this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. the headlines at 7pm. storm ciara hits the uk with winds of more than 90 miles an hour — causing severe travel disruption across the country. there is widespread flooding. and one severe warning, meaning a danger to life, remains in place in north wales. i'm feeling very sad right now. set for the people that have been flooded yet again. just a massive burst and everything has all come down at the same time, and drains are blocked instantly. a fourth person in the uk has testested positive for corairus and is being treated at the e royal free hospital in london counting is under way in the irish general election — early indications are that sinn fein is set for major gains. as tinsel town gears up for the academy awards — we'll look at what can be expected at tonight's ceremony.

and coming up at half past, we'll bring you highlights from the six nations game between france and italy. after the most powerful storm to hit the uk so far this winter, there's been widespread disruption on the roads and railways, and thousands of homeshave been left without power. storm ciara has brought heavy rain and flooding, with rivers bursting their banks. winds in excess of 90 miles an hour have led to power outtages right across england and parts of south wales. simonjones reports.

www two sirens to warn of the danger of storm ciara. battering the entire country with the rain and dust of went more than 90 mph. this is west yorkshire counting the cost, tens of thousands of homes have been left without electricity. i've been here eight and a half yea rs, i've been here eight and a half years, and this is the worst. i've never had this before. i'm feeling very sad right now. set for the people that have been flooded yet again. sad that the barrier was not finished in time. it has been a long process. the power of the storm was clear to see on the coast from blackpool to aberystwyth, wales but the shoreline. and in dover the highly unusual decision to hold all fairies, it was just too dangerous to head out to sea. here on the coast at times the gas are so strong it was almost difficult

to stay on your feet. add enter that the lashing rain coming down, it is hardly surprising that the advice is stay indoors if you can. what makes this bad weather unusual is that the whole country is feeling its effects. i have never seen an amber wind warning as large as we had today, covering the belt of england and also all of wales. it goes to show how widespread the impact was forecast to be and having reality been, and we have a yellow wind warning which covers the whole of the uk and it really has been a widespread feature. 0n the roads, the situation wasn't any better. this lorry heading to dover didn't make it. trees kept tumbling down, and london passing motorist had a lucky escape. in bedfordshire, a man was trapped for over an hour in his car under a tree. 0n the railways, many journeys were delayed or cancelled, causing havoc at some of the larger stations. there were either speed restrictions or train

not not running at all. we went to see what was happening, they wouldn't let us on the platform or anywhere near. we went to see forget to birmingham or manchester, and it seems even worse. the warning as we're not out of the woods yet, the storm will be with us for the rest of the day with more bad weather expected tomorrow. and let's speak to simon in dover. what other conditions like there right now? well, the word of been using all day is grim, and i can confirm that once again this evening it is grim. we still got the wind howling around us, it'sjust it is grim. we still got the wind howling around us, it's just started raining heavily once again here this evening. and as a result of the port of dover has been shut for much of the day and that is a particularly rare event. it's rare for that to happen. these areas can cope with

high winds and strong ways, but today simply has been too much for them. also down the coast from here at hastings there was a dramatic rescue in the sea because a surfer decided despite the conditions to head out into the sea. people are looking here, swept away with this oi’ looking here, swept away with this or a0 people did not know what had happened. a huge search involving the coast guard helicopter and the lifeboats. and he was found some three hours later several miles away ina three hours later several miles away in a nearby bay, and the coast guard are saying it's very lucky he did not lose his life. i think they have been rather exasperated that despite the warnings people have been very keen to come along to the coast and put themselves in danger in these conditions. and what about the travel situation? it's been a nightmare for people trying to get around today on the roads and ra i lwa ys around today on the roads and railways with those 90 miles an hour winds. yes, i think nightmare is the right word for that. on the roads

without a lot of trees that have come down and that's caused disruption and obviously taken time to move them, and particular problems on the railway network. if you take a can for example just as what has been happening has been happening right across the country. but here in kent we have had trees down that have affected services, we also had parts of the overhead power ca bles also had parts of the overhead power cables coming down, that affected high—speed services. in addition to this a train hit a tree and swung late and passengers were stuck on that train for several hours and fortu nately that train for several hours and fortunately nobody was injured there. we've even had a rather unusual delays caused by trampolines because we have had trampolines blowing onto the railway line from a large trampolines and they've had to get network rail staff along to move and then had to check that the track has not been damaged, and that has caused problems as well. grim tonight and we are told the warning as this is likely to continue in parts of the country with weather warnings until midweek. we are going

to let you go and dry off and take some shelter. simonjones for us there in dover. you can keep up to date with the changing weather developments in your area today just head to your local bbc radio station, and of course, the bbc news website. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers — our guestsjoining me tonight are the journalist and campaigner lynn faulds wood, and the pollsterjoe twyman, who is director of deltapoll uk. another person has tested positive for the corona—virus in england, bringing the total number of cases to four across the uk. a flight carrying more british nationals from china, has touched down at raf brize norton, with passengers being taken to a conference centre in milton keynes, for 1a days quarantine. here's our health editor, hugh pym.

a bumpy ride, but at least the passengers on this final evacuation flight from wuhan were a lot closer from home. about 120 british travellers disembarked. they were put on buses for a similar convoy to the one to a hospital in the wirral a week ago. these were taken to a conference facility in melting skins. for a two—week —— milton keynes. they will be lent games consoles, tablets and mobile phones for those who don't have them and have access to netflix. there was news elsewhere of the fourth coronavirus case in this country. the latest patient, who has tested positive for the virus in the uk

is being treated here at the royal free hospital in north london at its specialist infectious diseases treatment unit. it has emerged that this case is linked to one announced last thursday, a man in brighton who attracted —— contracted the virus on a visit to singapore. he had returned from asia and me for developing symptoms, he had meant an alpine ski resort. —— before developing symptoms. he had also met the man who has now at the royal free hospital. the chinese ambassador in london was seeking to reassure the british public. there is no reason to panic. the chinese government has adopted the most comprehensive, strict, conventional, control measures. the world health organization said it was hard to

predict the future spread of the virus. the question remains as to whether we are in a live phase and at the rate of infection may pick up or whether we are seeing more of what is the natural history of the disease and that his... it is way too soon to tell that. but it is why these clusters are very unfortunate and we feel particularly sorry for families who get caught up in this. it is a very frightening time. quarantining is a key part of attempts to stop the virus spreading in the uk. those who arrived today can only hope that they are given the all clear after a0 days. infections and deaths from the corona virus are still on the rise in china but in a small sign of hope, at least according to official figures, the rate of increase may be slowing. although severe travel restrictions remain in many cities across the country, trains and planes are starting to become busier as the extended new year festival holiday comes to an end asjohn sudworth now reports. its lantern festival, traditionally marked with a lavish gala, but this year there is not

an audience member in sight. the fear of contagion is everywhere, from the fever checkpoints, the masks on literally everybody‘s faces, and any careful monitoring of people passing movements. in the almost impossible balancing act between containing an epidemic and getting its economy moving again, china is turning to its vast network of neighbourhood committees, the old tools of mass mobilisation. but while workers may be trickling back to the cities, the continued uncertainty means all britons are still being advised to leave china. we are currently seeing numbers of infection stubble every four to five days. we do not know what implications that has —— infection double every four to five days.

some cities and towns have been closed down, so it is getting more difficult to leave china, if that is what people time to do, so that is why we advise people to think about leaving. you know that the evacuation flight has got out of wuhan, are we confident that most people who wanted to get out from the epicentre have managed to? we have not got everybody out, we know that, unfortunately two people feel the temperature checks early this morning. they have had to go back into wuhan and we are in touch with them and we will try and support them to get them onto another country's site. some enforcement measures still appear extreme. girl screams. but the lantern festival has brought good news, the rate of increase in infections may be slowing. there could be a major shift in the poltical landscape of the republic of ireland, with the nationlists of sinn fein set to make significant gains

in the general election. an exit poll suggests there's now a three way tie between all the main parties, including prime minister leo va radka r‘s fine gael. counting is still underway. we can speak to our ireland correspondent chris page in dublin. just bring us right up to date. yes, so just bring us right up to date. yes, so far the results that we have have started coming in and do confer that that sinn fein surge is materialising. 23 seats declared and 18 of them have gone to it sinn fein. the final picture is not going to reflect that, because sinn fein have run fewer candidates than the main rivals, that means that their candidates will be elected first under the proportional representation voting system they have in this country. so we can expect the votes of the centrist parties to increase as the long counting process goes on, another

smaller parties as well. but it is clear that sinn fein has significantly taken ground, the outcome of the prime minister, that leader of fina gael has a notice that this result shows that there's now a party system in ireland, for decades government here has been dominated by fina gael and fianna fail which is currently led by the former irish foreign minister and now sinn fein taking level with those parties. they may top the pole in terms of the number of first preference votes they make at those final numbers later on tonight. a very significant and historic shift in politics in the irish republic. still in a state of denial. they are still not listening to what the people have said, and i think, i want us to have a government for the people. i want us to have,

ideally, a government with no fina gael in it. i started that contact with other parties to explore over the next days whether that is a possibility. so that is the president of sinn fein, definitely a great day for her and her party. the last hour or so we have heard from the man who currently occupies the prime minister's office, leo of fina gael and as he did numerous times during the election campaign he has ruled out any prospect of going into coalition with sinn fein. it seems that we have now a three party system, three parties are getting roughly the same number of votes and same numberof roughly the same number of votes and same number of seats and that's going to make for forming a government quite difficult and it's not clear yet whether any of the two parties together will have enough to

form a majority and i think we will have to count the votes and see what the lay of the land is tonight and tomorrow in terms of coalitions speculations, you know, and in my position very clear during the campaign and for us sinn fein is not an option. but we are willing to talk to other parties about the possibility of forming a government, one that could lead the country forward for the next five years. so they said it won't go into coalition, but the other main party, fianna fail led by the former irish foreign minister also says they would not go into government with sinn fein either. martin has set in the last few hours left of the election results have started to come in that he is still seeing significant policy incompatibilities with sinn fein but also said that he was a democrat and what respect the will of the people. perhaps a door being held a jarfor some kind of

arrangement for sinn fein after all, but i think all the parties will wait and see how the final number of seats shakes down before they get the coalition kucka leaders out. one thing that is clear at this relatively early stage negotiations to form a government are going to be farfrom to form a government are going to be far from straightforward. many thanks indeed. chris page there with the latest from dublin. the headlines on bbc news. storm ciara hits the uk with winds of more than 90 miles an hour — causing severe travel disruption across the country. a person's being treated at the royal free hospital in london after testing positive for coronavirus — bringing the total in the uk to four. counting is underway in the irish general election — early tallies show sinn fein is set for major gains. the 0scars will be handed out in a glittering ceremony in los angeles later tonight. the world war one drama ‘1917,’ and from south korea, the film ‘parasite,’ are the frontrunners for best picture.

but much of the buildup has been dominated by criticism over the lack of diversity among the nominees. 0ur arts editor, will gompertz has more from la. margot robbie and carlize theron said on our fox news employees who bring down their seedy ceo who made sexual harassment part of his job description. they are both up for academy awards, two years after the #met0o movement. how do you see the skill of the problem? the scale of the problem and the range of the problem is really enormous. i could pluck it and move you to the front of the line, but i need to know that your lawyer.

—— loyal. i need you to find a way to prove it. we have this history and an industry where people look the other way. what practical measures need to be put into place? we are going to put into place a report and response system, so a response system includes investigations and what we know is that independent investigations are the most important thing that you can offer. don't you tell me what i cannot do! if i am free, my family should be towed. i have made my mind i'm going back. the 19th abolitionist is played by the british actress cynthia arivo, but to do so to when and where she will have to beat when judy garland. he's 1917 was the big winner at the baftas. it will have to see off competition from todd phillips's joker, stirring joauquin phoenix, who is up for the best actor. and the korean film parasite

is also up for best a tale of south korean inequality which could be the first foreign language film to win best picture. we will find out if it does later tonight. i'm joined now by the bbc‘s six music film critic rhianna dhillon and the entertainment journalist caroline frost. welcome to you both. thank you for being with us. best film first of all. what is your tip i think it's going to be between parasite and 1917. once upon a time in hollywood has got an outside chance because hollywood loves films about themselves. i hated that film. one of the worst film i've ever seen. literally. it was a waste of time. of the worst film i've ever seen. literally. it was a waste of timelj think was beautifully layered and have built for colours and great characterisation, and then of course the violence starts and you say oh,

yes, of course it is quentin tarantino. i'm not sure what it was about. i don't think the film knew what it was about. 1917, a largely british film. not in terms of finance for the terms of the talent. do you think that has a decent chance of yellow i think it does because it's an incredible feat of film—making. almost as though done in two shots without any edits, amazing it did make it in on nomination for editing because the editing is sublime. there's no shot longer than nine minutes in this but you cannot tell. with incredible, this is sam mendes at his absolute best i think. a race through the trenches. the quit we are seeing is old—school storytelling with epic adventure and refute the heroism with modern technology and all of the advances that can bring to the screen the advances that can bring to the screen and we the advances that can bring to the screen and we are the advances that can bring to the screen and we are the beneficiaries of that marriage. what about best director? would you see getting that that always goes head—to—head with best film? five out of the last

seven have split between best director and best film, so bong joon ho could be in with a chance if 1917 wins best film and i would be so delighted because he is so deserving of this. i don't know if they will still push for sam. i think it's going to be a man. let's talk about that issue of diversity. yet again no women nominated for director. 2020, no women on the director shortlists despite being little women thing on the best film shortlists. we could list five or six others that would be where the inclusions, and in the acting categories only non—white face. the message that got sent out two years ago has not reached every part of the academy. that was a major part of the draft is withjoaquin phoenix among other people really angry about that. 0ver us eat more of that

snake? particularly at the golden gloves doctor but the climate change and veganism, and praised the golden globes for changing their dinner accordingly. 0f globes for changing their dinner accordingly. of course the representation and diversity at the baptist to who knows who it is going to be withjoaquin phoenix undoubtedly winning for best actor. and i wonder what he is going to pick up on. is it a question of the awards people sort of being better in terms of diversity? or is it more the industry? they need to be more diverse in the casts and the makers of these. it all happens well upstream of the word season. in a way it's a little bit unfair that they have been pilloried for their approach when all they are really doing is affecting everything that has come their way. not much they could do which is what the ceos of the baptist said, if the extent of the baptist said, if the extent of the voting lists in the fields that come back a very traditional and pretty conservative in comparison with real life should not be reflect it on screen. it's a start and

possibly the only time that all eyes are on the film world and what exactly it changes they're making. it's a little bit unfair to blame just to them. best actor can we talked aboutjoaquin phoenix, extraordinary as the joker, but even if that does not get the best film do you think you will get best after? a lot of people think of him as one of the best actors of the generation, and i'm not sure i 100% agree to be honest, my favourite is antonio banderas. i think pain and glory got such, i think it's beautiful. it is one of those years where because parasite is getting a lot of attention for best foreign language, that something like pain and glory has not got a hope in hell of getting a mention. it doesn't matter because parasite is so wonderful. and could get best film. that would be the first time a foreign language from has got best film. unbelievably. 20/20 is some

time but there's already a backlash because insiders are saying we see that the brits like to vote for british films, similarly american academy members really do like to celebrate their own and your after year. you see the comeback kids as well with the triumph of brad pitt being celebrated and renee zellweger being celebrated and renee zellweger being welcome back to the stream and they like to close to the bosom of they like to close to the bosom of the academy. it separately worthy as well as being popular. it's lovely when popular meats worthy and renee zellweger is eight case of that. judy garland, tragic and heartbreaking and phenomenal. and it had find marks in london with making sense of the baptist and the oscars. another british one. she gave such a great speech at the baptist, think she has deeply nailed this campaign really well. same with brad pitt. his speeches, i don't know who is writing them, but he's making

eve ryo ne writing them, but he's making everyone laugh. 0ne writing them, but he's making everyone laugh. one of the best beaches of the night even though he did not turn up. i think people are excited by his star power. we are staying joaquin phoenix probably the best actor and what about the supporting roles? larger and will undoubtedly win, i don't know if you've seen the footage from the independent spirit award that song dedicated to help wonderful laura dern is. that's the mood of the entire film watching country at the moment. she's in so many things. an average story which is nominated for average story which is nominated for a lot of things, one of the most... idid like a lot of things, one of the most... i did like marriage story. i did like most films, just not once upon a time in hollywood. it's a sense that it's their time. laura dern has done her time can we sit with allison janney. not with glenn close u nfortu nately. allison janney. not with glenn close unfortunately. she was also amazing and big little lies. yes, the

prevalence of her roles has helped push her to the forefront. it has not worked with adam driver, he's beenin not worked with adam driver, he's been in everything and still is not going to get a win. he has worked very ha rd going to get a win. he has worked very hard to not go home with an 0scar. very hard to not go home with an oscar. do you think actors care about that? yes they do. the best 0scar goes to the losing grin. fixed, polite and appreciation for another. even gave a standing ovation for mine else. or if they storm out like spike lee has done in years past. all good wishes go to diane warren, 11 times nominated for best song and never gone home the gold. she is once again nominated. she said she did not bother come every year she writes he thank you speech the only year she did not bother was up against titanic, fair enough. she said every year the speech goes back in the pocket. we all wish her a very good night. thank you very much indeed. we will

have a special programme on the 0scars here on the bbc news channel tomorrow morning and suit due to a need for that. in switzerland, final results in a nationwide vote show nearly two—thirds of swiss voters have approved proposals to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity. the country has been holding a referendum on whether to make discrimination against the lgbtq community a crime. 0ur correspondent imogen foulkes explained why the result was significant. 63% in favor of the new law is actually a lot higher than campaigners had hoped for in the run up to the vote. they were fearing it was actually going to be much closer, and i think the size of the support is a sign that swiss voters took really seriously what the lgbt community was saying here. they were pointing to physical and verbal attacks on gay couples, and they were saying, you know, "give us a sign give us a sign that we are accepted in our own country". and i think the argument from the other side that this law would limit free speech somehow —

clearly, voters didn't take that seriously at all. another section, that is the evangelical christian group who also opposed this law, they will be a bit disappointed. they will be saying, "well, we might be forced into blessing same sex couples, for example, and that's not really something we want to do". today's vote really shows that public opinion is moving well in the opposite direction to that. we've also got legislation on same—sex marriage going through switzerland's parliament at the moment that looks likely to get through and onto the statute books pretty soon, and that, i think like today's vote, the lgbt community here in switzerland will say, "long overdue, it's about time". now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear.

it really has been a thoroughly miserable day, and although storm ciara asserted to leave the shores, it looks like will remain very windy indeed with a frequent rush of showers and some of them turning to snow because it is turning colder. we can see the first signs of the over the next few hours in scotland was of snow showers and it's a link close to freezing, icy stretches first thing in the morning. if you are showers for the south and will be of rain but nevertheless they windy start for all of us because as ciara eases the way we have isobars on the chart driving in a frequent rush of showers and the wind direction coming all the way up from the north, so colder airfloods right across the country. so we could have blizzard conditions for a time across scotland and northern ireland, and the hills of northern england as well. further south some of those shoppers to be heavy and

its quality. top temperatures disappointing, three to