welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: growing anger in china: quarantine squads detain people suspected of having the coronavirus as the death till continues to rise. —— toll continues to rise. thousands of passengers confined to their cabins onboard the ‘diamond princess'. more than 60 people are infected with the virus. president trump fires two senior officials who testified against him at his impeachment trial. democrats descend on new hampshire where the presidenital candidates are debating who should take on donald trump in november. and as the film world prepares for the oscars, one female director tells us why hollywood is unconsciously racist.

the chinese authorities are struggling to control an outpouring of public grief and anger at the way they treated a doctor who tried to warn the world about the dangers of coronavirus. hundreds of millions of people have viewed social media posts about dr li wenliang who has died after contracting the illness while treating infected patients in wuhan. as the disease continues to spread, controls and restrictions are increasing across china where almost 720 people have now died. our correspondent, jon sudworth, reports from beijing. shouting in some cities, those suspected of being sick are being rounded up, with multiple unverified videos showing the quarantine squads at work. it's all adding to a growing sense of disbelief and dread. "i don't 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 on social media. the hashtag "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'd listened 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 this now is for chinese‘s ruling communist party. the already simmering concern about the mishandling of the crisis exploding into a public wave of anger and grief. in the death of a doctor, the systemic failings have been laid bare. the response, though, 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 — chen quishi. i spoke to him earlier this week. what's your thoughts about how long you will be able to continue providing independent reporting from wuhan? "i am not sure," he says.

"the censorship‘s so strict, people's accounts are being closed down if they share my content." his family say he's now disappeared. in this public health disaster, there are real political risks and the orders are already being sent out — maintain stability, tighten control. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. a british man on his honeymoon is among more than 60 people who have tested positive for the virus on board a cruise ship injapan. alan steele has been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. there are almost 4,000 people on board the diamond princess, which is quarantined in yokohama. passengers have been confined to their cabins for the next fortnight. here's our medical correspondent, fergus walsh. some passengers have called it a floating prison. three days into the 2—week quarantine of japan, passengers are being allowed to exercise on deck wearing face masks.

but dozens on the diamond princess have been removed to hospital for treatment. among them, alan steele, on his honeymoon. he's among nearly 80 british people on board. 41 additional passengers have been found positive tested for the coronavirus, one of whom is a friend of ours, on honeymoon, who has been... who was going to be split from his wife, you know, on honeymoon. he was going to be taken to a medicalfacility and she will have to remain on board. there's still a lot we don't know about this virus and the next few weeks will be crucial in determining whether a pandemic, a global epidemic, can be averted. it's spread through droplets, face—to—face contact within a couple of metres of an infected person. the incubation period is up to 14 days. it now looks less likely that people spread the infection

before they have symptoms. the virus causes a fever and cough. the majority have mild symptoms, but it can cause breathing difficulties and viral pneumonia, as lung tissue becomes inflamed. most of those who've died are elderly, with underlying health problems. but not all. doctor li wenliang, among the first to raise the alarm about the new virus, was just 34. he would've risked repeated infections at close quarters to patients. if a large amount of virus is coming in all at the same time, in the case of a health care worker working very closely with infected patients, it could be that the amount of virus in the body increases very, very rapidly before the immune system has the chance to deal with it, and so that could lead to a rapid onset of severe disease. the world health organization has warned of a global shortage of face masks and other protective equipment, in part because people who don't need them are buying them.

the world is facing severe disruption in the market for personal protective equipment. demand is up to 100 times higher than normal and prices are up to 20 times higher. a final evacuation flight of british nationals from wuhan, like this one last week, is due to arrive on sunday. passengers will then be taken to a quarantine facility in milton keynes. fergus walsh, bbc news. let's head to some live pictures of another quarantine ship in hong kong. it is at the cruise terminal and has been quarantined because of coronavirus concerns. over 3000 passengers are on board in hong

