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 ‘0nce 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 the sun as we've never been

able to see it before. the 92nd academy awards are underway in los angeles. the front runner with eleven nominations is the dark and brad pitt has been amongst the first winners picking up the award for best supporting actorfor his role in once upon a time in hollywood. the film ‘s 1917 parasite are expected to fight it out the best picture. live now to hollywood and our correspondent, peter bowes. you are saying in the headlines, it's a tough night forjoker so far. i have them missing out on six oscars. not great so far. not great so far. the most nominations, 11, many

of those categories not successful so far so we will see where it ends at the top of the night. the thing people are looking for, which has one in a category is parasite. onlyjust opening in some countries around the world. it tells the story of a family living in a basement home in squalor. they become friends, their lives become friends, their lives become intertwined with a well—to—do family and it's an extraordinary story. a lot of people watching that film to see if it makes mixed picture. lots of other victories for other movies. i mention the best documentary being barack obama's reduction company which was a surprise, not many knew he was involved in that kind of work. he has tweeted,

congratulating the filmmakers of american factory which is about the chinese moving into an american factory after closing general motors in the social consequences of that. congratulating the filmmakers and telling a moving story. the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. lindsay miller is with pop sugar. you deal with hollywood stop all the time. i mentioned it's a fast—moving oscars. stop all the time. i mentioned it's a fast-moving oscars. it has been without a host and they saw a bit of a ratings bump sol they saw a bit of a ratings bump so i think when you don't have a host, things to get on pretty quickly. is that a good thing? the old days, the golden days of the oscars where millions and millions of people we re millions and millions of people were watching around the world, audiences have been dwindling in recent years. it's changing, it's evolving. there is more and more media competing on

some of the award shows are viewed by younger generations isa viewed by younger generations is a bit stuffy so i looking for ways to draw in younger viewers. joker hasn't won anything so far. 1917, the other favourite, it has won a couple in the technical categories including the one ever predicted, cinematography. this was a great win for roger deakins. beloved in the community. no surprises seeing him win. i mentioned earlier, there is often a war film in contention. it does seem to appeal to those oscar voters. it does seem to resonate, doesn't it? i think there is an epic quality to those movies. and lloyd turn in the supporting actress category.

it's a tough watch. if you're going through problems at home. not a great movie if you are having issues or a good first date movie. what is your prediction? a few surprises here and there. i think 1917 has a great chance but i'm pulling for parasite because it would be a welcome shakeup. the first foreign language film to win in that category. it would mark the changing of the times, the acceptability of a film with subtitles, that a lot of people dismiss, they don't want to put that much attention. they really need the voters to see that some might be resista nt to see that some might be resistant to watching subtitles. that might hurt his chances. and streaming films versus films made for the big

screen. to qualify for the oscars, they have to appear in the cinema. two of the top nine streaming films including the irishman, 3.5 hours long, we both spent a couple of nights at home watching that. and it shows that times are changing because we have extremes at home. i think the oscars has made its mind up. we're going to see streaming game over foothold. i spoke to a part present of the academy and he sees streaming films as a threat to the cinematic experience. it discourages you from getting a communal experience. he doesn't believe that some of his academy collea g u es that some of his academy colleagues would vote for a

steaming —— streaming phil. colleagues would vote for a steaming -- streaming phil. on the flipside, people say if people are staying at home are not going to editors, why don't we bring our entertainment and filmmaking where they already are. we will get back to watching the show. we're getting close to big categories. 15 out of the 24 awards down. that means 15 speeches. any memorable awards speeches? none that memorable. perhaps brad pitt gave the most memorable speech so far and it's always the familiar faces who speeches you generally tend to remember. laura joan was very emotional, there was an element of politics and what brad pitt had to say. it wasn't his best acceptance speech, he is given better ones over

recent weeks but maybe he was a little overcome with emotion. and what about the fashion? you are asking me about fashion? i think everyone looks beautiful. asked lindsay a little bit later. lots of glitter, lots of sequins and lots of guys in black like me. let's get some of the day's other news. azerbaijan's governing party says it believes it has won a snap parliamentary election which was called to speed up the reforms of president ilham aliyev. opponents accuse him of trying to consolidate his grip on power. the united nations secretary general, antonio guterres, has told african leaders that it's time to remove sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. addressing the annual african union summit in addis ababa, mr guterres said the un would drum up international support that would enable the country to overcome its challenges.

india's top court has ruled that a quota system that reserves some governmentjobs for disadvantaged groups, is not a fundamental right. the scheme called ‘reservation‘ gives people from lower castes and other minorities opportunities they might not otherwise get. this ruling overturns a previous decision that found the state had a duty to help these people. the number of deaths from china's coronavirus epidemic has risen to more than 900 after the hardest—hit province of hubei reported 91 new fatalities. monday is the first day back at work for hundreds of millions of people after the extended lunar new year holiday, but there are severe travel restrictions still in place across the country. from beijing, john sudworth reports. it's lantern festival, traditionally marked with a lavish tv gala.

but this year, there's not an audience member in sight. the fear of contagion is everywhere, from the fever checkpoints... the masks on literally everybody‘s faces... and the careful monitoring of people's 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're currently seeing numbers of infections double every four to five days. we don't know what implications that has. we have seen the chinese put in place local transport measures. some cities and towns have been closed down, so it is getting more difficult to leave china, if that is what people plan to do. so that is why we advise people to think about leaving.

we know that the evacuation flight has got out of wuhan. are we confident now 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 failed 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 flight. as usual, china's skylines have been lit up for lantern festival. but look closely. the streets below are empty. the virus looms large over almost every aspect of daily life. hello. meals come with their own reminder of china's health emergency. a note recording the temperature of the chef, the food packer and the delivery driver. in this case, thankfully, all fever free.

but at a time of year all about new beginnings, there's also, perhaps, a glimmer of good news. official figures show the rate of increase in infections may be slowing. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. large crowds have held a vigilfor the victims of a mass shooting by a junior army officer in the thai city of nakhon ratchasima. at least twenty— nine people are now known to have died in the attack. richard galpin reports. chanting. just a few hours after the gunman was shot dead by the security forces, thousands of people gathered here in the heart of nakhon ratchasima city for a vigil in memory of all those killed. the buddhist monks leading prayers as the people of this city absorb the enormity of what's happened — a mass shooting of unprecedented scale in this country.

and before finally filing away to head home, they laid flowers and wrote messages, pledging never to forget those whose lives have been cut short. in the aftermath of the attack, the police have been gathering forensic evidence, including from these cars next to the shopping mall targeted by the gunman. who was this man — sergeant major jakrapanth thomma. he'd armed himself not only with rifles stolen from his barracks, but also a machinegun. his motive, according to one official, was apparently a personal problem over the sale of a house. how will those now mourning the loss of loved ones ever come to terms with what has happened here in the city this

weekend? richard galpin, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the sun as we've never been able to see it before. nasa prepares to launch the new solar orbiter space mission. there's mr mandela. mr nelson mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran's spiritual leader ayatollah khomeini has said he's passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, 'ba by doc' duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion,

shergar was kept in a special, secure box in the stud farm's central block. shergar was driven away in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning. elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and of all her other realms and territories. head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: at the oscars, brad pitt takes home the best supporting actor award for the quentin tarantino film once upon a time in hollywood, and laura dern wins best supporting actress for marriage story. millions are supposed to go back to work in china after the extended lunar new year break, but coronavirus restrictions mean, many businesses remian closed. the political landscape in ireland has been transformed by a surgeon ireland has been transformed by a surgeon support for the nationalist party sinn fein in the general election. initial results suggest that the

pa rty‘s share of results suggest that the party's share of the vote matched that of its two centrist rivals, the honour foil and fine gael, who have dominated irish politics for decades. radio: storm ciara lashed the country over the past few hours. as ireland took a battering from the weather, the established parties were rocked by a new storm. this breakthrough for sinn fein is unprecedented in the irish republic. once a much smaller player, now on a par with the two main parties who've dominated irish politics for a century. we need change, we need a new government. the best outcome is a government without fine gael and fianna fail so that's the first thing that i want to test. sinn fein's ultimate goal is to create a united ireland, breaking northern ireland away from british rule. its historical links to the ira caused controversy during the campaign, but the party appealed to voters with radical left—wing policies on health, housing and pensions. the surge for sinn fein has changed the landscape of irish

politics and it raises new questions for the uk about the likelihood of a border poll. but it's still unclear who will form the next government. leo varadkar‘s party, fine gael, and their opponents, fianna fail, had previously said they will not form an alliance with sinn fein. it seems that we have now a three party system, three parties all getting roughly the same number of votes, roughly the same number of seats, and that's going to make forming a government quite difficult. ireland's economy is the fastest growing in europe, but the high cost of living means many voters are not feeling the benefits. i think they're sick of the last couple of years and that things just haven't changed quick enough, hence the vote for sinn fein. a bit disappointing, really. sinn fein, not the kind of politics that a large number of people in ireland would favour.

tonight, counting continues, and tomorrow negotiations between the parties will be in full swing. ireland has reached an historic turning point, but with results so close, working out who will lead the country may take some time. emma vardy, bbc news, dublin. it's the new space mission that will show us the sun as we've never been able to see it before. the spacecraft, called solar orbiter, is a european space agency—led mission. it's due to be launched from cape canaveral in florida in the next few hours. bbc science reporter laura foster explains. you will get to see images on unprecedented levels of detail. and it'll be the first ever mission to get in and see and touch what is coming from the sun. solar orbiter is going to get the closest pictures of the sun that we've ever seen. it's even going to allow us to see the north and south poles the sun.

we've never seen them before, so this will be a completely new thing. but it's notjust about taking cool photographs. this is all about measuring the sun's behaviour, as well. we've got a combination of telescopes which look at the surface of the sun and really see what is going on, and then a suite of instruments which measure the solar wind, which is what is thrown off the sun all the time. so the extended atmosphere, if you like, of the sun. it can be steady, it can be fast, it can be very eruptive. it will be looking at all those different sources and trying to understand where it comes from and how it propagates towards us on earth. the other great thing about it is because we are going so close we get to co—locate with some surfaces of the sun. usually when we look at the sun it rotates underneath us, so we see parts coming back. but solar orbiter will get to hover over one section and really see how it develops. because it's taking photographs of the sun and the sun is really bright, solar orbiter is not going as close

to the sun as other spacecraft. it's hanging a bit further back, 42 million kilometres away. and there it will use telescopes to take pictures through the heat shield, a heat shield which is partially made of baked animal bones. it's there to help solar orbiter withstand temperatures of up to 600 celsius. that is 1,112 farenheit. it's very important to keep solar orbiter and the instruments as clean as possible, and when there's dust on the lenses of the telescopes, when you expose that to the sun it effectively bakes those particles onto the lenses. once you start doing that you are losing science, so it's essential to keep those instruments as clean as possible. by measuring and capturing images at the same time, solar orbiter is really going to give us a good understanding of how the sun behaves, and how that can affect the technology we use here on earth. in today's world, with all our technology, a coronal mass ejection happens on the sun and affects us here on earth. it's going to have an impact

on things like satellites, global navigation, even televisions. exploring space is expensive but the things that can happen and the technology spinoffs from this mission, we don't know what those will be yet. but there have been a lot of developments that will undoubtably have applications to us in everyday life in 10 or 20 years' time. in case you had forgotten, or you needed reminding, the academy awards are currently under way in los angeles. 24 awards are up for grabs. by my count, 16 have already been decided. let's gojoin our correspondence, peter bowes. he is no doubt keeping count. peter, my account says that 1917 has three awards, which means it is the frontrunner at the moment. is that right? exactly right. you have been doing exactly what i have been doing, looking out the tallies for the different movies at this stage in the game. we are getting to the point where you can begin to see trends which might help us understand which is going to get best teacher at

