this is bbc world news today. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories... a warning of a global shortage of facemasks as the coronavirus continues to spread. the world health organisation says prices are spiralling as people buy up supplies. demand is at 100 times higher than normal and prices are up to 20 times higher. tributes after the death of a doctor who blew the whistle on the virus — in china outrage is building over the authorities‘ response. the already simmering concern about the handling of the crisis exploded toa the handling of the crisis exploded to a public wave of anger and grief, and the death of a doctor, systemic

feelings have been made there. he democrats finally declare pete buttigieg the winner in iowa but bernie sanders says he won more votes. the next stop is new hampshire — we're there as the party tries to move forward. and coming up: heading for the sun — scientists prepare to send an unmanned craft into the burning heart of our solar system. hello and welcome to world news today. the world health organization says there is a global shortage of protective medical equipment like gowns, masks and gloves, as fears about the spread of the new coronavirus grow. more than 31,000 people have been infected with the virus, and 638 people have died. that includes a chinese doctor from wuhan, who tried to raise the alarm about the outbreak late last year.

this is from outside the wuhan central hospital, where dr li wenliang worked and died. a small crowd left bouquets of flowers and blew whistles— which symbolise dr li's role as a whistleblower— in tribute to his bravery as a whistle—blower. news of his death has sparked an unprecedented outpouring of rage and grief in china — adding to pressure on the government over its handling of the crisis. 0ur china correspondent john sudworth reports. shouting. in some cities those suspected of being sick are being rounded up, with multiple unverified videos showing the quarantine squads at work. it is all adding to a growing sense of disbelief and dread. speaking own language. "i do not want to be taken away like that," a child can be heard saying. screaming.

but now the fear is turning to anger. doctor li wenliang was one of the first to report signs of the new strange virus but his online posts were censored and the police made him sign this confession, along with seven others for spreading rumours. his death from the virus in this wuhan hospital has prompted an outpouring and social media. the #i want freedom of speech viewed almost 2 million times before being blocked. "doctor li was the first whistle—blower but no one cared," this man tells me. are you angry? "yes, a bit," she says, "but more hopeless, if they listen to him the situation would be better now." on a beijing river bank, we find a tribute to the doctor. "goodbye li wenliang," it says.

there can be no doubting just how sensitive a moment that snow is for chinese ruling communists party, the already simmering concern about the handling of the crisis exploding into a public wave of anger and grief. in the death of a doctor, the systemic failures have been laid bare. the response that is likely to be more censorship. these videos of wuhan‘s hospitals, the conditions inside and the people queuing for masks were taken by a blogger. i spoke to him earlier this week. what are your thoughts on how long you will be able to continue providing independent reporting from wuhan? "i am not sure," he says, "the censorship is so strict, people's accounts are being closed down if they share my content." his family say he has

now disappeared. in this public health disaster, there are real political risks and orders are already being sent out, maintain stability, tighten control. john sudworth, bbc news. earlier, the world health 0rganisation shared its latest figures on the outbreak, including some positive news from china. for the last two days there have been fewer reported new infections in china. which is good news but at the same time we caution against reading too much into that. the numbers could go up again as curves can zigzag. bethany allen—ebrahimian is a china reporterfor axios. shejoins us now she joins us now from washington. thank you forjoining us. there is

anger 110w thank you forjoining us. there is anger now building up amongst chinese people against the government. that is right if you look at the we chat, the primary means of messaging via phone there, it isa means of messaging via phone there, it is a total pouring for grief of the doctor, li wenliang, who died and a graphic system and government officials who had deep knowledge of the virus early on and leading today's loss that could have prevented some of the spread of the virus. you see a line on the twitter platform, wishing, longing and demanding freedom of speech. what do you think the impact is going to be on the chinese government? right now what you have seen from hisjinping himself is a statement that this is a challenge for china present government system, the standing committee issued new guidelines

calling for greater internet controls and greater media controls so controls and greater media controls so they are aware that this could potentially pose a challenge to their entire government system. but they are cracking down and rounding up they are cracking down and rounding up people and they are very seriously trying to get it under control. so it could potentially, the anger could continue to spread but they are taking many measures both to crack down on the spread of the virus and on the spread of the anger towards them. it is interesting because some people said the fact that we have seen these huge cities completely shut down by the chinese government, no access, no... that reaction has been tough and effective— it in so many ways and effective— it in so many ways and other people saying there has not been enough done. right, as of right now, there is 46 million chinese people who are essentially on lock down. and the chinese

