a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name is mike embley. our top stories: it's been confirmed that the chinese doctor who first reported the coronavirus in wuhan and tried to alerted the authorities has died from it. president trump celebrates his impeachment acquittal with a long attack on the democrats and one of his own senators. the white house claims american forces have killed qassim al—rimi, leader of the extremist group al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. and the plight of the bumblebee. why extreme hot weather is causing a catastrophic decline in numbers.

hello to you. we start in china, where casualty figures from the coronavirus are still climbing. authorities now say at least 630 people have lost their lives and the number of people infected has spiked more than 30,000. it's now been confirmed that a doctor from wuhan, who was among the first to warn publicly of the emergence of the new virus, has died from it in hospital. he was 3a and is being hailed as a hero on chinese social media. as authorities across the region scramble to contain the virus, the bbc‘s rupert wingfield—hayes reports from hong kong. this is what happens when fear takes hold. shops in hong kong today were being cleared of rice and toilet paper as rumours swirled of a complete shutdown of the border with mainland china. out in hong kong harbour,

a huge cruise ship, the virus possibly loose on board. several passengers have tested positive and no—one is being allowed off. from his balcony, hinsley lee can look out at his home town but cannot go there. translation: i am nervous but the only thing we can do is stay in our cabins and be careful. hong kong has now at least five cases of people with the coronavirus who have not been to mainland china and have not had any apparent contact with people from mainland china. also, three of them live in the same place, that is this building behind me here, and that may be the first indication of what is called community transmission. that is the virus passing from one person to another here in hong kong. experts here say they are now not optimistic that the virus can be contained and that a full pandemic may be on the way. not so, according to the chinese ambassador to london, insisting china has

the situation under control. it is our hope that the governments of all countries, including the uk, should understand and support chinese efforts. respect the professional advice of who, avoid overreaction, avoid creating panic. but at the same time, from wuhan, pictures the like of which we haven't seen in generations — stadiums, gymnasiums and conference centres all being turned into fever centres, so desperate is the shortage of beds for the sick. by phone, i managed to talk to a young woman in wuhan who described to me the stress of not knowing what is really going on and what to believe. translation: we don't feel safe. we don't know how the virus is passed from one person to another.

but we can't stay at home all the time, and we don't know when this will end. we don't know when we will be able to return to normal life. that's very stressful. there is some good news. these are patients who have recovered leaving hospital. tonight we learned the virus killed this man, dr li wenliang. in early december, this brave wuhan doctor had attempted to warn authorities about the spread of a dangerous new virus. his warnings were ignored. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in hong kong. more on the virus to come. president trump has been celebrating his acquittal by the us senate, saying he went through hell during his impeachment. during a long statement full of vitriol and resentment, he claimed he'd been vindicated. laura trevelyan reports. hail to the chief plays at the national prayer breakfast, the newly acquitted donald trump was in no mood for brotherly love or turning the other cheek. 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. the president set about the business of score settling, reserving particular scorn for senator mitt romney, the lone republican who voted to convict him, citing faith as a factor. i don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. house speaker nancy pelosi, who tops the president's list of enemies, fired back. i thought what he said about senator romney was particularly without class. hail to the chief plays later, at the white house, the music was the same and the president used his victory lap

to drive home the message. we went through hell, unfairly — did nothing wrong, did nothing wrong — but this is what the end result is. cheering and applause and mr trump listed his grievances, portraying his impeachment as a continuation of the scrutiny he has endured for three years. it was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars and this should never, ever happen to another president ever. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. thank you very much. no contrition from president trump today but he faces re—election election in november and sees his acquittal as a powerful tool in mobilising his supporters. president trump has claimed that forces have killed the leader of the al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. they say he died in

a counterterrorism operation and he said that the killing brings the us closer to eliminating threats posed to national security. despite several attempts by us special forces, he eluded capture for five years. we had a relatively short statement from the white house that does not contain details. there had been reports for the past week or so about this counterterrorism operation in yemen but the statement does not really clarify when it happened other than to say that it was carried out under the orders of president trump three was eliminated, to use the words of the statement. qasim al—raymi he is a significant figure and has been involved with al qaeda for several decades, initially

