this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am... if five british people including a child have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france meanwhile, as the number of victims has increased in china, there's been growing anger at the handling of the crisis. six senior conservatives write to tory mps to raise concerns about the government's decision to allow huawei to help build the uk's 56 network. this is not about money any longer. yes, of course you want to have a system that works and not to pay too much, but the truth is, security, the protection of the uk, is the absolute number one priority for any government. officials working on borisjohnson‘s pledge to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers say that they'll actually need to take on more than 50,000, as many are set to leave.

the met office issues severe weather warnings for the weekend as storm ciara approaches from the atlantic. preparations are under way for the england—scotland and ireland—wales matches in the six nations this afternoon. and, in half an hour, we'll have an in—depth look at the week's headlines in dateline. you five britons have tested positive for coronavirus in france. the four adults and a child were diagnosed with the virus in the french alps. one of the adults had recently returned from singapore. the newly—infected people were among a group of 11 people who had been staying in the same chalet in the les contamines montjoie ski resort in the region of savoie in eastern france. the news of the infections was announced by a

french health minister. translation: the initial case was reported to us last night. it was a british national returning from singapore, where he had stayed from the 20th to the 23rd of january. he arrived in france onjanuary 24th for a four day trip and stayed in the town of les contamines montjoie in savoie. all the positive cases and contacts of this british national, close contacts, total 11 people. all british nationals staying in the same chalet. they we re staying in the same chalet. they were hospitalised last night in three hospitals, in lyon, saint etienne and crenon. our correspondent, andy moore, is with me now. we are beginning to piece together the history of what happened. to go

through the details, the first contact, the source of this cluster we are talking about, was a man who was in singapore from the 20th to the 23rd of january. was in singapore from the 20th to the 23rd ofjanuary. he returned was in singapore from the 20th to the 23rd of january. he returned to france to this ski chalet in the resort of les contamines montjoie, not too far from mont blanc. he was staying there with 11 other people. five of them have tested positive. all 11 have been taken to hospital asa all 11 have been taken to hospital as a precaution, as we were hearing one of them is a child. this is another worrying example of community spread of the disease, so these are people contaminated who haven't been to china or asia. they are secondary contacts of the man who had been to singapore. apparently, the condition of those 11 people, they are not reported to be seriously ill, so at the moment they are ok. we don't even know if they are ok. we don't even know if they are ok. we don't even know if they are ill. some people have the virus but showed no symptoms. we

have been hearing about some cases in majorca as well. yes, slightly different, a suspicion that a british family have the coronavirus. all four, a father, mother and two children, have been taken to hospital as a precaution. they are in quarantine. they have not yet tested positive, but we understand one of the girls is showing symptoms ofa one of the girls is showing symptoms of a flu—like disease. she might be ill from something completely different. we don't know if that is coronavirus. earlier our beijing correspondent steven mcdonell gave us this update. wuhan, where this broke out, has been really stretched. in china, things are resourced pretty well, but it just shows things are resourced pretty well, but itjust shows you how serious this problem is. hospitals in that city have been absolutely swamped,

so city have been absolutely swamped, so two separate, new coronavirus isolation facilities have been built, the first one with 1000 beds, the second with 1300. they will be run by the military, and that makes sense because they can arrive with their doctors, nurses and admin staff and start straightaway. but, you know, even with those new facilities in place, we are still hearing from officials in wuhan they don't have enough hospital beds, not enough equipment, and it could be that there are ten times as many people infected in hubei province is the official figures might suggest. that is because some people are presenting with less serious symptoms, they are not going to hospital, they are still coming into contact with others and passing on the virus. and we have also seen a huge level of anger and grief after the death of the young doctor, who

tried to warn the public. how much is that eroding trust in the government, do you think? well, i think many people would sort of applaud the efforts of the chinese government more generally on this, and they are throwing everything at this problem right now. however, in the early stages, when this doctor tried to warn others, in this case, posting on a chat with his classmates from university, there had been an influx of virus patients, he was hauled in by the police and told not to spread rumours. the same time, the mayor of wuhan he is sorry he didn't release crucial information about this virus earlier because he didn't have clea ra nce earlier because he didn't have clearance from above. this must be leading people to be questioning what is going wrong in china with the communist pa rty‘s what is going wrong in china with the communist party's command and control structure under xi jinping, if people are afraid to release