government of health, the vice premier in charge of what is going on has said they have a wartime approach to fighting the virus and in some ways it is a stunning, it is the largest quarantine and history. they have made huge moves to try to stem the spread of the virus. we have yet to see if it is effective because the number of cases has continued to rise almost exponentially. now it is over 31,000. we will start to see within a week if the number of new cases begins to level off and we can start to say it is effective but we do not know yet. the fact of the matter is that the people have been criticising the government and have been speaking out and some of those people as we had seen and john's piece, have completely disappeared, haven't they? there have been a number of bloggers who try to report

on their own, on youtube and domestic chinese channels, trying to get the truth out to people. you can watch some of those videos and they are trying to do a public service but the information environment that people don't trust. counter to that, especially if you weeks ago, earlier in the epidemic there was a very rare opening for chinese journalists to go into wuhan and to the report after report which is truly investigative and critical looking at the doctors and hospitals and spread of outbreak but you are seeing now that already some of those posts have already been removed and the censorship apparatus is now kicking back into gear.m was so is now kicking back into gear.m was so good to talk to you, thank you very much indeed. to the united states now, where,

after an unprecented delay, the democratic party has declared pete buttegeg the winner of the iowa caucus. mr buddha—jej beat bernie sanders by just nought—point—one per cent. the fight for democratic nomination has now moved to new hampshire, where — in several hours — seven candidates will take part in a tv debate, ahead of the primary on tuesday. democrats are hoping that the messy outcome of the iowa caucus will soon be forgotten. jane 0'brian in new hampshire has more. it was extremely close and i just came from a campaign event where he saidi came from a campaign event where he said i won ila, i got 6000 more votes which means i won the popular vote. the problem is and this is really why this is so much debate mass for the democratic party is that there is no real decisive winner so farfrom being a that there is no real decisive winner so far from being a starting gun of the real primary season it has been a bit of a damp squid and eve ryo ne has been a bit of a damp squid and everyone 110w has been a bit of a damp squid and everyone now looking to new hampshire to give them the decisive

results that ila failed to do so what happens on that debate stage tonight is really important and what happens in the new hampshire primary on tuesday is even more important thanit on tuesday is even more important than it was before iowa. what happened and ila changed how important the new hampshire primary is and what are we expecting in terms of the debate?” is and what are we expecting in terms of the debate? i think the gloves will have to come off, the top four candidates are now so close top four candidates are now so close to each other that you have in new hampshire, bernie sanders cruising at about 30,000 feet, he has maintained a fairly steady read but then you have buttigieg come out like a rocket who jumps at the polls andjill like a rocket who jumps at the polls and jill biden going the other way down. they have to start differentiating between each other but the big issue for people here in new hampshire, and has gone from talking about policies and getting into the weeds and health care and the economy, what voters here tonight will want to see on that stage is a candidate who can beat

donald trump. we have not heard much from michael bloomberg or have week? it depends on where you are looking. we will not see him here tonight, he decided to skip iowa and new hampshire but you will see an awful lot of him on ads and billboards arrest that of the country, like in california where he spent $41; million already. now compare that to the fundraising by the other candidates here, bernie sanders is the next highest fundraising candidate but he only had $25 million in january. candidate but he only had $25 million injanuary. he is going to be outspent by bloomberg no matter what he does. the big question is, cannot money be translated into votes ? the united nations says nearly 600,000 civilians have fled fighting in northwest syria since the start of december. it estimates that nearly half as many again may be forced to flee as syrian government forces,

backed by russia, continue to seize ground from rebels. turkey is calling for russia to withdraw its support for the offensive. it's worried there could be a huge influx of refugees into turkish territory. the un's mark cutts is at one of those turkish camps. he says they are trying to send aid across the border. our work is in syria on the other side of the so but we do from here is we transport aid across the border to help all of those who are stranded in that war zone. we have had more than 1000 trucks of aid that worship from turkey into northwest syria and the last month. but we are trying to scale up our operation because as you reported there, there have been hundreds of thousands of people on the move

recently and more people moving all the time as syrian government forces advanced and the air strikes and shelling continues. there is real panic in the area at the moment. how easy or difficult has been to get the supplies he those who need it? it is difficult operating there at the moment because of the ongoing war. we have a lot of humanitarian workers there. it is syrian humanitarian workers that we are supporting but it is dangerous. two of our humanitarian colleagues were killed in the last week alone and another was injured in a couple of days ago. many of our staff have had to move with their families. everyone is affected by this war and many people are fleeing, including oui’ many people are fleeing, including our staff. this situation disproportionately impacts women and children and can you explain why that is? we are talking about a huge