in afghanistan and for the past five years in yemen leading this particular group that is considered by the united states as one of the most deadly groups within al qaeda's global network. as far as we can tell this is a confirmation, this is absolute fact. in these situations it is always difficult to get absolute facts. well, the statement is categoric, it is clearly not introducing doubt. the only doubt is the fact that it is rather short of detail as to exactly where and when this happened. perhaps those details will come out in the coming days and weeks, perhaps there has been a verification process going on between the time we had initial reports about this and the statement coming out from the white house now. the final few lines indicate the thinking of the president and clearly this is the message to the american people, the political message if you like. he says we will continue

to protect the american people by tracking down and eliminating terrorist who seek to do us harm. scientists have produced further evidence that climate change is causing a sharp decline in bumblebee numbers in europe and north america. the creatures are key pollinators, playing a vital role in agriculture, but with current trends, there could be a mass extinction of bumblebees within a few decades. the research on the paper at the research on the paper at the university of ottawa told me the fall in number is astonishing. it really is quite drastic. when we first got the numbers, i could not believe them and had to run them at least seven times because they

we re least seven times because they were quite terrifying when we first saw them. there are very many different kinds of fees and many different kinds of bumblebees? almost 300 different kinds of bumblebees that fly around and each have a different function and are useful in different areas of the ecosystem. what can be done? what one of the things oui’ done? what one of the things our study suggests is that when we get these heat waves, bumblebees just cannot take that heat so one of the things we can do is go into your garden and put in a little refuge for bumblebees. even keeping a tree, somewhere for them to get some shade. what makes them in particular so susceptible? that is a great

question. they are well adapted to the colder environment so they come out earlier in springtime and state late into the fall and because they are so the fall and because they are so big and fuzzy they can create heat and it helps in move around in the colder temperatures but when the hot extremes come, they are poorly suited to deal with that heat. it is great to hear about what individual people can do but other bigger things that can be done to avoid what looks like a mass extinction? the first thing is, these are climate change related extension and so the first thing we need to do isa the first thing we need to do is a handle on carbon emission and take serious action against climate change. how optimistic are you? i think to be doing this kind of work you have to

be optimistic. there are different things that you can do at different scales, tackling climate change, differing agricultural practices, a lot of things we can do and a lot of people interested in helping bees and other animals. i think this paper gives us a lot of tools to help with the future as well. stay with us if you can, much more to come including this dash how even the bartenders in japan are this dash how even the bartenders injapan are being replaced by robots. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. the ban on the african national congress is lifted immediately, and the anc leader, nelson mandela, is to be set free unconditionally.

..four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, it's this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a launch, that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given the yachtswoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. welcome back, good to have you with us on bbc news. the latest headline for you: it's been confirmed that li wenliang, the chinese doctor who first confirmed the coronavirus in wuhan and tried to alert authorities, has died.

let's stay with that story. many countries find it difficult to tackle this virus if it reaches them. people living in extreme poverty with limited access to quality healthcare. president the global development division of the belinda gates foundation told me why. it is important for us to recognise that, when there is an emerging infection like this, every country in the world needs to prepare and, as we learned in 2014 with the ebola outbreak, the countries with weak health systems suffered the most. the places where people are in extreme property and 85% of the world's people living in extreme poverty live in saharan africa and parts of asia. we need to be prepared. we are working

closely with the centre of disease control to prepare and strengthen the ability to attack, isolate and treat patients should this infection arrive in those countries. is there a concern that there may be people who travel back from the lunar new year are perhaps bringing the virus with them? people travel from many places. right now the efforts are to isolate and contain this virus. china is making heroic efforts to do so. the countries in summer to do so. the countries in summer in africa and asia need to be prepared. —— sahara. .