the end of the night. you are absolutely right. 1917 has three, cinematography, which everybody expected it to get, it looks beautiful, sound mixing, and visual effects. there is significantly still, joe ofahengaue has nothing so far. the irishman has nothing so far. the irishman has nothing so far either. once upon a time in hollywood, quentin tarantino's film, a supporting actor went to brad pitt. little women one costume design. marriage story one best supporting actress in laura dern. and parasite, the south korean film, has one one of the big ones, best original screenplay. —— won one. difficult to read too much into that. it is certainly not as they call it in hollywood terms, a titanic year, when one film run away with everything. it will not be that kind of you. but i think it is anybody‘s but who will take the top prize. in terms of cinematography, the famous thing we heard about 1917 is that it thing we heard about 1917 is thatitis thing we heard about 1917 is that it is made to look as though it were a single shot. was it 1—shot?

though it were a single shot. was it 1-shot? yeah, it was not 1—shot, but it was made to look as though it was 1—shot. but it was not many shots. many of those scenes that are seven or eight minutes long were indeed shotin eight minutes long were indeed shot in one take. and i understand, just hearing from some of the filmmakers, that they would sometimes get to six and a half minutes and something would go wrong, one of the guys would follow the... and they had to start again! yes, start again. a very unique style of filmmaking which i think is why it has won so many plaudits, especially in those technical categories. of course, it tells a gripping story as well. i know we're supposed to be talking about the oscars, and the winners, but it was fascinating to see that two of the presenters were wearing their costumes from the film cats, which was by and large a complete disaster on a film and lost a lot of money. but it looks like they had a sense of humour enough to appearas sense of humour enough to appear as cuts at the ceremony. yes, a film that descended into the litter tray very quickly. a much derided film in hollywood.

lots of poking fun and, i think, it is a favourite to win the so—called golden raspberries, the worst of the worst. and i see that eminem has been singing, his first time there? i believe it is his assignment to the oscars. eminem with his latest album, involved in some controversy recently, but i think this is all part and parcel, we were talking earlier about how the oscars are inching towards moving with the times, and having performances like this, with eminem, is i think helping them to do that. speaking of music, i think we're just about to get to music category very soon. best song. the eltonjohn song from rocket man is nominated in that category and i think the favourite to win. the oscars in the past were condemned for being a bit stuffy, a bit slow, a bit behind the times. have the

organisers addressed that? is it snappier this year?|j organisers addressed that? is it snappier this year? i think it snappier this year? i think it isa it snappier this year? i think it is a little snappier. it does seem to have moved rather more quickly and that is probably in big part because there is no presenter, coming on to tell a few gags in between the awards. it was certainly deemed to have been a success last year when they did it, they wouldn't have done it two years consecutively otherwise. i think the academy organises and produces believe this is a way to move things along quickly. whether or not it loses a little bit of its old hollywood charm, because they have done that, i don't know. some people think that perhaps the oscars are not quite the same as they used to be, but maybe if they were the same as they used to be, fewer and fewer people would watch, because people have different tastes these days. peter bowes, our correspondence in los angeles, a pleasure to talk to you. and those oscars will continue for another hour or so. continue for another hour or so. we will continue to bring you those results. more of course on our website. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @jamesbbcnews.

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, and much colder.

this is bbc news, the headlines: at the 2020 oscars, brad pitt has taken home the award for best supporting actor for the quentin tarantino film once upon a time in hollywood.‘ — and laura dern has won best suporting actress for marriage story. many of cinema's biggest stars are attending the ceremony. the korean drama parasite has one the best screenplay test film, internationally. 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, it's share of the popular vote appears similar to those of the two long dominant centrist parties.