, thanks forjoining us. other market developments... the ftse100 is

doing fairly well today, not reaching the highs of other markets, though. glaxosmithkline, the drugmaker, they are done heavily today, one of the biggest losers, because there is analysis done about their company and their plan to split the company up. the actual execution of the plan could cost £21! execution of the plan could cost £2.11 billion according to analysis and many people will be wondering whether that is worth it. royal mail is doing very badly, releasing disappointing figures and talked about the fact that their staff are planning on balloting for strike action yet again. another concern about a shutdown of the postal service. the plan versus the dollar, still below the significant $1 30 mark. it hasn't recovered after going below it subsequently. thanks

for joining going below it subsequently. thanks forjoining us. let's go now to holyrood, where junior finance minister kate forbes is announcing the scottish budget — after scotland's finance secretary derek mackay stood down. 0ur programme of elective care centres, we are investing more than nine £91! billion in social care partnerships and we are investing more than £17 million in mental health. we are delivering an increase of nearly 60% in funding to reduce harm from alcohol and drugs. including support for the work of the new drugs deaths task force. we are also providing a real terms increase in local government revenue support. this is part of an overall funding package that delivers our key commitment on early learning and child care, funds a fair pay deal

for our teachers, and invests more than a for our teachers, and invests more thana and for our teachers, and invests more than a and £20 million targeted at... —— than a and £20 million targeted at... -- £120 than a and £20 million targeted at... —— £120 million. than a and £20 million targeted at... -- £120 million. we will keep an eye on that and return to that story later on, but now we have the weather forecast. good afternoon. lovely pleasant winters day out there, after a frosty start. most of the mist and fog has cleared. this is set to change. the area of low pressure is set to be picked up by a strong jet strea m set to be picked up by a strong jet stream ahead and fire towards us. it is going to turn increasingly windy and wet through the weekend. concern across the board there might be damaging winds and the potential for travel disruption. keep across the latest weather headlines on the bbc radio. let's get back to the here

and now, it is a very pleasant winters day and this is the scene outside barmouth. similar picture for the vast majority. mist and fog lingering in eastern parts of wales, but for most you would expect around 7-9dc. but for most you would expect around 7—9dc. lovely evening sunset on the way in their most will be under clear skies tonight, some mist and fog forming, where the wind is lightest. like the past few nights, just about all of us are about to have a bit of frost into tomorrow morning. details for friday, another dry day, could be a murky start, but the breeze were cleared that away. sunshine continues. —— will clear. temperatures up a couple of degrees. winds pick up for a time friday

night into saturday. the wettest conditions, northern england, northwoods, that clears on saturday. a few showers in the west. watch out for cloud and rain in the south—east corner, though. things will turn wet and windy to end the day over scotla nd and windy to end the day over scotland and northern ireland, snow over the hills for a time but they winds really picking up. gale force winds really picking up. gale force winds by the end of saturday and they will continue overnight, easing in the start of sunday but then they strengthen again. sunday is not looking like a pleasant day anywhere, really. there could be some minorflooding anywhere, really. there could be some minor flooding and anywhere, really. there could be some minorflooding and the anywhere, really. there could be some minor flooding and the winds picking up, it will be windy across the board but also the potential of winds touching 80 mph, that could cause some damage.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 3: a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. meanwhile, china's ambassador to britain urges countries not to panic. rumours and panic are more frightening than the virus itself. hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down, after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. president trump welcomes his acquittal on impeachment charges — in the last hour, he gave this reaction. my my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal. by some very

dishonest and corrupt people. coming up on afternoon live all the sport. significant changes for england after their six nations defeat in france. ben youngs is one of those dropped for the calcutta cup against scotland. five changes in all. we'll tell you who they are later. after the wet winter we have seen so far, it is very pleasant out there at the moment. but all changes this weekend, storm keira heads its way also coming up — two african cheetahs in a world first, born and raised in the uk, are heading to south africa tonight for a new life in the wild. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live —

i'm simon mccoy. the department of health has said that a third patient in the uk has tested positive for coronavirus. the individual caught the infection abroad. in a statement, england's chief medical officer said that the patient is being transferred to a specialist nhs centre, and we are using robust infection control measures to prevent any possible further spread of the virus. the nhs is well prepared to manage these cases and we are now working quickly to identify any contacts the patient has had. so far more than 500 tests have been concluded in the uk. our health correspondent james gallagher says that today's developments were not unexpected. this is not a surprise. for as long as there are tens of thousands of cases of coronavirus in china, they will be exported around the world including to the uk. this is a moment that has been anticipated, it's a different situation to the one faced by the chinese authorities, particularly in wuhan. this patient we know had travelled

abroad and caught the infection there. that tells us that this is not directly connected to those cases in york, it is not a case of those people in york transferring the infection to this third case. but there is so much we don't know at this early stage, we don't know where in the uk this person is and where in the uk this person is and where they have been taken to to be looked after. there are few specialist centres in england that will look after these kinds of cases, that have the facilities to minimise the risk of a patient with a contagious disease spreading it, thatis a contagious disease spreading it, that is where they will be taken to minimise that risk of spread and then we'll move to the next stage, which is detective work. health officials will look at all the people this person came into close contact with to see if there is any risk of those people catching the virus. we are not sure of the incubation period but whoever this person has been in contact with could have been at risk. you had to be careful because it is not every

single person this person came into contact with that would be at risk. if you bought a coffee from someone behind the counter, they would not behind the counter, they would not be at risk. the people that public health england will be focusing on will have been in close contact, within two metres and four more than 15 minutes, so it is a relatively sustained contact. it is not every single person he may have brushed past that may be at risk of transmitting the infection too. a lot of the emerging evidence is suggesting the risk of the asymptomatic spread, spreading the virus before any size of symptoms is quite small. the biggest risk is from people developing symptoms, they are coughing the virus up and to somebody else, so those people who came into contact with the person was sick, during the later stages of disease, that narrows down the number of people you had to

identify. from the cases in york, those people that did come into close contact, they will be advised of what symptoms to look out for but will not be put into quarantine themselves. the number of people in mainland china known to have died from coronavirus has risen to over 560. this morning, the chinese ambassador to the uk accused the british government of over—reacting and insisted the crisis was under control. in the united states, more than 19 million people have fallen ill with a flu so far this season, with the death toll being 10,000. this is a more serious than coronavirus infection. currently in china, the number of cured patients is rising, and we are fully confident in beating the virus. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale explained why the chinese ambassador had chosen to speak. he was trying to mount a defence of the chinese handling of this.

he is notjust a normal, usual ambassador. he is one of their most senior diplomats and he is used by the chinese state because he is in the uk, he is good for time zones, he is getting a message out to east and west of the world. it was about how the chinese were responding to it, how effectively, in his view, they have been at controlling, preventing and, they hope, curing it. but what was really interesting was during the questioning, he did admit, as the chinese have admitted, there have been some shortcomings, but essentially his response is that actually what the chinese government have done now is very effective in his view, and he had some very stiff words for the british government as well. he was not happy with their advice to say that the remaining 30,000 or so brits who are there should leave. there is a financial implication, huge for china, and presumably at the back of everybody in china's mind. yes, and he did address this.

he said that there would be a short—term impact on china's economy particularly on the service sector, but he said it would be but he said it would be short—term and it would be temporary and he insisted china's economy was resilient enough to deal with it. this is going to be its biggest test i think for a long time, the amount of impact. i was talking to a contact yesterday who is in the oil business, who was just saying the loss of demand in the world economy means this is notjust potentially bad for china's economy but could have ripple effects elsewhere in the world. little doubt he would have been told to give this news conference on instruction from beijing, this is the message, you are panicking and you don't need to. yes, and his message was very clear, don't overreact, don't panic. he gave a long list of how the death rate, infection rates were much lower than other diseases. he mentioned sars, ebola, various other outbreaks that have taken place. to try and say, let's put this in perspective.

i said to him at one point, i said, look, on the one hand the chinese state is being quite effective in terms of the building of these extraordinary hospitals in such a short period of time, you know, could western nations build hospitals that quickly? but on the other hand, the slowness of the response that the chinese poly bureau have admitted already has also prompted some criticism of the chinese state and actually, is that structure the best way? the lack of transparency, the blame culture, the unwillingness of officials to report things up and down the chain of command perhaps is not necessarily the best way of dealing with those kinds of outbreaks, where in the west, there is social media transparency the moment this happens and it happens anywhere else, everybody knows about it. and at half past three, we'll be answering your questions on coronavirus with our health correspondent james gallagher and jowin fang from the bbc‘s chinese service. do send your questions in — the details are on your screen now.