civilian population of over 3 million in the area and they were displaced from other parts of syria during this long eight years of war and they came from places, from the ice is controlled territory or eastern border and they came to seek refuge there and now they are being forced to flee again. the majority of that population are women and children or elderly people. that is what is so shocking about this conflict, the syrian government and its allies, they say that fighting terrorism —— they say that fighting terrorism —— they are fighting terrorism but we know that there are probably 100 civilians for every fighter and every day these civilians need to be protected. the uk has appointed its first female ambassador to the united states. karen pierce is currently the uk's

ambassador to the un in new york. she will take overfrom kim darroch who resigned last summer after comments he made about president trump were leaked. ms pierce has been speaking to our new york correspondent, nick bryant — he asked her about repair work needed between the two countries, following disgareement over chinese firm huawei's role in the uk's sg networks. i think if you look at the uk— us relationship over several decades, you will always find moments where we do not always agree on every issue and where it can be a bit bumpy. but the whole point of the uk— us relationship is that it is deep, profound and fundamentally successful and it is enduring so where we have disagreements, we can talk about them and work out how to resolve them. the prime minister has made a number of offers at looking at the future and making sure that we do not find ourselves with a market failure again on issues like huawei. and i think myjob is to help the prime minister and foreign secretary and other ministers to keep those

relationships going. that is the uk ambassador to the un. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come... why botswana has auctioned off seven permits to hunt elephants, after lifting a ban last year. —— the spacecraft about to head to the burning heart of our solar system. this is the moment millions and iran are waiting for, the first hesitant steps on iranian soil. south africa's white government offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in history and the leader nelson bell bell mandela is to be set free. the most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once and part of the power is the

recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of the launch that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. to americans became the first to walk in space without a lifeline. they have given a spectacular homecoming after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world nonstop. this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines... a warning of a global shortage of facemasks as the coronavirus continues to spread. the world health organisation says prices are spiralling as people buy up supplies. the democrats finally declare pete buttigieg the winner in iowa — but bernie sanders says he won more votes. chetan partek has all the sport.

it isa it is a big weekend in the six nations championship and scotland posts in grand and both sides lost their match as last weekend and england beaten by france and scotla nd england beaten by france and scotland lost to ireland and that partly because of the dreadful mistake because of his debut as captain. he was about to touch down for a try and it meant that had he touched down and they converted, they would have drawn level and despite that mistake he has been speaking positively about the england match and feels scotland can get it right tomorrow. that is all we are concentrating on and it was a very good week and getting going tomorrow afternoon, a huge occasion for us. some of the guys playing in this game for the first time and so we are ready. i truly believe the

detail and attack and defence and very much looking forward to the opportunity. there's another huge match with wales travelling to dublin to face ireland. wales began their defence of the six nations title with a comfortable 42 points to nil win over italy in their first match but they haven't beaten the irish in dublin in this competition for eight years. new coach wayne pivac says tomorrow's game is the biggest test of his coaching career. it will be a mass and what we have had so far it will be very fortunate to irona had so far it will be very fortunate to iron a few things out and got into a competition match and now we go into a competition match and now we 9° up into a competition match and now we go up against the challenge in the backyard and i think it is built nicely and this will be the real test so far to see where we are at and how much work we have to do to play the game under the pressure that we want to be able to play. there are only 4 premier

league fixtures this weekend as some clubs go on their winter breaks. manchester city face west ham on sunday but there'll be no raheem sterling, he picked up a hamstring injury last weekend during their defeat at spurs. his manager says he could be out for ‘weeks‘ so he's a doubt for the league game against leicester on the 22nd when they come back from their break. they also play real madrid at the end of the month in the last 16 of the champions league. injuries to key players has been a theme at city this season he is proud, we had good last year and forfour orfive he is proud, we had good last year and for four or five months this season, and for four or five months this season, so and for four or five months this season, so it is always a problem. but it is what it is. these things happen, unfortunately, especially for the players. india cricket legend sachin tendulkar is in australia for sunday's bushfire relief game ‘the big appeal‘ in melbourne. and after spending part of his early career in australia, he said he just wanted to help.

iamso i am so happy that i am here. and whatever possible way to support the cause, australia has always been dear to me cause, australia has always been dearto me in cause, australia has always been dear to me in 1991 as an 18—year—old icame dear to me in 1991 as an 18—year—old i came here. i spent almost four months here. i almost had a australian accent when i went back. but the competitive cricket i prayed here at the age of 18 help me a lot in my career so i have got a special feeling for australia. and we'll end with cricket because bangladesh have been bowled out for 233 by pakistan on day one of the first test in rawalpindi. the bangladesh innings came to a tame end with abu jayed grounding his bat the wrong side of the line and run out. earlier shaheen afridi took four wickets that's all the sport for now.

