hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at two: full steam ahead for hsz. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the cabinet has given high—speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. i'll be reporting live from the h52 construction site here in birmingham and getting reaction to the prime minister's announcement from the mayor of the west midlands. the british businessman linked to 11 cofohovii’us cases says he's fully recovered

but still in quarantine, after catching the virus in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. coming up on afternoon live: all the sport. as manchester united apply for a section of safe standing, are we any closer to seeing it rolled out? thanks, john. and nick miller has all the weather. concern about heavy snow showers today in scotland, and a new named storm on the way this we can. all you need to know, coming up. with a little help from his dad.. prince william and prince charles take to the basketball court — as they tour facilities for injured service personnel.

hello, everyone. this is afternoon live. i'm simon mccoy. so, after years of uncertainty, now we know hs2 will go ahead in its entirety. the project linking london, birmingham, manchester and leeds is already over budget and behind schedule, but prime minister boris johnson said it will now form part of his plans for a transport revolution. the first trains will be running on parts of the line, he said, by the end of the decade. let's go to my colleague ben brown, who's in birmingham. simon, who's in birmingham. we are at curzon street in birmingham, simon, we are at curzon street in birmingham, where they are creating a brand—new station as part of hs2. this is a station that will serve all the people using the hs2 route in and out of birmingham, and the workers i've been talking to here are delighted that they have now

got some certainty from the prime minister that he has, after all that debate, all the rows there have been over hs2, he has given what he called the green signal for the entire hs2 network. we are going to get this done. borisjohnson and supporters of hs2 say it will regenerate and rebalance the economy between north and south. critics have said the cost of it is spiralling and it could end up well over £100 billion, and there is the environmental impact as well. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge reports. from euston in central london to west london, through counties like warwickshire and up to birmingham, work to prepare the ground for the first stretch of a high—speed railway has been going on for years. here in solihull, they're diverting a road over the m112 to make way for the railway. the amount of work going on here —

building a new bridge, diverting a road over a motorway — gives you a sense of why it has always been hard to imagine that the government might scrap this project, particularly the first stretch of it, running from here in the west midlands down to london. gordon brown was in charge when the project was conceived a decade ago. the time for high—speed rail has come. 0ther prime ministers have given it their backing. today, borisjohnson has, too. he's backed the whole project — a y—shaped railway. the latter phase, linking birmingham to manchester and leeds, will be reviewed to try and cut costs, but it will go ahead. hs2 is needed, say supporters, because our railways are overcrowded. but the high—speed vision — this is what they hope birmingham station will look like — comes with a high price tag, which has risen and risen. as the budget has gone up,

so did support for those saying the whole thing should be scrapped. but work on the first stretch of the railway is so well advanced that ultimately the government decided its best option was to keep digging. tom burridge, bbc news in the west midlands. the government also announced a £5 billion overhaul of bus and cycle links across england. 0ur correspondent theo leggett looks at the detail of the government's transport announcement, and the reaction. to its supporters it is a high—speed corridor that will transport growth and prosperity from london to other parts of the uk. to its critics it is a destructive waste of tens of billions of pounds that could be better spent elsewhere. the prime minister. but it will go ahead. today, mr speaker, the cabinet has given high

speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. and to ensure we do so without further blow outs on cost or schedule we are taking decisive action to restore discipline to the programme. business groups say the announcement sends out a powerful signal of intent. confidence matters, we are looking to embark on a decade of jobs and growth in this country and this is a really clear signal that not only the country really matters but the uk is open for business. but others think the scheme has been badly designed and will harm the local communities affected by it. i believe certainly that we need two extra lines, whether it is hs2 or upgrading the west coast main line. it is certainly needed because of capacity problems on the west coast main line. but i think people in the years to come will look back on this

project and just say, they could have done it so much better. and these travellers in manchester had mixed feelings. linking the h52 is valuable, it will rebalance the economy and act as a counterbalance to what goes on in london. if we can sort out the network in the north—west before we think about going into the south, because coming up here would be fine, but they can't go any further once they get into manchester. there is transport investment needed in the country, maybe this isn't exact, the exact one that would be best. in order to address some of the criticism it is inevitably going to get forfocusing on hs2, the government has also announced £5 billion of funding for other forms of transport. there will be extra money for buses across england and wales, including new zero emissions models, and more money as well for hundreds of miles of new cycleways of the kind that

london already has. building work on the line and the fancy new stations can now begin but uncertainty is far from over. the government wants to review the next stage of the project, taking the line up to manchester and leeds to make it more affordable. more controversy seems inevitable. as you rejoin us, i am pleased to say i am joined by the mayor of the west midlands, andy street. thanks for being with us. you have been a big cheerleader of hs2 — you must be thrilled today. delighted. a big day for birmingham in the west midlands, andindeed for birmingham in the west midlands, and indeed a big decision for the country. for us, it meansjobs and investment, so it is a good day. do you think this decision from the prime minister was in doubt? was it finely balanced ? prime minister was in doubt? was it finely balanced? i think it was,

actually. the review was set up, and i think it was done in an open—minded way, to decide on the best way forward, and we have seen lobbying on either side, frankly, andi lobbying on either side, frankly, and i was not completely confident until the chancellor made his intervention two weeks ago and said, i have looked at the numbers. this is the right thing to do. i think that was the decisive moment. he said he has looked at the numbers, but when we will look at them, they are scary, people talking about may be £100 billion plus. can the country for this? the current number is 85 billion. it is a huge amount of money, no one doubts that. it won't be spent all at once what about over 20 years. my answer is, yes, we can afford it, and the analysis has shown that. we are standing at the first london— birmingham terminus, and the people who built it were spending lots of money then, and it paid back over

many years, the channel tunnel the same. you have to see these big decisions in the long term. the argument from opponents is, let's use some of that money and put it into existing local transport links. that would be money better spent. we don't need this brand—new project. that would be money better spent. we don't need this brand—new projectlj don't need this brand—new project.” don't agree with that. i don't agree with the either— or comment. it has to be both. we are standing near the line that takes fast trains to london on the same track that goes to coventry. it can't be right and they don't run efficiently together. this is about as separate high—speed track that allows us to invest in services in the west midlands, manchester and yorkshire. what about the environmental argument? swathes of beautiful countryside will be destroyed to make room for hs2. there is real concern about the environmental issues. i fully accept that. one of the reasons it is expensive is that there is a lot

of tunnelling to protect the environment, so there is consideration there. secondly, there are positive environmental issues. if we managed to remove the need for domestic air travel, that is obviously very good, and there is a clear commitment from hs2 limited to replace every tree that comes then. there are tough decisions but there are some positive environmental things as well. we are at the sight of this new station. i came into new street station this morning, so why can't hs2 just use that? street station this morning, so why can't hszjust use that?” street station this morning, so why can't h52 just use that? i wish it could, because it would mean better connectivity. the whole point is that new street is already at full capacity and could not be expanded out. at the beginning of the thinking here, we decided on a separate station, and there are two positive things about that. we can link it through to other stations, and it can become a centre for regeneration on its own. that is already happening at new street. the whole project has been confirmed,

given the green signal, as the prime minister said, but the second stage to leeds and manchester, there will bea to leeds and manchester, there will be a review on that. does that worry you? know, it doesn't. the prime minister said the whole scheme will go ahead, but how it goes ahead north of here i still got to be reconsidered, and that is right. you will know that i served on the review panel that looked at this, and that was the recommendation. the southern part, the tenders have been done, the contracts are ready and we wa nt done, the contracts are ready and we want the diggers on the ground quickly. in the north, it is not at that stage, so it is right to say, how can we get best value for money? that is the purpose of this additional review. do you think part of this will be to rebalance the economy, to take wealth and money out of london and the south—east and redistribute it more evenly around england? rebalance, yes, but we are not trying to take money out of london. it is about other areas levelling up, as we say. for us, the

first decision was taken in 2015, when the act of parliament came and said phase one is happening. 0n the back of that, we have seen property prices move forward, businesses deciding to locate here. in birmingham, we can see already 9000 jobs as a result of this. we are beginning to see exactly that positive impact. remember, this links the top four economies of britain — london, west midlands, manchester... how many trains a day, how fast and what will the journey time be? the journey time on the current proposals from here is 48 minutes to euston. from our airport, just down the line, it will be just 38 minutes. you could say birmingham airport will be the easiest to islington. in terms of the number of trains, that is not confirmed. the

speed is not confirmed yet. it will be about 250 miles an hour. there is some detail to be confirmed around all of that. thank you for being with us, andy street, the mayor of the west midlands. a very happy man, as he was telling us. let's discuss further the implications of this announcement today. henri murison is the director of the northern powerhouse partnership — the research group that lobbies for development in the north of england, founded and chaired by former chancellor george osborne. what are your thoughts? i think this is to be warmly welcomed, and it is exactly what business and civic leaders have been campaigning for. we need to keep working on the detail and getting it

right, making sure places like bradford are included in northern powerhouse royal. we got almost all the detail today and it was mostly things we agreed with. as i wasjust discussing with the mayor of the west midlands, with his review of the second stage of the scheme that links with birmingham, manchester, leeds and so on, do you agree? there is no such thing as phase two any more. we are talking the north— south sections of high—speed north. we need an integrated byway to the north, and that is about rebalancing the economy. the wider northern powerhouse project can generate up to £1 trillion extra for the economy by 2050 by closing that north — south divide. connectivity isn't the only way you improve productivity, but alongside investigating —— investing in education and

skills, we can do more to unlock potential in the regions. hs2 in its new forum isa in the regions. hs2 in its new forum is a critical pillar to that being achieved. the mayor of the west midlands, again, was just achieved. the mayor of the west midlands, again, wasjust talking to me about how he thought it was a finely balanced decision from the prime minister and it could have gone the other way. do you agree with that? if it had gone the other way, what would have been the implications? advisers were on record as being against this project, so i'm sure there were whispers happening in number ten. the prime minister has been listening to advice on what is in the long term interest of the british economy. city regions like leeds include conservative mps like jason mccartney who are big supporters of the project and have been newly elected or re—elected in his case. there are towns like crewe and darlington that are big winners

from northern powerhouse royal that are critical parts of the new blue wall across the pennines. it would have been difficult for the pm to explain how he would build enough capacity of the north without hs2. there isn't another way to get the same additional capacity north to south without building new lines. that makes hs2 essential. it is most useful when built alongside an east — west railway, but if it had been cancelled, the prime minister would have made sure that the country paid an economic cost, but his party would have paid a political cost as well. good to talk to you. we can speak now to james mitchinson, the editor or the yorkshire post, who's in leeds. what do you think your readers will be making of this announcement today chris mike i think most of the