scotland's finance secretary has resigned over personal messages he sent to a 16—year—old boy on social media. the scottish sun newspaper reported that derek mackay contacted the boy hundreds of times over a six—month period. the first minister nicola sturgeon said his conduct had been unacceptable, and that it fell far short of what was expected of a minister. in a statement mr mackay, who was due to present the scottish budget to msps this afternoon, admitted he'd "behaved foolishly" and said he took full responsibility for his actions. this report from our scotland correspondent james shaw contains flash photography. derek mackay was seen as a rising star of the scottish national party, perhaps a future first minister. but in his resignation letter, he admits he has behaved foolishly and apologises unreservedly to the teenager and his family. he first contacted the boy out of the blue via social media about six months ago. there were hundreds of messages, including an invitation

to dinner and rugby events. during one exchange about a photo, mr mackay commented on the boy's haircut. he said: the boy replied: later, mr mackay repeated that the boy looked cute and went on... nicola sturgeon has spoken in the scottish parliament about mr mackay‘s resignation. derek mackay has apologised unreservedly for his conduct and recognised, as i do, that it was unacceptable and falls seriously below the standards required of a minister. i can also advise that he has this morning been suspended from both the snp and our parliamentary group pending further investigation. this was the response from the acting leader of the scottish conservatives. i have to ask the first minister, can the reputation of scottish politics and this parliament be maintained with the full

confidence of the public or even his constituents if mr mackay remains as a member? mr mackay‘s budget speech will now have to be delivered by a junior minister. it has all come as a shock to derek mackay‘s constituents in the town of renfrew. it's a scandal. if that was somebody else in parliament, he would be demanding they resign. nicola sturgeon will hope that mr mackay‘s resignation can limit the damage to her government and party, but she has lost a key minister at a crucial moment. steadying the ship will be a top priority. james shaw, bbc news, glasgow. let's bring you a quick update on the third confirmed case of coronavirus here in the uk. hugh pym says the patient is still in transit toa

says the patient is still in transit to a specialist hospital facility. a p pa re ntly to a specialist hospital facility. apparently the patient caught the virus not in mainland china but also before arriving back in the uk and the advice to the nhs is that people travelling from certain asian countries as well as china and showing symptoms should be tested. this is an extension geographically of the current policy and the list of the current policy and the list of those countries will be published later today. the nationality and the name of the latest patient is not at this stage being revealed. an update from our health editor on that third confirmed case of coronavirus here in the uk. in his first public comments since being acquitted by the senate, president trump has described his impeachment as a terrible ordeal. speaking at the annual prayer breakfast in washington, mr trump condemned the democrats, saying they were trying to destroy him. he also appeared to criticise a member of his own party, senator mitt romney, who said yesterday that his religious faith led him to support the impeachment. (sot next) religious faith led him to support the impeachment. as everybody knows, my family, our

great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. they have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. they know what they are doing is wrong but they put themselves far ahead of our great country. weeks ago and again yesterday, courageous republican politicians and leaders had the wisdom, fortitude and strength to do what everyone knows was right. i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing

what they know is wrong. nor do i like people who say, i pray for you, when they know that is not so. so many people have been hurt and we can't let that go on. ministers want to rush emergency laws through parliament to stop the automatic early release of convicted terror offenders — before the next prisoner is freed at the end of the month. a shopkeeperfrom sunderland is due to be released after serving half of his sentence for supporting the islamic state group. thejustice secretary robert buckland was asked to explain why he thought the change was necessary. we have a cohort of around 50 people who will be due to be released under the automatic provisions and i think it is therefore a timely and appropriate time for me to take action to get legislation through both houses of parliament. you have described it as early release but it

is not early release, is it because it is released when the courts have decided it would be. it is early release because the full term of their custodial sentence... it is not all custodial. what i'm trying to explain as someone who spent their life in the justice process to explain as someone who spent their life in thejustice process is a sentence is made up of a custodial and non—custodial element. what we are seeking to do is deal with the administration of that sentence as opposed to the length or type of it, thatis opposed to the length or type of it, that is perfectly lawful, appropriate and proportionate. that is perfectly lawful, appropriate and proportionatem looks likely you are going to get challenge for using this legislation retrospectively. can you not understand why a lawyer might be upset if his client is kept in jail for longer than thejudge upset if his client is kept in jail for longer than the judge intended? the administration of a sentence is a matter for the administration of a sentence is a matterfor government. this is

about taking a sensible measure to seek the maximum level of public protection, that is myjob and what i think protection, that is myjob and what ithinki protection, that is myjob and what i think i had to do. i have been speaking to our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw — he explained how this move follows two cases where convicted terrorists released early from their full sentence have gone on to commit crime. usman khan at fishmongers hall last year, and then sudesh amman last sunday, just ten days after he was released. there has also been an attack in whitemoor prison involving attack in whitemoor prison involving a terrorist prison as well and so clearly the government feels it has to ta ke clearly the government feels it has to take some drastic action here. it cannot really afford for there to be another incident where someone comes out of prison at the halfway point and goes on to attack people in this way, and that is why it wants to apply these measures retrospectively stop in other words people who have been convicted, already sentence, expecting to come out on a

particular day will be told, note you are not, you will stay in prison longer. i wrongly used the word early. they left on the day they we re early. they left on the day they were supposed to leave. yes, under the law as it stands. if you get a particular determinate sentence whether for terrorism offences or other offences, in most cases you will be released at the halfway point of your sentence and you are told that in court at the time of sentence, so this is where it gets controversial. prison is expecting their release, perhaps being planned, there is a whole planning around that release date are suddenly and i understand some of them are getting letters saying, you are going to come out in march but you are not because parliament is likely to pass these provisions and so you will be kept inside at least until the two thirds point when the pa role until the two thirds point when the parole board will assess your case and decide if it is safe for you to be released and if they say it is not safe, you could be held in custody the entirety of your sentence. a lot of their lawyers

will go, hang on a minute, you cannot change the law at this point. there will be undoubtedly legal challenges. lawyers are preparing the groundwork for that and as soon as this bill becomes law, the government is hoping that every 27 because the next release is every 28, they want to stop that, there will be a stream of lawyers going to the courts to bring judicial review. the courts usually give a lot of weight to the government in terms of national security. when there is an issue where they had to weigh up national security against individual liberty, fair trial and so on, they often give a lot of weight to the company saying about national security. it will be a surprise if the lower courts overturned this ruling, however there would undoubtedly be an appeal either to the court of appeal, supreme court and they will assess the case more fully, might come to a different view. it is quite evenly balanced the case law goes one way with some cases and another way with other

cases, so it is not clear cut. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. president trump welcomes his acquittal on impeachment charges — in the last hour, he gave this reaction. two reaction. cheaters in a world first, born and two cheaters in a world first, born and raised in the uk are heading to south africa tonight for a new life in the world. and in sport, ben youngs has been dropped to the bench for england's calcutta cup match with scotland. 0ne calcutta cup match with scotland. one of five changes made by eddie jones to his starting 15. england's jofra archer faces jones to his starting 15. england'sjofra archer faces three months out with an elbow injury. he will also miss the whole of the ipl

season. and the premier league has voted to go back to closing the transfer window at the end of august. for two yea rs window at the end of august. for two years it shutjust before the start of the season but complaints from managers have led them to reverse that decision. young children are among a number of people who have been rescued from near—freezing conditions in the english channel. they were on eight small boats carrying migrants trying to make the crossing from france to the uk. at least two vessels are understood to have been brought to shore, with twenty—six migrants — including women and 0ur correspondent simonjones is in dover. what are we hearing?” what are we hearing? i am hearing that around seven or eight boats we re that around seven or eight boats were picked up this morning, that could be a record numberfor a single day. the first couple of boats were discovered heading towards dover at around 215 this morning, there were 26 people on board those two boats, all of those

we re board those two boats, all of those were men. then a couple more boats actually manage to make it all the way to shore before they were discovered. they were found just down the coast in folkestone and also at samphire. we saw a number of other boats brought in, women and children on board. we haven't had a final figure children on board. we haven't had a finalfigure of the children on board. we haven't had a final figure of the people involved but this has been a huge operation today for the emergency services out there in the channel. we have had three border force vessels dealing with this along with two lifeboats, a search and rescue helicopter and also a spotter plane, so a very busy day for those dealing with this. also a spotter plane, so a very busy day for those dealing with thism this unusual, taking advantage of what is good whether they're at the moment? it is a beautiful day here in dover and often this is very dependent on the weather conditions because out there, it is extremely calm and the people making these journeys, particularly for traffickers who are believed to be

behind them, are closely looking at the weather forecast. there behind them, are closely looking at the weatherforecast. there is hardly a hint of wind so perfect opportunity for people to try and make this crossing, but as always we say with the caveat that people are crossing the busy shipping lane in the world, in very small boats often in the dead of night, often they do not know what they are doing, so potentially very much putting their lives in danger. thank you very much. the house of commons has rebuked the former speaker, john bercow, for naming members of staff in his autobiography, which has been published today. a spokesman said it was unacceptable for mr bercow to identify individuals without their prior knowledge or authority. 0ur chief political correspondent vicki young is in westminster. what is the former speaker saying about this? this is an ongoing confrontation betweenjohn virgo and some of the staff that worked in the house of commons, some of them very senior. some have made formal allegations of bullying against the

former speaker, he has always denied that took place. with this publication of his autobiography, he goes into some of the details of what went on in his office and with other members of staff and today the house of commons has said really that that is unacceptable, saying staff have a right to have their privacy respected and naming them without their prior knowledge for financial gain or commercial success is not acceptable. they go on to talk about zero tolerance for abuse or harassment. through a spokesman as well, john barker has responded to all of this. he is already in numerous interviews and in statement previously said that none of this took place. today his spokesman saying that given there is a small but highly vocal group of people consistently seeking to blacken his name it will be odd if mr boco did not comment on the unfounded allegations against him. he said also if the book had not addressed these issues, he would rightly have

been accused of serious omission. these issues, he would rightly have been accused of serious omissionm this about the book or about pushes to get him a peerage? he previously has said he thinks these allegations, the timing of them is curious. that is because he has confirmed this week that the labour leaderjeremy corbyn has put forward his name for a peerage. the thing is that everyone whose name goes forward has to be vetted by a committee, so it is clear thatjohn virgo thinks people are trying to undermine that, but senior ministers like andrea leadsom, she said anyone who has been found guilty of bullying in a parliament should not be allowed to have a peerage. john barker has denied that has happened and it will be fascinating to see if that this does come out, whether his name is on it. when will it be? we don't know. the old bailey has heard how

the brother of the manchester arena suicide bomber bought a chemical for the attack using an email address entitled "we have come to slaughter". hashem abedi is on trial for his alleged role in helping his brother salman carry out the attack, which killed 22 people at an ariana grande concert two years ago. the 22—year—old denies the charges. a man who sexually assaulted and murdered an 89—year old widow has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 3a years. 23—year—old reece dempster had smoked crack before breaking into dorothy woolmer‘s home in tottenham. dempster had previously admitted manslaughter, but initially denied murder and sexual assault. let's catch up with the weather now. i'm not coming this way. that is at the moment where the storm is in america. these images are from mississippi and louisiana where strong winds with severe storms and

this comes with a fair bit of snow across parts of oklahoma and texas. those pictures coming right up. there you go. some snow there that has caused... not always that common a sight but the reason i am showing this is because we are talking about storm keira heading towards the uk this weekend. it has started its life over in the usa. this is a radar picture where the rain and snow is. they have tornado warnings out in parts of western, north carolina as well as flood warnings in the appellations. if that reaches us by saturday night, it is moving quite fast over the atlantic. fairly slow moving at the moment but it. to interact with a jet stream overhead.

