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.

the tv presenter phillip schofield has revealed he's gay. he's been married for almost 27 years and has two daughters. he decided to go public on social media as well as being interviewed on his own itv show this morning. the presenter, who's 57, says his sexuality had "become an issue in his head" and he "needed to be honest with himself." here's our lgbt correspondent, ben hunte. live on morning television, phillip schofield is used to sitting and listening to other people, but, today, he became the story. first, a statement read by his co—host. "with the strength and support of my wife and my daughters, i've been coming to terms with the fact that i am gay." every person i tell, it gets a little lighter and a little lighter, but, at the same time, you know, i have made this decision, which is essential for me and essential for my head. support flooded social media. ant and dec said:

dermot o'leary said he "sends his love". philip schofield began his career at children's bbc. he quickly became a household name. he starred asjoseph in the west end and he remains one of the most recognisable faces on british tv, presenting several programmes like dancing on ice and this morning, filmed at television centre. some people are questioning why this matters. well, this is an important moment for lgbt people. for someone as famous as philip schofield to come out and immediately receive such support from his colleagues here and elsewhere shows the amount of progress that has been made in just a few decades. however, not everyone‘s coming—out experience will be as positive. the lg bt foundation in manchester says older people face particular challenges. they have memories of a time when just being lgbt wasn't spoken

about, or a time when homosexuality was illegal, for example, so i think there's the culture and nthat has now changed, thankfully, but there is kind of the hangover from that and the stigma that people still feel around it. so why did he decide that this was the right time? i was getting to the point where i knew i wasn't honest with myself. i was getting to the point where i didn't like myself very much because i wasn't being honest with myself. and, so, you know, when is the right time? when is the right time to do it? a very personal announcement and campaigners hope that this moment may help others struggling to come to terms with their own identities. ben hunte, bbc news. as part of the bbc‘s our planet matters climate change coverage, justin rowlatt reports from antarctica for our world. antarctica — the world's most remote and inhospitable consonant. this is the story of a team of scientists trying to get to thwaites, the

so—called ‘doomsday glacier‘. trying to get to thwaites, the so-called 'doomsday glacier'. no-one has really been on thwaites, and what we are going to do is get up and close on the seafloor and see what is happening a real way. look at that! oh! yeah! what happens to thwa ites at that! oh! yeah! what happens to thwaites affects us all because as it melts it will driver sea level around the world. this is part of the system. if it all goes you could end up with upwards of three metres of sea level rise. but first, the scientist need to get there. it's so difficult to operate here! all of the planes are grounded. they say they won't fly anywhere. one only does anything in antarctica with the cooperation of the weather.

antarctica is a place of extremes. it is the coldest, highest, driest and windiest continent of the earth. capped by an ice sheet of up to five kilometres thick, this continent contains 90% of the world's ice. i begin my journey contains 90% of the world's ice. i begin myjourney in new zealand. passport? they say travelling to antarctica is like travelling to another planet. so, here it goes. the us air force provides the planes. the safety briefing may be familiar, but nothing else about this light is. —— flight. i'm travelling with professor david

vaughan, the director of science at the british antarctic survey. after flying due south for five hours, the british antarctic survey. after flying due south forfive hours, i get my first glimpse of antarctica, snow and ice stretching as far as the eye can see. finally, our destination. we are heading to mcmurdo, ready straighter there. destination. we are heading to mcmurdo, ready straighterthere. it is the most southerly town on earth and the largest centre for scientific research on the continent. out across the sea ice, the first peaks of the mighty trans— antarctic mountains. it is here in mcmurdo that our expedition to the weights glacier begins. thwaites

glacier is vulnerable and there is nothing stopping a collapse once it ta kes nothing stopping a collapse once it takes hold. thwaites glacier is the size of britain and already accounts for 4% of global sea level rise. the fear is if the melt rate increases, much of the west end are ice sheet could go, too. —— west antarctic ice sheet, that could raise world sea levels by more than three metres. why is the glazier changing? why is it being eaten away? —— glacier. there are wins on the ocean surface driving currents away from this ice sheet. when that happens, this water comes in underneath like this. this deep ocean water is really warm. and that it's the way up the glacier? this normally doesn't happen. these wins have been increasing and so more of this water has been coming up more of this water has been coming up onto the continental shelf and interacting with this glacier. the

scientists say global warming have changed the wind patterns and see currents, bringing warm ocean water to the front of the glacier. we have loaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, with that the temperature going up, and... doctor britney ship is in charge of a nasa robot submarine cold outback ice cap back then. the plan is the lower half a mile through the ice two conditions in the seawater below. britney, give mea tourof in the seawater below. britney, give me a tour of icefin? we have senses who will make —— that will make a map of the oceanography, salinity and oxygen content of the water. we have sown i hear that allows us to map the 3—dimensional cavities, it allows us to see the shape of the ice and its texture. no—one has really been under thwaites, and what icefin will do is get up and close to the physics, really close to the