should those patients have the infection to be able to treat them is quite important. 0ne infection to be able to treat them is quite important. one of them is quite important. one of the things we have seen, when there is an emerging infection it puts tremendous stress on the health system. with ebola, we saw the systems not only we re we saw the systems not only were stressed with ebola but many children died from measles, many women died in childbirth because of the disruption to the health system. investing now in preparedness and resilience is important. specialists tell us repeatedly there are usually three or four key questions in an outbreak like this. how serious is it, if you catch it, how transmissible is it, how controllable is it in what chance of a vaccine? do you think we're close to a ny a nswers ? i think there is a tremendous global effort under way to answer some of those questions and the data was just coming in. we've seen this before

with other emerging infections. this is a novel coronavirus. there are questions to be answered. there are some elements of that are similar to the outbreaks we saw with the sars virus in 2003 and the middle east respiratory syndrome but this is a novel virus we have to do the studies and put together that global collaboration, answer the questions about transmissibility, understand how fatal it is and to be prepared for every eventuality. now, efforts today are to very much contain this virus, understand where it is, limit transmission but should those efforts fail and this become a global pandemic, we have to be prepared with countermeasures like drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and another part of the bill and melinda gates foundation's invest months is going to be in working with the biotechnology pharmaceutical industry to try and develop those countermeasures as soon as possible.

doctor chris elias, thank you so much. the group that calls itself islamic state may have been defeated in iraq and syria and itself style caliphate has been destroyed on the ground. the campaign continues in other parts of the world. quentin sullivan has been to the philippines where local insurgents are stepping up their attacks. just over a year ago, militants claiming loyalty to as blew up claiming loyalty to as blew up the catholic cathedral in the capital. . ——to is. 0n sulu, the philippine army has been out in force and in numbers never seen here before. here, a local insurgency has been upgraded. the islamic state group has made them more vicious and broadened their ambition. sulu is an island under siege. soldiers flooded here

after is struck at its heart and brought carnage to the island's catholic congregation last january. 23 christians died in their attack when they detonated their suicide vests inside and outside jolo cathedral during morning mass. one year later, jolo cathedral has been patched up and repaired, but the christian community here still lies in pieces. for victoriana and her friends, this was their sanctuary. she's been too scared to return until now. translation: when i turned my head, i saw a lot of dead people near me. the wounded were screaming "help!" but i was thinking, who would help us? is have more thanjust a foothold here. local militants, the abu sayyaf group have sworn allegiance to them and formally

planted the black flag in the philippine jungle. a small army of soldiers are now deployed here, searching for the islamic state group's affiliate. but they have not been able to stop more attacks and they admit that no—one knows these jungles better than their enemy. the men are moving pretty fast on this patrol. because they know somewhere in this jungle is the new self—declared leader of the islamic state in the region. he has hundreds of his own men, filipino, but he has more. he has arab fighters here, they've come from iraq and syria, they've brought family members with them and he has already shown he is willing to do the bidding of the islamic state. we obtained this footage of abu sayyaf fighters in battle. in their ranks, farfrom home, an egyptian fighter. he died in another suicide bombing on the island late last year.

in thejungles, the islamic state group roam wild and terrors lie in wait here. the amazon river dolphin is a friendly mammal that appears to grin and turn pink when it gets excited. but it is under threat in brazil. fishermen hunt and kill it illegally. environmentalists are angry the legislation protecting the dolphins is no longer being renewed. the red dolphin are intelligent, friendly, grin like humans and turn a shade of pink when they are excited. the dolphins live in brazil's amazonas state and for researchers, they are a special part of the wildlife.

translation: i fall in love with these animals every day. they are fascinating. but the dolphins are under threat from fishermen who catch them and kill them to use as bait for catfish. in 2015, the state succumbed to pressure from environmental groups and introduced a ban on fishing for the catfish saying it was responsible for the deaths of around 2500 dolphins each year. but that ban was only temporary. government sources at the time said it would probably become permanent but that has not happened. and the ban ended last month. there are fears now the dolphins will once again fall victim to the fishermen‘s nets. translation: we do not want the dolphins to becomejust a legend of amazonia. we want them to exist for a long time. vera and her team catch the dolphins and take them to a floating research centre in 11,000 square kilometres of flooded rainforest and wetlands where the dolphins are checked,