crucial, important information into the community in a timely manner for fear they will get into trouble. so something has gone wrong there. party officials know that this is a problem, and so they are somehow trying to spin it. they have sent in a team to investigate what went wrong with the doctor, who now, apart from trying to blow the whistle, has died himself in treating patients with the virus, but the investigators who have gone in there to look at this, many would see them as part of the problem, because the communist party's discipline inspection structure is one of the reasons people are afraid of speaking out, and why you get the police, for example, trying to silence a whistle—blower. so, you know, i think critics of the chinese government would say this is not the way to be going about it. really the questions that should be asked are, how is this country run, and how can you change things so that, when

important information has to be released like this, it can be done quickly so those early days and weeks will not be lost like they have been in this case. a group of senior conservatives is urging fellow tory mps to challenge borisjohnson's decision to give chinese technology firm huawei a role in building the uk's 56 mobile networks. in a letter, severalformer cabinet ministers say there are alternative options which would not compromise national security. the government insists the decision was taken following a "rigorous" review and huawei's involvement in 56 would be limited. joining me now from his constituency in chingford and woodford green is sir iain duncan smith. he was one of the signatories of the letter. iain duncan smith, isn't it too late now to gather support, given the decision has been taken? no,, the government has made a decision and, i have to say, i have sympathy for

the prime minister, because this is a bit ofa the prime minister, because this is a bit of a hospital pass. this was given to him after civil servants had driven the process very hard, because huawei are already in the earlier systems, and bear in mind that the civil service were very heavily criticised by the security select committee in 2013, who said they should have looked very much more carefully at security. so we are ata more carefully at security. so we are at a point where we need to make are at a point where we need to make a decision, and it's a long—term decision, notjust on 56 but on 66, the big breakthrough, as to whether oi’ the big breakthrough, as to whether or not you have an organisation from a country which is an aggressor on cyber warfare and a company which is clearly totally and utterly in the hands of chinese government to demand absolute obedience these matters. so the answer is, are they manageable? and nobody i have spoken to in the security apparatus outside, inside technology companies, they say it is not

manageable to have an organisation like that inside your important network, so we need to drive to zero, zero involvement, as soon as we can, one year, two years, and therefore open up to many more other providers. isn't it a bit unfair to blame it on civil servants when the prime minister makes the final decision? he will have had top security advice to stop what do you think motivated his reasoning?” security advice to stop what do you think motivated his reasoning? i am not blaming the civil service, simply pointing out that, since 2003, a series of bad decisions made, and even ministers, they were not told that huawei and some of the networks were now given the right to be there. the key thing here is that we are completely alone in this. the australians, new zealanders, canadians and americans, the vietnamese, for goodness' sake, refused huawei. the indians have said no, the japanese are angry about this, and even the french have now said it will not go with any

solution that has huawei in it. all our allies and friends, the sort of people we normally respect, we share intelligence with, they all tell us we have made the wrong decision. we need to get huawei out of our systems. if it takes a couple of yea rs, systems. if it takes a couple of years, ok, but the government now needs to have a plan not of 35% involvement, zero involvement, and i think that fits with the others around the world know a great about the threat. china has set out to dominate these markets, they subsidise this organisation, this company goes in and under bids to undercut companies and, if you try and beat into china, is one company told me, it's a nightmare, they restrict you, you can't get into any of their security stuff, they will not let us in and yet we let these chinese companies, particularly huawei, in. most people know that the security of this realm is not just about land or sea, it's also

now about the internet, these broadband areas, and we now need to protect that as much as anything else. that is our priority. i would urge the government to think very carefully, not 35%, zero involvement. how much support among conservative mps do you have? could this be a real rebellion? well, i am not looking at rebellion. that's up to individuals. i am simply trying to individuals. i am simply trying to say to the government, genuinely as someone who really wants them to succeed, that this decision, having been forced on them at this point, they need to take a pace back and ask this question, actually, how do you manage what you actually admit isa you manage what you actually admit is a threat? the government has admitted that china is a threat in these matters, and they have admitted huawei are a threat, and can you absolutely manage a known threat? the answer is only to a limited degree, which means they