eyes, really close to the sea floor and allows to see what is happening ina real and allows to see what is happening in a real way. and allows to see what is happening in a realway. how much of and allows to see what is happening in a real way. how much of the challenges you think this is going to be? is always an impressive challenge to do anything here in antarctica and much more so when you are 1200 miles from mcmurdo. when you think about drilling through 600 metres of i still buy the best people in the world just to make an observation, it's quite a challenge. and to operate a moving pipe from through there is quite special —— moving platform. icefin might have a big task ahead but not the one as big task ahead but not the one as big as the men who stayed in this part. so this is a truly unique historical site. literally frozen in time. it is the base camp of captain scott, ill—fated, 1911 attempt to reach the south pole. look at this! this is amazing. that's incredible.

i'll tell you what strikes you first. if the smell, it really smells of kind of smoked fish. so there are all sorts of objects. the tin cans and food they ate on the expedition. so we've got, tender salmon? that looks like a can of sardines. here we have to go, a huge drink for them, that was the drink of the polar explorers, they may cocoa . of the polar explorers, they may cocoa. and ship's biscuits, baking powder. this is seal blubber. what they would do is give the seals on they would do is give the seals on the eyes, bring them back here, eat the eyes, bring them back here, eat the meat and use the blubber to burn their stoves to keep them warm. which is wide smells like smoked fish in here, because it is covered, you can see it is just covered with suet from the blubber fire. you can see it is just covered with suet from the blubberfire. —— you can see it is just covered with suet from the blubber fire. —— soot. it's really ghostly because you get

a sense of the people being here. scott himself living here with great to get to the pole and of course dying on the way back. and like captain scott before us, our plans are frustrated by the antarctic weather. i am are frustrated by the antarctic weather. iam beginning are frustrated by the antarctic weather. i am beginning to understand why doing science here is so difficult. then i hear a crisis meeting has been called. the delays have got so bad they are going to have got so bad they are going to have to scale back some of the science. i want to find out what is going on. i managed to track down david vaughan. well, i think there isa david vaughan. well, i think there is a lot at stake here, people have been working on these projects for several years already. so, when the bad news comes, i don't think it is quite yet but, the delays are continuing and things are going to change and that is going to make

things difficult for some people. cani things difficult for some people. can i come to the meeting?” things difficult for some people. can i come to the meeting? i would rather you did not. ma allowed in? no. is a difficult meeting? we just need to let me get that news and process it and think about what they are going to do next. thank you very much. good luck. thank you. when the meeting is over, i learned the weather is hampering efforts to supply spare parts to the plane we need to get to thwaites glacier. there are parts coming down from new zealand to get those plans functional again. we have to sit and wait. many days behind schedule are we now? yeah i don't even know. why account? i think we can still do 100% of the tasks, imaginatively. you can imagine? yeah i think we can do some of the tasks but time is getting very, very tight. people are

getting very, very tight. people are getting a little edgy and a bit concerned. 0ne getting a little edgy and a bit concerned. one only does anything in antarctica with the cooperation of the weather. suddenly the weather clears and miraculously it seems like the project is back on track. it's all hands on deck to get the get boxed up and transported to the airfield, ready to go. and the team are there, edging to get cracking. so we are at lilyfield and we are finally about to get to the plane. i can't wait to start the next phase of the project. you can't fly straight to thwaites, there is no ice runway that can take these big plans. the 1300 our journey ice runway that can take these big plans. the 1300 ourjourney is done in stages stop —— so the 1300 mile journey is done in stages. thwaites'

divide is the midpoint. this is where passengers are few and cargo are dropped off before being ferried onto the field sites on the glacier itself. the plan is only to stay here for a couple of days, but this being antarctica, it isn't long before the weather changes again. so we've been out here for like, an hour and we've been out here for like, an hourand a we've been out here for like, an hour and a half, we've been out here for like, an hourand a half, and we've been out here for like, an hour and a half, and this is the result was that it gives you an idea of why it is so difficult to operate here. all the planes are grounded, they say we won't fly anywhere for at least three days. keeping the camp from being overwhelmed by snow isa camp from being overwhelmed by snow is a full—timejob camp from being overwhelmed by snow is a full—time job for the snowploughs. the wind is gusting up to 50 miles and our —— for females now and the temperature —20. check