kong has been imposing new rules saying anyone who comes in from mainland china has to spend 14 days in quarantine. let's get some of the day's other news. the united nations is warning that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the province of idlib in syria. aid agencies estimate that nearly 600,000 people have been forced from their homes in the past two months. syrian government forces backed by russia continue to seize ground from the rebels. a record high temperature of 18.3 celsius has been logged on the continent of antarctica. the reading was taken on thursday on the continent's north—west tip — one of the fastest—warming regions on earth. the temperature is being verified by the world meteorological organization. a senior united nations envoy says spain is utterly failing people in poverty. philip alston had a 12—day tour of the country. he highlighted a housing crisis of what he called stunning proportions. he said a completely inadequate social protection system left large numbers in poverty by design. prince harry and his wife meghan have appeared

for their firstjoint public engagement since quitting as working members of the british royal family. harry gave a speech at this hotel in miami at an event organised by american bankjpmorgan chase. the fee — if there was one — has not been disclosed. president trump has sacked two senior officials who gave testimony during his impeachment inquiry. the us ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland issued a statement saying he had been told he was being recalled from his post. earlier, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman was escorted out of the white house following his dismissal. let's get more from our north america correspondent, peter bowes. tell us more about the firings. well, alexander vindman was the first to go. he was on the national security council as an expert on the ukraine and he was also listening in on that now famous july five telephone

conversation between president trump and this counterpart in the ukraine and that is the phone call where he asked for a favour and according to colonel vindman that was improper and he was concerned about what he heard during that phone call and he relayed this to the congressional investigation. this lawyer says he has been sacked for telling the truth and the lawyer also added in a detailed statement that he was, the president, was exacting revenge against this client who was apparently marched out of the white house. and then a few hours later, gordon sunderland, the us ambassador to the european union said he had been told by the president that he was being recalled from this position and he also gave evidence to that congressional investigation and he told congress men and women that he had been telling a ukrainian expert that he believed the president was motivated politically when he withheld

that aid and that it was, in effect, a quid pro quo scenario because he wanted, in return, an investigation on this political rival or likely rival joe biden. he is out of a job as well. within two days of the president being acquitted of those charges, those impeachment charges, two senior officials is the damaging things against him are out. fresh from the embarrssment of iowa, democrat candidates — hoping to take on president trump in november's us election — are taking part in another televised debate. on tuesday, supporters in new hampshire will get to choose which person they want to support. all eyes are on pete buttigieg and senator bernie sanders, who came out ahead in iowa — and leading the polls in new hampshire. jane o'brien is in manchester, new hampshire for us. i almost feel like i should be whispering because i know the

debate is still going on at the moment. what have the candidates been saying? we have in fact paused for a commercial soi in fact paused for a commercial so i can hear you properly. the same argument. we heard them all before. the debate again in the differences about the various healthcare policies but there is a new dynamic on stage and that is that pete butterworth has been declared the winner pete buttigieg has been declared the winner in iowa. he is now a rival to all those on stage. it is quite a turnaround for pete are worth and an inevitable clash between him and this closest rival bernie sanders who is still leading the poles here in new hampshire. what i did detect this time around was much greater energy. their minds have now been focused by a week in which donald trump was acquitted in the senate on this

impeachment charges and this own approval ratings are at an all—time high and there was a very raucous state of the union speech in which he touted this considerable economic achievements. these things were recognised on the stage tonight. the democrats know that they have a task cut out for them and they know that one of them up there is going to be judged on whether or not they can beat him. you were almost drowned out at the end there but thank you for getting to the end. and — you can keep up to date with the latest developments in the race to challenge president trump on our website. you'll also find a feature on who's leading in the polls, and a simple guide to the us primaries. that's all at bbc.com/news — or you can download the bbc news app. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: heading for the sun: the new orbiter that's set to probe the burning heart ofour solar system.

this is the moment that millions in iran had there is mr mandela, a free man taking this first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader has said he passed the death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book that many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks to the ousting of the former president. because of this considerable value as a stallion, sugar was kept in a secure box in the central block. he was driven away in a horsebox the thieves brought with them. they step down from the plane, a figure in morning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the commonwealth, defender of

the faith. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: quarantine squads in china are detaining people suspected of being infected by the corona virus as authorities confirm more than 700 deaths. two key witnesses in donald trump's impeachment have been removed from their government posts. let's get more on our top story now: with more than 720 deaths and over 3a,000 infections across the country, china is intensifying its response to coronavirus in wuhan. it's put in place house to house temperature checks and mass confinements at quarantine centres. joining me now for more on this is teng biao in newjersey. he's a human rights lawyer and scholar at princeton university. i don't know if you've seen those pictures that we'd been broadcasting showing squads of officials forcibly removing people from their homes in

