this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at four: 20 people are reported to have been shot dead and several others wounded in a mass shooting in north east thailand. the situation is ongoing and the suspect, a soldier, is still at large. 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. why would you want to build into your system an organisation that remains a threat? i don't know of anywhere else in the world that would do that. officials working on boris johnson'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 underway for england verses scotland in the six nations in 45 minutes. and in half an hour the victoria derbyshire programme speaks to a group of former jehovah's witnesses, who are suing the group over historical sexual abuse they say they suffered. reports from thailand say an armed soldier has killed twenty people, north—east of the capital bangkok. more than a dozen others have been injured.

ina in a situation described by the authorities as ongoing. the gunman is said to be holed up in a shopping mall in the city of korat. the thai defence ministry said the attacker shot his boss and a relative and stole weapons from a military camp. he opened fire at a buddhist temple and later at the shopping centre, where police continue to hunt him. the thai ministry of defence says the attacker is a low ranking officer named jakraphanth thomma. these pictures were taken from his facebook page, on which he posted updates on the rampage as it happened. it has since been taken down. this report is the latest from

jonathan head. panic in a provincial shopping mall. as people realise there is a gunman inside and they have to run. from outside, the sound of multiple gunshots. at this stage he had already killed a senior army officer and shot several other soldiers before reaching the mall. at one point one of his shots appeared to ignite a gas cylinder. the government has been identified as 32 sergeant major jakrapha nth thomma. he took selfies of himself outside the mall and live streamed parts of his attack on facebook before it was taken down. his motives are not yet known. army and police units have sealed off the shopping mall hoping to bring this shocking incident in one of the country's largest cities to a quick end. gun crimes are not uncommon in thailand.

but a shooting on the scale by one man is something horribly new. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. we will be speaking tojonathan later. just to save the situation in the city of korat is continuing. the latest report confirm 20 people have been killed and they are hoping to hear from the scene in just a few minutes‘ time. stay with us for that here on bbc news. five british people — including a child — have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the french alps. they were all staying in the same chalet in a ski resort in the savoir region, and caught the virus from a british man who'd recently returned from singapore. elsewhere, a british family are in hospital in majorca as a precaution, after they reportedly came in to contact with a coronavirus patient. more than 700 people have died from the virus in china since the outbreak started. andy moore reports.

a picturesque ski resort in the french alps the unlikely setting for this new cluster of coronavirus cases. french officials said a british man came to a chalet in contamines montjoie after visiting singapore. he then infected at least five other people, including a child. a total of 11 people are in hospital, but they're not said to be in a serious condition. some local schools will have to close. translation: we have been trying to trace where the people in the chalet have been since thursday and who they have been in close contact with. the british man who was the original source of the infection is being treated in hospital in london. he fell ill after returning to brighton. a child at the school is in city is in self—imposed quarantine. ina in a separate case, a british family

of four including two girls is in hospital as a precaution after one of them came into contact with the coronavirus casing france. samples have been sent to madrid for testing. translation: we will have to wait between 24 and 48 hours for the results but there will be announced as soon as possible. on a cruise liner quarantined off the coast of japan, 64 people have now tested positive for coronavirus. they have been taken off the ship to hospital. one of them is british. alan steele from walsall was celebrating his honeymoon. he's said to be doing well, according to his friends, who are still on board the cruise liner. he was taken off the ship yesterday, late afternoon. he's in a hospital near tokyo. wendy is missing him a great deal, obviously, but they're in regular touch, and alan has been in touch with me a couple of times today. meanwhile the chinese city at the centre of the outbreak has opened a second new hospital to deal with the health emergency.

it was built from scratch in wuhan in just two weeks. there have now be a total of 722 deaths in china and two in other countries. more than 34,000 people in china have been infected. tomorrow, the last of 150 british citizens are expected to arrive back in the uk on the final repatriation flight from wuhan. they will be taken to a training and conference venue on the outskirts of milton keynes. andy moore, bbc news. a quick update from singapore. this is from the health authorities in singapore. they are saying in all they have 40 cases confirmed in singapore or people with the virus. not in every country around the world a re not in every country around the world are there testing facilities still in place. at one point only