out these not icicle on these! it's absolutely horrible. 0h, out these not icicle on these! it's absolutely horrible. oh, god. i can't get it off. i do manage to warm up but i realise something isn't quite right. my finger has gone all kind of white and it looks a bit bad. i think you should go and see the doctor to see if it needs on it on it because it doesn't look right to me. david is worried it could be the early stages of frostbite, commonly known as frost nipped. can you feel that because what i can feel it but doesn't feel... it doesn't feel the same. frost nipped is a freezing of the tissue but not a permanent freezing of the tissue. no ice crystals in the deep tissue like you would with full frostbite. so you haven't actually killed the top of your farm just yet? for the next couple of days, you might want to get to hospital. the cold and the wind and the vast distances here make the logistics of a project like this

very challenging. two ice hardened ships brought hundreds of tons of fuel and cargo to a remote ice shelf thanit fuel and cargo to a remote ice shelf than it specialists no vehicles hold it 1000 miles over land. everything that was previously done by aircraft and undersize projects grew and the quip meant group, it became needs to do it more efficiently and cost effectively. each machine could pull up effectively. each machine could pull up to 70 tons. so these vehicles transformed the science we can do in antarctica, increasing the scale, the number of people, the number of scientists we can bring to bear on these problems. six people can deliver all the cargo for all the scientists and then we can deliver the fuel that can operate five or six applicants. we just truck along, they from date, nobody knows where we are noticeably turn up. double two delivering bounty, but as a fuel instead of sacks of presence.

presence would be very welcome because even in these extreme conditions, there are some traditions that have to be kept up. what are you doing? i'm preparing us for christmas at the south pole. and christmas is not christmas without a few carols. they tried to get us to sing but we didn't practice. because bis we sing but we didn't practice. because b is we don't have a song so we told somebody else. who are we competing against? lower thwaites. how many people at lower thwaites? lesson here. how many? five people. jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. i what fun it is to ride on a one person open slave. —— way. i what fun it is to ride on a one person open slave. “ one way. i what fun it is to ride on a one person open slave. —— one horse open slave. and it doesn't stop there, i knew i was spending christmas on the ice and was all set to have to forgo my

turkey dinner, how wrong i was.|j turkey dinner, how wrong i was.” made some salmon, turkey, ham. that is quite a christmas spread. it looks amazing hey. : the middle of nowhere. christmas is over and the storm has blown itself out. time to load up for their final 400 blown itself out. time to load up for theirfinal 400 miles blown itself out. time to load up for their final 400 miles to the glacier. not in one of the big planes this time but something much smaller. this is a twin auto, rugged, reliable, great on short ru nways rugged, reliable, great on short runways and perfect for working out here on the ice. we headed to the place where the base of the glacier goes afloat. it is called the grounding line and it is where this glacier is melting. that advance party are already on thwa ites

that advance party are already on thwaites glacier, theirjob, to map the area where the scientists are going to be deployed to make sure it is safe. the glacier is littered with deep crevasses which could be lethal. this is actually the first open crevasse we've ever been to. you can see the layers here not connecting with those over here. this is a void, the actual crevasse itself which is the l1 right here. another team surveyed the site to pinpoint exactly where the grounding line is. it has taken almost five weeks but we are finally at the front of the glacier. until this year, we are finally at the front of the glacier. untilthis year, only four people had ever been here before. oh my people had ever been here before. oh d! people had ever been here before. oh my god! hello friend. this is where it is going to be deployed but first, the need to drill a hole or rather melt one using hot water to bore down almost half a mile into

the ice. so task one, create a vast reservoir of water using this use rubber bath with two which the scientists call a flubber. needs ten tons of water again. 10,000 litres of water? we want to do the drilling, we pump that water using these last borehole pumps are those heaters over their. is essentially boilers. at like an oversized domestic boiler. heat the water, get hot enough to melt the ice, put down the hole. it's taken us what five, six weeks to get here. huge amounts of resources have gone into bringing the fuel and other stuff we need. how does it feel to be at the top of the... the cutting. there is a serious sense of responsibility. a huge amount of money and time and effort got into this by a lot of people to get us here. so many things can go wrong and if you lose the borehole, use all the floor so i feel you need to make the borehole.

you're limited and we have a certain amount of drums i feel that we can use and once there is gone, it came over. if there is no gone, it is time to start drilling and this unwinds the longest hosepipe ever seen. fretting at the hose through the wench, goes around this capstan and then that drives the hose up and down at the whole. they fire up the whole two boilers and it is melting time. this is an historic moment. the first time anyone has tried to drill down through the front of what is the most important glacier in the world in terms of future sea level rises. slowly, slowly, the drill melts a 30 centimetre whole down first tens of thousands of years of ice deposits. you can see it is looking 0k. it's not looking bad. probably better that we both