up interact with a jet stream overhead. up where the aeroplanes fly, it will pick up that area of low pressure and deepen it into quite a nasty storm. the big question comes is where it is at. the exact point where it is at. the exact point where it is at. the exact point where it is at its deepest. this is where it is at its deepest. this is where the winds are at its strongest. will that happen before it hits the uk or as it is crossing the uk? warnings right across the uk, not in the republic of ireland, they have their own warning. they will get the storm as well but they have a separate met office to tell them. that is what it is not on here. the whole of the uk covered, at the moment anywhere can see the strongest of the winds, 60—80 mph. and it is notjust the winds that

could be an issue. there are also yellow warnings, these could be upgraded over the next few days once the confidence gets greater on the exact winds and where they will be, but when you get strong winds, heavy rain, the risk of flooding as well. all in all, sunday could be quite a nasty day for many. be on alert from what, saturday morning? from saturday lunchtime onwards, things will go downhill quite drastically. give us the economies before we hit that. let's take a look at what it looks like. this is the view across parts of cheshire. we have not had many winters day like this. there will be more sunshine tomorrow as well but for the time being, five into the day. temperatures of three orli into the day. temperatures of three or 4 degrees. it will turn chilly quite quickly as we head into the night. the chance of frost forming. full like many central and eastern areas and that is because that is

where the winds are latest. not before we see temperatures either side orfreezing. could be a chilly commute tomorrow. quite misty and murky through parts of the north—east. that fog should lift and clear as the breeze picks up. fabrizio tomorrow, plenty of dry weather once again. in the far west, child thickens up, a few splashes of rain. heavy rain through friday night into saturday. the start of the deterioration of the many on saturday will be dry and fine. later on we will see rain developed more extensively across western scotland, northern ireland. by this stage, girls developing quite wildly. temperatures seven or 8 degrees. it may feel cooler than that. saturday night into sunday, they went to get going good and proper. first set of

weather fronts pushed through, going good and proper. first set of weatherfronts pushed through, most will see rain from that but then as storm keira pushes in as we go into sunday, right across the board, gale force if not severe gale force winds and torrential rain as well. most persistent on western hills, hence the risk of some flooding here. let's focus on those wind strengths. it's potential at the moment, 60—80 mphjust it's potential at the moment, 60—80 mph just about anywhere, not just run those exposed areas of kos, even in land we could see gusts of this on sunday. it is all key to when that storm system develops, when we will see the strongest of the winds but keep a close eye on the forecast. travel disruption possible, weather warnings updated as and when issued by the met office on the bbc website and app and we will keep you updated here on afternoon live.

this is bbc news — our latest headlines. a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient was in brighton, and is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. china's ambassador to britain urges countries not to panic: rumours and panic are more frightening than the virus itself.

hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16 year old boy on social media. president trump welcomes his acquittal on impeachment charges — in the last hour, he gave this reaction. my my family, our great country, and your president, have been put through a terrible ordeal. by some very dishonest and corrupt people. also coming up — two cheetahs in a world first, born and raised in the uk, are heading to south africa tonight for a new life in the wild. sport now on afternoon live with hugh ferris. the premier league have changed the closing date of their summer transfer window?

good afternoon. it'll now be what it used to be... when the transfer window previously closed at the end of august everybody complained. they wanted their squads ready for the beginning of the season — so they changed it to that, expecting that others would follow suit — they didn't. so you have a situation where a club could buy your players after the window had shut, but you couldn't replace them — hence more complaints from exactly the people that wanted it changed in the first place, so it was armed with that information that the clubs met this morning to vote to change the summer transfer window again. so from this year it'll be back

at the end of august, although as that's a bank holiday it'll end on september the first. we decided it was best for the premier league to be in sync with the other leagues. i understood the reason to do it but it put a lot of pressure on all of us to make decisions and it gave an advantage to other leagues and so i think it is good to be consistent. also announced the 2020/21 premier league season will start on the weekend of 8th august, less than a month after the euro 2020 final. fascinating. thank you very much. and now to the six nations, big changes for england?

eddie jones obviously didn't like much of what he saw in paris — so five changes for the calcutta cup match against scotland at murrayfield. scrum half ben youngs has been dropped in favour of willi heinz. he was replaced by him in the second half of their defeat to france on sunday. this is the starting 15. flanker lewis ludlam is in for courtney lawes. prop mako vunipola and lock george kruis return, with jonathan joseph replacing the injured manu tuilagi in the centre. we feel benny, where at the end of the game, at murrayfield, the game breaks up a bit and he will be able to use his running skills, which we want to get back into his game. and then at the start of the game, willie plays with a fair bit of control, he has a good kicking game, and has a calming influence on the people around him. scotland have made one change. back row magnus bradbury replaces nick hayning. as for wales —

wayne pivac has made just the one change ahead of their match with ireland. centre nick tompkins has been given his first start after impressing as a replacement on his debut against italy. scoring this superb try, too. england won't havejofra archer back until the summer after a scan revealed he has a stress fracture in his elbow. he's already flown home from the tour of south africa where he could only play one of the four tests. archer will miss the tour of sri lanka and also the whole of the indian premier league. he's hoping to return forjune's three—test series against the west indies. great britain have lost to china in their opening women's 0lympic basketball qualification game as they attempt to compete at a games on foreign soilfor the first time. the top three teams from the group of four will reach tokyo 2020. great britain are ranked 18th in the world and led after the opening two periods. temi fagbenle top—scored for gb and captain chantelle handy led from the front but the world number eight side china showed their superiority

in the closing stages. great britain next face south korea on saturday and then a very strong spain team. it is tough because we came out and played well in the first half but they adjusted some things in the second half and they started running the floor and we couldn't stop them. but it is the first game and we have another two to play so we now have to focus on the next two. we knew it was going to be tough in every game is going to be tough, so we have to move on from this and we cannot dwell on it, we have a day off and then we play on saturday. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. you've been sending in your questions on coronavirus. here to answer them is our health correspondent

and our guest from the bbc‘s chinese service — joins us from washington. what are the steps in testing and antivirus drug? you are not going back to trying to design one from scratch in the middle of a virus, you are looking at what we have already got, the idea that in clinical trials in china right now some drugs have been given to some patients and you see what the difference is in the outcomes, do they increase survival in people? that is how you work out whether the drugs can save lives, and so a lot of the work is around hiv drugs because they are antiviral drugs and you see if they can work in this outbreak. what kind of testing? we know these drugs are safe because they have been given to other patients may have through safety testing. it is just the final stage clinical trial when you are trying to select the right patients to give the drug to. the challenge is making

sure you do proper research because you are seeing a patient dying in front of you and you want to give them a drug which might make the difference but we do not know if the drug has made the difference at the end of it so that is the challenge in this kind of scenario. john mahoney asks, will be be able to establish what species of animal the virus came from? i hope so because if you don't there's the risk of it happening again. there was a strong connection with a seafood market where there were a lot of live animals being sold on the assumption it has come from this, one of the animals are sold at the market, and passed on to humans. we don't know what the animal is and there should have been testing at the market but we still don't know what the animal sources. it is a big challenge to see if we can get to the bottom of this and i can't guarantee that we will but if we don't there is always the danger of more of these viruses coming overfrom the danger of more of these viruses coming over from that animal and infecting people. now to washington,

are we hearing the same sort of thing from chinese research centres? what is the link between authorities and researchers in china? yes and no. in late january the chinese cdc announced they are working towards developing vaccines against the coronavirus and they also looking at existing drugs which might be helpful to treat the disease, like james mentioned. anti—hiv drugs which are on the list. there's also an american drug which was used to treat the first confirmed a patient in america which was proved quite effective so the chinese doctors are using that drug on chinese patients at the moment. so chinese researchers also said that a kind of chinese medicine would be helpful to fight the disease even though there is no concrete proof at the moment that the drug was the few will help,

but the drug was sold out overnight in china. -- but the drug was sold out overnight in china. —— that the drug will help. in late december when the rest of the world knew almost nothing about this outbreak, eight doctors in wuhan were the earliest whistle—blowers in wuhan were the earliest whistle— blowers of the in wuhan were the earliest whistle—blowers of the outbreak, and one of those doctors warn his friends —— warned his friends on a messaging app in china, he warned them that there is an outbreak that is very similarto them that there is an outbreak that is very similar to the sars virus which is happening in wuhan, he told them to take care of themselves. eight of them were arrested for spreading rumours. doctor lee was later released and was able to get back to work but unfortunately he was infected in january. back to work but unfortunately he was infected injanuary. we understand he and his parents were both infected and this morning he unfortunately died. oh my word. you