readers will welcome the development, welcome investment in the north. we have long campaigned for a fairer dealfrom the north. we have long campaigned for a fairer deal from government in this region, but there will also be a sense of government needing to be more responsible around hs2. there is genuine concern about the fiscal arrangements when it comes to hs2. people want to know that the project is being well run and managed and will come in on budget, so yes, i think the unprecedented level of investment... i believe it is your‘s largest infrastructure project. it will bring huge benefits in terms of jobs, bringing places closer together, bring opportunity for generations to come. it will bring jobs immediately. the summary would be, welcome news, but people want to see it run diligently and responsibly. and i think the

government's next task is to demonstrate world—class leadership and start listening to hs2's main detractors. for me, that is the starting point. we know there is a review into the second stage, the stage connecting manchester and leeds. what are your thoughts on that? do you think that could see some significant changes in the hs2 project? for a project like this, it is important to review constantly. we need to make sure that this project ultimately, when it is delivered, showcases the best of britain, a british research, development, engineering, manufacturing, so i think it's right to keep the project on the review to make sure that we are bringing in the world's greenest train technology, and we are making sure that this doesn't go over budget. but it is good value for

money. that when it is built, there isn't a better railway in the world, and it's important that we start to reclaim the phrase hs2 from those who simply want to do it down and start calling it the british bullet, frankly. thank you very much for your time. that is it from here in birmingham. very interesting talking to hsz birmingham. very interesting talking to hs2 workers here. they are relieved that they now have that certainty that the prime minister's announcement has given them, both about their immediate jobs and about the project in the long run. that's the project in the long run. that's the latest from here. back to you in the latest from here. back to you in the studio, simon. you're watching afternoon live. these are our headlines: the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead — with the first trains running by the end of the decade.

the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. another step toward safe standing in the premier league as manchester united apply for safe standing at 0ld united apply for safe standing at old trafford. a trial will take place later this season. james anderson has been left out of the england squad for their tour of sri la nka england squad for their tour of sri lanka as he recovers from a cracked rib. 0ther lanka as he recovers from a cracked rib. other players have been recalled. shona cox who will represent team gb. she said it was a privilege to be chosen. this the british businessman linked to a number of coronavirus cases in the uk has issued a statement saying he is fully recovered. steve walsh, from hove in east sussex, contracted the virus in singapore, and is believed to have then

infected 11 other people at a ski resort in france. he's thanked the nhs for the care he's received, and says his thoughts are with others who now have the illness. james waterhouse reports. a small pocket of brighton against a global threat. this surgery has been closed for what is being called health and safety reasons. in short, to contain the spread of coronavirus. you can't be too safe, can you? balancing your need for an appointment against the need for the virus to be contained. it is not urgent that i see the doctor tomorrow. i was going to put it off for a week or so just to be on the safe side. right now there is no sign of any cleaning happening yet but we do get a sense of the localised fight against coronavirus. there is a steady trickle of patients expected to have appointments, but this isn't the only surgery affected. a mile and a half in that direction, another surgery which is onlyjust

opened after 2a hours. yesterday there were people in full overall is carrying out an intense clean of flaws and surfaces. today, both staff and patients returned, some frustrated with the lack of information. it's hard to know how they can contain it, it seems to go so fast that you can only do what you do. there were four new cases of the virus announced yesterday. it takes the number of people infected in the uk to eight. it is concerning when anyone gets coronavirus and i think from the public's perspective it feels very wearing when one of their caregivers gets it, but we need to put this into perspective, we have only had eight cases of confirmed coronavirus in the country so far. today the person at the heart of this latest spread has been named as steve walsh, a gas salesman from hove, and is thought to have infected 11 people at a ski chalet in france after travelling back from singapore. he has now fully recovered

and said in a statement... authorities here are keeping a wary eye, hoping this doesn't become more. the key thing we are trying to do at the moment is make sure we identify anybody who has been to one of the countries of concern, who has the symptoms of cough, fever or shortness of breath, get them tested. the risk to individuals is low, so say the department of health, but it nevertheless calls the virus a serious and imminent threat. and we have a special edition of your questions answered about the coronavirus outbreak on the bbc news channel shortly, at 2.30. you've been sending in your questions, and we'll hopfully have some

of the answers, so stay with us. the uk economy didn't grow at all in the last three months of 2019. the latest figures from the office for national statistics show growth in the services and construction sectors was offset by poor figures for manufacturing. a flight deporting 17 jamaican—born offenders has left the uk despite a last minute legal challenge. last night a court ruled that 25 other detainees should not leave the country over concerns that mobile phone problems had stopped them from having access to legal advice. the government has disputed this. critics say the deportations are unfairly sending some potential minor offenders back to a country they haven't lived in since they were young children. the home office says it makes "no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign—national offenders." four of the most senior royals have made a rarejoint public appearance today.

visiting a rehabilitation centre for members of the armed forces. the rare outing follows a turbulent few months for the family — following prince harry and meghans decision to step back from the limelight and the controversy over prince andrew's links to a convicted sex offender. royal correspondent daniela ralph has followed the special visit. white like it has been a rocky few months for the royal family, white like it has been a rocky few months for the royalfamily, but today we saw a show of family unity. it is unusual to see the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall alongside the duke and duchess of cambridge at the same engagement. it is not normally the way that they work. but seeing them like that here today, it emphasises that, in the current climate, this foursome is very much the public working face of the royal family alongside the queen. but they were here today to visit the defence medical rehabilitation centre, this relatively new facility just rehabilitation centre, this relatively new facilityjust outside loughborough, designed to improve the lives of members of the armed forces who have suffered traumatic

and complex injuries. the royal visitors spoke to staff and patients here and they saw some of the physio and gym sessions. 0ne here and they saw some of the physio and gym sessions. one of them also tried his hand at a bit of wheelchair basketball during the visit. the overarching message of the four members of the royal family coming here together today is that this is a family trying to work together, trying to move forward in the face of some very public difficulties. time for a look at the weather. we arejust we are just getting over storm keira, now we're at another. we have seen the strongest storm so far. we haven't made a huge amount of progress through this list, which is good news. it is reflective of the fact that their winter has been

wet in places, it hasn't been too stormy until now. as you rightly say, we are going to go down that list a little bit more as we get to this weekend. we will be looking at capnext on dennis. i want to show you the jet stream. it is a little more wavy. . . you the jet stream. it is a little more wavy... that line is coming straight at us though it might at us, and we have another area of low pressure. the centre is not far from iceland and passing close to the north of scotland. the isobars are close together and it will be very windy once again. white lines and white stuff as well. we have already seen some snow in the aftermath of the last storm. that's right. we are focusing on rain with storm dennis this weekend,

and the wind. gusts of 50—60 mph in land, particularly through england and wales, though all parts of the uk will be windy. these are the areas most likely to see disruption. coastal gusts of up to 70 mph, and more rain in areas that have already seen more rain in areas that have already seen lots of rain so far. 15—30 millimetres widely across southern and western england and parts of wales, perhaps up to 70 millimetres on the hills in some of these areas, and the rain continuing into sunday. at the moment, it doesn't look as if the impact may be as severe as with storm ciara. it could disrupt your weekend plans, though. lots of people are saying that winter is here. yes, winter has arrived. we have the storms and the snow. let's look at what we are expecting in the next few hours with these heavy snow showers. this is what we have seen

in the past few hours, these heavy showers pushing on through northern ireland, scotland and northern england. rain, sleet, hail, thunder and lightning. this is a view from northern england, but there is even more snow on the higher hills in scotland, drifting on the strong winds as the showers keep coming. a decent amount of sunshine in some places but one or two showers pushing through, giving sleet and snow to the higher hills. another day of gusty winds, though not quite as strong as recently, still in excess of 60 mph on some of the western coasts of scotland. when you add on the wind to the temperature, it feels like it is at or below freezing across much of the northern half of the uk, so a biting wind. concern about these snow showers for the rush hour this evening across this part of scotland, where the met 0ffice this part of scotland, where the met

office has an amber warning in force. it has just come office has an amber warning in force. it hasjust come into office has an amber warning in force. it has just come into force now, runs through the evening, and there will be frequent heavy snow showers, including for the m74. there could be up to ten centimetres of snow falling on a short space of time, notjust of snow falling on a short space of time, not just cross of snow falling on a short space of time, notjust cross this part of scotla nd time, notjust cross this part of scotland but elsewhere in scotland, continuing to the hills. some for northern ireland and northern england overnight, and temperatures a few degrees either side of freezing, so an ice risk going into tomorrow morning on untreated surfaces. the weather tomorrow is less busy, a bump in the isobars and gaps between weather systems. you can still expect snow showers in the north and west of scotland, but not too many elsewhere. more in the way of sunshine and cloud builds towards wales and south—west england as we see showers moving in ahead of rain later. maybe not as chilly, and the wind eases a little as we go through the day, only to pick up on wednesday night into thursday, as we see another swathe of rain

moving across the uk with some snow, particularly in parts of northern england and scotland again on thursday. initially to low levels. it could be disruptive on thursday morning at rush hour. 0n it could be disruptive on thursday morning at rush hour. on friday, snow and rain causing problems in southern scotland, and storm dennis coming in on saturday and continuing into sunday. so much going on and lots of weather warnings. head to the website for the very latest. this is bbc news — our latest headlines... the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead — with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the government is pledging £5 billion to overhaul bus and cycle

links across england. but labour says it's not enough to reverse years of under—investments and cuts. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particularly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. police investigating the murder of the journalist lyra mckee in londonderry arrest four men under the terrorism act. the new ira admitted responsibilty for the killing in april last year. a deportation flight to jamaica has left the uk despite a last—minute legal challenge. downing street has confirmed 17 people have been deported. sport now on afternoon live withjohn watson. hello, john. we'll start with football — another premier league club makes a move towards safe standing? yes, andi yes, and i guess not any premier league club, manchester united which i get is quite a statement

in itself. tottenham and waltz, two other clubs that have installed rail to seating which paves the way for safe standing. they want to put 1500 seats in the north—east corner of the stadium with a view to then trialling it later this season. standing at matches currently isn't allowed in the premier league but bearin allowed in the premier league but bear in mind that fans do it anyway. so there is a bigger attempt to do it safely by installing more safe standing areas. this is one further step in the process. spurs and wolves are now allowed to put in the seats, what they are not allowed to do yet is put them in as safe standing areas. it is a bit of a sherrard and we would like to see it swe pt sherrard and we would like to see it swept away. i have been told by my expert these kind of seats make spectators safer therefore i will allow clu bs spectators safer therefore i will allow clubs to fit