wuhan. if you have seen those pictures, what is your view of them? these measures are severe, a violation of human rights. arbitrary rights for detention for the quarantine and relocation without any legal documents. this obviously violates chinese law and fundamental human rights. in a crisis, even democratic governments occasionally have two suspended civil liberties in the cause of getting something done and that is what china would say it is having to do. it needs to take drastic measures, , do. it needs to take drastic measures,, however pop unpopular, in order to curtail the virus. is that fair? to counter the virus, people should sacrifice and are willing to sacrifice something but what the chinese government has been doing is making things

worse. for example, the information, the information is so important to stop the virus but the chinese government has erased it and censored information from citizen journalists. this is not to stop the virus but to stop the effort to forest the virus. do you have any idea of how family members would be able to get in touch with those people who have been taken from their homes to be put in hospital beds and exhibition centres or hospitals? would families be able to go visit them, without to get information about them? how would that work from your knowledge? it is very, very difficult for the family members to contact the people in hospital or people being quarantined. and the public transport stopped and

journalists are prohibited. the arbitrary detention of people is rampant. i think that many people are still angry at the measures that the chinese government is handling the wuhan virus. and what do you think has been the impact of the death of doctor li wenliang, the doctor who warned of the outbreak? when it was announced that doctor li wenliang had died, despite huge angen wenliang had died, despite huge anger. so many people are commemorating him on social media and criticising the chinese government. more and more people are realising that it is the fault of the government's to delay and cover—up and handle this virus ina mistaken cover—up and handle this virus in a mistaken way. even though the risk is high, but many

people are trying their best to resist and his doctor li wenliang's def is a huge trigger event. given much for joining us. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, has promised venezuela more military and economic cooperation to help the country deal with increasing pressure from the united states. after a meeting president nicolas maduro in caracas, mr lavrov has described as unacceptable any attempts to remove the venezuelan government by force. he said the details of the new cooperation agreement would be defined when mr maduro visits moscow in may. the former head of a top us investment firm has been sentenced to nine months in prison for his role in the us college admissions scandal. douglas hodge paid nearly $1 million in bribes to get four of his seven children into top us colleges — as fake athletic recruits. dozens of high profile defendants have been indicted for allegedly cheating and

bribing to get their children into elite universities. torrential rain along the south—east coast of australia has put out a third of the wildfires in the region and could extend wish many more. the authorities have welcomed the deluge sweeping across new south wales will have watched of flash flooding in sydney and other cities. much of the region has been hit by drought in recent years feeling hundreds of intensifies. —— intense fires. this weekend, nasa and the european space agency will launch a mission aimed at giving us a better understanding of the sun. the spacecraft will come so close to the sun that special measures have been taken to make sure it can withstand the heat, as our science correspondent rebecca morelle reports. incredible images of the sun, it's turbulent surface revealed in fiery detail. the view of our star is about to get much better. this is solar orbiter, 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 has meant using 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 baked animal bones and that is at the front of the heat shield to stop it from getting too hot. solar orbiter 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 the sun's poles 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's 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's 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 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. rebecca morelle, bbc news. hollywood is preparing for the film industry's biggest night of the year, the oscars on sunday. but like other award ceremonies this season, it's facing criticism for failing to recognise people of colour. among the omissions is

the director of the acclaimed film harriet, a biography of harriet tubman, who helped free hundreds of slaves in the american south. our arts editor, will gompertz, has been to meet the director, kasi lemmons. god was watching but my feet was my own. running, bleeding, climbing, nearly drowned. nothing to eat for days and days but i made it. i thinkjust having a black woman in the title role has been challenging, you know, for hollywood, you know. you be ready. but why is it challenging? i think that just believing that women in leading roles, women, not to mention black women, can be... ..can really be a box office draw, a woman—led picture, you know, can make money at the box office and be successful. her film harriet did just that, although it did take a very long time for the movie about the famous i9th—century abolitionist to get made. in hollywood, i learned that, actually, people are frightened easily... intimidated is the word i should use. people are very intimidated of black women. i need thoughts here,