have pre—empted the next question here, is the chinese government releasing the true figures of the virus? well, it depends on how you look at it. the w h you has praised china for being more transparent this time around compared to the sars outbreak —— the who. during sars outbreak —— the who. during sars the chinese government was actively covering up the story in the very early stages of the outbreak but this time around they we re outbreak but this time around they were releasing information in a more timely manner, but if you look at the features of the disease you find that people with a strong immune systems, they might be able to fight the virus themselves. they themselves may not have known they are infected and they might have never gone to the hospital. so those cases are omitted in the case count, but at the same time media reports show that some patients actually

pass away before being confirmed of the infection. in that case a lot of numbers were not included in the current figures we are looking at. james, here's another 1,000 of people die from influenza every year, white has coronavirus being treated as if it is much more dangerous? —— why is. treated as if it is much more dangerous? -- why is. the reason why people are more concerned is because this is something new and something new is something which is unknown and of unknown risk. the challenge with all viruses is calibrating how dangerous they aren't so it is not just a case of looking at the death rate but also a combination of the effect —— how dangerous they are. something like ebola kills 80% of people who are infected but it doesn't spread very fast. with flu, that kills people not because it is super deadly, a tiny fraction of

people who have flu die from it, but because it infects so many people around the world, that adds up to being hundreds of thousands of people. the challenge is working out where the coronavirus lies in that spectrum. we know it is more deadly than say the common cold which is caused by other coronaviruses and we know it is milder than things like sars, but each of those does not infect that many people. we know it is sitting in this zone where if it we re is sitting in this zone where if it were to spread widely around the world, it has the potential to kill a lot of people, and that is why we are worried. you viruses are worrying because we have no built in immunity to them. —— new viruses. some people have a degree of immunity to the circulating flu is each year but this is something brand—new and that is why it's a greater threat. 0ne brand—new and that is why it's a greater threat. one more point, there is the capacity to bring this to an end and that is why there is far more effort. if you can shut it

down within china you enter the outbreak completely. the disease disappears. that is why they are trying so hard now because they have the window of opportunity to do something about it before it becomes a permanent disease. we are seeing hospitals being built in days in china, and that is because the coronavirus is being treated as if it is more dangerous? indeed. the flu impacts china as well, especially of the population, only 296 especially of the population, only 2% of it is vaccinated against flu, but in china if you look at the case count of common flu it is very low because china uses a different measure to calculate the death cases, so if you catch the flu and it develops into lung failure, and you have a heart attack in the end, you have a heart attack in the end, you would be counted as a heart attack case rather than a flu case, so if you look at the case count in

china, the flu is not that deadly, but china is seeing the coronavirus is more dangerous because it is something new, it is dangerous because we know so little about it. it appears to be highly contagious and with a high death rate which is lower than sars, for example, but higher than flue. lower than sars, for example, but higherthan flue. in lower than sars, for example, but higher than flue. in america at the flue rate is around 0.13%, the flu death rate, but the coronavirus is as haired as five —— the coronavirus death rate is as high as 5% in wuhan at the moment. to both of you, thanks forjoining us. two cheetahs born and raised in the uk are heading to south africa tonight for a new life in the wild. saba and nairo, who are brothers, will move from a wildlife park in kent, to their natural habitat.

it's the first time a hand—raised cheetah has left the uk for africa. john maguire reports. born and raised in the uk, these young men of kent are heading home, but to a land thousands of miles away that they've never seen before. nairo and saba, two—and—a—half—year—old brothers, are being reintroduced into the wild, in a game reserve in south africa. i'm doing it because i fundamentally believe animals belong in the wild. i think zoos need to be reintroducing animals back into the wild. and in the last three years alone, there've been 500 cheetah born in captivity globally. and what's the point of breeding these animals, unless we're going to try and reintroduce them? and it is possible to find safe reserves to reintroduce them. the southern cheetahs will leave howletts wild animal park in kent tonight in their own cages and will be flown to africa. when they arrive, the year—long programme of introducing them to the wild will begin.

the end game is, they're released into mount camdeboo, which is a private reserve, initially to a 1,000—acre boma, which is protected, and then to the broader reserve — once they're comfortable hunting and we know that they can hunt. and, of course, they'll be tracked and they'll have a gps collar on them, so we'll be watching every step they take. the foundation has successfully reintroduced other species before, including gorillas, black rhinos and european bison, but this is a world—first for cheetahs. there are less than 7,000 in the wild, so it's hoped the brothers can make a small, at first, but important difference. cheetahs are, of course, an endangered species in the wild. the idea of reintroducing these two is to try to dilute the gene pool, because there has been a problem with genetic problems of the indigenous cheetahs in africa. cheetahs are famously the fastest animal on land —

a talent that, from now on, the brothers will need to exploit to enable them and their species to survive, and hopefully thrive, in their natural habitat. john maguire, bbc news, kent. let's speak now to wildlife reporter mike dilger. does this strengthen or weaken the case for having animals in captivity? zoos have changed over the decades and any zoo worth its salt these days is all about two things, education, educating people that come to the animals, and also about captive breeding. as animals are dwindling in the wild, and species have declined, in number, a lot of zoos find themselves with very valuable genetic information, species which are threatened in the wild according to their categories,

are suddenly found in captivity, so these captive breeding programmes can be an opportunity to reintroduce genetic diverse material back into the wild which is a really important thing. how let's have a good track record of releasing animals back into the wild, so education certainly and reducing wild animals especially where there is the right habitat. how worried will you be about these animals when they are released back into the wild? when you release an animal that has been hand reared back into the wild they are certain issues, two principal categories, habituation, and habitat. habituation, these two animals have been hand reared it so they are used to being around humans, they are not scared of them, and that is a problem. you have to slowly rewi re and that is a problem. you have to slowly rewire them so they become scared of humans and they run away

—— re—wild. if they run up to humans in the wild there could be a problem. you have to slowly go through the process and what is going to happen, they will go to the western cape to a cheater cheetah. nine caps have been born in captivity which are now successfully in the wild —— nine carbs. the second one is habitat, very irresponsible to release an animal that has been born and bred in captivity, to throw it into the countryside if there is not the food for it and if that isn't the habitat remaining for it to survive. do not forget, cheetahs, they are top predators, they need a lot of habitat and game, and also they need to be protected because there is a lot of poaching going on, especially in south africa which is why these species have declined, so if you get

them slowly integrated back into the wild, and then when they finally go to the national park, 35,000 acres, it will be a soft release, so they may well feed them for a while and then they can come in out of the cages as they go, but then they will start hunting for themselves and they will be fine in the wild. 0f course, the genetically imported material they have, new blood, so they are going to bring new genetic material to what could be a genetically inbred population in that part of the eastern cape where numbers of cheeta hs that part of the eastern cape where numbers of cheetahs are very low, and they will breed with each other. fresh blood has got to be a good thing but it must be done slowly because this is an expensive process taking them from kent to south africa but the expertise is in hand and it should go very well. the irony is, they are reared by humans and protected by humans and when they are released in the wild their biggest danger is humans. that is a sad fact. but where they are going,

it's a private reserve which means i would imagine it is very well protected and probably quite well resourced and they will have guards. and of course, cheetahs are the fastest la nd and of course, cheetahs are the fastest land animal in the work of a species which is threatened with extinction, vulnerable according to criteria, so this is one of the world's most iconic animals in danger of extinction so we must do everything we can to protect them, certainly with genetic material in zoos certainly with genetic material in zoos and out in the wild, and i think they are going to a well protected sites so hopefully people can visit the reserve and see them catching game in the world which is what they should be doing. —— in the wild. mike, thanks forjoining us. in a moment we have the latest business news. first, a look at the headlines on afternoon live. a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient was in brighton, and is being transferred

to an infectious disease centre. hours before he's due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy on social media. president trump welcomes his acquittal on impeachment charges. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. a leading economic forecaster has claimed there's only a one in five chance of the government achieving its target of doubling economic growth. the chancellor sajid javid is expected to set out his plans to reach growth of 2.8% a year in his budget next month. but the national institute of economic and social research has said that hitting this growth rate, not seen since 2006, would be difficult and it expects the economy to grow by 1.5% this year. china plans to reduce tariffs — by half — on around £57 billion worth of imports from the united states.

