this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. 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. democrat presidential candidates have held their latest debate in new hampshire ahead of a key vote on who should take on donald trump in november. and scientists find that antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, of 18.3 celsius.

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. dr li wenliang died after contracting the illness while treating infected patients in the city of wuhan. 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.

woman 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 china'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. as we have seen, china has resorted to mass confinements at quarantine centres. here's teng biao, a human rights lawyer. these measures are severe, violations 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 to suspend 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, however 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. ——to fight 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 ——would they 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 dr li wenliang had died, it sparked 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 to delay and to cover—up and handle this virus in a mistaken way. so even though the risk is high, but many people are trying their best to resist and his doctor li wenliang's death is a huge trigger event. 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 off 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. 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. 0ur north america correspondent, peter bowes has the details. alexander vindman was the first to go. he was on the national security council as an expert on ukraine and he was also listening in on that now famous 5july telephone conversation between president trump and his counterpart in ukraine, that is the phone call where president trump 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. his lawyer says he has been sacked for telling the truth and the lawyer also added in quite a detailed statement that he was, the president was "exacting revenge" against his client who was apparently marched out of the white house.

and then just a few hours later, gordon sondland, who was the us ambassador to the european union said he had been told by the president that he was being recalled from his position, he also gave evidence to that congressional investigation and he told congressmen 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 rivaljoe 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 who said damaging things against him are out. democratic party candidates hoping to take on president trump in november's election

have taken part in a televised debate in new hampshire. it comes ahead of the state's primary next tueday. former vice presidentjoe biden finished well down the field in the recent iowa caucuses. in this debate he seemed to accept he might lose in new hampshire as well. but he defended his record on numerous issues — including the fight against the us opioid crisis. i put iput in i put in $1 billion to fight opioid addiction, and my time is going to be up shortly, here's the deal. those chief executive officers of drug companies, they should not only be fined, they should go to jail. 0ur correspondent jane 0'brien is in new hampshire for the debate. this has been a very spirited debate, far more so than the previous ones. we have just seen senator amy klobuchar from minnesota fighting for her political life, she is way down in the polls at the moment and this could be her

last chance to show she is still a vital candidate. pete buttigieg won in iowa and he is, his closest rival bernie sanders is doing well in new hampshire. he is topping the polls here, so those two have been going head—to—head. but i have to say, the gloves have not really been off in this debate, even yet. i think the sense that the party needs to be united, they need to really portray a strong front if they are going to beat donald trump and not alienate the supporters of the other candidates is still the most important thing for them. we have not seen the kind of visceral had to have debates ——head—to—head debates that we might have expected given the rising stakes in this campaign. but even so, it has been energetic, it has been passionate at times, and voters who want to see their candidates portray themselves in a more personal way, i think, will have got something tonight. the former vice presidentjoe

biden had a terrible result in iowa, he said it was a gut punch, is he fighting back in new hampshire? it was really strange, at the beginning of the debate he conceded he had had a bad time and then went on to say that you know, he almost might lose new hampshire. seeming to acknowledge the fact that is in ——he is in a perilous situation. losing these early primary states is not a winning strategy, so i'm not quite sure where he was going with that. but for him, he has strong support in the southern states, he has strong support among african—american voters, so it would not all be overfor him if he didn't do well, but it is still not a good look. and what he loses is the confidence of donors. he needs money, more than any of the other candidates, he has not got a lot of cash. bernie sanders is out—raising him, he has $25 million raised in january alone, so joe biden has a lot to catch up. 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 often bafflingly confusing 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: as the film world prepares for the oscars, one female director tells us why hollywood is "unconsciously" racist. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'ba by doc' duvalier.

because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories. head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc world 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. botswana has raised more than $2 million from its first auction of licences to hunt elephants since lifting a ban last year.

the auction allowed companies registered locally to bid for the right to kill ten elephants. the government says the hunting will take place in the areas where there has been the most conflict between elephants and humans. conservationists fear it could fuel poaching, as nomsa maseko reports. botswana, home to 130,000 elephants, more than any other country. with this year's hunting season less than two months away, the government has sold seven licenses for a kill of ten elephants apiece in controlled hunting areas, and hunters will be allowed to export the trophies. bidders in the online auction who must become companies registered and botswana are expected to each put down a refundable deposit of $18,000 usd. shortly after coming into office in 2018, president mokgweetsi masisi revoked the hunting ban, which came into force in 2014. he argued that with an increasing human population, elephants were threatening people's lives and crops in rural villages.

but animal activists have condemned the move. they say hunting is not an effective long—term population control method. many rural communities believe a return to commercial hunting will help keep the elephant population away from their villages and bringing much—needed income and place is not suitable for a high—end tourism. nomsa maseko, bbc news. antarctica has recorded its highest temperature since readings began. an argentine research station located at the tip of the antarctic peninsula recorded a temperature of 18.3 degrees celsius. the peninsula is one of the fastest—warming places on earth — temperatures there have risen three degrees over the past half—century.

speaking aboard the greenpeace research vessel in antarctica, ocean campaigner frida bengtsson said this record temperature is part of a bigger trend. i've think it's important that we remind ourselves when we report on his record events that we look at the bigger picture and we look at the trends over time, because things will go up and things will go down, but what worries me is the long—term average trends of increasing temperatures that we see around the world. 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 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 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 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 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. sticking with the stars. 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. 0ur arts editor, will gompertz, has been to meet the director, kasey 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 thatjust 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 19th—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 as the aurora borealis because of stronger solar wind activity taking place in the arctic circle at this time of year. one for anyone's bucket list. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @jamesbbcnews. please do stay with us. 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 atlantic jet 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 wuhan and china are detaining people suspected of being infected by the new coronavirus. authorities in beijing have banned large social gatherings. the number of deaths from the epidemic has jumped to over 700, surpassing the toll from the sars outbreak almost two decades ago. democrat party candidates trying to be the one to take on president trump have held their latest debate 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. two key witnesses in donald trump's impeachment have been removed from their government posts. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman has been sacked from his white housejob. the us ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland, issued a statement saying he too was being recalled from his post.