expected. after 36 hours, they finally break through to the sea below. mission accomplished. now, it is time for icefin it to ta ke ce ntre now, it is time for icefin it to take centre stage. as it is lowered through the glacier, the team are ready themselves to pilots the robot's submarine. it is more than a mile to where the warm ocean water meets the ice, along the way icefin gathers crucial data. were driving forward slowly. it is a real landscape. it was looks like it has craters on it. that is weird. we rolled up on this maybe half a metre of this very clear ice and you could see the sediment rich ice right above it through the ice layout which was something i've never seen before. this is incredible. it is seriously

like another planet. what is going on? we should let other people know because this is really cool. are you ready for weird? i'm so excited. get ready for weird? i'm so excited. get ready to have your brain blown. this isa ready to have your brain blown. this is a clear layer of ice. this is a bunch of sediment particles in it and maybe introduce you to your new friend. there is a whole bunch of an enemy things burrowing into the ice. well. see the little tentacles. piloting your own vehicle underneath theiceis piloting your own vehicle underneath the ice is pretty cool. to get the grounding zone, you can kind of see the water column, the ice coming down at you, the seafloor the water column, the ice coming down at you, the sea floor coming down at you, the sea floor coming down to you and there is a huge rush of energy. look at that! singing you do see warm water making its way

to the grounding zone which is changing the base rights to the boundary zone. are coming right up to the grounding zone now. no—one else is above us. where the only people in the world right now. and we re people in the world right now. and were seeing a whole new crazy thing. that place is really important because it controls how much ice is coming off the continent and at what rate. taking a vehicle like this, right there to map it out in detail means that we can really start to figure out exactly what is going on. we've been talking about this for seven years and two finally make it there isjust incredible. yes! that is so cool! because of all the delays, the time spent at the grounding zone is shorter than planned but icefin managed to complete five missions. run more than expected and collected

a huge amount of data. the thwaites tea m a huge amount of data. the thwaites team is delighted. this season has been tremendously successful. we've seen at the warm water coming up from the continental shelf and making contact with the ice and we have measured the rate of that melts and to know that we are in a position to begin to understand those changes in a way that actually can shape the future of policy, and people's lives, that is a humbling thing. as we leave, we fly over the main front of the glacier. the epic forces that are tearing the ice apartare all forces that are tearing the ice apart are all too obvious here. in some places, the ice has broken up completely, collapsing into a jumble of icebergs. i'm surprised myself sitting here thinking about it, how emotional i am. i think it is, yeah, it is shocking and we should all be upset by what is happening here. do

you come away feeling upset that what you've seen is a process of destruction, of destroying a huge body of ice? i feel like i understand the planet hopefully better. it is better to know how things are happening than to guess at it or to hope it goes away. we know there has been changed that we will have to accommodate and this story is about how do we get together and try to fix things, to make the world sustainable for ourselves and future generations.

we got some very strong winds indeed heading our way this weekend, particularly though on sunday thanks to storm era. there are already weather warnings from the met office in store for this and this could be updated so make sure you stay in touch with the wants throughout the weekend. as far as ciara is concerned, develops on an f1 of the strongest atlantic jet streams i've seen with the winds in the jet at 250 mph. making this intense area of low pressure which is store ciara arriving across the british isles on sunday. before we get there, over the next few hours, we got a weakening band of rain pushing its way eastwards followed by some blustery showers but because of the winds are fairly brisk outside at the moment, it is not particularly cold start to the day with temperatures four to eight celsius. looking at the weather picture and saturday, a fair bit of sunshine for england, wales and eastern scotland for a time but the winds will

continue to pick up and through the afternoon, those winds will play when, this band of rain for northern ireland and scotland were some snow over the scottish hills. as well as the wind gust go, scotland and northern ireland could get gusts of 70 mph, strong enough to bring localised disruption and from there, free saturday night, this band of heavy rain swings its way east was across the country and it will become a windy, blustery, blowy kind of night right away across the uk. it will be a mild night though, saturday night, mild, wet and windy. looking at sunday, the weather is dominated by the arrival of ciara, here it comes. you can see tightly packed isobars which tells you it is going to be a windy day indeed across all of the country. the strongest winds will come along in a two packets if you like. the first of these arriving on the southern flank of the area of low pressure and the squeeze of strong winds works across scotland, including fruit scotland's central lowlands with some impacts here, particularly for a sunday afternoon. whereas

further southwards, the strongest winds will be on and ahead this squally band of rain. this cold front pushing its way southwards across the country. all of england and wales will get the strong winds. gusts could reach 60 to 80 mph and the winds will stay gusty for some six to nine hours. transport disruption is expected and we could have some power cuts as well.

this is bbc world 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. 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 presidenital candidates hold their latest debate in new hampshire ahead of a key vote on who should take on donald trump in november. and as the film world prepares for the oscars, one director tells us why she thinks hollywood is "unconsciously" racist.