the world's two biggest economies recently signed a new trade agreement. the latest move by china comes as large parts of its manufacturing industry have been shut down to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. the government has announced a plan to make all public buses in england electric by 2025. towns and cities will be able to bid forfunding to help electrify their fleet. it's part of a 170m pound investment to improve bus services across england. a sober welcome party for the new boss ofjohn lewis. words for the new boss ofjohn lewis. from sharon white words from sharon white who has been in thejob for a words from sharon white who has been in the job for a couple of days. details have emerged of what she said to staff at a meeting of staff

council, warning of store closures and job losses. not a good omen for what is to come. she described difficult decisions on the horizon in what will be the most challenging period, she said, since the inception ofjohn lewis in the 19205, the inception ofjohn lewis in the 1920s, so not an easyjob, is in for a darling of the high street that john lewis is. nervous times for the staff, as well. all retail staff are having a nervous time and john lewis has been somewhat insulated compared with the fates of others in recent times but it hasn't been an easy yearfor times but it hasn't been an easy year forjohn times but it hasn't been an easy yearforjohn lewis. 12 of its waitrose supermarkets closed in the past year, the unprofitable ones, and one john lewis past year, the unprofitable ones, and onejohn lewis department store in hampshire also closed. there is likely to be more to come but one other thing sharon white said, john lewis will continue to set itself apart from its purely commercial rivals by treating its staff with

humanity. the foreign secretary is abroad? he's been on a very importantjolly. the foreign secretary is visiting australia, japan, singapore and malaysia to discuss post—brexit bilateral relations, with a focus on security and trade. it's his first trade trip since the start of the transition period. the markets? it has been a good day, we we re the markets? it has been a good day, we were talking about the chinese decision to halve tariffs on a selection of imports from the us and that has produced record figures. record figures for many of the main indices. glaxosmithkline is down because of concern about how much it will cost to execute their plan to split the company up. royal mail is down heavily as well. posting bad

figures? yes, indeed, they strike potentially on the cards, as well. thanks forjoining us. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. the mist and fog has lingered a bit longer through today and that has meant for a cooler afternoon, but for most plenty of sunshine, a lovely evening sunset and a fine night tonight, with clear skies around and winds lightest in the east, it is these areas which are prone to mist and fog patches. what the breeze in the west, but for all a chilly night and just about anywhere is susceptible to a bit of frost as we go into friday morning. any mist and fog will shift away by the end of the morning as the breeze picks up, a lot of dry reasonably sunny weather on friday. a bit more breeze which will bring more clout into western areas and just a few showers, but temperatures up a degree or two on the past couple of days —— more cloud. into the

weekend, storm ciara forecast to come in on saturday and sunday, damage and winds possible and also travel disruption. keep up—to—date on the website and radio.

looking hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at four: a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient was in brighton, and is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. hours before he was due to deliver scotland's budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down. after sending personal messages to a 16—year—old boy. police in northern ireland appeal for witnesses to help them find those responsible for planting an explosive device on a lorry. place is reckless as to the anyone who plants a device in a public place is reckless as to the consequences of their action and has a potential to kill or seriously injure people beginning in that area. this is an incredibly reckless activity. president trump welcomes his acquittal on impeachment charges.

coming up on afternoon live all the sport. england coach eddie jones england coach eddiejones rings the changes for the calcutta cup. five and all to his starting 15 including ben youngs the scrum—half, who has been dropped to the bench, more later. thanks, and we'll bejoining you for a full update just after half—past. perfect conditions for balloon flying today with light winds and clear skies, storm ciara is heading our way. also coming up — and, a new record is set by astronaut christina koch who's spent more days in space than any other woman. hello, everyone — this is afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. a third person in the uk has tested

positive for coronavirus. the patient is understood to have been in brighton. here are the developments. the patient is being transferred to a specialist nhs centre and england's chief medical office says they are using robust infection control measures. the individual caught the infection in an asian country but not in china. so far more than 500 tests have been concluded in the uk. the number of people in mainland china known to have died from coronavirus has risen to over 560. this morning, the chinese ambassador to the uk accused the british government of over—reacting, and insisted the crisis was under control. in the united states, more than 19 million people have fallen ill with a flu so far this season, with the death toll being 10,000. this is a more serious than coronavirus infection. currently in china, the number of cured patients is rising,

and we are fully confident in beating the virus. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale explained why the chinese ambassador had chosen to speak. he was trying to mount a defence of the chinese handling of this. he is notjust a normal, usual ambassador. he is one of their most senior diplomats and he is used by the chinese state because he is in the uk, he is good for time zones, getting a message out to east and west of the world. it was about how the chinese were responding to it, how effectively, in his view, they have been at controlling, preventing and, they hope, curing it. but what was really interesting was during the questioning, he did admit, as the chinese have admitted, there have been some shortcomings, but essentially his response is that actually what the chinese government have done now is very effective in his view, and he had some very stiff words

for the british government as well. he was not happy with their advice to say that the remaining 30,000 or so brits who are there should leave. there is a financial implication, huge for china, and presumably at the back of everybody in china's mind. yes, and he did address this. he said that there would be a short—term impact on china's economy particularly on the service sector, but he said it would be short—term and it would be temporary and he insisted china's economy was resilient enough to deal with it. this is going to be its biggest test i think for a long time, the amount of impact. i was talking to a contact yesterday who is in the oil business, who was just saying the loss of demand in the world economy means this is notjust potentially bad for china's economy but could have ripple effects elsewhere in the world. little doubt he would have been told to give this news conference on instruction from beijing, this is the message, you are panicking and you don't need to. yes, and his message was very clear,

don't overreact, don't panic. he gave a long list of how the death rate, infection rates were much lower than other diseases. he mentioned sars, ebola, various other outbreaks that have taken place. to try and say, let's put this in perspective. i said to him at one point, i said, look, on the one hand the chinese state is being quite effective in terms of the building of these extraordinary hospitals in such a short period of time, you know, could western nations build hospitals that quickly? but on the other hand, the slowness of the response that the chinese poly bureau have admitted already has also prompted some criticism of the chinese state and actually, is that structure the best way? the lack of transparency, the blame culture, the unwillingness of officials to report things up and down the chain of command perhaps is not necessarily the best way of dealing with those kinds of outbreaks, where in the west, there is social media transparency the moment this happens and it happens anywhere else,

everybody knows about it. the director general of the world health organisation says scientists still need to answer a series of questions if they are to defeat the new coronavirus. he compared the fight against the virus to shadow boxing. we don't know the source of the outbreak, we don't know what its natural preserver is and we don't properly understand its transmissibility or severity. to defeat this outbreak, we need a nswe rs defeat this outbreak, we need a nswers to defeat this outbreak, we need answers to all those questions. there are tools we don't have. we have no vaccine to prevent infections and no antibiotics to treat them. to put it bluntly, we are shadow—boxing. we need to bring this virus out into the light so we can attack it properly.

scotland's finance secretary has resigned over personal messages he sent to a 16—year—old boy on social media. the scottish sun newspaper reported that derek mackay contacted the boy hundreds of times over a six—month period. the first minister nicola sturgeon said his conduct had been unacceptable, and that it fell far short of what was expected of a minister. in a statement mr mackay, who was due to present the scottish budget to msps this afternoon, admitted he'd "behaved foolishly" and said he took full responsibility for his actions. some had tipped mr mackay to succeed scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon who said he'd made a significant contribution in government but recognised that his behaviour fell below required standards. derek mackay has apologised unreservedly for his conduct and recognised as i do that it was unacceptable and falls seriously below the standard required of a minister. i can also advise that he has this morning been suspended from both the snp and our parliamentary group pending further investigation.

the acting scottish conservative leader, jackson carlaw, suggested that mr mackay‘s behaviour amounted to "grooming" and he should also quit as an msp. and i have to ask the first minister, can the reputation of scottish politics and this parliament be maintained with the full confidence of the public, or even his constituents, if mr mackay remains as a member? nancy pelosi. the 100 million families in america facing pre—existing medical conditions, a benefit in the affordable care act, he was protecting that benefit when in fact he has done everything to dismantle it. in fact, we are fighting him in the courts right now to preserve that benefit. that

misrepresentation was appalling and so clearly untrue. and next he talked about another issue of concern towards working families, theissue concern towards working families, the issue of the cost of prescription drugs. across the country it comes to the fact they cannot afford the prescription drugs and meet their other obligations to theirfamilies. we and meet their other obligations to their families. we had and meet their other obligations to theirfamilies. we had talked about negotiating for lower prices, that is the only way, during the campaign the president said she was going to negotiate like crazy. i think like crazy means maybe not at all. the president's statements have sent pharma stock soaring. we were hopeful to get something done, i guess pharma must have stepped in. then you talk about saving medicare and social security when in fact in

his budget, that he submitted, trillions of dollars were decreased in medicare in terms of social security, we do see disability benefit in social security. this goes right to the kitchen table of american's working families to serve up american's working families to serve up these falsehoods. appalling also was what he was trying to discredit, the triumph of the president 0bama administration, i have a paper on this. put out by the joint economic committee under the leadership of tom bier, our house pasture on that. it talks about job tom bier, our house pasture on that. it talks aboutjob creation and the rest. this is sick to put it, when

president 0bama came into office, unemployment rate was 10%, when she left it was 5%. president trump did not inherit a mess, he inherited a momentum ofjob not inherit a mess, he inherited a momentum of job creation, not inherit a mess, he inherited a momentum ofjob creation, when president 0bama came into office, the stock market was at 6000, when he left, 18,000. again, momentum. that the administration was able to build on, not a mess. that the administration was able to build on, nota mess. during that the administration was able to build on, not a mess. during eight yea rs of build on, not a mess. during eight years of president 0bama's presidency he reduced the deficit by $1 trillion. instead this administration is increasing, and of course whether tax scam, 83% of benefits going to the top 1%, they increase the national debt by $2 trillion and therefore, it was supposed to pay for itself but instead it went to medicare to try

to pay for that. we are not doing that. during the eight years, when president bush was president,... under 0bama we gained more than 1a million private sectorjobs. that is far more prorated in terms of years than this could punishment president. it is not a mess to stop we rescued the auto industry and all that brought back to the economy and during the administration more than 20 million people had quality health care, affordable. and 150 million families with pre—existing

conditions got a new benefit that enabled them to have access to health care as well as other benefits with no annual limit. if a child under 26—year—old, staying under benefit. pre—existing condition. when he talks about i am going to make health care... the fa ct going to make health care... the fact is, he did not inherit a mess, a momentum he inherited of growth in our economy. that is nancy pelosi giving her reaction to the not guilty assessment at donald trump's impeachment trial, obviously not happy. we will be hearing from donald trump within the next hour and go back to washington when he speaks at more length about his acquittal at his impeachment trial.

