tonight at ten, the high—speed rail link hsz, whose future has hung in the balance, will be given the go—ahead by the government, the bbc has learned. hs2 will link london to birmingham, manchester and leeds, with drastically cutjourney times. today, we have our confirmation that we will build the railway that will close the north—south divide and bring our country together again. but opponents are angry about the cost, the damage to the environment, and the disruption to residents near the route. in front of your very eyes, you can see sort of, you know, treasured landscape disappearing. taxpayers' money would be far better spent on local, regional transport projects. we'll bring you all the details on the eve of the expected

announcement by boris johnson. also tonight: four more cases of coronavirus are confirmed in the uk — one of them at a gp practice in brighton, which has now been closed. clearing up yet again — people across northern england frustrated and angry as flood defences fail once more, this time due to storm ciara. and the oscar goes to... parasite. and the south korean dark comedy parasite makes history by being the first foreign language film to win best picture. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, the former celtic captain jackie mcnamara is seriously ill in hospital after collapsing at home in york.

good evening. bbc news can tonight confirm that the government will give the go—ahead to the whole of the controversial high—speed rail line hsz, which will link london to birmingham, manchester and leeds. an announcement is expected by the prime minister tomorrow. boris johnson has faced bitter opposition, including from his own backbenches, over the route and the cost of this huge infrastructure project. the price, according to a leaked government review, could be £106 billion — that's three times its original budget. the news has been welcomed by some in the business community but has infuriated people living near the proposed route. let's go live to our transport correspondent tom burridge, who's in birmingham for us now. tom. this has been a real dilemma for the prime minister. on the one hand and a potentially £100 million price tag. on the other, that promise to voters in the north of england is and here in the midlands that he

would level things up. that is why the green light on hs2 will come with a raft of other measures on transport spending. they've done a huge amount of work clearing the site behind me, and that is one of the reasons why the government felt it had to keep going. this is what high speed two looks like today in solihull. tonight, confirmation that after months of wrangling and a budget which has ballooned, the project will proceed. the foundations for a new bridge over the m112 are going in here. they'll divert roads to make way for this railway. and this is the vision for that site — an interchange station with a shuttle service connecting to birmingham airport. it won't be ready for more than a decade, but the promise of better transport links in this area has already attracted investment. take this business park nearby. we've bought this building and...

that one over there? yes, and this building. the company laura works for snapped them up and refurbished them. our business has invested almost £20 million on two buildings... and hs2 was part of that decision. hs2 was definitely a factor in looking to buy these buildings. it's a big infrastructure project, and the station was located close to the buildings, so people will be able to get to them easily on public transport. a green light from government effectively means that construction work to build that first leg of the railway, linking london to birmingham, will begin relatively soon. birmingham to crewe will now also be considered as the first phase of the project. the government wants another review into the last stretch, linking crewe to manchester, and birmingham to leeds. the aim will be to cut costs and improve links to the existing rail network and other future projects. but it will go ahead.

it's not the news that rural communities along the route, like here in north warwickshire, wanted to hear. just along the road here, miles of hedgerows have been destroyed, trees have been chopped down, and many of the roads as well, so in front of your very eyes you can see sort of, you know, treasured landscape disappearing. taxpayers' money would be far better spent on local, regional transport project in the north, i mean, they're crying out for it in the north. but tomorrow's announcement will include a series of other commitments to improve transport links, particularly in the midlands and the north of england, where poor, overcrowded services have been too often the norm. hsz hs2 divided the conservative party, it has divided this government. tomorrow the government will announce £5 billion of extra spending on improving buses in

england and wales, making them cheaper and greener, and also there will be more money for improving cycling in english towns and cities. not long ago, the conservatives with a party of austerity. they are now selling themselves as a party of big transport spenders. reeta. tom, many thanks, tom burridge there. a gp practice in brighton was closed temporarily today, after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus. four new cases of the illness in the uk were confirmed this morning, bringing the total to eight. the government has moved to ensure that anyone in england who's in quarantine for the virus can't just leave by declaring it a serious and imminent threat to public health. here's our medical correspondent fergus walsh. this is not wuhan, but brighton, where an entire medical centre and pharmacy are being deep—cleaned after two local gps tested positive for the new coronavirus, along with two other people in brighton. it seems they were all infected in a ski chalet in france by a british businessman who had himself got infected in singapore.