still remain a threat, and why would you want to build into your system an organisation that remains a threat? i don't know of anything else, anywhere else in the world that would do that. with the cove na nt that would do that. with the covenant asking that question, it becomes a different answer for the you need to get them out, and that requires us to work on that now and set a deadline, and that is what we are after, and they need to come forward with that. it is not about rebellions at this stage, it's about everybody saying, goodness, gracious me, would we do this in any other area? the me, would we do this in any other area ? the answer me, would we do this in any other area? the answer is no, you wouldn't. imagine having people you thought were a threat in 1939 being brought in to build our radar systems! i mean, that's the kind of nature of the peculiarity of this decision. the government has just come into power, and this goes back a long way, so this decision needs to be seen across all parties is a time to make the final decision. if all our friends time to make the final decision. if all ourfriends and time to make the final decision. if all our friends and allies tell us thatis all our friends and allies tell us that is the case, i think we should listen to them. you are a prominent

brexiteer. doesn't the decision highlights the new political questions the government now faces? if it were to stop the huawei deal, how would it affect a china trade deal? equally, if it continues, do you think a us trade deal and relationship on security will be damaged? i know there is a witty temptation to make it into the brexit issue as you can see, damian 6reen brexit issue as you can see, damian green and others who are not part of that brexit process are all in on this discussion group that we have. so it isn't really about exit. what it is absolutely is about a group of people, many on the backbenches, who are very worried and have a real concern about our security, and i would simply make the point that all of our friends and allies that we hope to do trade deals with in the future, like japan, america, hope to do trade deals with in the future, likejapan, america, new zealand, australia, india, have all said they are unhappy with the british decision, and so my answer is, actually, these are people with

open markets, people who our companies will want to do business with and are doing business with at the moment, existing markets that are free and fair, and then we pitch that against the possibility of doing more business in china, in a which is very restricted, very controlled, in a totalitarian regime which uses these technologies to repress people like the uighurs, tibetans and others, doesn't sign up to human rights and the global network of how business is done in a free market. so, yes, we want to open up the market, but the number one priority, as all these other countries have decided, you can't manage this risk, you have to get rid of it. thank you, sir iain duncan smith. the headlines on bbc news... five british people including a child have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. six senior conservatives write to tory mps to raise concerns about the government's decision to allow huawei to help build the uk's 56 network.

officials working on borisjohnson's pledge to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers say that they'll actually need to take on more than 50,000 as many are set to leave. women now hold a third of the board positions in the uk's 100 biggest public companies. the figure is up from just 12% a decade ago. but a 6overnment—backed hampton—alexander review, which had set this target, highlighted a lack of women in senior and executive roles. katy austin reports. my name is francesca ecsery. i sit on the boards of several companies, including air france, f&c investment trust. even with francesca's background as a successful business leader, getting her first boardroom position was tough. it's an area where often men still hugely outnumber women. change is painful. there's a huge value attributed to "chemistry" on the board, and,

of course, "chemistry", you have mainly with people like you. she says boards who don't have enough women are putting themselves at a disadvantage. basically, it doesn't reflect your customer base, it doesn't reflect the society at large, it doesn't reflect your staff. the government has backed voluntary targets to increase the representation of women on the boards of the biggest listed companies in the country to 33%, or one in three, by the end of this year. it's february and that target has now been achieved for the top 100 companies, but not yet for the next 250, and it's far from job done. i think 33% is a very good start, but, as we can see, and we know there are still many issues in the workplace to address, and we have a lot farther to go before we see really good gender balance in the leadership of business. francesca welcomes the latest boardroom target being hit, but she worries getting enough women

at the top table remains a long way off. katy austin, bbc news. i'm joined now by ann cairns, 6lobal co chair of the gender equality campaign group, the 30 percent club and also the executive vice chairman of mastercard. so some progress but not enough. definitely, and at a broad level progress has been very good and, if we continue like this, may be by 2030 we will reach but really we need to build that pipeline of women coming through to be board members. inside the companies, we only have a handful of ceos, and we are not seeing women come through, along the big business lines that would qualify them to run companies. what are the key sticking points? are they facing tougher resistance or do they facing tougher resistance or do they find it difficult because of family responsibilities?”