those as formal seating areas. you saw what it looks like. standing hasn't been allowed since the taylor enquiry after the hillsborough disaster. the fa have said they would support safe standing. we wait to see of course whether this trial goes ahead. england have announced the test squad in cricket. england have announced their test squad for the tour of sri lanka next month with record wicket takerjames anderson left out which was half expected as he recovers from a cracked rib. he stays at home to focus on being fit for the english summer. the notable inclusions are opener keaton jennings and wicketkeeper ben foakes after a year out of the international scene. they last played on england's tour of the west indies at the start of 2019. england on the up after that test win in south africa,

but as bowler mark wood explains — sri lanka will provide plenty of new challenges. it is not just it is notjust the it is not just the fact that your skill level comes in, it is physical as well and mental, how long can you stick at it? i think for a place thatis stick at it? i think for a place that is obviously the last tour we went there is conducive to spin. even as a fast bowler you have to be on for that short, sharp burst. i would expect three or four of my spells would be about right because it does take a lot out of you. it is draining weather. yes, a big test ahead. shauna coxey has been selected to represent team gb in sport climbing in this year's 0lympics. the event is making is debut in tokyo and coxsey — who won two bronze medals at the world championships last year — is the first british climber confirmed for the games. she said it was a privilege joining so many talented athletes on the team. it is so surreal and i feel incredibly excited but also it's quite strange because i'm in

training now, so i'm like head down and focused on training and then suddenly everyone is here chatting about the games again. it is really cool and nice to be thinking about that but also my thoughts definitely on my training right now and getting to the games as healthy and psyched as possible. so, yes, really surreal. wasps director of rugby dai young is to step down from first team duties for an undetermined period. he's been in thejob for nearly nine years but the club are currently ninth in the premiership and failed to progress from the groups in the european challenge cup. lee blackett, part of his backroom team, will become interim head coach. mark allen wasted little time in reaching the second round of the welsh 0pen snooker this morning. he made three half century breaks and a 114 break in the fourth frames as he beat andrew higginson 4—1 in cardiff. that's all the sport for now.

now it's time to get some answers to your questions on the coronavirus outbreak. joining me to answer them is global economist janet mui and professor of experimental medicine, dr peter 0penshaw. also here to dispel rumours and fake news is alistair coleman from the bbc‘s monitoring department. thank you all three forjoining us. i'm going to crack on because we have a lot of questions. peter, perhaps i can start with you. how mild and how severe are the corona virus symptoms and at what point should people self quarantine? is a cough and breathlessness enough and could fever plus breathlessness suggest coronavirus? it's a complicated series of

questions. i think it is important to emphasise that this is a disease that we are learning a lot about still but our current understanding is that it goesin current understanding is that it goes in different phases. so initially it may be a very mild or almost in apparent disease. people just feel a bit of colour, may be a bit achy, a bit of a cough. those are the early symptoms and that might last a week or so. and then things may either recover, you may actually return to full health and be fine. 0r actually return to full health and be fine. or some people are starting to deteriorate at that point and that may be the point at which your immune system is really cutting in and starting to fight the virus quite aggressively. we are speculating there but at that point the lungs may become more inflamed and things may take a turn for the worse in terms of breathlessness, cough and general deterioration in health. the difficulty of course is a lot of people can't differentiate between cold and flu and if you've got those symptoms, at what point are you going to start thinking this

may be different? at the moment, the place where you have travelled from, if you have travelled, is still of key importance but that is widening all the time. the advice is changing by the day in terms of the high risk areas that people may have come from. but also contact with other people in this country who might also have travelled from those places becoming increasingly important. i think we are generally seen a important. i think we are generally seen a doubling in cases about every six days. despite the precautions which have been taken. and so as time goes by we are likely to see more cases. it is really difficult to know, except because you are at risk of being in contact, the symptoms are so, so general. it is almost a bit likejet lag symptoms are so, so general. it is almost a bit like jet lag sometimes in the early phases. and the advice at the moment is don't overreact. but people inevitably are going to be concerned. i think it's important that people realise that a lot of

those who become infected are probably going to recover completely fine without any medical intervention at all. antibiotics are not going to be helpful in this situation, it's a virus. at the moment we are waiting for news from china about which antiviral drugs might work. i think that could be a game changer in terms of knowing that we can actually positively diagnose this virus and then treat it using antiviral drugs, that would bea it using antiviral drugs, that would be a very, very good bit of news. janet, we're talking about overreaction and that's the problem for the global economy. everybody is beginning to fear the worst and we are already seeing a global economy reaction to it. this question, what effect will coronavirus have on the uk economy? we will talk globally and just a moment but first of all here. and we seen any of an impact? 0ur expectation is the direct impact on the uk economy is very, very modest. it will be tourism spending but actually chinese tourism spending in the uk

isjust 0.02% of uk gdp so the director is likely to be very limited. i think there could be very limited. i think there could be some supply chain impact because the uk we have some car manufacturing plants and some of the goods have been sourced in china, so that could have an impact in terms of supply chain, there could be a delay. but in terms of overall impactl delay. but in terms of overall impact i don't think there will be a huge impact on the uk economy. and yet in china there is already quite an impact. well, early indicators suggest that it is quite sharp already. for instance, we saw that coal production is 17% lower year—on—year in the comparative year la st year—on—year in the comparative year last year. new home sales, existing home sales are down 90% on —— last year. we don't have the official data yet because it is still early. the data is always kind of distorted by the chinese new year. but the

early indicators suggest to us that the impact is already showing and it is quite hard. alistair, the difficulty is we are not quite sure about what is going on in china by the very nature of how china operates. but are we getting a sense that they are perhaps as aware as we are of what is going on? oh, very much so. china has been slow start off but basically that is because of the authoritarian nature of the state and they have a certain lethargy to start with. but they have been very, very good with coming up with the figures. they have been very, very good with coming up with the origin of the virus. it has been helpful like that but we are always having to deal with the nature of the chinese government, which has always been slow because people just don't want to admit that something is wrong. so we had one question, what are the current global case and mortality rates ? current global case and mortality rates? we are pretty confident it

is around 42,000 people within china at the moment that has been reported. we are looking at about one or 2% fatality rate. it seems to have peaked in wuhan district because it has been contained there. but it is picking up pace elsewhere in china, where people have travelled, where the virus is travel. and outside china as well we are seeing a few hundred cases, the majority of these are on the diamond princess in yokohama. that is because they've been quarantined there. but we are seeing it spread slowly throughout the world in a lot of countries including the united kingdom but they are not huge numbers. and what about other countries, i'm thinking of north korea. do we know if there are any problems there? that is very interesting. i have been watching north korean media and they said la st north korean media and they said last weekend that there are no cases in north korea. they made it a state security thing, so it's a real issue

there that every day they have world coronavirus report. they don't do a lot of world news but they have been to adults of world news on coronavirus and showing how the efforts have been made in north korea to eradicate it. but there have been rumours, unsubstantiated rumours i do have to say, that i have been cases in north korea but week there have been cases in north korea but week there's no way we can verify them. our people with asthma at particular risk from the effects of virus? that is a question of great interest to us. i mainly work on lung diseases in people with asthma and 30% of people we saw hospitalised had asthma so it was a big risk factor. in this particular outbreak it is not a big risk factor. it seems to be people with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, things like that. we don't know why that is, there is something

different going on here. it is not the same as everything we have learned from influenza. it can't be immediately transferred into knowledge about how this is transmitting. i think it is more similarto transmitting. i think it is more similar to the sars agent which of course was another coronavirus in 2002, 2003. things like masks and if you are sitting on a plane, is it best to have the ventilation going on? what advice would you give? the ventilation systems and commercial aircraft are very, very highly developed and are designed to contain the air in different segments of the aircraft in such a way that it is filtered and recirculated and doesn't allow too much forward and backward transmission. it has been well studied in a number of different situations just how much bread there can be within aircraft. with this particular virus we are still learning —— might how much spread there can be within aircraft. they can be an contamination within materials, as so it is not so much

aboutair materials, as so it is not so much about air contamination as who has been sneezing on the hand and wiping their hand around the seating on the aircraft because it could be actually that it can survive on surfaces for several hours. depending on the circumstances, perhaps even as much as a day or two. janet, when we look at the impact on the global economy, i mean the old saying that when america sneezes the world catches a cold. when china, this is more than a sneeze clearly. what are we worried about? you talked about the chains of goods that we all rely on. at what point will start hurting? well, i think if this epidemic continues for another month or so that would be quite devastating because in terms of the global manufacturing supply chain, they are operating on a very tight inventory cycle. so if that continues then i think the global trade cycle will be heavily impacted. we already had a lot of

strain from the trade tension back in 2019 and i think industry are just starting to recover in this stage. i don't think the global industrial cycle can take another hit like that. i think another very key impact of the global economy from china is the tourism span. it is worth highlighting that in 2003 the chinese tourism spending as a percentage of global spending was 396. percentage of global spending was 3%. today it is 20%. countries like vietnam, tourism spending from china is 3% of their gdp for instance. so it could have quite an impact and consequences for the asian economies. some suggestion that a recession is the inevitable consequence of this. well, what we think is this impact, it ultimately depends on how long this will be contained. so ultimately it is going to be in temporary impact on the economy. we expect the first quarter

gdp numbers from china will be ugly, it will be an outright contraction. so the last quarter in 2019, it was 6% year—on—year which is about target. but having the experience of the previous epidemic, usually this will be contained in a quarter and then growth will start to recover so overall we expect a recovery in overall we expect a recovery in overall economic activity in the second quarter of the year. and overall the annual gdp growth in china will be down about 0.2%. but thatis china will be down about 0.2%. but that is an optimistic forecast. so we are not forecasting the worst—case scenario here. we are not forecasting the worst-case scenario here. alistair, conspiracy theorists are having a field day here. ijust had a tweet saying why is the dialogue open in an in 2018... not been investigated? do we know how this started? that is a prime conspiracy theory. there are a prime conspiracy theory. there are a lot out there. some have been spread by mainstream

media operations. russian tv has been full of conspiracy theories about it being an american bio engineering experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong. yeah, the story about the lab opening in 2018, that has been debunked already. there hasn't been a chemical lab doing experiments... we know that as a factory? we do know that. we know it has been caused by mutating strain ofa it has been caused by mutating strain of a virus that appeared in horseshoe bats and have somehow been passed on to humans. 0k. peter, what does that mean in terms of spreading human to human? does that mean there is more chance of us been able to control this? and we have all seen the possible maps of here we are the cases are doubling in this country every week and if that goes on exponentially then we have an