without realising he was contagious, he passed on the virus to around a dozen britons, all without going anywhere near china. the detection of this small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire. but for now it's only a spark — our objective remains containment. the longer this outbreak goes on, the more scientists are learning about the new coronavirus. latest estimates suggest it kills around one in 100 people who are infected. that compares with one in ten people who died from sars in 2003. yet even though the new coronavirus is much less deadly, the death toll has already exceeded that of sars — now more than 900, compared to 774 for sars.

the reason is that this virus is so mild for huge numbers of people that, unlike sa rs, most of those infected never need hospital treatment, and this allows it to spread more effectively in the community. so how bad could it get if the virus starts spreading widely in the uk? well, it's very hard to know. but seasonal flu in england alone kills between 10,000 and 30,000 people each year — most, but not all, over the age of 65. nearly 200 britons have been repatriated from wuhan since the end ofjanuary and are in quarantine in milton keynes and merseyside. at the weekend, one person threatened to leave from arrowe park hospital, so emergency regulations have been brought in, allowing forcible detention. but most seem happy with the conditions. there are all sorts of games available, we've obviously got tvs, we've got access to the internet,

netflix, so all of these different things that are actually available to us do help to make this feel not like we're stuck in quarantine. in wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, the growth in new cases has started to slow. but it's too early to know whether this epidemic can be contained. president xijinping, shown having his temperature taken in beijing, promised total warfare to beat the virus. this is one of the biggest challenges china has faced in decades, and the impact, both medical and economic, are being felt around the world. fergus walsh, bbc news. a 58—year—old man has died in hampshire after a tree fell on his car during storm ciara yesterday. weather warnings remain in place around the country, with strong winds and flooding causing further travel delays. in the worst—affected places, a clear—up operation has been going on all day.

our correspondent danny savage is in york this evening. yeah, reeta, a huge volume of water coming through the city of york, it has risen by about four metres in the last 2a hours. it is a fairly well defended city, so they are not expecting serious problems here, but when it is like this in the centre of york and it rises so quickly, it isa of york and it rises so quickly, it is a clear indicator of problems elsewhere in the north, and that has certainly been the case. yet again, the towns and villages of calderdale in west yorkshire are clearing up after a flood. it's the third time in less than a decade that mytholmroyd has been swamped, and people are angry. the whole thing, all that, right back as far as you can see, was a lake yesterday. roger barr has now seen his house destroyed twice. no—one has ever knocked my door in seven years to come and see what's happening.

i've had to buy another house, same size but higher up. and i don't know what's going to happen with this. so you just feel abandoned by the authorities? abandoned, yeah! new flood defences are being built here, but they were no good yesterday. so a decision now has to be made whetherjust to check everything out or to try and clean up and salvage. you can see how the water came up to this level... the same family has run this hardware store for 30 years, but this weekend was the final straw. we were on camera in 2015, and we said that if it ever happened again, we were going to call it a day. and we're going to call it a day. it's notjust a little bit of a mess you've got to clean up. it's the walls want drying, everything's. .. i'm just so mad, it's...annoying. nikki morris's house merged with the neighbouring river and canal. she filmed this from her front door.

today she's resigned to another lengthy clear—up. i hate it, being here now, at this very moment in time, i don't want to be here at all. i've got my house up for sale, i have done for a few months, but that's not going to happen now, is it? further south in hampshire, a 58—year—old man was killed when a tree fell on his car on the a33. many train services were cancelled. this was glasgow central station, where the west coast main line only reopened late this afternoon. numerous other train operators reported problems caused by the weather. whoa! in the borders, this 200—year—old guesthouse in hawick collapsed into the river. and this lorry went over on the severn bridge, closing the link to and from wales to all traffic. back in hebden bridge, the full extent of the damage can be seen from the air. the problem here is that people have lost all faith in the authorities to defend this valley from floods.

danny savage, bbc news, west yorkshire. a man has been convicted of planning a terror attack in london, just over a year after he was cleared of attacking police with a sword outside buckingham palace. musa chowdhury, who's from luton, was arrested a few days before a gay pride parade in london last summer. he'll be sentenced at a later date. here's june kelly. a summer evening, and a security alert right outside buckingham palace. musa chowdhury has pulled up and is armed with a sword. he injures two officers, shouting "allahu akbar" — "god is greatest." at his original trial, chowdhury claimed this was a suicide attempt. he said he wanted the police to kill him. he was found not guilty of planning a terror attack. chowdhury lived here in luton with his family. within days of being cleared by a jury over what had happened at buckingham palace,

he was on the internet and social media, showing an extremist mindset. he quickly became the target of an undercover operation, involving the police and the security service, m15. listening devices were planted in his home and in his car. over a six—month operation, officers were wired and secretly recording chowdhury. they had gone into the takeaway where he worked, posing as customers, and befriended him. he divulged to them how he'd lied to the jury at his first trial and was trying to carry out a terror attack at buckingham palace, and he outlined his plans to do it again. he talked of a van attack at the gay pride parade in london. his other potential targets were tourist attractions in the capital, including madame tussauds. musa chowdhury is an exceptionally dangerous individual. the evidence in this trial demonstrated his clear intention to murder as many people

as he could and potentially to die in that attempt. he had made a list of his priorities for his life after death in paradise — at number seven was meeting allah. number two was meeting all wives, and naming and choosing the main two. so anything you want to ask, i can answer it honestly. he was arrested a few days before the pride parade, because it was feared he would attack it. because there's no attack planning at all. right, 0k. i've already been in prison. i do not want to go back there. at his home, police found a knife under his mattress. there were also two training swords. they'd been bought from the bank account of his younger sister, sneha chowdhury. he was recorded telling her he needs to practise decapitation techniques. she has now been found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. musa chowdury, the extremist who

bragged about beating the system, has now been brought to justice. so too has his sister, who did nothing to stop his murderous plan. june kelly, bbc news, at woolwich crown court. aid agencies and the united nations are warning that up to six million people in yemen — that's a fifth of the entire population — are being denied desperately—needed aid because houthi rebels are stopping its passage. the houthis, backed by iran, control much of the north and west of the country. they've been fighting the government — backed by saudi arabia, the us and the uk — for the last five years. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet has been given rare access to the country, and reports now from hajjah. a frontline of hunger. this is hajjah, yemen's northwest, lives broken by war and want, of everything. at a un food hand—out,

anger explodes. "hungry, hungry", this man shouts. and his friend says, "we don't have houses, we don't have anything". now, even this aid may be at risk. there's talk of a suspension or scaling back in response to unprecedented houthi obstruction. there are literally millions of people who need assistance across all of yemen who are not receiving this because of bureaucratic impediments, because the agreements that they need to reach with the authorities are not being signed because these agreements are being delayed. the impact on people is simply enormous. in the houthi—controlled north, aid workers told us of their frustrations and fears, too worried to speak on camera. one shared these words. "there is now an extremely hostile environment for aid workers", they said. "more and more of our national staff are threatened, detained and harassed.

we face interference", they said, in everything we do. this is one of many battle grounds, un warehouses. the houthi official in charge of aiding hajjah brought us here, to the place where the un says its food was looted. he wanted to show us this — cockroaches and tattered sacks, proof, he says, of un failings. we see this too. look at the date. good food, sitting here for months, says the un, without permits to deliver it. translation: we are not interfering in the distribution of the world food programme aid. they are just making excuses for their mistakes. blaming the government is not reasonable or acceptable. another warehouse, more

goods waiting to clear. the houthis say they want more control over this aid, even a levy on aid budgets, red lines for humanitarians. in the midst of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, there's another growing and deeply worrying crisis, arguments over the very distribution of this life—saving aid that millions of yemenis rely on. if this isn't resolved soon, more lives could be lost. a treacherous mountain road, a truck tipped over, an angry scramble to salvage precious food. a week of tough choices about how to save the world's biggest humanitarian mission. lyse doucet, bbc news, hajjah. there have been legal challenges at the high court in a last—minute bid to stop the deportation of 50 people from the uk to jamaica. the government says they're dangerous criminals, but campaigners, including more

than 170 mp5, say some of them came to the uk as children — and have no memory of their country of birth. they were due on a flight out tomorrow, but there've been developments tonight? it is still not clear if this flight will be going ahead tomorrow. there have been reports tonight that it has been cancelled, but we have just received a statement from the home office saying active legal proceedings are still in place. earlier this evening, we saw a sealed document here at the high court, showing that some of the legal applications had been refused. however, this evening there have been reports by one human rights group saying that some of the deportees will not leave the uk tomorrow because of problems accessing a working mobile phone and therefore not being able to obtain legal advice. this flight tomorrow is scheduled to leave at 6.30

tomorrow morning, carrying dozens of people from the uk back to jamaica. it has caused widespread protests, including one last—minute protest outside downing street earlier this evening. but the home office has been very clear. they say this latest group of deportees are serious criminals, convicted of crimes such as rape, manslaughter and class a drug dealing. adina campbell, thank you. sinn fein says early results from ireland's general election are a "revolution in the ballot box" — after it topped the poll ahead of the two parties which have dominated the country's politics for decades. sinn fein, led by mary lou macdonald, won the most first preference votes in ireland's proportional voting system. but it fielded fewer candidates than its rivals, and so is unlikely to be the largest party in parliament. micheal martin, who leads fianna fail, which is presently in second place, hasn't ruled out working with sinn fein, but said "significant incompatibilities" still exist. but the prime minister leo varadkar,

who leads fine gael, has said he won't go into coalition with sinn fein because of its past links with the ira. emma vardy reports. something new has swept through ireland, voters flocking to sinn fein in greater numbers than anyone predicted. a party followed by the shadows of its past... now appealing to younger voters looking at their future. in mary lou mcdonald's dublin constituency, the leader of sinn fein, the cost of living is sky—high. it's impossible. like, i'm just over 30 and out of my friend group, one person has a house. for daniel, who converted a garage to afford a place to live, the sinn fein breakthrough is a welcome change. in a city with a housing crisis, the party promised rent freezes and more homes. most people pay an exorbitant amount of rent. they have no prospect of living in the city or within an hour of the city. that's been the real failure

of politics in the last 20 years in ireland. do you think the image of sinn fein is changing? yeah. they don't shy away from the fact that they were involved in the conflict in northern ireland, but that now is in the distant for most young people. it's not in most people's memories if they're under 30. as no one has a majority, parties will to juggle their numbers into some form of coalition. ultimately, sinn fein remains dedicated to achieving a united ireland, removing northern ireland from the uk. if anybody imagines that this issue can be wished away or that we can simply carry on regardless, they are very, very foolish. and in fact, i would go so far to say that it's irresponsible now at this stage not to plan for constitutional transition. but ireland has many voters uncomfortable with the idea of sinn fein in power. absolutely disgusted that they're getting in. it's their whole philosophy, the republicanism and the violence that went behind it.

last night, triumphant sinn fein supporters caused controversy at a count centre, celebrating their electoral success with an old rebel song synonymous with the ira. # tell them how the ira made you run like hell away... nearly all the seats now declared, the current irish prime minister leo varadkar‘s party projected to have been pushed into third place, it's highly likely that ireland will have a new leader in future, but who it will be is unclear. after ireland's political storm, it may take weeks to settle on a way ahead. emma vardy, bbc news, dublin. history was made at the oscars last night — where for the first time in the awards' 92 year history, a foreign language film won best picture. the south korean black comedy, parasite, picked up a host of other awards too, including best director. our arts editor will gompertz reports.

and the oscar goes to... it was a good night for... parasite. the south korean film about social inequality became the first film not in the english language to win the prestigious best picture oscar. we never imagined this to ever happen. we are so happy. i feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now. its director and creator, bong joon—ho, became the first south korean to win best original screenplay and the first south korean to win best director. "the most personal is the most creative." that quote was from the great martin scorsese. applause. that got a standing ovation. he then announced his plans for the rest of the evening. i am ready to drink tonight... laughter. ..until next morning! thank you. parasite was the story of a night that was otherwise largely predictable. tonight we celebrate all the amazing talent in this room. janelle monae opened the show

with a couple of numbers and a comment on diversity. and i'm so proud to stand here as a black, queer artist telling a story. comedian chris rock followed her lead. cynthia did such a greatjob in harriet hiding black people that the academy got her to hide all the black nominees. and so, with the elephants in the room banished — for this year at least — the real business of dishing out golden statues got under way. renee zellweger won best actress for playing a vulnerable judy garland in judy. and joaquin phoenix picked up the best actor oscar for his intense performance in joker. i have been a scoundrel in my life. i've been selfish, i've been cruel at times, hard to work with, and i'm grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. brad pitt won his first acting oscar for once upon a time in hollywood. to stand here now, once upon a time in hollywood — ain't that the truth. laura dern won best supporting actress for marriage story.

there were british successes. eltonjohn and bernie taupin won the original song category. jacqueline durran picked up the costume design award for little women, and cinematographer roger deakins took home an oscar for his work on 1917. but the night belonged to parasite and its popular self—effacing director, bong joon—ho. parasite's win is being described as a watershed moment here in los angeles, and it may very well be that the academy has changed and become much more global. but it is worth bearing in mind that we have been here with hollywood before with new dawns, especially around the subject of diversity. it is just possible that parasite's wind, fabulous though it is, is just a one—off. well, many thanks. that's it. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. have a very good night.

hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm katie shanahan. coming up tonight. the former celtic captain, jackie mcnamara, is in hospital after collapsing at the weekend. the row rumbles on, but gregor townsend leaves the door open for finn russell. so will he return for scotland? and, out of the storm and into the snow. england steer through tricky conditions to beat scotland in the women's six nations

good evening, we'll start the news that the former celtic captain, jackie mcnamara, is seriously ill in hospital after collapsing at home in york over the weekend. reports suggest that the 46—year—old has had brain surgery. his former celtic team—mate, john hartson, has written on social media saying that mcnamara collapsed on saturday following a bleed on the brain. mcnamara played more than 250 times for celtic, between 1995 and 2005, he managed partick thistle and dundee united as well. he also received 33 caps for scotland. well, jackie mcnamara's daughter has written a message on his twitter account. she says her dad is receiving the best care possible, and it's a difficult time for theirfamily. this is devastating news about a player who is much revered in scotland. i know thatjackie collapsed outside his home in york, he went down there where he was

managing and collapsed on saturday, and was battling this problem in the hospital. got his football wishes and all the best committee had a great career as a player with celtic, and... he went on to manage teams and did well in scotland before heading south to york. much loved scottish player, one of the most talented defenders of ever seen, but most of all a thoroughly great guy. is dad also named jackie laid with hibbs in celtic and i know he's at the bit with his son and of family at the moment. we wish them all the best and hope that he can get his his victory in the game. the row between the scotland head coach, gregor townsend and star fly—half, finn russell rumbles on. russell hasn't played any part in scotland's six nations campaign after "breaching team protocol" during a drinking session at the team hotel before the championship started. and their relationship has soured even more after scotland lost

the calcutta cup to england over the weekend.