they find it difficult because of family responsibilities? i don't think the women find it difficult. a lot of research shows that first step on the management ladder is where they falter and i wouldn't say it is then faltering, i would say it is the men get promoted faster, so we have to address that. why that's still happening? i think we have been focused very much on the boards in the last few years, and people have been looking at the top and not going down low enough into the company to say, why aren't these women coming through? especially in the technology era, i think there was a lot more focus about how many women are doing science subjects at school and university, and who is coming through into the artificial intelligence age to actually run the companies of the future. within schools and universities, it tends to be that men do those stem subjects. there are only about 1796 women graduating, so if that is the

pool you are pulling from, and i looked at the stats for the ftse100 companies and there are only 17% of those roles, head of technology and operations, which are done by women. click how do you change that,“ there is a bias in schools or among girls themselves? you have to start very early, about eight years old, and tell girls it is great to go into text. i am an engineer myself with a pure maths degree, i loved it, but so many more girls can do this. what at the senior levels? you talk to people who are senior in business, and they are behind this, they want change. are they paying lip service but not making it happen? i don't think they are paying lip service, i think there are companies who are starting to create their female pipeline. are companies who are starting to create theirfemale pipeline. you mentioned things about the women themselves faltering. you have to have paternity and maternity leave,

return to work programmes, mentorship, sponsorship, and applicants pulling these women through. on cue and it's even harder if you are from a bme background and a female? absolutely, and we really have to focus on that. sport and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's holly hamilton. a huge day in the six nations, all the home sides in action. it's ireland and wales in dublin first and then the old enemies, scotland and england, clash at murrayfield. sarah mulkerrins is in edinburgh for us ahead of that tie. it's never an easy one to predict, is it? it certainly isn't. you just look back at the last couple of years, when england have been dominating, scotla nd when england have been dominating, scotland won at murrayfield two yea rs scotland won at murrayfield two years ago, and then last year at twickenham we had that crazy, sensational draw, when england raced into a sensational draw, when england raced intoa 31—0 sensational draw, when england raced into a 31—0 lead at half—time and then scotland were brilliant in the second half and brought it right

back to drawing level. i think a lot of scotla nd back to drawing level. i think a lot of scotland fans, although they had a disappointing world cup, will feel quite confident in how 6regor townsend is talking post—world cup. they bring attacking flair under him, and they score wonderful tries, but there is a sense there has been some naivete in terms of their defence and really hanging on in there. they lost to ireland last week but they should much better aggression and defence and a lot more of the things that their fans had been asking for in contrast, england, they lost to france last week, and there has been a lot of talk about eddie jones week, and there has been a lot of talk about eddiejones and some of the hyperbole around his team. this week, we also had one of the players, lewis ludlam, referthis fixture as a war, so it will be interesting to see how they front up. questions over eddiejones's selections. he has made five changes to that loss at france last week. the big question remains tom curry at number eight. it's a position he

doesn't usually play in, he played that for the first time last week, he is in that position again today, soa he is in that position again today, so a lot of focus and attention on him, but it's so difficult to call. we know that storm ciara is coming m, we know that storm ciara is coming in, and! we know that storm ciara is coming in, and i think there will be plenty of plaster on the pitch. before that game kicks off this evening, ireland host reigning champions wales in dublin. after winning their opening games last weekend, the grand slam is still on for both sides, but ireland know that they'll have to improve on their performance last weekend, when theyjust about got over the line against scotland. it's been a trademark of the irish team over the last few years, to be physically dominant, and i thought last week we had in part, probably won't as consistent as we usually are in that aspect of the game. look, we know we're going to have to step it up a little bit this week and find that consistency so we don't let teams off the hook, and just keep putting pressure on in terms of dominance.

they're a very, very physical team and if you let them get on the front foot, they're very, very dangerous so we've got to be very careful about the areas we play in and make sure that we match that physicality that's obviously going to be there. we know it's not an easy place to go, the record speaks for itself there, so it's going to be a big challenge but we certainly have to front up physically and make sure we play at the right ends of the field. manchester united's new striker odion ighalo will miss the club's training camp in spain overfears he'll be refused entry back into the uk due to the coronavirus outbreak. ighalo, a nigeria international, flew from china last weekend afterjoining united from a club in shanghai on a loan deal. however, united are concerned about tightening restrictions that may stop ighalo getting back into the country if he left. great britain's men and women were back in action in hockey‘s pro league earlier. the men could only a manage a 1—1 draw with new zealand,

while the women recorded their first win of the competition after beating the black sticks 3—0 in auckland. shona mccallin scoring herfirst goal in gb colours added the third in the final quarter for the olympic champions. afterwards she said it had been coming after leaving australia with no points last weekend. that's all the sport for now. hello. the weather is set to bring some disruption through the course of the weekend as storm ciara is approaching. there is an amber warning from the met office across the south—east of england on sunday, but widely across the uk severe gales are likely to cause significant disruption. storm ciara already brought severe storms across the eastern united states and is now moving across the atlantic on a strong jet stream, so strengthening all the time. we had some rain earlier across the south—east of england and that is now clearing away. much of england, wales and eastern scotland stick with mostly dry weather today with sunshine, but towards the north—west

it is all change. 6ales developing in parts of northern ireland and western scotland with some heavy rain and some mountain snow for the highlands as well. reasonably mild still, the temperature is about 7—11 degrees today. you will notice that things turn blustery later on and the winds strengthen further into this evening, 60 to 70 mph gusts in the north—west. overnight, the next area of rain moves in. this is storm ciara arriving through the early hours of sunday morning. from the word go it is going to be very windy, some heavy bursts of rain, some snow over highland scotland as well. and we are all going to feel the impact of storm ciara on sunday. here it is on the pressure map. you can see the proximity of all of these isobars. it's been several years since we've seen such widespread, strong gusts of wind across the uk. even through the english channel they are up to about 80 mph. inland 60—70 mph gusts of wind, but certainly around the coasts and hills gusts could exceed 80 mph. let's concentrate on the northern half of the uk through sunday, heavy rain and mountain snow from the word go. that clears eastwards to leave sunshine and heavy,

thundery showers with some hail. squally winds squeezing through the central belt, some of those gusts reaching 80 mph, enough to cause significant disruption. looking further south, sunday's weather now and you can see the green colours are showing the heavy bursts of rain. heavy rain tracking south eastwards. this is a cold front, so as that moves south across england and wales it could bring some particularly gusty, squally winds, again up to 70 or even 80 mph. storm ciara on sunday has the potential to bring severe gales. we are likely to see disruption to transport and travel, as well as power cuts and big waves around the coast. it stays windy for monday and tuesday, not as windy as sunday, but with fairly heavy showers and wintry in the north. 6oodbye for now.

hello, and welcome to dateline london. i'm carrie 6racie. this week, coronavirus or credibility shock.

which is more dangerous to china's communist leaders? and was president trump's perfect week the starting gun to a perfect year? my guests today: american journalist and author jef mcallister, david aaronovitch of the london times, maria margaronis of us news weekly the nation irish broadcaster brian o'connell. it's been another grim week in the battle against coronavirus, ever more infections, deaths, lockdowns and economic damage. but for china's political leaders possibly the worst headline of the week was the loss of one wuhan doctor. in late december li wenliang had tried to warn about the virus but police accused him of disturbing social order. as usual, the political system censored bad news. mr li's death now draws attention to an uncomfortable question? should china have acted sooner?

maria, start us off. i think it is clear china should have acted sooner and even chinese officials are acknowledging this. the outcry on social media over the death of doctor li wienlang is very moving and very powerful. we know that they did not close down the live markets, they did not alert people to the fa ct they did not alert people to the fact there was a new virus, that theyin fact there was a new virus, that they in fact try to censure doctor li wienlang. for me the question is where does that take china? will people feel we have all got to come together to fight the virus and we cannot fight the government? or will they be feeling, especially after all those protests in hong kong, that this is a moment for change? interesting question and, david, i don't know if you have a view on it. interesting to note that since li wienlang's death media have started complaining that outside forces are manipulating and exploiting grief over his death to deliver an

anti—china