epidemic and it is no longer in control. i think, just to reiterate, it is clear that this is very closely related to a bat virus and we know that these viruses do often jump we know that these viruses do often jump from one species to another. the problem with itjumping into human to human transmission is nobody has any resistance to this virus. and so it will of course spread through the population practically unchecked because eve ryo ne practically unchecked because everyone is essentially susceptible. i think if it is slowing down in wuhan and it is great if it is, it could be in part because this virus has spread so widely in wuhan that there are not that many susceptible people left in the population. if it is conferring resistance within those who have had mild disease and have recovered then that is great. that may be one way in which it is going to be slowed in its spread. yesterday when we reported that a medical centre in brighton had been closed down because one of the gps was found to have the virus, where you sitting there going over know if

it's in a gp's surgery that is going to bea it's in a gp's surgery that is going to be a lot of people affected? 0r is that another overreaction?” don't think that's an overreaction. we don't really know how to react because we still don't know about how infectious this viruses but it does seem to be pretty infectious virus. we don't know all the ways by which it has spread and it may indeed be taken off quite spread in many different places around the world. so what is going on behind the scenes at the moment in terms of getting a vaccine for this? that is a very important question. there has been a lot of investment into having the infrastructure ready to make vaccines on a very rapid scale in the event of a serious threat of this sort. and indeed the welcome trust in the uk has been putting a lot of resource into this. there have been a lot of resources internationally and there are several labs around the world that are now gearing up to make a vaccine as quick as it possibly can. and indeed at imperial college, where i

come from, one man is already this week vaccinated mice with a putative vaccine to see if it generates antibody. and then if that works we will go into human volunteers and see if antibodies are generated. i mean, this is a long way off from being a vaccine that is widely available. we don't know until it is rolled out what sort of effect it is going to have. janet, hamley times to talk about uncertainty in how the markets hate uncertainty. there is no more uncertain thing in life than something like this, a health scare of the global nature. at what point do you think the global markets will say we have a serious problem.” think right now the financial markets are actually not putting in a lot of bad news from this outbreak. for example the us stock market is at a record high in the chinese stock stock market it grew by...| chinese stock stock market it grew by... ithink chinese stock stock market it grew by... i think it is really because the situation will ultimately be

contained. for example most of the research work that we have done or what we are seeing in the markets on a consensus basis is that this will be contained somewhat by the end of february. so this is the market expectation. sol february. so this is the market expectation. so i think if this epidemic is not contained by then it drags on longer. and i think the market will start to panic at some point. but at the moment the markets are not pricing in that risk. when we are talking about this coronavirus, death rates. i mean what are the chinese saying about what are the chinese saying about what the death rate is? the death rate from the figures that we have seen rate from the figures that we have seen by the chinese government are low compared to other types of flues and things like sars and avian flu. it's about one to 2% as the doctor over there was telling me earlier. there are people who are vulnerable, people who we thought might be vulnerable aren't. so it is not

looking, while it is very, very viral, it is also not as deadly as some flute mutations have been before. peter, it is under control as far as we know in this country at the moment? is that fair? yes, we have seen relatively few cases but i think we have to plan for the eventuality that we will be seen more cases in the next few days. eventuality that we will be seen more cases in the next few daysm that your assumption?” more cases in the next few daysm that your assumption? i think that isa that your assumption? i think that is a reasonable assumption to make andi is a reasonable assumption to make and i think we need to act on that on that assumption, yeah. at what point is this out—of—control here? well, i think... we have got one person who has spread this to 11 people and if it is exponentially we are finding out the figure doubled in the last two days, there comes a moment where there is a tipping point reached where theyjust won't be able to physically trace every body who has been in contact with victims. that's right. the pandemic

planning that is in place in the uk is amongst the best in world. people come to the uk to have a look at the plans that have been put in place. there are model of how to have a pandemic plan. the plan is phased and staged so that initially every effort should be made to stamp out the sparks to reduce the spread locally within communities where it has been introduced. there comes a point at which that is no longer feasible, if the epidemic continues to grow. and at that stage, testing continues, treatment continues according to the best measures we know. but ultimately if it is spreading very, very widely it becomes almost futile to test. we have to really respond on the basis of the symptoms. and what should we do? should we all get a face mask or watch our hygiene? there is a lot of doubt as to whether facemasks are effective and the current advice in this country is we should not really

be bothering too much with face mask. they may in fact give people a false sense of security and may be, you know, manipulating the facemask, pulling it off, leaving it on, putting on the desk may end up with more contamination. we think washing handsis more contamination. we think washing hands is probably very important. we know that with influenza washing your hands properly five times a day, that is back in front, dry your hands properly, then that reduces transmission. we think that maybe the route of transmission in this case. i'm afraid we're out of time, it is absolutely fascinating. thank you very much for that. thank you all very much forjoining us on bbc news. you are watching afternoon live, let's catch up with the weather, here is nick miller. it isa it is a wintry scene across the uk, showers coming in across the north of the uk and as we can see on the recent snow and rain

radar, a lot of this is showing up as white as well. particularly over the hills of scotland, northern england and into northern ireland as well. creating some difficult travelling conditions in places as well. this is how it looks over the next couple of hours. a few passing showers the further south you are with sunshine too. they're still coming in on the strong gusty wind, particularly into scotland, drifting over the higher hills and still with gusts in excess of 60 miles an hour on the west coast of scotland. as for temperatures, it is feeling cold in that wind, colder than yesterday and colder than these temperatures might suggest. there is a wind factor out there today that makes it feel like it is below freezing for some offers across the northern half of the uk. there is an amber warning from the met office in force until later this evening through this zone here are the concern about the snow showers just keep coming with may be up to ten centimetres of snow to the hillier parts, the 74 is certainly

in the so as we come through the evening rush hour so be aware of that. they could be some nasty conditions here but elsewhere through scotland, into the hills of northern england they will be these heavy snow showers coming in. you don't have to go too high to find these. ice also an issue overnight, temperatures fall a few degrees either side of freezing going into the morning. tomorrow, after that cold, icy star a little bit quieter for a time. still this weather front close to northern scotland, wet weather into 0rkney and into the hills. not so many elsewhere and there will be sunshine to come, clouding up across cross southern england, showers heading in through the afternoon ahead of some rain coming in later. not feeling quite as chilly because the winds will ease a bit as well. they will pick up ease a bit as well. they will pick up again through wednesday night and into thursday as we see another swathe of rain pushing north with some snow again through parts of northern england and scotland. thursday rush hour snow

in places that could cause problems. another speu that could cause problems. another spell of rain on friday and then on saturday a new named storm on the horizon, that means more wet and windy weather, it is storm dennis and we will give you more details about that in the next hour. . hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. today at 3: full steam ahead for hs2. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the cabinet has given high—speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport withjohn watson. as manchester united apply for safe standing seating,

are we any closer to seeing it rolled across the premier league? thanksjohn. and nick miller has all the weather. yes and concern about snow showers, particularly across parts of scotla nd particularly across parts of scotland for this evenings rush hour, more wet and windy rain two and a new storm on the way and we will find out what we can expect from that in the next hour. thanks nick. also coming up, with a little help from his dad, prince william and prince charles take to the basketball court as they tour facilities for injured service personnel. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. so after years of uncertainty, now we know hs2 will go ahead in its entirity.

the project linking london, birmingham, manchester and leeds is already over budget and behind schedule but prime minister boris johnson said it will now form part of his plans for a transport revolution, the first trains will be running on parts of the line, he said, by the end of the decade. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge reports. from euston in central london to west london, through counties like warwickshire and up to birmingham, work to prepare the ground for the first stretch of a high—speed railway has been going on for years. here in solihull, they're diverting a road over the m42 to make way for the railway. the amount of work going on here — building a new bridge, diverting a road over a motorway — gives you a sense of why it has always been hard to imagine that the government might scrap this project, particularly the first stretch of it, running from here in the west midlands down to london.

gordon brown was in charge when the project was conceived a decade ago. the time for high—speed rail has come. 0ther prime ministers have given it their backing. today, borisjohnson has, too. he's backed the whole project — a y—shaped railway. the latter phase, linking birmingham to manchester and leeds, will be reviewed to try and cut costs, but it will go ahead. hs2 is needed, say supporters, because our railways are overcrowded. but the high—speed vision — this is what they hope birmingham station will look like — comes with a high price tag, which has risen and risen. as the budget has gone up, so did support for those saying the whole thing should be scrapped. but work on the first stretch of the railway is so well advanced that ultimately the government decided its best option was to keep digging. tom burridge, bbc news

in the west midlands. the prime minister told mps that a vast increase in rail capacity and faster journey times would deliver prosperity across the country. he's also announced a five billion pound overhaul of bus and cycle links across england. 0ur correspondent theo leggett looks at the detail of the government's transport announcement and the reaction. to its supporters, it is a high—speed corridor that will transport growth and prosperity from london to other parts of the uk. to its critics it is a destructive waste of tens of billions of pounds that could be better spent elsewhere. the prime minister. but it will now go ahead. today, mr speaker, the cabinet has given high speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. and to ensure we do so without further blow outs on cost or schedule, we are taking decisive action to restore discipline to the

programme. once again we see the government taking ideas from the labour party. adopting our language but following a very long way short of the substance of it. this is a government which is unwilling to make the scale of investment needed to revive parts of this country. business groups say the announcement sends out a powerful signal of intent. confidence matters, we know we are looking to embark on a decade ofjobs and growth in this country and this is a really clear signal that not only uplevelling the country really matters, but the uk is absolutely open for business. but others think the scheme has been badly designed and will harm the local communities affected by it. does the prime minister's appreciate my constituents concerns that this could be an albatross

around moving forward and doesn't it set the bar very low for delivering infrastructure projects on time and on budget? these passengers today had mixed feelings. it will rebalance had mixed feelings. it will re balance the had mixed feelings. it will rebalance the economy and act as a counterbalance as to what goes on and under. if we can sort out the actual networking in the north west before we think about going down into the south because coming up here would be fine but they can't go any further once they get into manchester. i think there is transport investment needed in the country but maybe this isn't the exact one that would be best. in order to address some of the criticisms, the government has also going to get forfocusing on hs2, the government has also announced has also announced £5 billion of funding for other forms of transport. there will be extra money for buses across england and wales,

including new zero emissions models, and more money as well for hundreds of miles of new cycleways of the kind that london already has. building work on the line and the fancy new stations can now begin, but uncertainty is far from over. the government wants to review the next stage of the project, taking the line up to manchester and leeds to make it more affordable. more controversy seems inevitable. theo leggett, bbc news. our political correspondent, nick eardley is in the central lobby of the houses of parliament. with so much money already spent, it was there really any choice? i'm not sure he did have choice, i think that probably was where the balance of the decision came down in number ten at the end. they would have been such a waste of cash to scrap even a big part of hs2 at this stage. i've got to say, it has been a real political hot potato and the conservative party and this is one of the reasons it has taken so long to get to the stage. there were so many tories opposed to it on various grounds, ascetics because of the impact it would have on some of

their constituencies or money, technology, but you saw boris johnson is in the commons earlier just throwing other incentives to these mps, things like more money for buses, bike routes and more infrastructure in the north eventually to help other rail networks so ultimately, i think that a lot of that opposition is still there, there are some people you still feel uncomfortable about what is going on but some of those opponents were a bit guarded in what they were saying in the commons earlier. let's speak to someone who is in favour of this project, the acting leader of the liberal democrats. what is the case, is it simply that too much money was spent by the government already and that this had to go ahead? there is no doubt conservatives have managed this project appallingly. they certainly have wasted money but the question for the country is, how are we going to tackle climate change? how will we reduce domestic flight? the only way to do that seriously

is for high—speed rail to go ahead. this must only be the start of the rail revolution. we have got to see a lot more rail links built, particularly east to west in the north and midlands where there are appalling rail networks at the moment. if you can have that sort of investment, we can really tackle climate change, get vehicles off the road and really get the rail network of the future that britain needs, including links that aren't just going to london the time but are linking some of our northern cities together. we have a lot of talk in the commons today about exactly that, more infrastructure and a lot more money going into the rail network and into bus networks and various other transport projects was not where it is all the money coming from because this is expensive and it is not going to be quick? the liberal democrats have championed the case for public transport for many years for that we champion the case for green transport to tackle climate change and so we welcome this. you ask what the money will come from, the reality is that climate change will be

extraordinarily expensive for our country if we don't tackle it in extra flooding, the impact of agriculture and frankly the impact on our way of life so for those of us on our way of life so for those of us who want to take climate change seriously, these investments aren't just nice to have, there are essential. we also know that boris johnson has been talking about other big infrastructure decisions in recent weeks but we were just talking about heathrow and the idea about the new terminal there. you seem about the new terminal there. you seem to think that mrjohnson has gone a bit liberal on that. the liberal democrats have been leading the campaign against the third ru nway the campaign against the third runway at heathrow and the conservatives have been supporting it. mrjohnson has been in an interesting position, he once said that he would lie in front of the bulldozers to stop the third runway and that is why liberal democrat mps have been arguing, what is your position now? she asked him in the house of commons on this because it is linked to high speed two, if we have those good rail links

that we don't need any more runways and what was interesting in his answer, he was interesting in his answer, he was quite lukewarm. liberal democrats were pushing him very hard on this. if it is right, his certainly right to want to build the railway links that the liberal democrats won, we want to go further and stop building runways too.” think the language used simon was that there was no imminent prospect of bulldozers on that third runway but back in terms of hs2, the majority of conservatives are backing it, labour won't oppose it, you heard the lib dems there. the snp are broadly on—board as well so any snp are broadly on—board as well so a ny votes snp are broadly on—board as well so any votes on this should go through fairly comfortably but there are those conservatives who still have big questions, big concerns and although this is going to go ahead, i suspect they will be hot on the tail if anything goes wrong. thank you very much for that. you're watching afternoon live, these are our

headlines: the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. the british businessman linked to a number of coronavirus cases in the uk has issued a statement, saying he is fully recovered. steve walsh, from hove in east sussex, contracted the virus in singapore, and is believed to have then infected 11 other people at a ski resort in france. he's thanked the nhs for the care he's received, and says his thoughts are with others who now have the illness. james waterhouse

reports. a small pocket of brighton against a global threat. this surgery has been closed for what is being called health and safety reasons. in short, to contain the spread of coronavirus. you can't be too safe, can you? balancing your need for an appointment against the need for the virus to be contained. it is not urgent that i see the doctor tomorrow. we was going to put it off for a week or sojust to be on the safe side. right now there is no sign of any cleaning happening yet, but we do get a sense of the localised fight against coronavirus. there is a steady trail of patients expecting to have appointments, but this isn't the only surgery affected. a mile and a half in that direction, you get the county oak surgery which has onlyjust opened after 24 hours. yesterday there were people in full overalls carrying out an intense

clean of floors and surfaces. today, both staff and patients returned, some frustrated with the lack of information. it's hard to know how they can contain it, it seems to go so fast that you can only do what you do. there were four new cases of the virus announced yesterday. it takes the number of people infected in the uk to eight. it is concerning when anyone gets coronavirus and i think from the public's perspective it feels very worrying when one of their caregivers gets it. but we need to put this into perspective, we have only had eight cases of confirmed coronavirus in the country so far. today the person at the heart of this latest spread has been named as steve walsh, a gas salesman from hove, and is thought to have infected 11 people at a ski chalet in france after travelling back from singapore. he has now fully recovered and said in a statement...

authorities here are keeping a wary eye, hoping this doesn't become more. the key thing we are trying to do at the moment is make sure we identify anybody who has been to one of the countries of concern, who has the symptoms of cough, fever or shortness of breath, get them tested. the risk to individuals is low, so say the department of health, but it nevertheless calls the virus a serious and imminent threat. james waterhouse, bbc news, in brighton. we're hearing from the who that it has been designated as covert 19 and

thatis has been designated as covert 19 and that is how it will be referred to by the who. —— that is how it will be referred to by the who. -- covid 19. a lorry driver who killed two people as he played a game on his mobile phone while at the wheel has been told to expect a lengthy prison sentence. fourteen year old joe cairns and fifty year old anne kerr were killed in the crash on the m58 injanuary. james majury pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at preston crown court.he also admitted five counts of causing serious injury in the multi—vehicle collision at bickerstaffe earlier this year. a man in his 60s has died after being hit by a falling tree in high winds near liverpool. it happened as he was walking his dog in black wood near woolton this morning. flood alerts are in place along the mersey because of the bad weather and road closures remain in place. four men are being questioned about the murder of the journalist lyra mckee in londondery last april.

the dissident republican group, the new ira, admitting shooting her. the men have been arrested under the terrorism act. the uk economy didn't grow at all in the last three months of 2019. the latest figures from the office for national statistics show growth in the services and construction sectors was offset by poor figures for manufacturing. our economics correspondent andy verity reports. this wolverhampton graphic design company makes signage for customers from premier league football clubs to cinemas and gyms. so this one will actually look the same as this... like many other businesses around the country, it struggled to grow at all amid the political heave full of the last three months of 2019 though it's helpful things will now improve. we've not traded as well as we've hoped. however, a lot of people in our industry have, sadly, gone by the wayside, so we've actually traded to a decent level. we continue to support our customers and be thousands of

them. ——partners of them. i'm very confident for the future, i genuinely believe that we've got a project which is going to take us forward. this compa ny‘s spent half an union pounds on a state—of—the—art printing machine, confident that business will pick up in 2020. but today's figures show that overall business investment shrank at the end of 2019, one reason the economy didn't grow. activity in the services sector was up slightly, as weak consumer spending was offset by a slightly stronger housing market. construction activity was up by 0.5%, but manufacturing was hit hard, down by 1.1%. some of that was because car—makers suspended production, just as they did last spring. in 2019 overall, manufacturing output fell by 1.5%, its worst performance for six years. one hope is that higher government spending may help to stimulate the broader economy, but that will take time. we know that there will be additional spending, that was laid out last year, and spending in particular on infrastructure, on investment. the issue with that is that

it doesn't generally deliver growth in a hurry, so while it may be good for the long—term, as sajid javid indicated, we may not see the positive impact this year. today's figures suggest that in december, the economy did start growing again, and by more than most economists expected. businesses are now more optimistic than they were pre—election, but they need that optimism to be converted into orders. andy verity, bbc news. a flight deporting 17 jamaican born offenders has left the uk despite a last minute legal challenge. last night a court ruled that 25 other detainees should not leave the country over concerns that mobile phone problems had stopped them from having access to legal advice. the government has disputed this. critics say the deportations are unfairly sending some potential minor offenders back to a country they haven't lived in since they were young children. the home office says it makes "no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders."

a belfast couple have tied the knot in the first same—sex marriage to take place in northern ireland. a warning — there are some flashing images coming up. robyn peoples and sharni edwards made history at the ceremony in carrickfergus in county antrim this afternoon. the day marks their sixth anniversary as a couple. they had previously booked a civil partnership ceremony, just months before westminster mps passed legislation that allowed them to legally marry. it's another big day in the race for the white house. voting has started in the new hampshire primary election. this is the second of the state by state contests to find a democratic candidate to challenge donald trump in november. chris buckler reports. presidential hopefuls spend millions of dollars trying to win the new hampshire primary. it is still early in this series of state—by—state votes that are being used by the democrats to select a challenger to donald trump. but two candidates are hoping that here they will be able to cement their position as front runners. so far, vermont senator

bernie sanders seems to have captured much of the progressive vote and pete buttigieg is leading the moderates. it is clear thatjoe biden's campaign sees him as a threat. joe biden helped lead the passage... they released an attack ad. mocking mr buttigieg and his achievements in a small city in indiana. president trump is watching the fight and stalking his potential opponents. in new hampshire, he held a packed rally on the eve of the primary and launched his own attacks on all democrats. my only problem is i'm trying to figure out who is their weakest candidate. i think they are all weak. the presidential election is still months away but it is clear for donald trump that the fight has already begun and that's even though the democrats

are only starting the long process. let's go to our washington correspondent, gary o'donoghue, who's in nashua, new hampshire. first of all, just explain, these are primary is. what is the difference between this and i were? so the caucuses are organised by the state party, they are a party affair, they are done in public and the key difference is that your vote is not a secret ballot. your neighbours and see who you vote for, you stand in a room and it takes you about two hours to vote so it is a bit of a turn—off for some people. a primary on the other hand is organised by the state will dub it isa organised by the state will dub it is a secret ballot and as you can see where i am standing, you go to a booth behind you, fill

in your preference, stick it in a machine and it gets counted there and you walk out and it is done in about five minutes so those are the key differences and there is a lot of pressure i have to say in the democratic party now to move away from caucuses, particularly after i went last week. they had already halved the number of caucus states in this particular cycle down to about seven. i think they are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. the other big question i suppose at this stage, having seen the results from iowa, is, is bernie sanders actually electable? well, it is an interesting question in the sense that it is always the question ina sense, sense that it is always the question in a sense, is your candidate electable but it has taken on this outside crucial element this time, given how the democrats want to

get rid of the current candidate. it is the big criticism that other candidates, that bernie sanders frightens the horses, calling himself any kind of socialist in this country is reminiscent and a reminder of the past and the cold warand reminder of the past and the cold war and communism and all that kind of thing but bernie sanders is doing pretty well amongst democratic voters. he is likely to win here, he is being run close by pete buttigieg and he is starting to edge outjoe biden in some of the national polling for the democratic party. what are you saying in the battle between bernie sanders and pete buttigieg and joe biden is the soul of the democratic party. it is —— is ita of the democratic party. it is —— is it a more centrist party? they are playing that out in their

primary. what about elizabeth warren?m playing that out in their primary. what about elizabeth warren? it is a good point. elizabeth warren is from, a senatorfrom good point. elizabeth warren is from, a senator from a good point. elizabeth warren is from, a senatorfrom a neighbouring states, massachusetts. bernie sanders is from vermont so they are both neighbouring state senators, they should do well here. it is a big test, if you can't do well in your hood, where do you do well? she has been lagging behind bernie sanders in the battle for that is left of centre vote. she will need a significant surge here i think it is going to be viable in the long run. it is not over for her but he is outperforming her amongst those people in the left. he is outperforming her in the young, the under 35 is really monopolises that vote on the left in a way that elizabeth warren just doesn't really break into. she is a serious

candidate, still has money behind her but there simply isn't room in the long term for two candidates of that flavour in this race. gary, was that flavour in this race. gary, was that the nadia to question you have ever been asked, that i started with? —— the nerdy esther. ever been asked, that i started with? -- the nerdy esther. it was pretty nerdy, i like your nerdiness. the queen's grandson peter phillips and his wife autumn have confirmed they have separated. they've been married for 12 years, but have said in a statement that their decision to divorce is "the best course of action for their two children and ongoing friendship." four of the most senior royals have made a rarejoint public appearance today, visiting a rehabilitation center for members of the armed forces. the rare outing follows a turbulent

few months for the family, following prince harry and the duchess of sussex's decision to step back from the limelight, and the controversy over prince andrew's links to a convicted sex offender. our royal correspondent daniela ralph was following the visit. well, it has been a rocky few months for the royalfamily, but what we saw here today was a show of family unity. it is really unusual to see the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall alongside the duke and duchess of cambridge at the same engagement. it's not normally the way that they work. but in seeing them like that here today, what it does is emphasise, in the current climate, with no meghan and no harry, that this foursome is very much the public working face of the royal family alongside the queen. but they were here today to visit the defence medical rehabilitation centre. this relatively new facility, just outside loughborough, is designed to improve the lives of members of the armed forces who have suffered traumatic and complex injuries. the royal visitors spoke to staff and to patients here and they saw some of the physio and

gym sessions. one of them also tried his hand at a bit of wheelchair basketball, as well, during their visit. but the overarching message of the four members of the royal family coming here together today is that this is a family trying to work together, trying to move forward in the face of some very public difficulties. time for a look at the weather. we have done a, b, c in terms of storms but d is coming up fast. yes, this is the list of storm names for this is the list of storm names for this season put together by the weather services to a mixture of names. we haven't made a huge amount of progress. why isn't there a queue oranxorayorz. ?the of progress. why isn't there a queue or an x or a y or z. ? the reason is that there aren't that many names beginning with that to so you would run out quickly

so why notjust make them empty now. there are some storms that are so impactful and nasty so you wouldn't want the same name coming up again as you retire the name and you would get through that very quickly. i'm glad i asked. white that is another nerdy question. yes, i'm glad i asked. this is to do with the jet stream again. yes, a stormy pattern across the atlantic. this is the jet stream, more the atlantic. this is the jet stream , more wavy the atlantic. this is the jet stream, more wavy than it has been recently put up there are more gaps in the weather system but friday going into saturday, thejet in the weather system but friday going into saturday, the jet is pointing right at the uk and it will carry another area of low pressure and away. the centre is close to iceland, north of scotland but it is a long way south from the centre of the low pressure, the isobars are tied together. that means there is going to be more disruptive whether

with another weekend, this coming weekend, into the uk. for all of us ain? weekend, into the uk. for all of us again? yes, there won't be many parts of the uk that won't feel the pa rt parts of the uk that won't feel the part of this. the met office are issuing warnings for england and wales. this is a yellow warning, probably the area that is at greatest risk of disruption so far. coastal gusts of up to 70 mph and that might be a little notch down compared to storm ciara but still disruptive, we can't relax, we have to keep watching how this develops and in terms of rain for parts of southern western england and into wales, greater risk of disruption but may be up to 70 millimetres on western hills and this area that has had more deluge don't need more rainfall but it is certainly in the forecast for some this weekend. saturday, the wind. although sunday still looks windy and the rain could last into sunday as well. in the meantime, it has got a lot

colder? certainly we will be talking about that today will dub it does feel cold and there are some snow showers out there, too. and they are particularly in scotland. this is the rain, snow, radar. blue is the rain and white is windy so rain, sleet and snow. these are snow showers, particular to the hills of scotland, northern england and northern ireland and producing scenes like this as we can see in south lanarkshire. some angry skies and snow from that. the snow showers keep on coming but actually it is quite low levels, many of us are saying wintry precipitation out of the showers, particularly the heavy ones. seeing some sunshine further south and east you are, one or two showers. strong, gusty winds, still gusting over 60 mph on coasts of western scotland. adding to that chill, this is what it feels like

out there this afternoon and particularly across the northern pa rt particularly across the northern part of the uk, it feels like it's close to freezing. take note, there is now in force from the met office and amber warning for heavy snow showers across this part of southern scotland, the m74 included. frequent snow showers and up to ten centimetres of new snow relatively quickly so difficult to travel conditions but across scotland, still pushing into the hills of northern england and northern ireland there will be sleet and snow showers overnight. icy conditions and temperatures either side of freezing going into tomorrow morning. he tomorrow is looking quieter. a weather front close to northern scotla nd weather front close to northern scotland so there will be wet weather out of that to the north of the mainland and orkney. the pennines, one or two for northern ireland, but fewer compared to recent days. clouding

over towards parts of wales, southern england. showers coming later. not feeling as cold. wednesday night into thursday, the wind strengthens again. heavy rain sweeping north across the uk. some snow, parts of northern england and scotland. uncertainty about the position of this but it could be disruptive on thursday morning. friday, snow melt could cause problems in southern scotland. storm dennis on saturday. there are weather warnings. and flood warnings. we will keep you up—to—date.

hi this is bbc news — our latest headlines. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high—speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the government is pledging £5 billion to overhaul bus and cycle links across england. but labour says it's not enough to reverse years of under—investments and cuts. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, which has now been officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. the first same—sex marriage has taken place in northern ireland. it follows a landmark law change in the region.

we have breaking news on coronavirus and we hear that two prisoners on the wing at hm prison bullingdon have been tested for coronavirus after falling ill. one have been tested for coronavirus afterfalling ill. one is a remand prisoner who had just returned to the uk from the far east. access to the uk from the far east. access to the wing has been restricted since yesterday afternoon as a precaution and we hear that food and medicine is supplied to all prisoners on the wing, however no visits are being allowed. there are six wings at hm prison bullingdon. five of which can house around 180 prisoners. it is not known which wing these two men we re not known which wing these two men were on. that is the breaking news. two prisoners, one on remand, have been tested for coronavirus after falling ill. we will have more throughout the afternoon. good

afternoon. we are talking about safe standing. another club in the premier league looking to install safe standing. tottenham and wolves are two clubs who have railed seating. mancheter united want to do the same by fitting 1,500 seats in the north east corner of old trafford with a view to a trial later this season. standing at matches isn't allowed currently, but worth bearing in mind fans do it anyway, so there is a move to make that safer by installing more railed seats. and those in favour want clubs to be allowed to operate them as safe standing areas. this is one further step in the process and clubs as we have seen at wolverhampton and spurs, they are allowed to put in the seats but they are not allowed to operate those areas as formal standing areas. it isa areas as formal standing areas. it is a sherrard at the moment and we would like to see that swept away and so to say yes, we have been told

by experts these sorts of seats make areas safer and they could be fitted with those seats as formal standing areas. standing hasn't been allowed ever since changes following the taylor inquiry after the hillsborough disaster, but the fa and the premier league have all said they would support safe standing if local authorities allow it. the government has said it "will work with fans and clubs towards introducing safe standing". just looking at you and you were in melbourne last week. how is the jet lag? iam lag? i am recovering, thank you for your concern. good to see you back at work so soon. good to see you back at work so soon. that is the bbc for you! england face sri lanka in the cricket and we have news of the team. england have announced their test squad for the tour of sri lanka next month with record wicket—ta ker james anderson left out, which was half expected as he recovers from a cracked rib. he stays at home to focus on being fit for the english summer. the notable inclusions. keaton jennings and ben foakes, after a year out of the international scene. england on the up after that test

win in south africa, but as bowler mark wood explains, sri lanka will provide plenty of new challenges. it is not just it is notjust the it is not just the fact your skill level comes in, it is physical and mental. how long can you stick at it? for place, the last tour was conducive to spin, as a fast bowler, when you are on you have to have short, sharp bursts and try to make something happen. for someone like myself i think three or four spells would be right because it does take a lot out of you and it is draining weather. shauna coxey has been selected to represent team gb in sport climbing in this year's olympics. the event is making is debut in tokyo and coxsey — who won two bronze medals at the world championships last year — is the first british climber confirmed for the games. she said it was a privilege joining so many talented athletes on the team. it is surreal and i feel incredibly excited but also it is quite

strange because i am in training now. so head down, focusing on training. and eve ryo ne head down, focusing on training. and everyone chatting about the games again. it is cool to be thinking about that but also my thoughts on my training right now. to get to the game is as fit and healthy and psyched as possible. it is kind of surreal. kyren wilson has made a maximum 147 break at the welsh open in cardiff. the world number eight achieved the feat in the first frame of his match againstjackson page, potting 15 reds and blacks, before clearing the colours. it's the second time he's made a 147 break in his career. the prize for the highest break is £5,000. and these are live pictures from cardiff, kyren wilson has also taken the second frame to go 2 up. ronnie o'sullivan progressed earlier. you can watch live coverage on the red button and bbc sport website. that's all the sport