marked and released into the reserve. the dolphins only reproduce every 3—5 years, making them especially vulnerable to extinction. and although they can be found across the amazon basin at the moment, researchers fear they could disappearfor good like the yangtze river dolphin in china which was fished to extinction in 2006. for decades now we have been warned about the potential perils of automation and rapid technological advances leading to people being replaced by robots in the workforce. if you think this is a phenomenon linked only to manufacturing or heavy industry, think again. injapan, robots are getting everywhere. when it comes to bartenders, this is probably the sort of thing you have in mind. smartly dressed, skillful

and attention to detail. experts in libation and lubrication. but this is a bartender of the 21st century. a repurposed industrial robot ready to take your order. translation: there is a labour shortage problem in the restaurant sector and we installed this to solve the issue. in addition to that, we hope to create a system where humans and robots can work together. this particular robot is nothing if not versatile. it can pour you a beer in 40 seconds, makes you a cocktail inside one minute and can also chat about the weather, reading its customers' expressions using artificial intelligence software. for some, it is even better than the real thing. translation: dealing with people can be a hassle. with this you can just come, get drunk and go home. each robot costs around

$80,000, roughly equivalent to the annual salary of three human bartenders. so come in, take a seat. let mr robot pour you one for your baby and one more for the road. talking of technological advances, let's leave you with these pictures. this is the titanium tabby. found on the streets of a siberian city in blistering cold, his paws were frozen. he would have been the latest victim of the unforgiving winter had he not been found by volunteers brought to a pioneering russian vet who fitted him with prosthetic paws made of titanium. clearly still getting used to his new pins. they were fitted using a similar technique to dental implants for people. there is much more on all the news for you at any time on the bbc website. you can reach me and the team on twitter.

that's it for now. thank you for watching. hello there. we have got some very windy weather on the way, and the wind will ramp up day by day. on friday afternoon we could get gusts reaching 50 or 60 mph in western scotland but the wind becomes much more extensive on saturday affecting all of scotland and northern ireland and the wind will be stronger as well, potentially reaching 70 mph, damaging disruptive gusts of wind. sunday sees the arrival of storm ciara. but the strongest winds could reach an excess of 80 kilometres per hour. although these patches of frost around at the moment, as the breeze picks up across western areas, that will tend to increasingly

lift the frost, so as we head into friday morning, the frost will tend to become confined to central and eastern parts of the uk copy it will be a cold start to the david dimbleby a fair bit of sunshine around as well. for northern ireland we will start to see something a cloud blowing into the afternoon, a few patches of raining we get the wind really starting to ramp up in the west of scotla nd starting to ramp up in the west of scotland as we had through friday afternoon and on towards the evening time as well. in fa ct, the evening time as well. in fact, as we had through friday night it looks like being quite a blowy, blustery kind of night at the bend of rain pushes its way eastward. all of us will notice those winds increasing in strength and because it is going to be a windy night it will also be quite a mild night relatively, with temperatures potentially no lower than 10 degrees or so potentially no lower than 10 degrees or $0 across parts potentially no lower than 10 degrees or so across parts of the south—east. that takes us on into the weekend for that windy weather forecast. cover tightly packed the isobars are on saturday, particularly at this with different approaches of the atlantic. saturday, much of the atlantic. saturday, much of us will try to have a great start to the day. winds will strengthen through the day,

coming very strong for northern ireland and scotland, and i'll have rain and some forecast for scotland, so we could have some weather impact around as we start of the weekend, but it is on sunday that dorm carer arrives. tightly packed isobars working and, and around this cold front we will have some very squally winds indeed and then another swathe of strong winds tucking around the southern flank of the area of low pressure so there are multiple zones of strong winds that are forecast for sunday across the whole of the uk. quite widely, inland 50—60 mild an hour gust, but we could get gustin an hour gust, but we could get gust in excess of 80 mild an hour these are damaging disruptive gust of wind so we are highly likely to see transport disruption peewee could also see some power cut as well, so make sure you stay tuned for our latest weather forecast over the next few days.

this is bbc news. the headlines: it's been confirmed that the chinese doctor who first reported the coronavirus in wuhan and tried to alerted the authorities has died from it. he has become a hero in china for his early mornings. when he first started wanting he was summoned by police. president trump celebrates his impeachment acquittal with a long attack on the democrats and one of his own senators. the white house claims american forces have killed qassim al—raymi, leader of the extremist group al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula.