this is bbc news, the headlines: at the 2020 oscars, brad pitt has taken home one of the night's major awards — winning best supporting actor — for the quentin tarantino film ‘0nce upon a time in hollywood.‘ — many of cinema's biggest stars are attending the 92nd academy awards ceremony, in los angeles. millions of chinese citizens are due to go back to work, after the extended lunar new year break — but coronavirus restrictions mean, many businesses remian closed. the number of deaths from the epidemic has now risen to more than 900 after hubei province reported 91 new fatalities. ireland's general election has seen an unprecedented surge in support for the left—wing nationalist party, sinn fein. despite fielding far fewer candidates, its share of the popular vote appears similar to those of the two long dominant centrist parties.

now on bbc news, the week in parliament. hello there and welcome to the week in parliament, where after sacking the woman in charge of an international climate conference, borisjohnson comes under pressure over his green credentials. why is the prime minister failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis that this country and indeed this planet is facing? this is the first country, the first major economy in the world, in the world to have set a target of carbon neutral by 2050. we hearfrom new mps signing up to scrutinise the government. i've seen an absolute wealth of experience, life experience, professional and political experience that people have, and i hope that i can contribute to that through this committee.

and, as the lords consider getting rid of one of their ancient traditions, we take a lesson in the art of hat doffing. take the end of the hat with your right hand, and forward, a good forward projection of the hat. but first... at prime minister's questions, borisjohnson confirmed a plan to introduce emergency legislation to make terrorist offenders serve more time in prison. it follows the shooting of sudesh amman by police after he stabbed two people in streatham in south london. amman had been released from prison on the 23rd of january after serving half of his sentence for terrorism offences. at the start of pmqs, borisjohnson made clear he wanted to change the rules. the whole house will want to pay tribute to the police

and all of the emergency services for their brave response to the terrorist incident in streatham on sunday. this appalling incident makes plain the case for immediate action and we will shortly introduce emergency legislation to make sure that we do everything to protect the public. that emergency legislation is expected in the commons in the next few days. jeremy corbyn also paid tribute to the emergency services who'd responded to the stretham attack, but the focus of his questions was the un climate conference known as cop 26, to be held in glasgow in november. more than 200 world leaders are due to attend, but in a surprise move the government sacked the president of the event — former conservative minister, claire o'neill. in an interview, she said the prime minister had admitted he didn't really get climate change and she claimed there was a huge lack of leadership and engagement from the government. so, jeremy corbyn asked the pm what she meant. borisjohnson said the government's

record was phenomenal. last year was the first year on record that renewables produced more of the energy of this country than fossil fuels. we are delivering for the people of this country, we are reducing greenhouse gases. all he produces, i'm afraid, is a load of hot air. jeremy corbyn honed in on what claire o'neill had said. his own former tory minister said, we should have clear actions, an agreed plan and a road map for the year of action but we do not. so, why is the prime minister failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis that this country and indeed this planet is facing? mr speaker, this is beyond satire. this government, this is the first country, the first major economy in the world, in the world to have set a target of carbon neutral by 2050. earlier in the week, politicaljournalists walked out

of a downing street briefing after number ten said some publications weren't welcome. the snp leader at westminster reckoned borisjohnson was taking a leaf out of another leader's book. in the first few days of brexit britain, this prime minister has sacked an official, taken an isolationist approach to trade, and banned the press from a downing street briefing. is he intentionally trying to impersonate donald trump? the prime minister had given a speech earlier in the week about the next stage of brexit and said he'd set out an internationalist and outward—looking approach. i don't think anybody, anybody listening to my speech, i think it was on monday, could have mistaken it for anything but the most passionate, internationalist, globalist, open, outward—looking approach.

there is only one party in this country that has nationalist in their name, mr speaker, that's them, that's them. they would break up... that's them. they would break up the most successful political partnership of the last 300 years. he and his party should concentrate on the dayjob and doing a better job for the people of scotland. mr speaker, the prime minister doesn't even know the name of our party. ian blackford, the leader of the scottish national party at westminster. now, as well as finding office space and making maiden speeches, new mps have been signing up to select committees to scrutinise policy. for some, this has meant contesting a further election to win a place while others were nominated unopposed. we asked two new members why they'd gone for their particular roles. well, i first got into politics locally, actually. wandsworth council closed down my children's centre, and i've got four children so very involved in that, and i saw

what it can do for the community so i got involved in campaigning about education. i've got four children going through school and i've recently been running youth services as well. so, i think i've got a lot of knowledge from the inside of the education system about what it's really like, what i can bring into being on the select committee. for me, it is very important that we scrutinise what is happening in the health arena. but in particular i wanted to be able to bring a slightly different angle which is that i have done a lot of work in the digital space around health, and also on the mental health side of things. so i really wanted to bring that to bear so that when we are looking at the future of the nhs, looking at the future of social care and looking at things like mental health which are really important to me, i wanted to be able to bring that experience. obviously, you've just been through one election to get elected to parliament and then you have put yourself forward for election once again, how did you find the whole process? for me, this was really a case of fact—finding and getting the opportunity

to speak to everyone. and i think that the real benefit for this selection for me was getting to know a whole gambit of members across the house and in particular in the conservative party, but also seeing the absolute wealth of experience, life experience, professional and political experience that people have, and i hope that i can contribute to that through this committee. what impact can new members and a select committee itself have when the government has a large majority? i think it is really good to have that mix of older more experienced mps but also new mps. we've got a lot to bring. i hope i can achieve something here. i hope that we can really scrutinise the government and i hope that it can be a place of genuine cross—party working to really look at what is happening across our country and what is affecting real people. so, i'm optimistic, always optimistic, that is why i have joined a select committee. now for a look at some news in brief. as we heard earlier, the government is to end the early release of prisoners on terrorism charges. 20—year—old sudesh amman was shot dead by armed officers after a man

and a woman were stabbed in streatham in south london in what police called an islamist—related terrorist incident. police had been tracking him since his release from jail halfway through a three—year sentence for terrorism offences. the justice secretary said the incident made the case for immediate action. we will therefore introduce emergency legislation to ensure an end to terrorist offenders getting released automatically, having served half of their sentence with no check or review. the underlying principle has to be that offenders will no longer be released early automatically and that any release before the end of their sentence will be dependent upon risk assessment by the parole board. we will look at the proposals that have been referred to in the secretary of state's statement because our priority must be to keep the public safe. but to be clear, the government cannot use sentencing as a way of distracting from their record of bringing the criminaljustice

system to breaking point. the minister says that we are at the forefront of tackling terrorism and that we have robust measures in place but those measures did not prevent what happened in my constituency yesterday. and whilst i note what he says about automatic release, i can't fathom, and the people of streatham cannot fathom this situation in which somebody so dangerous who has to be under surveillance immediately from leaving prison is allowed to leave. the government has apologised to the victims of the breast cancer surgeon ian paterson. he's been jailed for 20 years after carrying out unnecessary and botched operations on hundreds of patients. in some, breast tissue was left behind — meaning the disease returned — whilst others had surgery they didn't need. an inquiry chaired by the bishop of norwich identified multiple individual and organisational failures. nothing i can say today, madam deputy speaker, can lessen the horrendous suffering that patients and their families experienced

and continue to go through. i can only start to imagine the sense of violation and betrayal of patients who put their trust in ian paterson when they were at their most vulnerable. this report must not remain on a shelf to be forgotten. because the report is clear, this wasn't just the action of one rogue lone surgeon, but systemic organisational failures were at fault as well. it went on over 14 years, and i think it does again highlight a failure to listen to people who raised concerns early on in the scandal and the fact that there was a power differential between paterson and other people who were raising concerns. mps have approved the final stages of a bill putting a conservative manifesto commitment to increase nhs funding into law. the bill commits ministers to raise investment in the health service in the years to 202k. the government says it's a near £34 billion increase in cash terms, taking total nhs england spending to {148.5 billion. but when it came to the vote,

mps from scotland and wales staged a protest. the nhs bill covers england, meaning they didn't get a say. but the snp‘s westminster leader ian blackford said the bill would have spending implications for scotland. a bill to bring in no—fault divorce in england and wales was debated in the lords. currently, one spouse must allege adultery or unreasonable behaviour by the other for divorce proceedings to start straight away. if the bill passes, spouses will only have to state that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. while under certain circumstances divorce may well be the least worst option for some couples, this bill promotes individual choice over and at the expense of the sort of commitment, self giving and sacrifice which lies at the heart of the marriage covenant.

i don't accept that this bill will lead to an increase in the overall number of divorces overtime, and i say, i refer to this having been through a divorce when there was no financial conflict, no conflict over parental responsibilities, and yet the divorce for me and i think for my husband was a deeply and profoundly painful experience, and i believe every divorce is. the government has defended plans to delay the full roll—out of universal credit to september 202a. labour and the snp insisted that universal credit was causing hardship. until my election to this place, i was a universal credit claimant, as a single parent. i ask the minister to scrap the five—week wait and stop plunging ha rd—working families and individuals into further debt by having to avail of a loan from the dwp. thank you. well, mr speaker, ithank the honourable gentleman for his question and i would suggest he very strongly should visit his

localjob centre because he would have a better understanding. and, mrspeaker... you're a disgrace, you don't even listen. a former bbc chairman has warned the government not to weaken and impoverish the bbc. ministers have launched a consultation looking at whether or not non payment of the television licence fee should remain a criminal offence. lord grade told peers that the bbc finances were under huge pressure as the corporation was now having to pay for free licences for some over 75s. this feels like another attempt to impoverish the bbc and weaken it. the bbc... may i remind my noble friend the minister and the government, that the bbc is the cornerstone of the creative industries in this country, which is one of the fastest—growing sectors of the uk economy.

it has huge, huge success in promoting the brand of great britain around the world, it is a fantastic engine for social mobility and weakening the bbc and impoverishing the bbc is so damaging to this country and should be abandoned immediately. i think the last thing this government wants to do is weaken or abandon an asset as strong and important as the bbc. somalia has declared a national emergency as large swarms of locusts spread across east africa. the insects eat huge amounts of vegetation, posing a major threat to somalia's fragile food security. there are fears that the situation may not be brought under control before the harvest begins in april. the un says the swarms are the largest in somalia and ethiopia in 25 years. it's perhaps appropriate that a member of these benches is raising issues about the plagues of locusts. but in fact we are facing the humanitarian crisis which is unraveling in front of us.

in some parts of ethiopia 90% of the crops are already gone, 20 million people are facing no food. the un said last thursday, we need $76 million now to begin to address the problems. uka aid is helping to tackle the outbreak through our funding to the un central response fund, but we are considering the case for additional support. one of the key figures in the snp government in scotland, the finance secretary, derek mackay, was forced to stand down in the week after it was revealed he sent hundreds of messages to a 16—year—old boy. mr mackay resigned just hours before he was due to deliver his budget in the scottish parliament. the first minister, nicola sturgeon, told msps that his behaviour had been "unacceptable". his resignation meant it was the public finance minister, kate forbes, who stepped

in at the last minute to set out the budget, announcing there'd be no changes to income tax rates in scotland. to cement the programme of our tax system, we will increase the basic and intermediate rate threshold by inflation to protect our lowest and middle earning taxpayers. the higher and top rate thresholds will be frozen. that will ensure that 56% of scottish taxpayers pay less than they would if they lived elsewhere in the uk. scotland will continue to be the lowest tax part of the uk for the majority of income taxpayers. the tories said the scottish govenrment was benefiting from a "boris bonus" due to an increase in its grant from westminster. as to the tax rates... the tax rates introduced by the former finance secretariat, egged on by the greens, making scotland the highest taxed part of the united kingdom, haven't actually raised any additional revenue for the scottish public services. all they have done is fill the black hole that has been created by the fact that the scottish economy is growing more slowly than the rest of the uk under

the snp‘s stewardship. despite the financial leaders that have come to the scottish parliament over the last decade, the snp government has failed, leaving our country and our people and our essential services, not worse off. they have endeavored to hide that through smoke and mirrors, and that is the case again today. the greens reckoned the budget was timid. i can find no evidence of a shift in a way from be damaging, traffic—inducing transport projects that the government has been supporting up until now. councils have only been given half of what they need to. does she not accept that that will hit local services, including the promises that the government has made on their behalf? we have provided cash increase of almost half a billion pounds to local authorities, and a settlement provides for our commitments to early

learning and childcare, teachers' pay and on pensions. local authorities in terms of real terms as well as cash increases, will see their resource budget going up. now if you've ever watched some of the ceremonies of parliament, and particularly in the house of lords, you'll have seen something of the ancient tradition of hat doffing, and just in case you haven't, here's a little bit of what it looks like. so, here we have members of the house of commons arriving in the house of lords. they bow to the house of lords and the lords commission doff their hats in return, then it's back to the house of commons, who bow again, and then there's another lot of doffing. well, believe it or not, there's a suggestion that the house of lords wants to get rid of this whole ceremony of doffing their hats. with me are two experts, bbc parliament's daniel brittain and bbc parliamentary correspondent, mark d'arcy. daniel up about why on earth

they actually doff their hats? they are actually doffing their hats in greeting to the commons. it does seem odd because if they didn't have the hats on they wouldn't need to doff them. the hats, 200 years ago or so, were far more common and these hats look like 18th—century hats, and that is probably where this version of doffing came in. but it was refined, as most parliamentary ceremonial was, after the royal commission on the king and parliament, which met in 1902 to correct some of the awful disasters that had been happening towards the end of queen victoria's reign. but doffing is a greeting. they've been doing it for quite a long time. when do they do it? only a few places. the average parliamentary year,

you'll only see a spot of doffing at prorogation. that is the doff moment for those who want an end. that is the time when five royal commissioners in representing for the queen, are proroguing parliament at the end of the session. other occasions where you will see it, a meeting of a new parliament and also another occasion, is the election of a speaker in the middle of a parliament. so mark, why do they want to get rid of it? i think essentially because they are starting to worry that there's a python—esque element to the ceremony makes them all look a bit silly and out of date. the house of lords is very image—conscious these days. and so what we have is a situation with the lords procedure committee, which tends to meet in private, is toying with the idea of whether they should get rid of this item of the ceremony. you can actually point the finger of blame a little bit

at my colleague here, because daniel here does these commentaries and when they don't do a good doff, daniel tends to point out that they have not doffed properly. so, this is your fault of course. as do you, of course. my point is, ceremony is needed to be done well, to work. when they are a bit messy, i think to just look a mess and begin to wonder why on earth are they doing this. my complaints is the hat doffing has gotten a bit out of hand in the house of lords and they are not doing it very well. just to talk about that, each man kills the thing he loves and maybe the simple fact of getting the marks or artistic impression and technical merit as they doff, do you think they finished it off? finished off the doff! so, mark, do you think there is going to be any opposition to the rid of this? i think there might be a little bit. there is a large traditionalist element in the house of lords who are very wary of changing things too much, sacrificing things

just to try and look as if they are modernising. they feel that sometimes they lose things out of a tendency to modernise. it's a very fine balance, you know. you come to a vote on the floor of the house on this. we shall see, but in the withering phrase of one person, we could at least move into the 20th century if not to the 21st. i think the 19th, but i think this is the last refuge of the doff. it used to be a great deal of doffing when a new peer was introduced to the house of lords. watch prorogation as a few examples, you will see of a real doff an action. so you are clearly our expert. give us a quick rundown of what makes a good doff, and then we are going to have a go. a good doff is, the hat is on... the hat is on your head, and this is a very large hat for my very small head, but essentially on the moment of command you take the end of the hat with your right hand, and a good forward projection of the hat. we have to finish off by having a go then. now i understand as a lady i only have to nod,

so i've got the easyjob. well, you could be the chancellor in your wig and you could doff as well. i think i'm just going to watch how you two do it. shall i give this a count of three, mark? ok, ready when you are. one, two, three. and don't forget the bow as you doff. it looks completely normal, doesn't it? i don't know why they want to get rid of it. i don't know either. daniel, mark, thank you for being with us. now before we go, just time for a quick look at what's been happening in the wider world of politics. here's carol hall with our countdown. at five, have us senators taken inspiration from bargain hunt? the senate will be awarding chief justice roberts the golden gavel. they presented the judge at president trump's impeachment hearings with a golden gavel.

at four, staying in washington, house speaker nancy pelosi made her views of president trump's stated the union address very clear. i guess she thought it was tear—able. sorry. at three, rushcliffe mp ruth edwards paid tribute to her predecessor, ken clarke, and his taste in footwear in her maiden speech. ken is known for his love of jazz, football, bird—watching, and hush puppies. i have since been informed that he actually wears crockett and jones, and by perpetuating the hush puppies rumour, i am spreading fake "shoes". other sensible shoes are available. at two, pete wishart this week became the first snp mp to represent the commons commission in the chamber, asking questions about recycling and waste disposal and parliament. tempted as i am to ask how much of this waste is scotland's waste and when are we going to get it back...

and at one, "peace, prosperity, and friendship to all nations," says the new brexit commemorative 50p coin. prosperity is right — the coins are selling on ebay for 20 times theirface value. carol hall there, with our countdown. now, where's my hat? and that's it from me for now, but dojoin mandy baker on bbc parliament on monday night at 11 for a full roundup of the day here at westminster, but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello there. storm ciara may well be leaving the shores of the uk as we speak, but not without leaving a lasting impression. just take a look at the gusts of wind that we had on sunday, in excess of 90 miles an hour for some areas. and there was a spell of very heavy flooding rain as well, as the main front cleared away, which left a trail of showers in its wake. so, yes, storm ciara moves off into the near continent now, but behind it, plenty of isobars remain and the wind direction is coming from the north—west, so much cooler sort of areas turning those showers to sleet and snow on the higher ground of scotland at the moment, with a frequent rush of showers through scotland, northern england and northern ireland, and temperatures close to freezing. there could be icy stretches around first thing in the morning. showers of rain further south will be few and far between, but nevertheless it's going to be a windy start to our monday morning. so we continue to see plenty of showers of snow in scotland, northern ireland and northern england. a rush of sharp showers merging togetherfor longer spells of rain, as we go through the day across england and wales.

a cool feeling right across the country, temperatures ranging from 4—8 degrees. factor in the strength of the wind and it will feel noticeably colder. it's almost a repeat performance on tuesday, most of the sleet and snow showers will continue through scotland, northern ireland, northern england, fewer showers further south, but still a cool feeling, but with these blizzard conditions we could start to see several centimetres of snow accumulating, and there will be some drifting. again, another cold feeling today, 4—7. but we have not really seen any significant winter weather so far. it is worth bearing in mind, northern hills could start to see some significant accumulations. until we get towards wednesday, and hopefully the isobars will open up and we will see some lighter winds developing and fewer showers around. a greater chance of seeing more sunshine for wednesday. a better day with those lighter winds. temperatures of similar values, ranging 4—9. but with those light

winds by day, that is going to lead to a chilly start to thursday morning, maybe a touch of frost around. it won't last very long, as we see another area of low pressure moving in during thursday, bringing in yet more wet and windy weather across the country. so if you haven't got the message already, it does look as though it's going to stay very windy indeed this week. frequent showers, snow on hills, but much colder.

welcome to bbc news — i'mjames reynolds — our top stories: at the oscars, brad pitt takes home the best supporting actor award for the quentin tara ntino's film ‘once upon a time in hollywood' — and laura dearn wins best suporting actress for marriage story. here in hollywood, it is one of the fastest moving oscars in yea rs. the fastest moving oscars in years. joker had the most nominations but so far, no wins. millions are supposed to go back to work in china after the extended lunar new year break. but coronavirus restrictions mean, many businesses remain closed. ireland's general election changes the country's political landscape with a surge in support for the left—wing republican party sinn fein. the new solar orbiter space mission, showing us