senegal and south africa had testing facilities in the entire continents. that is changing fast thanks to the who. i spoke to chris smith, who's a consultant virologist at cambridge university and a presenter on the naked scientist podcast a little earlier. he explained how the virus had evolved. i noticed way back at the beginning of january that it appeared that lightning may be striking twice in wuhan because of its very close correspondence with what had happened with sars back in 2002-2003, so happened with sars back in 2002—2003, so we took this seriously. the story is beginning to clarify in terms of the origin. we have now seen information pointing towards it possibly being a trade in pangolins in the markets which is an intermediate host. we think this virus has come from bats, that bats are traded viruses with the

pangolins in the market and they may have carried the virus into humans. britain has had its third case on the mainland and that person caught the mainland and that person caught the virus outside china and that spoke quite a lot to us because what thatis spoke quite a lot to us because what that is saying is previously, where oui’ that is saying is previously, where our case definition, what we were using to decide whether to tell someone using to decide whether to tell someone for this, using to decide whether to tell someone forthis, depended using to decide whether to tell someone for this, depended on had they been in china. now we have had to widen that to nine territories including the singapore web this one person visited and that tells us the virus is not just person visited and that tells us the virus is notjust outside china but it is spreading person to person outside china, and we are seeing evidence of onward spread from the ski resort in france. this is what we anticipated but now we are beginning to look and test committees confirming the trajectory of this thing. as it stands we have official figures from china saying the death toll on the mainland is 722. it looks like given the pace of

fatalities that very soon it will exceed the number of people who died because of sars. in a sense it is just one random figure but in terms of building up capacity to deal with this and treat this as a longer—term problem that might be with us for a few months, our people looking to that? we have looked to sars to try to understand and predict the trajectory of this thing and it has already surpassed that, but the data we have is from china and china was notoriously closed about what they did and didn't share in terms of what really happened with sars. we don't really know what the inside china story was there. we know 8000 people got sars, there was a 10% mortality rate. this time there are more than 30,000 people with this virus and the death rate is north of 700. the death rate is at a couple

percent, sars is ten but what we are seeing with this virus, unlike sars, this virus appears to be relatively easy to transmit. while it is not necessarily as lethal as sars, because it is capable of spreading more vigorously and probably more rapidly, the overall number of people who could succumb could be higher. a student at portslade aldridge community academy in brighton has been advised by public health england to remain at home for 14 days. this is following on from the third confirmed case of coronavirus — a middle aged man from the town who's been transferred to st thomas' hospital in london. the school says the self isolation is a precaution. police have spoken to the 16—year—old schoolboy who was sent hundreds of social media messages by scotland's former finance secretary derek mackai. the snp policitian resigned on thursday. police scotland said it hadn't received any

complaint of criminality but it was "assessing available information". donald trump has dismissed two senior officials who testified against him at his impeachment trial. the us envoy to the eu, gordon sondland, said he "was advised today that the president intended to recall him with immediate effect. just hours earlier, lt col alexander vindman, a top expert on ukraine, was escorted from the white house. the department for work and pensions says it's "working urgently" to make improvements after a report raised concerns about the number of suicides linked to problems with benefit claims. the national audit office says 69 cases have been investigated in the past six years, but warns that the true number is likely to be much higher. our correspondent helena wilkinson gave us this update earlier. we can now reveal that the government looked at 69 cases over the past six years, but i think crucially what this report also warns is that the number of cases where claimants have

taken their own lives may be much higher. it's criticised the department for their way it investigates benefit—related deaths. it says that there are unclear structures within the department, so staff don't know when to investigate, and that may in turn have stopped other deaths were being reported. it also says until recently it's failed to actively seek information from coroners and families. well, we had a statement from a government spokesperson saying the department was urgently working to drive forward improvements, and learn the lessons of what it called these tragic cases. obviously, though, this is very concerning for any families who've been affected. a group of senior conservatives is urging fellow tory mps to challenge borisjohnson‘s decision to give the chinese technology firm a role in building the uk's 5g 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 5g would be limited. sir iain duncan smith explained why he's concerned about the decision. the government has made a decision, and i have to say i have sympathy for the prime minister, because this is a bit of a hospital pass. it was given to him after civil servants who had driven this process 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 back in 2013, who said they should have looked very much more carefully at that security. we are at a point where we need to make a decision, and it's a long—term decision, notjust on 5g but on 6g, which is the big breakthrough, as to whether or not you have an organisation from a country that is an aggressor in terms of cyber—warfare, and a company that is clearly, totally and utterly in the hands of the chinese government,

who demand absolute obedience on these matters. so the answer is, are they manageable? and nobody that i have spoken to in the security apparatus, outside or inside technology companies, they all say it's simply not manageable to have an organisation like that inside your important network, and therefore we now need to drive that to zero, zero involvement, as soon as we can, one or two years, and therefore open up to many more other providers. the headlines on bbc news: 20 people are reported to have been shot dead and several others wounded in a mass shooting in north east thailand. 5 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 5g network. in sport ireland have made it two wins from two at this year ‘s six nations. they beat well in dublin. andrew conway with ireland's fourth and final try. still to come in the six nations it is scotland versus england in rugby‘s oldest rivalry. and everton extend their run to five games winning against crystal palace in the premier league. i will be back with more at 5:30 p:m.. the foreign secretary says he is seeking an ‘ambitious' trade deal with japan as britain begins free trade talks with major economies.

dominic raab met with his japanese counterpart on his first overseas trip following britain's departure from the eu last month. mr raab said he wanted a trade agreement at least as good as the eu's. i have discussed how we can deliver new bilateral arrangements at least as high a standard, if not higher, and at least as ambitious as the eu—japan economic partnership agreement, which would send a very powerful signal of our shared commitment to free and rules—based trade. minister motegi and i also discussed the uk's interest in membership of the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans—pacific partnership and we very much welcome the advice and support from japan in that regard. voters in ireland are voting in a general election today. the country has been governed by coalitions for the past 30 years and there are likely to be fresh coalition negotiations between parties after the result is declared. counting takes place tomorrow.

women now hold a third of board positions in the uk's hundred biggest public companies. the figure is up from just i2% a decade ago. but a government—backed review, still highlights 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, and 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 is a huge value attributed to chemistry on the board, and of course, chemistry you have mainly with people like you. she says boards that don't have enough women are putting themselves at a disadvantage. basically it doesn't reflect your customer base, it doesn't reflect 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 further to go before we see, really, a good gender balance in the leadership of british business. francesca welcomes the latest boardroom target being hit, but she worries getting enough women at the top table remains a long way off. let's return now to our main story — in thailand, police say a soldier has shot and killed a number of people in a shopping centre in the eastern city of nakkon

ratchassima. our 0ur correspondence our correspondence joins us now from bangkok. can you give us the latest because there are reports suggesting the police may have started moving into the building itself. it looks like that may have happened after a lull. we heard a lot of shooting, commotion outside. it is a very large building, a massive shopping centre. it has been surrounded by police and army for the last 4—5 hours since the gunman went in there. we have seen people coming out of the shopping centre, running out of the shopping centre, running out so it looks like people are getting out of there. what we don't know is who is doing the shooting, which side it is coming from. we also don't know whether this gunman, he isa

also don't know whether this gunman, he is a soldier, whether he is holding hostages. the size of the shopping centre means it may be quite difficult to find him. it has been an awful incident. very crowded shopping mall, very popular one, so a lot of ordinary people caught up when this man moved into the more carrying an assault rifle and quite a lot of ammunition and just opening fire. what more do we know about the man himself? have the defence ministry given any details, any more information about what he had been doing before this happened? none at all. no motive has been given and nothing on his social media pages. they have largely been taken down now because he was live streaming parts of his attack and putting his posts himself in a chilling manner but there is no suggestion of ideology. there was a hint of

possible financial disputes with someone, possible financial disputes with someone, there was a reference to that. we don't know what his motive is. he's a 32—year—old sergeant major. there are lots of army bases around and it appears the dispute started with a senior officer. he shot dead a colonel and the colonel's mother—in—law at a home inside an army base before moving on, taking weapons and ammunition, going to a buddhist temple and ending up inside this shopping mall. in terms of the record of the thai security services, do they have a lot of experience in handling this kind of incident? you said there is a gun problem but this must be unusual in thailand. this is unprecedented. i can't think of another occasion where we have had a loa n another occasion where we have had a loan gunman shooting on this scale. gun crime is quite common itself.

sieges with gunmen are relatively uncommon in the past when thai security forces have gone to clear them out. it usually ends up with a great deal of gunfire and the protagonist dead. i don't know what will happen in this case butjudging by the amount of gunfire we are hearing now, there could be quite a dramatic and possibly violent into this. the prospects make that much more difficult by the presence of civilians. presumably it is hard to know in such a large building whether some people may be sheltering for cover and reluctant to come out. a lot of people are inside the shopping mall. they were in effect sealed in when the military and the police sealed off the moor to try and stop him escaping and were sending out m essa 9 es escaping and were sending out messages telling people they were

0k. messages telling people they were ok. there are a lot of people in there and there are any number of places you can hide. they haven't had much time to figure out how to carry out an operation like this. judging by the numbers of people they are talking about killed, we are hearing a death toll of over 20 at this stage but that is conditional, i suspect the authorities felt they had no choice because it seems this man is very ready to shoot people. jonathan head in bangkok with the latest there on the thai shooting. that is in a shopping mall in the north—east of thailand. security forces have moved in. jonathan will give us an update when he gets it. the australian state of new south wales is braced for more severe wet weather this weekend as downpours ease the bushfire crisis in the region. australia's bureau of meteorology warned of "dangerous conditions" on saturday and sunday.

there has already been flooding in sydney and other areas along the coast. olivia crellin has more. first came the fires, then the floods. so far this year, australia has faced weather conditions of biblical proportions. after months of destructive wildfires razed millions of hectares of land and killed 33 people and billions of animals, australia has experienced severe hailstorms and flash floods. despite the country receiving the heaviest rainfall in almost 20 years, many of the fires in the east of the country are still burning. we actually have 723 firefighters still in the field of operations. they are dealing with 38 fires, i9 uncontained, but the rainfall is obviously providing some welcome relief to many of the bushfires that have been raging. a welcome relief, but a challenge in its own right. there have been 13 rescues, flood rescues, which unfortunately has doubled since yesterday. i would appeal to the community to be very conscious of the fact that drains,

rivers and any number of pieces of infrastructure will be challenged over the course of this flood activity. still, for much of new south wales, which had been in drought for over three years, providing the conditions that fuelled the intensity of the recent fires, the rain is a salve. with 20 of about 60 fires in the state already put out by the downpour in the past day, australians hope that after the rain comes the sun. olivia crellin, bbc news. weather warnings have been issued across the uk for the weekend, with storm ciara expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain. a yellow warning today for wind covers scotland, northern ireland, northern england and north wales . that warning then expands to include the whole of the uk tomorrow, while there is an amber warning for england and wales. transport networks are expected to be disrupted. now it's time for a look at the weather with susan powell.

we are expecting exceptionally strong winds to affect all parts of the uk in the next 204i was, courtesy of storm ciara. the met office has issued an amber warning for england and wales. expect that to be extended further north to possibly on sunday. it will get increasingly windy this evening and overnight. a weather front. increasingly windy this evening and overnight. a weatherfront. to push its way south eastwards, something wintry overnight across the mountains of scotland. the wind peeks through sunday daytime. across the southern half, 60—80 mph, scotla nd the southern half, 60—80 mph, scotland 85 mph. and with high tides, we could get coastal flooding, there is enough rain around, local flooding as well and the winds are the biggest concern. whatever your plans are for tomorrow, anticipate disruption in 14 or another whether that be

transport or power cuts to. hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: 20 people are reported to have been shot dead and several others wounded in a mass shooting in north east thailand.

this is the suspect. thailand. jakraphanth thomma is a junior army officer, who killed his commanding officer before stealing weapons from a military camp. he is still at large. 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 5g network. officials working on boris johnson'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 in the six nations this afternoon. ireland were beaten by wales 24—14.

more from me at the top of the hour. and now on bbc news, a look back at some of the highlights from the victoria derbyshire programme this week. hello and welcome. for the next half an hour, we will show you some of our highlights of our award—winning journalism over the last week. and tuesday in our exclusive story we revealed that at least 20 former jehovah's witnesses are suing the organisation over historical sexual abuse by senior figures organisation over historical sexual abuse by seniorfigures in organisation over historical sexual abuse by senior figures in the religion. we spoke to two women who we re religion. we spoke to two women who were abused, one from the age of eight, a former elder who served in the organisation for 50 years also revealed for the first time that he too were sexually abused as a boy. the survivors told us that 82 witness rule set by the main governing body of the religion