for now. thank you very much, john watson. now it's time to get some answers to your questions on the coronavirus outbreak. you've been sending them into us here — where i wasjoined by global economist janet mui and professor of experimental medicine, dr peter openshaw and to dispel rumours and fake news, alistair coleman from the bbc‘s monitoring department. one of the questions came from jenny on email. she asked "are people with asthma at particular risk from the effects of coronavirus". here's what dr peter openshaw had to say.) during the 2009 influenza outbreak 30% of those who were hospitalised had asthma. in this outbreak this is not a risk factor. it seems to be people with heart disease, hypertension. high blood pressure, diabetes, those are people most at risk, and we do not understand why. there is something different going on. it is not the same as everything we have learned from influenza cannot be immediately transferred

into how this is transmitted. it is more similar to the sars agent which was another coronavirus. things like masks, and if you are on an aeroplane is it best to have the ventilation going? what advice would you give? the ventilation systems on commercial aircraft are highly developed and they are designed to contain air within segments of the aircraft in such a way it is filtered and circulated and does not allow too much transmission. it has been well studied in a number of situations just how much spread there can be within aircraft. with this virus we are learning how it is transmitted and it seems possibly to be important it is transmitted by hand contact with contaminated materials in which case it is not so much air circulation as perhaps who has been sneezing on their hand and wiping their hand around the seat

in the aircraft, because it could be it can survive on surfaces several hours. depending on the circumstances perhaps even as much asa circumstances perhaps even as much as a day or two. when we look at the impact on the global economy, the old saying is apt. when america sneezes the world catches a cold. when china, this is more than a sneeze, clearly, what are we worried about? you talked about the chains of goods we rely on. at what point will that start hurting? if this epidemic continues another month or so epidemic continues another month or so that will be quite devastating because in terms of global manufacturing supply chain they operate on tight inventory cycle and if that continues, i think the global trade cycle will be heavily impacted. we have already had a lot of strain from trade tension in 2019 andi of strain from trade tension in 2019 and i think industry is just starting to recover and i do not

think the global industrial cycle can take another hit like that. another key impact is the tourism spend. it is worth highlighting in 2003, the chinese tourism spending asa 2003, the chinese tourism spending as a percentage of global tourism spend was 3% and today is 20%. countries like vietnam, tourism spending from china is 3% of their gdp and across asia, up to 5.1%. it could have consequences for the asian economies. some suggestion that a recession is the inevitable consequence of this. what we think is it ultimately depends on how long this will be contained. it is going to bea this will be contained. it is going to be a temporary impact so we expect the first quarter gdp numbers from china will be ugly and contraction. last quarter, the

growth was 6% which was at target, but i think it was low to 4% in the first quarter. having experience of the previous epidemic, usually it is contained in the quarter and then growth recovers so we expected growth recovers so we expected growth or recovery in the second half of the year. and any gdp growth in china will be down 0.2%. but that is an optimistic forecast so we do not forecast the worst—case scenario. i have had a tweet asking why the bio lab in wuhan has been conducting experiments with pathogenic mike criticisms and why it is not being investigated. do we know why it started? some have been spread by mainstream media operations. russian television had on their daytime shut shows, full of conspiracy theories about it

being an american bio engineering experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong or a chinese experiment gone wrong. the story about the laboratory in 2018, that has been debunked. there has not been a chemical laboratory doing experiments. we do know that. this has been caused by a mutated strain ofa has been caused by a mutated strain of a virus that appeared in bats and has been passed on to humans. peter openshaw, what does that mean in terms of spreading human to human? does it mean there is more chance of us does it mean there is more chance of us being able to control this? we have seen the possible maps. cases doubling in this country every week. if that goes on, we have an epidemic and it is no longer under control. to reiterate, it is clear that this is closely related to a

bat virus and we know these viruses often jump to another species. the problem with itjumping into human to human transmission is nobody has any resista nce transmission is nobody has any resistance to it and it will spread through the population practically unchecked because everyone is essentially susceptible. if it is slowing down in wuhan, that is great, it could be in part because the virus has spread so widely in wuhan, there are not many susceptible people left in the population. if it is conferring resista nce population. if it is conferring resistance to those who have had mild disease are recovered, that is great and that may be one way it is slowed. yesterday when we reported a medical centre in brighton had been closed down because one of the gps was found to have the virus where use thinking, oh, no, if it is at a surgery use thinking, oh, no, if it is at a surgery that is a lot of people affected or is that of the ova

reaction? i do not think that is an overreaction. —— an overreaction. it does seem to be a pretty infectious virus. we do not know all the routes by which it is spread and it may indeed be taking off quite fast in different places around the world. what is going on at the moment in terms of getting a vaccine? that is an important question. there has been investment into having the infrastructure ready to make vaccines on a rapid scale in the event of a serious threat of this sort. the welcome trust in the uk has put a lot of resources into this. a lot of resources have gone internationally and several laboratories around the world are gearing up to make a vaccine as quickly as they can. imperial college, where i come from, one person is this week vaccinating mice with a putative vaccine to see if it generates antibodies and if that

works we will go to human volunteers and see if antibodies are generated. it isa and see if antibodies are generated. it is a long way off from being a vaccine that will be widely available. we do not know until it is rolled out what effect it will have. how many times do we talk about uncertainty and how the markets hate uncertainty. there is no more uncertain thing in life than a health scare of the global nature. at what point do you think the markets will say, we have a serious problem? right now, financial markets are not pricing it a lot of bad news from the outbreak. the us stock market is at a record high and the chinese market fell by 9% one day but subsequently has rebounded. this is because i think the situation will be contained. also the research that we have done and what we are seeing in the market, on a consensus basis is

it will be contained. this is the market expectation. if this epidemic is not contained by february, it drags along, the market will start to panic. when we are talking about this virus, death rates. what of the chinese saying about what the death rate is? the death rate from the figures we have seen, by the chinese government, are low compared to other types of viruses and things like sars, avian flu. 1—2%, as the doctor over there was telling me. there are people we thought might be vulnerable are not. it is not looking... while it is vile, it is not as deadly as some flu mutations have been before.

it is under control as far as we are concerned in this country at the moment, is that fair? we have seen relatively few cases. we have to plan for the eventuality we will see more cases in the next few days. is that your assumption? it is a reasonable assumption? it is a reasonable assumption to make and we need to act on that. at what point is it out—of—control here? we need to we have one person who spread it to 11 people. if it is exponentially, we are finding out, the figure double in the last two days, there comes a moment when a tipping point is reached and they physically will not be able to trace everybody in contact with it. the pandemic planning in place in the uk is amongst the best in the world and people come to the uk to have a look at the plans that have been put in place. they are a model

of how to have a pandemic plan. the plan is phased and staged so that initially every effort should be made to stamp out the sparks to reduce the spread locally within communities where it has been introduced. there comes a point at which that is no longer feasible, if the epidemic continues to grow. at that stage, testing continues, treatment continues according to the best measures we know, but ultimately, if it is spreading widely, it becomes almost futile to test. we have to respond on the basis of the symptoms. that was doctor peter openshaw. talking earlier about the corona virus outbreak. and that news i brought you, two prisoners on the wing at the prison at hmp bullingdon have

been tested for corona virus after falling in. one of them had recently returned to the uk from the far east. access to the wing has been restricted since yesterday as a precaution and food and medicine has been supplied to prisoners on the wing but no visits are allowed. five of the wings has 180 prisoners and a holes 120. it is not known which wing the men are on. that is confirmation two men are being tested for coronavirus. in a moment, the latest business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high—speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, now officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three

months of last year. more on that coming up. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the uk economy ground to a halt in the final three months of last year as manufacturing shrank for the third quarter in a row. the zero rate of growth comes after a volatile year — with repeated delays to brexit, car factory shutdowns, a lack of business investment, and stockpiling for a possible no—deal brexit. frictionless trade with the eu will end this year and border checks are "inevitable", according to the government. when the brexit transition period ends in december, businesses are likely to face extra costs from checks, and an industry body has warned the changes could hit food imports. the unite trade union says the move will have disastrous consequences. the government is considering taking a stake in troubled airline flybe. ministers are in talks with flybe and the european commission

to ensure any rescue deal does not break state aid rules. officials say support given to flybe so far, such as a pledge to cut tax on some domestic routes, are industry—wide measures. an investigation into the room rental site airbnb has found that some businesses in london are evading the rules, this is an investigation by wired magazine — and they've found that firms are getting around the rules that stop people renting out their home for more than 90 days a year. this limit protects the housing market and to stop people using it asa market and to stop people using it as a hotel rental service. it was found they're setting up multiple accounts, giving each other positive reviews and even using a building much like a hotel, with staff and cleaners to cope with a high influx of visitors. james temperton is from wired magazine. he carried out the investigation. give us a sense of

what seemingly is going wrong. there are rules to stop firms and individuals renting out properties for more than 90 days. there are a few scams and want to do with fake listings and reviews so properties will be posted onto platforms that simply do not exist and the reason they do this is they wa nt to and the reason they do this is they want to get as many people into short—term rentals as possible, so there are limits in london, 90 days, but more and more people are systematising listings, outsourcing the management of listings to call centres in the philippines. they put professional looking photographs, so to the casual passer—by it might look like a legitimate place to stay, but it is quite a dodgy place. airbnb has allowed the scams to operate at alarming scale. the company i looked at has been operating a number of years with hundreds of listings and thousands of reviews and a lot

of dissatisfied customers. and in some cases those customers. and in some cases those customers not sure there is a problem. they get to the property and realise it is not quite like what they booked but look similar.” booked myself into one of these properties are believed to be dubious and walked in and notice the furniture was in the wrong place, the runs with the wrong size. i knocked on the doors of other units in the building, a 24 apartment building in south london, and found eve ryo ne building in south london, and found everyone else had similar confusion, so everyone else had similar confusion, so the wrong number of beds or a kitchen with nothing in it. we were sort of staying in a hotel but it was not a hotel and this stuff is against airbnb policy and against planning law in london, because it deprives people of having those homes as places to live rather than hotels. what is the fix to this? they are not doing anything illegal, they are bending the rules are making it work to their advantage. boroughs in london, planning

officers can investigate listings like this and the burden of proof is high and they have to prove someone has stayed in them 90 days of the year so you have to stake out an apartment, which is difficult to enforce. people i have spoken to have called for is to create a register, just like when you stay in a hotel which is registered as a hotel and business and have requirements placed on it by the authorities. there are increasing calls for airbnb to be required through legislation to implement these measures. james temperton is the wired's digital editor. we did speak to airbnb on this and they gave a statement saying they have a proven track record of being good partners to london and say we we re good partners to london and say we were the first platform to introduce a90 were the first platform to introduce a 90 night automated hosting limit. they say they would back a host registration system in the capital and they review all hosts and listings.