the chief medical officer for england has been giving this update. as doctors we don't give out biographical information about patients so obviously we will be sticking to that. what we can say, the person concerned, safely in a specialist unit where they will be cared for by highly trained infectious disease team. secondly, they acquired the infection not in they acquired the infection not in the uk. the second, i think is important, it links to a change we are making in our guidance, a planned change, we think this is the right moment to do it, they acquired it in asia but not in china. at the

moment, the great majority of the cases in the world are still in china. there are a few in other countries and our view is because of that it countries and our view is because of thatitis countries and our view is because of that it is probably now prudent to slightly widen the geographical area where firstly doctors in the uk in the nhs should test people's symptoms, and we will give the list of countries based on scientific advice, we will advise people if they have travelled from those countries in the last 1a days if they have any of the compatible symptoms of the coronaviruses they should self isolate and phone 111 or the equivalents in the other nations. anyone who has been in any of those countries who develops those symptoms or thinks they have chewed a self isolate and call 111, would it not be more helpful in this particular instance to identify the countries so you have less pressure

on accident and emergency, the nhs, gps, all the other people involved in helping you battle this coronavirus? the fact that a particular person came from a particular person came from a particular country does not change the race, what changes the risk is the race, what changes the risk is the total traffic between china and wuhan. it is based on a combination of travel patterns and the number of cases reported. we have looked at this scientifically. what is called the sage, group of scientific experts chaired by the scientific adviser and me, it is now a group of countries where the risk is very much lower than china and lower in particular than wuhan and the district. the next age is likely to expand the geographical boundaries

where we are given this advice. this was almost an inevitability you would have to cast a wide net. does it concern you that the rate of infection is rising? we have set obviously from the beginning we thought it was likely we would get some spill over cases from china in the uk. that is obviously what has happened, we expect to get more in the future. that is not a surprise to anybody, i don't think. whether this goes on to cause a problem in the rest of the world outside china is currently too early to tell. we have very small numbers outside china, very large numbers in china. whilst that is the case, there is the possibility what will happen is this will become controlled within china and in a sense we will have spill over cases and the outbreak in china will die back. it is also possible that despite the really quite heroic efforts of the chinese

authorities to get on top of this, it continues to expand and it is likely this will spread beyond the boundaries of china. this is something we have to be ready for, both eventualities. at the moment we are planning basically along for tracks, to contain it so that if it is just tracks, to contain it so that if it isjust in china we make sure if cases come into the uk we identify early, as we are doing that with this one. secondly, to lay it so that if there were to be an upswing of cases in europe and subsequently in the uk, or in the uk, these are later in the year away from the period for the nhs. we need to be prudent and planned for that. thirdly, to make sure we have the science ready so we can develop drugs and vaccines and diagnostic tests a nd drugs and vaccines and diagnostic tests and epidemiology and all the things we need to understand and manage. fourthly, if there were to be large numbers in the uk to mitigate it. that is to say reduce

the risk of the big pressures on the nhs that might otherwise happen. that is the plan of what we are doing, ina that is the plan of what we are doing, in a sense what we are doing todayis doing, in a sense what we are doing today is moving out slightly in terms of our activity to widen geographically. it is quite a significant development, can we at least see whether this patient —— like say whether the patient was in direct contact with someone from wuhan? if it is not the case, that would be a major development because that would almost be secondary transmission. it is actually, i think ina transmission. it is actually, i think in a sense there are two separate different things involved, the first i do not wish to for the reasons i'm given, because i am a doctor, give out details. it is important to realise we are quite early in the contact tracing. that

is going on already from public health england, so a lot of details we have to piece together and understand the chain of transmission. that is crucial in understanding how the virus is spreading? as far as we can we try to obviously follow with any infection where we are trying to do contact tracing, for the train of —— chain of transmission. 0bviously contact tracing, for the train of —— chain of transmission. obviously in other countries this is and not everything will be in our control. that will be true in most cases, so far we have had three cases in the uk, all of them imported cases. your colleagues have had some success with the gene taken from the positive cases which showed the virus was still stable. is there a danger, a fair that this is now not the case and we are seeing mutations? it is very early to say, at the moment we are not seeing a

major genetic change. they will happen over time. they will happen over time? that is the nature of any biological thing, over time? that is the nature of any biologicalthing, changes over time? that is the nature of any biological thing, changes over time. what we are not seeing a huge diversity at this point in time. i think the much more important data at this time is clinical because thatis at this time is clinical because that is what helps us to manage people when they come into the nhs if they have this infection, or might have, we need to understand the different way it presents, how severe it can be and who can get severe it can be and who can get severe disease. and understand who you can catch it from. there are a few things we are very confident of. that the mortality rate, people who die, is much lower than things like ebola, the sars virus, we are confident of that now. we are confident of that now. we are confident that once someone is more

than 1a days post exposure we don't think they are going to develop it and pass it on, so the 1a day limit is important, people in the uk for longer than that with no symptoms are not going to become infectious. all the data we have seen so far says that. one thing emerging, whilst there doesn't seem to be quite a lot of information in china from people who are older citizens where a lot of the people getting more ill are, there have so far been fewer children in this epidemic than in many other things. this does not seem to be primarily a disease of children, much more primarily, at least in terms of bad symptoms, it isa least in terms of bad symptoms, it is a disease of older people. how is this patient identify? did they come through the normal channels of getting in touch with their gp, call

nhs 111? getting in touch with their gp, call nhs111? i will not go into biographical details for the reasons i have given before, i do not want to start into something... any connection to the other two cases in york? no. this is a transmission that occurred outside the uk. how do you relay public fears now, you are saying this person contracted the virus outside of china. suddenly a lot of people will be about to go on half term holidays. how will you allay fears among the british public? firstly i think the british public? firstly i think the british public have been as always very sensible and accepting there are some risks where they need to be keptin some risks where they need to be kept in proportion. the number of cases of this outside china is very

small. we are keeping this under co nsta nt small. we are keeping this under constant review and will update advice including foreign office advice including foreign office advice and they will review it because the foreign office give advice to travellers. i would not wa nt advice to travellers. i would not want people to suddenly feel risk in asian outside china is anywhere near the risk in china, as it is not. the risk in most of china is much lower thanit risk in most of china is much lower than it is still in wuhan and wider... iam than it is still in wuhan and wider... i am a doctor and myjob is to protect health and i am giving clear health advice. professor chris whitty saying it was important to keep the spread of coronavirus inside china and said at the moment... a range of asian

countries people have travelled from will be specified later. 565 people have died but only two of these outside when i china, one in hong kong, one in the philippines. he said the nhs well prepared to manage cases, we are now working quickly to identify any contacts that this latest patient has had. the old bailey has heard how the brother of the manchester arena suicide bomber bought a chemical for the attack using an email address entitled "we have come to slaughter". hashem abedi is on trial for his alleged role in helping his brother salman carry out the attack, which killed 22 people at an ariana grande concert two years ago. the 22—year—old denies the charges. dan johnson is at the old bailey now... yes, and that gmail account is one of the ways in

which hashem abedi has been linked. there is evidence that hashem abedi's phone was tracked in that area at the time of the account was set up. it was named something which tra nslates set up. it was named something which translates as arabic, we have come to slaughter. that was used to order 30 litres of hydrogen peroxide. that is one of the ways hashem abedi, the younger brother, is said to be connected with helping salam to gather the components needed for the bombing. a complex account, how many online accounts, how many addresses used to gather the different dates they needed. we had the boys' pa rents they needed. we had the boys' parents visited the uk from libya. when they were due to return the brothers‘ older sibling booked one—way tickets for the pair of them

to travel back to libya with their pa rents to travel back to libya with their parents and the prosecutor said to thejury someone had decided they needed to return to libya on one—way tickets. by then, they had already made most of their preparations, the jury made most of their preparations, the jury was told, they had loaded all the components they needed into a nissan micra parked in a strategic location close to the manchester arena. all salman needed to do was find the components to make the bomb viable, find somewhere suitable to detonate it. hashem abedi denies all cou nts detonate it. hashem abedi denies all counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiring with his brother to cause an explosion. union flags may no longer be flown on government buildings to celebrate

the birthday of prince andrew. flags are flown on the birthdays of ten senior members of the royal family. but in light of the duke‘s decision to step back from royal duties, the government has said it is looking at whether the current policy needs to be changed. for more on this i‘m nowjoined by our royal correspondent, sarah campbell. there is a page for designated days for union flag flying. the 9th of march is commonwealth day, state 0pening march is commonwealth day, state opening of parliament, remembrance day... the birthdays of ten members of the royal family the queen, the duke of edinburgh, four children, and more. it is currently up to local councils and town halls to follow the guidelines. it is mandatory on all central government buildings to raise the flag on those days. february 19, buildings to raise the flag on those

days. february19, prince andrew‘s 60th birthday, flag is raised in his honour. questions have been raised about that today, obviously following the controversy over his friendship with jeffrey following the controversy over his friendship withjeffrey epstein and his decision last november to step back from public duties. at least one council, liverpool city council, the mayor has said they have been vocal they will not be flying the flag. the government‘s response, we are working with the royal household to see how flag flying policy can be applied in changing circumstances such as when a member of the royal family steps back from public duties. so they are thinking about it. thank you, sarah campbell. the nasa astronaut christina koch has landed safely back on earth after completing the longest ever single space flight by a woman. she‘s spent 328 days in space — orbiting the earth more than 5000 times. the 41—year—old says she wants to inspire the next generation of space explorers. at the university of leicester.