it's almost like, i need ideas. would you say hollywood is intrinsically racist and sexist? well, yeah, of course, i mean, we have to look at it, it's very provable. i think people are unconsciously racist. just hold on. and suck in. a feeling that hollywood perpetuates racial stereotypes goes back a long way, with classics such as gone with the wind caricaturing a black woman as a deferential domestic servant, known as mammy. so she would often be this sassy black woman with a kind of broken vernacular, so a lot of "honey child" and things like that. hattie mcdaniel won an oscar for her performance. that was 80 years ago. cynthia erivo could win for playing harriet on sunday at an academy awards where she's the only person of colour to be nominated in the acting categories. it's embarrassing, you know?

hollywood, that is supposed to be, you know, this is our dreams, this is our best self, this is our most aspirational self that we are presenting and, hopefully, related to who we really are in the time capsule of this moment, so it's bizarre, it's weird and it's embarrassing. it does take time to change but the feeling here as we approach sunday's academy awards is, for the oscars, that time really is up. will gompertz, bbc news, los angeles. have a look at these stunning pictures of the northern lights. dancing in the skies. this is lapland in finland just before midnight on thursday. spring is one of the best times to see the northern lights, also known if you want to be technical, as the aurora borealis because of stronger solar activity taking place in the arctic circle this time of year. definitely want for anyone's bucket list.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @james bbc news hello there. we've got some very strong winds indeed coming our way this weekend. all courtesy of storm ciara, which will arrive on sunday. that's when we are going to see the strongest winds, with met office warnings already in force. these could yet be updated through the weekend so make sure you stay in touch with the forecast over the course of the weekend. now, storm ciara itself will develop under an incredibly strong jet stream, one of the strongest atlanticjet streams i've seen, with the winds in the jet stream 250 miles an hour. that is what will make this intense area of low pressure on sunday, which is storm ciara. before we get there, over the next few hours, we will see the winds pick up as well. it will become quite blowy. a band of rain pushes east in intensity, followed by some blustery showers across western areas. because it has been quite a windy start on saturday morning.

temperatures between 4—8 celsius. the rest of saturday, there'll be a fair bit of sunshine for a time, especially across england and wales, but further north across ireland and scotland, the cloud will thicken through the afternoon. outbreaks of rain and hill snow in scotland and strong gusts of wind. northern ireland and scotland. they could reach up to 70 miles an hour. strong enough to cause some disruption. from there it becomes very windy overnight as well across england and wales. a band of rain pushes its way in. storm ciara doesn't really start arriving until later on sunday. let's take a look at ciara, here it is on the pressure charts. you can see how tightly packed the isobars are on this weather system, always a sign of strong winds. the strongest winds will come along in two batches, but really, it is going to be windy on sunday, pretty much across the whole of the uk, with gusts for most of us in the range of something like 60—80 miles an hour. we are going to see some impacts, some disruptive weather, on sunday. the strongest winds for scotland, along through the afternoon, certainly on the southern flank of this area of low pressure.

that is where we will see the sign of strong winds. notice how that comes through, especially through the central belt, late in the day on sunday. that could cause problems. further south for england and wales we have got a cold front that is going to be bringing a squally band of heavy rain through, and that is ahead of this band of rain where we will get the strongest wind gust. with gusts of 60—80 miles an hour, and the strongest winds potentially lasting some 6—9 hours, the risk of impact just increases. transport disruption is to be expected. whether on roads, rails, at airports or even the ferries, we could see significant problems on sunday.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

quarantine squads in china are detaining people suspected of being infected by the new coronavirus, while authorities in beijing have banned large social gatherings to control the outbreak. the number of deaths from the epidemic has jumped to over 700 — surpassing the toll from the sars outbreak two decades ago. two key witnesses in donald trump's impeachment have been removed from their government posts. lieutena nt—colonel alexander vindman has been sacked from his white housejob. the us ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland issued a statement saying he was being recalled from his post. democrat candidates trying to be the one to take on president trump will debate each other in new hampshire. on tuesday, supporters there will get to choose which one they support. all eyes are on pete buttigieg and senator bernie sanders. they are both leading in their most recent opinion polls.