thank you very much indeed. a new mission is set to launch next week that will reveal the sun as never seen before. the spacecraft — called solar 0rbiter — is a joint european space agency and nasa mission and was assembled in the uk. it's been said to be the country's most important mission for a generation. rebecca morelle has more. incredible images of the sign, it's turbulent surface revealed and fiery detail. the view of our star is about to get much better. this is solar 0rbiter, it is jam—packed with instruments and will take images from closer to the sun then any spacecraft has before. temperatures will reach 500 degrees which means the use of unexpected materials. obviously it gets extremely hot. we had to develop special technologies and coatings for the spacecraft because the environment is going to be so hostile. one of the coatings we had to develop was based on eight animal

bones and that is at the front of the heat shield to stop it from getting too hot. solar 0rbiter has a long and difficult journey ahead. after leaving the earth, it will take about two years to get into prime position, orbiting closer than the planet mercury to the sun but every time the spacecraft passes behind our star, it will lose contact for weeks and if anything goes wrong it could be burned to a crisp. but gradually the spacecraft will lift its position, letting us see's pulls for the first time. what i love is that you can see the fantastic structure on the site here, a structure that is lofted up into the atmosphere which we call the prominence. at the royal astronomical society, solar records reveal dramatic activity, which can impact us, it is called space weather and can knock out navigation and communication satellites and cause power failures. in the same ways we have terrestrial

weather in the earth atmosphere, we have space weather in the sun's atmosphere. so, we are excited about getting up close and personal with the sun so we can understand the origins of space weather and ultimately develop our physical knowledge so we can better space that might predict space weather in the future. the spacecraft‘s instruments will be switched on soon after launch and it will take years for all of their results to come back. only then will we be able to truly shed light on our star. hundreds of rare items which give a fascinating insight into the life and work of charles dickens have been acquired by a london museum dedicated to the writer. the material includes unpublished letters, sketches, books and personal objects. experts at the dickens museum say they can't wait to share some of the ‘treasure trove' with visitors. christmas carol is definitely my favourite book. let me know what

your favourite charles dickens book is. don‘t forget you can get in touch with me and some of my team on twitter — i‘m @bbcmaryam hello there, all week we have been talking about stormy weather this weekend so let‘s take a look at how this weekend is shaping up. saturday will bring a good deal of dry weather for many and some sunny spells around first thing but we will see happy and persistent rain, gail‘s and the rain and strong winds will become widespread over night into sunday. * ciara moves and and jails across the uk, heavy and persistent rain and potential for a big waves in coastal areas. let‘s look at the pressure chart and what we can expect for the weekend, the initial ban of rain going through and stormed ciara arriving in the early hours of sunday. first of all

three tonight, the comment today is replaced by cloudier skies and outbreaks of rain. the rain heavy and persistent and breezy in the north and west. temperature is not as cold as they have been of late. tomorrow starts with a dead deal of sunshine with sunny spells around first thing and the exception to that down in the southeast where there is a bit more crowded around. winds will strengthen during the day and gail‘s in the northwest and heavy and persistent rain arriving later. rain pushes its way east through the first half of the night and into the early hours, * ciara arriving from the last. heavy and persistent rain gradually pushing its way south through the day on sunday and we will see some blustery showers and heavy and persistent rain will be accompanied by strong winds. severe gail‘s widely and

around 60 or 70 mph and land. there isa around 60 or 70 mph and land. there is a potential for around 60 or 70 mph and land. there is a potentialfor some around 60 or 70 mph and land. there is a potential for some disruption and there were various met office warnings in place in the next few days and this one is for land and it cove rs days and this one is for land and it covers the uk. there is also a amber warning in place on sunday which cove rs warning in place on sunday which covers the southeast and there is a potential for some disruption from the strong winds. does not look like we are out of the woods as we start next week and it will remain very windy with some showers which could be wintry over the high ground, particularly in the north. goodbye.

this is bbc world news, the headlines the world is running short of face masks and other equipment to deal with coronavirus. prices are up to twenty times higher than usual, according to the world health 0rganisation. it says medical staff and people caring for sick family members should be given priority. pete budda—jej has been declared the winner of the iowa democratic caucus by the narrowest of margins. but bernie sanders is also claiming victory. the party will hold a candidates‘ debate in a few hours‘ time. botswana has held its first major auction of licences to hunt elephants. a hunting ban was scrapped last year, as elephants and humans increasingly come into contact. the united nations says nearly six hundred thousand civilians have fled fighting in northwest syria since the start of december.