0n on any level, this is a huge achievement. yes, absolutely, there have been women who have spent more daysin have been women who have spent more days in space than this over multiple missions but this is the longest single mission. untested achievement. what big issues will she do with back on earth? we saw her clambering out of the spacecraft, gravity is an issue. yes! astronauts often feel unwell when they come back. there can be dizziness, nausea, weakness and their muscles as they return, they are the more common symptoms. we have seen in men —— men in space, but is there a physiological difference which makes this tougher for women? there are a few differences between men and women

astronauts scientists have observed, then more susceptible to hearing and eyesight damage. women, it is believed they are more susceptible to radiation —related cancers. radiation is a huge hazard of the space environment. the issue is that there are not many data points here. we have not had you are not isolated in space as such because you are in close confinement to several other people all of the time? that is true, so you go up with a team of people on the international space station, a tea m the international space station, a team of three, and there will be another team of three there, so there are people around you all the time, and unlike in years gone by when it has been difficult to

communicate, astronauts up there have regular communications with the earth so they are less isolated than they used to be. you were the winner ofa programme, they used to be. you were the winner of a programme, astronauts do you have what it takes, do you still wa nt to have what it takes, do you still want to do it? yes, definitely what i still want to do. there hasn‘t been a call for european astronauts since then so i haven‘t been able to apply but i think i‘m going to be the first one there if i get the opportunity. i will keep my fingers crossed for you. good luck. and now the weather forecast. the crossed for you. good luck. and now the weatherforecast. the mist crossed for you. good luck. and now the weather forecast. the mist and fog has lingered for a few this afternoon and that has meant a cool afternoon. but we should have a lovely evening sunset and a fine night tonight. clear skies around, these areas prone to mist and fog patches, and a bit more of a breeze

in the west. it could be a chilly night for everyone, just about anywhere susceptible to a bit of frost as we go into friday morning. any mist and fog will shift away by the end of the morning as the breeze picks up, lots of dry sunny weather on friday, a bit more breeze, that will bring more cloud into western areas, and just a few showers, but temperatures up just a few showers, but temperatures upa degree just a few showers, but temperatures up a degree or so on the last couple of days. we can, storm ciara forecast to come in on saturday and sunday, damaging winds possible, travel disruption, as well. the latest weather warnings will be on the website and the bbc weather app. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient was in brighton,

and is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. at the moment the great majority of the cases in the world are still in china, the great majority. hours before he was due to deliver scotland‘s budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16 year old boy police in northern ireland appeal for witnesses to help them find those responsible for planting an explosive device on a lorry. anyone who plants a device in a public place is reckless as to the consequences of their action and of the potential to kill or seriously injure people in that area. this is an incredibly reckless activity. sport now on afternoon live with hugh ferris. the premier league have changed the closing date of their summer transfer window? it‘ll now be what it used to be.

when the transfer window previously closed at the end of august everybody complained. they wanted their squads ready for the beginning of the season — so they changed it to that, expecting that others would follow suit — they didn‘t. so, you had a situation where a club could buy your players after the window had shut, but you couldn‘t replace them — hence more complaints from exactly the people that wanted it changed in the first place, so it was armed with that information that the clubs met this morning to vote to change the summer transfer window again. so from this year it‘ll be back at the end of august, although as that‘s a bank holiday it‘ll end on september 1st. it was a decision that we made. we reflected on what is in the best interest of the league and we felt it wasn‘t in the best interest to be out of sync with the other leagues.

we have now extended it until the end of august. i understood the reason to do it but it put a lot of pressure on all of us to make decisions and it gave an advantage to other leagues and so i think it is good to be consistent. it will be about three weeks to the end of the transfer window next season,in end of the transfer window next season, in fact. end of the transfer window next season, infact. because... also announced the 2020/21 premier league season will start on the weekend of 8th august, less than a month after the euro 2020 final. now the six nations, not a great start for england and so team changes? eddie jones obviously didn‘t like much of what he saw in paris — so five changes for the calcutta cup match against scotland at murrayfield. flanker lewis ludlam is in for courtney lawes.

prop mako vunipola and lock george kruis return, with jonathan joseph replacing the injured manu tuilagi in the centre. scrum half ben youngs has been dropped in favour of willi heinz. he was replaced by him in the second half of their defeat to france on sunday. we feel benny, where at the end of the game, at murrayfield, the game breaks up a bit and he will be able to use his running skills, which we want to get back into his game. and then at the start of the game, willie plays with a fair bit of control, he has a good kicking game, and has a calming influence on the people around him. england won‘t havejofra archer back until the summer after a scan revealed he has a stress fracture in his elbow. he‘s already flown home from the tour of south africa where he could only play one of the four tests. archer will miss the tour of sri lanka and also the whole

of the indian premier league. he‘s hoping to return forjune‘s three—test series against the west indies. great britain have lost to china in their opening women‘s 0lympic basketball qualification game as they attempt to compete at a games on foreign soilfor the first time. the top three teams from the group of four will reach tokyo 2020. great britain are ranked 18th in the world and led after the opening two periods. temi fagbenle top—scored for gb and captain chantelle handy led from the front but the world number eight side china showed their superiority in the closing stages. great britain next face south korea on saturday and then a very strong spain team. it is tough because we came out and played well in the first half but they adjusted some things in the second half and they started running the floor and we couldn‘t stop them. but it is the first game and we have another two to play so we now have to focus on the next two. we knew it was going to be tough and every game is going to be tough,

so we have to move on from this and we cannot dwell on it, we have a day off and then we play on saturday. judd trump has been knocked out of the snooker by kyren wilson. judd trump did make an excellent shot, though, here. the match went to a deciding frame and wilson held his nerve to win 11—3 and progressed to the quarterfinals. that‘s all the sport for now. now on afternoon live — let‘s go nationwide — and see what‘s happening around the country — in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. let‘s go to north west tonight‘s annabel tiffin who is in salford, she is talking about the latest updates on the coronavirus in the region.

and — from look north — we havejeff brown in newcastle who is going to be telling us about a mental health campaign. so how is the coronavirus affecting the tourism industry? this is something we have been looking at this evening because a number of people are already in quarantine in the hospital on the wirral and they came from the epicentre of the outbreak in the wuhan, they were brought here last week. the coronavirus is having an impact across the region and today our reporter has been to cumbria and the beautiful lake district to see what is happening to tourism. the region has enjoyed a boom in tourism from china in recent years and this time last year chinese visitor numbers reached a record high up by 286% since 2016, and that was because of new direct flights from china to manchester. those flights have been suspended. you might have had a clip there, i thought, but to

sum up what the tourism person was going to say, she was going to say that cumbria has worked really hard to attract chinese visitors to come from london on their way to scotland, to stop on the weight of the lake district, and they had been doing that, but this year it‘s a different story —— on the way to the la ke different story —— on the way to the lake district. we have spoken to the owner of a windermere cruise boat, he had a party of chinese tourists booked on, but they have not turned up, and if that continues he is looking at large losses. hoteliers also have cancellations and although they say it is not having a big effect immediately it will do long term. and it‘s notjust tourism that your programme has found is affected by coronavirus. yesterday we went to the chinatown area of manchester and here the

coronavirus is affecting public confidence in businesses and restau ra nts a nd confidence in businesses and restaurants and shops so trade has fallen by 50% over fears caused by the coronavirus, even though health experts say there is no need for alarm. we have also heard stories that parents are warning children to avoid chinese classmates because of the outbreak, so how on earth you explain that to a small child? bbc radio manchester and merseyside will examine how the coronavirus is affecting our chinese communities in this region. that is from five o‘clock. you can follow live coverage on the bbc news website. you will feature that tonight at 630. thanks forjoining us. jeff — today has been chosen as "time to talk day" — a chance for all of us to open up abut whatever concerns us, in an attempt to promote better mental health. and for a school in county durham, that meant inviting in some special guests? that‘s right. when i was allowed you

went to school and you did your lessons and you came home and may be played football until tea—time, then did your homework and went to bed, and then repeat, but it seems these days that youngsters are under pressure from the moment they wake up. how many likes do they have on instagram, who has been writing about them on twitter? if you have a problem at that age, sometimes it is not that easy to talk to parents, but it is easier to talk to grandparents because you get more sympathy from the grandparents. so this school came up with the idea of bringing in the old people to talk to the youngsters and everyone thought it was a good idea. to the youngsters and everyone thought it was a good ideam to the youngsters and everyone thought it was a good idea. it is really good to learn them from a young age especially, i've had friends of mine who have lost children at 12 and 18, to mental health, and i think it is good they are learning from a young age to get

them right to know that it is good to talk. this seems to have gone down well but this school is ahead of the game when it comes to mental health? yes, i can't imagine many schools of this size have a dedicated school counsellor, someone whose job it is to listen to peoples problems, and may be because she‘s not a teacher so may be impartial it encourages the youngsters to open up to her about what is on their mind. because we have ingrained mental health awareness in the school, children are more open to talk about their feelings, and their emotions, so rather than waiting until things build up to a time when they can't deal with it, they like to come straightaway and talk to somebody about it. they know the conversations can change lives. in this region in particular it needs help, a recent survey of 4000 adults in the north—east by a mental health

organisation, they found one in four people said they had been put off speaking to a friend who had a mental health problem because of the awkwardness that the conversation might be an over half the people in the survey said they would not tell anyone if they had a mental health problem and 44% said the most important thing was keeping a stiff upper lip. top marks to this school, then, for taking part. and tackling then, for taking part. and tackling the sort of problems we hear about all too often these days. jeff, thanks forjoining us. and to annabel, also thank you. if you would like to see more on any of those stories you can access them through the bbc iplayer and a reminder we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at 430 here on afternoon live. the police service of northern ireland are appealing for witnesses who can help them find

those responsible for planting an explosive device found on a lorry. they believe dissident republicans are responsible for the bomb, which they believe was planted onjanuary 31st. it was discovered on monday after police received a tip—off. these bombs are made by terrorists, made to a standard which cannot guarantee any form of safety and once the device had left that yard, if it had done, it was exposing people in the public realm at a busy time and in busy places to huge levels of risk, these people are absolutely callous and reckless in what they have done. in simple terms any device that explodes poses a major risk of killing or seriously hurting anyone in the vicinity and if we look at the plan that may have existed for the vehicle to be transported on a public road you can imagine that on a friday afternoon, friday evening, the roads are very busy, and there are people coming home from school, going to and from

their work, socialising, so the potential carnage which could be caused by an explosion of any size is simply quite worrying to contemplate. anyone who plants a device in a public place is reckless as to the consequences of their action and of the potential to kill or seriously injure people in that area, this is an incredibly reckless activity. it is worth remembering that the terrorists, if the device was planted on friday or around that time, it is between friday and monday before they give us the information that enables us to locate this, and during that period a viable bomb is in a commercial ya rd a viable bomb is in a commercial yard posing significant risk to anybody who comes within range. detective superintendent shaun wright, there. in his first public comments since being acquitted by the senate, president trump has described his

impeachment as a terrible ordeal. speaking at the annual prayer breakfast in washington, mr trump condemned the democrats, saying they were trying to destroy him. he also appeared to criticise a member of his own party, senator mitt romney, who said yesterday that his religious faith led him to support the impeachment. in the last half an hour house sspeaker nancy pelosi gave her reaction to trump‘s comments. i don‘t know if the president understands about people who pray, but we do pray for the united states of america and i pray for the president and for president bush and president 0bama, and i pray hard for him because he is so off the track of our constitution, our values, him because he is so off the track of our constitution, ourvalues, our country, the air our children breed in the water they drink, he really needs our prayers. —— the air our children breathe. he can say whatever he wants but i pray for him andi whatever he wants but i pray for him and i do so sincerely and without anguish. i gently pray for everybody else. i thought what he said about

senator mitt romney was particularly without class. he said that some people who do it as an excuse to do the wrong thing, that what you said about mitt romney? so inappropriate ata about mitt romney? so inappropriate at a prayer breakfast. you go through a woman‘s right to choose and all those things, that is a prayer breakfast and that is something about faith, you may not be something i agree with but that is appropriate, but to go into the stock market and raising up his acquittal thing and is characterising of other people‘s motivation, he is talking about things which he knows little about. faith. that is nancy pelosi. they are now getting ready to hearfrom that is nancy pelosi. they are now getting ready to hear from the president in the white house. he alluded to the not guilty verdict at

the impeachment trial and we are expecting him to address it directly ina expecting him to address it directly in a speech scheduled for five o‘clock our time and we will take you over to washington for that. in a moment, the latest business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. a third case of coronavirus is confirmed in the uk — the patient was in brighton, and is being transferred to an infectious disease centre. hours before he‘s due to deliver scotland‘s budget — finance secretary derek mckay steps down after sending personal messages to a 16 year old boy on social media police in northern ireland appeal for witnesses to help them find those responsible for planting an explosive device on a lorry. here‘s your business headlines on afternoon live, the new chairman ofjohn lewis has warned that more jobs will have to be cut and stores will close. dame sharon white said the retailer is going through the most challenging period since it was established as a co—operative in the 1920s.

a leading economic forecaster has claimed there‘s only a one in five chance of the government achieving its target of doubling economic growth. the chancellor sajid javid is expected to set out his plans to reach growth of 2.8% a year in his budget next month. but the national institute of economic and social research has said that hitting this growth rate, not seen since 2006, would be difficult and it expects the economy to grow by 1.5% this year. china plans to reduce tariffs — by half — on around £57 billion worth of imports from the united states. the world‘s two biggest economies recently signed a new trade agreement. the latest move by china comes as large parts of its manufacturing industry have been shut down to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. where have markets ended up today? it has been a decent few days for the stock markets and investors have

had a lot to be excited about, china announcing it was going to halve ta riffs announcing it was going to halve tariffs on about £57 billion worth of us imports. the ftse100 is up in the dowjones also up by a similar figure in new york —— and the dow jones. this has come after the gloom surrounding the coronavirus. 0ne jones. this has come after the gloom surrounding the coronavirus. one big fall was glaxosmithkline after investors took fright at the potential cost of demerging the two opponents that came together to make the drug merger and that will reportedly cost £2.4 billion to execute that move and many people will be scratching their heads as to whether it is worth it. that is where the pound is trading. it went below a dollar 30 and hasn‘t quite come back from it. russ mould, investment director at aj bell, joins us. why are investors so excited by

these chinese moves on tariff imports in the united states are only days after investors were concerned about the coronavirus? the coronavirus is still a concern and another company today, the italian car—maker another company today, the italian car— maker fiat chrysler has talked about possible plant shutdown so the effects are rippling through the real economy, but what share prices are looking towards is they are hoping for a rapid cure and containment and they are looking at the chinese authorities flooding the stock market with cheap money to support them, and they are thinking if and when the viruses contained the chinese government will step in with more fiscal stimulus. details we re with more fiscal stimulus. details were thin about this when it was signed in january but were thin about this when it was signed injanuary but now we know on valentine's day china will show america a bit of love with those tariff cuts. a lovely valentines ca rd tariff cuts. a lovely valentines card from beijing to washington. now

glaxosmithkline and those incredible figures on the cost of splitting the components of that company. £2.4 billion. this suggests they will rethink the strategy? the chief executive is committed to it and she has been gearing up to it for some time with several deals that have led up to this time and she already merged the company with pfizer. shareholders have actually been pressuring for this, the previous pa rt of pressuring for this, the previous part of the company was constantly told by shareholders the company was too big and too unwieldy and it needed slimming down. emma walmsley is now getting on with that, and although the expenses are going to be big, lot investors think they will be a big player in the medicines side of things, so short—term pain but hopefully potential long—term gain stop looking at the pound, we started just above a dollar 30 and then the government started talking about taking a tough line on whether it would align itself with eu

regulations after the transition period, a question over whether britain will enter the transition period with a deal, and yet it hasn‘t recovered above that $1 30 level. we are in the negotiating phase and we still have three options, a deal, no deal, oran extension, we know that sterling has been the market's means of measuring what they are seeing. they normally do that through government borrowing costs but they can't because the bank of england is looking to do that, so the pound is the thermometer of what the markets are thinking. markets like the soft deals and i don't like hard deals, and they don't like transition because that means more of where on earth are we? europe was talking about financial market regulations and looking to push those hard on the uk and the uk said no, so at the moment both sides are taking a pretty ha rd moment both sides are taking a pretty hard stance, but you would expect that, this is a game of poker, after all. john lewis, not a

listed company, but given its unique ownership structure, a lot of attention on it, and now it seems that the new chairman says it cannot be immune to the store closures which have riven the sector. sharon white has a terrific cv, the chief executive of 0fcom over five years and she has no retail experience but she is clearly bright and will learn very quickly. huge challenges for the company, does it need all those big shops? can it adapt to the online world? can they keep staff happy? does she pay them the elusive bonus that many of them will be relying upon? thanks forjoining us. that is it for me. thanks for joining us. president trump is scheduled to be talking in the next few minutes and that will come up at five o‘clock with huw edwards. now we have the weather. a lovely winters day in many parts of the uk

but we are still keeping a close eye on what we think might happen over the weekend. east of the united states, the area of low pressure, torrential rain and also snow on the eastern seaboard, and then picked up by the jet stream and fired over the atla ntic by the jet stream and fired over the atlantic into the weekend, and by sunday in particular we could see the greatest potential for damaging gusts of wind and travel disruption. a lot to play for in the details. keep up—to—date with the latest on the website and on the bbc weather app. this is the peak district from early on, a bit of mist and fog in the valley, temperatures 4—5, but most of them around where they should be for this time of year. a bit more cloud, which will come and go through tonight. any mist and fog more likely, especially north—east england. clear skies for many and it

will be another chilly one with a touch of frost to take us into friday morning. the fog should clear a bit quicker tomorrow, a lovely start to the day, plenty of sunshine, quickly turning cloudy over the far west and a few showers possible as we go through late morning and into the afternoon. temperatures up a degree or so on the values today. the first batch of rain through friday night into saturday with gale force winds pushing east, rain most likely in the north and that clears away, sunshine around what time on saturday, although may be a bit more cloud and rain close to the south—east. gales will develop, heavy rain into northern ireland and western parts of scotland, preceded bya western parts of scotland, preceded by a bit of snow, but then its some wet and windy weather with 50, 60 miles per hour gusts into saturday and sunday in which storm ciara arrives, and still uncertainty, but

to go with the win, lots of rain. —— to go with the win, lots of rain. —— to go with the win, lots of rain. —— to go with the wind. it is the strength of the win, we could see winds quite widely across the country around 60—70 miles per are but some will see 80 mph or more. we will keep you updated.

today at 5pm: a third person in the uk tests positive for coronavirus, and is being taken to a specialist nhs treatment centre. as tests continue, it‘s revealed the person did not catch the virus in china, where most cases have been found, but elsewhere in asia. the risk is very much lower and china and very very much lower in particular in wuhan, but it is probably sufficient to remove onto the next stage which is likely to expand the geometric. meanwhile, the death toll in china has risen to 565 — but beijing‘s ambassador to the uk says the reaction has been excessive. rumours and panic are more frightening than the virus itself.