do you know the difference between illegal and unlawful. one is against the law and another is a sick bird. the markets. the ftse 100, the law and another is a sick bird. the markets. the ftse100, a pretty strong day after a tough session. and down at the bottom tui, the travel company that trades under the thomson brand, is doing well in the wa ke thomson brand, is doing well in the wake of the collapse of thomas cook so wake of the collapse of thomas cook so there shares are up strongly. jd sports, the markets seem to like that. we will have a look at that in the next hour. let's have a look at the next hour. let's have a look at the weather. we have seen sunshine in places today but showers also. rain, sleet, hail, thunder and lightning and snow. there is an amber

warning for heavy snow showers in southern scotla nd heavy snow showers in southern scotland going through the evening and we will see some travel disruption as a result. a cold day with strong winds blowing showers through. particularly across scotla nd through. particularly across scotland and parts of northern england and northern ireland. showers elsewhere in england and wales moving through quickly on the wind and even these capable of delivering snow to the higher hills. tonight keeping snow showers particularly through scotland and parts of northern england and northern ireland. an ic start to wednesday where we have had these showers. few of them coming in. more in the way of sunshine and clouding up in the way of sunshine and clouding up with rain preceded by showers moving towards the south—west.

hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. today at 4: full steam ahead for hs2. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the cabinet has given high—speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. i'll be reporting live from one of the hsz i'll be reporting live from one of the hs2 construction sites here in the hs2 construction sites here in the heart of birmingham. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, now officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth

in the last three months of last year. manchester united make an application for safe standing at iold trafford in the next move to give fans the choice they watch football. more disruptive whether on the way and to date concerns about heavy snow and there is a new named storm on the way for the weekend, all the details coming up. also coming up, with a little help from his dad, prince william and prince charles take to the basketball court, as they tour facilities for injured

service personnel. hello, everyone. this is afternoon live, i'm simon mccoy. so after years of uncertainty, now we know hs2 will go ahead in its entirity. the project linking london, birmingham, manchester and leeds is already over budget and behind schedule but prime minister boris johnson said it will now form part of his plans for a transport revolution, the first trains will be running on parts of the line, he said, by the end of the decade. let's go to my colleague ben brown, who's in birmingham. yes, we are at curzon street station or that is what it will be once they have built it. it will take a few yea rs have built it. it will take a few years and the original curzon street station is actually that old building behind me which dates back to the 1830s. this is going to be as about as modern as you get, this high—speed rail link between london and here and then ultimately on to leeds and manchester as well. the

prime minister said it was a controversial and difficult decision and it has taken quite a few years to get to this point. our transport correspondent tom burridge reports. from euston in central london to west london, through counties like warwickshire and up to birmingham, work to prepare the ground for the first stretch of a high—speed railway has been going on for years. here in solihull, they're diverting a road over the m42 to make way for the railway. the amount of work going on here — building a new bridge, diverting a road over a motorway — gives you a sense of why it has always been hard to imagine that the government might scrap this project, particularly the first stretch of it, running from here in the west midlands down to london. gordon brown was in charge when the project was conceived a decade ago. the time for high—speed rail has come. other prime ministers have given it their backing.

today, borisjohnson has, too. he's backed the whole project — a y—shaped railway. the latter phase, linking birmingham to manchester and leeds, will be reviewed to try and cut costs, but it will go ahead. hs2 is needed, say supporters, because our railways are overcrowded. but the high—speed vision — this is what they hope birmingham station will look like — comes with a high price tag, which has risen and risen. as the budget has gone up, so did support for those saying the whole thing should be scrapped. but work on the first stretch of the railway is so well advanced that ultimately the government decided its best option was to keep digging. tom burridge, bbc news in the west midlands. the government is also promising to spend something like £5 billion over

the next few years improving cycle links and bus links around england outside of london as part of what it calls the revolution and transport in this country. we have more on that and reaction to the hs2 announcement. our correspondent theo leggett looks at the detail of the government's transport announcement and the reaction. to its supporters, it is a high—speed corridor that will transport growth and prosperity from london to other parts of the uk. to its critics it is a destructive waste of tens of billions of pounds that could be better spent elsewhere. the prime minister. but it will now go ahead. today, mr speaker, the cabinet has given high speed rail the green signal. we are going to get this done. and to ensure we do so without further blow outs on cost or schedule, we are today taking decisive action to restore discipline to the programme. business groups say the announcement sends out a powerful signal of intent.

confidence matters, we know we are looking to embark on a decade ofjobs and growth in this country and this is a really clear signal that not only uplevelling the country really matters, but the uk is absolutely open for business. but others think the scheme has been badly designed and will harm the local communities affected by it. i believe certainly that we need two extra lines, whether hs2 or upgrading the west coast main line with two extra lines. it is certainly needed because of capacity problems on the west coast main line. there is no doubt about that. but i think people in the years to come will look back on this project and just say, they could have done it so much better. and these travellers at manchester piccadilly had mixed feelings. linking the hs2 is valuable, it will rebalance the economy and act as a counterbalance to what goes on in london. if we can sort out the network in the north—west before we think about going down into the south,

because coming up here would be fine, but they can't go any further once they get into manchester. there is transport investment needed in the country, maybe this isn't the exact one that would be best. in order to address some of the criticism it is inevitably going to get forfocusing on hs2, the government has also announced £5 billion of funding for other forms of transport. there will be extra money for buses across england and wales, including new zero emissions models, and more money as well for hundreds of miles of new cycleways of the kind that london already has. building work on the line and the fancy new stations can now begin, but uncertainty is far from over. the government wants to review the next stage of the project, taking the line up to manchester and leeds to make it more affordable. more controversy seems inevitable. theo leggett,

bbc news. you join us live again in birmingham at the hs2 construction site. with me now isjulian beer, the deputy vice—chancellor of birmingham city university. you are right next door, your university is right next to this construction site. what is your reaction to the news that hs2 is definitely going ahead? this is really positive news and is also very firm news. for us as a university, we have already invested 340 million here and the hs2 is right here on our lawn. we are investing another 70 million and another 200 million to go and this is very positive news for us as a university, birmingham, the midlands and the north. this investment is really welcome and really positive for investors and the business community who have been on a knife edge waiting for this announcement so edge waiting for this announcement soi edge waiting for this announcement so i really welcome the news today. a knife edge you say, it could have gone the other way. we are

hearing that there are plenty of people advising borisjohnson that he should not go ahead with hs2. advising borisjohnson that he should not go ahead with h52. yes, i've heard those debates and i think the prospect of hs2 not going ahead, it is not just the prospect of hs2 not going ahead, it is notjust the investment that has actually been made in the line itself and in need of element of hs2, it is the calculation of the money that wouldn't have coming into them in, the midlands and the north if hs2 hadn't have happened. we are working with partners at the university who are working to invest significant sums here in the east side of birmingham alongside us stretching from innovation birmingham at the top down to dig bus, just beyond the line. that wouldn't have happened. —— digbeth. that means jobs? yes, it is notjust a railway line. let because i could just talk about some of the criticisms and i'm sure you know them well. some people say that the

costis them well. some people say that the cost is astronomical, it more that could be more than £100 billion. that money could be better spent improving existing transport structures and links and also the cost to the environment which, let's face it, it will be pretty devastating in some parts of england. yes, the cost. i have heard the cost and all the debates about the cost and all the debates about the cost. if we were in london, do you think there would be such a raging debate about the cost of the actual line? i think the infrastructure in this country outside of london and the southeast really needs to be addressed. hs2 provides the backbone and the spine for that investment and all the other intermodal transport links that are linked to hs2 need to come alongside hs2. i've heard the environmental impacts as well and whilst that will be an issue in some areas, we need this investment outside of london and the south—east. outside of london and the south-east. good to talk to you. thank you very much. this station,

this part of hs2 will be ready, we are told, in 2026 was notjust to give you an idea of how things will change. the train up to new street took one hour and 20 minutes and it will shave off that journey about half an hour so it will be about 50 minutes from london to birmingham. the british businessman linked to a number of coronavirus cases in the uk has issued a statement, saying he is fully recovered. steve walsh, from hove in east sussex, contracted the virus in singapore, and is believed to have then infected 11 other people at a ski resort in france. the virus has now been officially named covid—19 by the world health organization, who also say the first vaccine could be ready in 18 months. james waterhouse reports. a small pocket of brighton against a global threat. this surgery has been closed for what is being called health and safety reasons. in short, to contain the spread of coronavirus.

you can't be too safe, can you? it's tricky balancing your need for an appointment against the need for the virus to be contained. it is not urgent that i see the doctor tomorrow. we was going to put it off for a week or sojust to be on the safe side. right now there is no sign of any cleaning happening yet, but what we do get a sense of the localised fight against coronavirus. there is a steady trail of patients expecting to have appointments, but this isn't the only surgery affected. a mile and a half in that direction, you get the county oak surgery which has onlyjust opened after 24 hours. yesterday there were people in full overalls carrying out an intense clean of floors and surfaces. today, both staff and patients returned, some frustrated with the lack of information. it's hard to know how they can contain it, it seems to go so fast that you can only do what you do.

there were four new cases of the virus announced yesterday. it takes the number of people infected in the uk to eight. it is concerning when anyone gets coronavirus and i think from the public's perspective it feels very worrying when one of their caregivers gets it. but we need to put this into perspective, we have only had eight cases of confirmed coronavirus in the country so far. today the person at the heart of this latest spread has been named as steve walsh, a gas salesman from hove, and is thought to have infected 11 people at a ski chalet in france after travelling back from singapore. he has now fully recovered and said in a statement... authorities here are keeping a wary eye, hoping this doesn't become more.

the key thing we are trying to do at the moment is make sure we identify anybody who has been to one of the countries of concern, who has the symptoms of cough, fever or shortness of breath, get them tested. the risk to individuals is low, so say the department of health, but it nevertheless calls the virus a serious and imminent threat. james waterhouse, bbc news, in brighton. two prisoners, on a wing at hmp bullingdon, have been tested for coronavirus after falling ill. one of them, a remand prisoner, had recently returned to the uk from the far east. access to the wing has been restricted since yesterday afternoon as a precaution. food and medicines are being supplied to all the prisoners on the wing, however no visits are being allowed. the world health organisation has been giving an update about the number of people infected as well as those who have died due to coronvirus. it says the total number of casualties is now over1,000 in china. as we've been hearing, the organisation has also

announced the official name for the coronavirus as covid—19. director general dr. tedros adhanom ghebreyesus explained the reason behind the new name. we now have a name for the disease. and it is covid-19 and i will spell it. covid-19. co stands for corona, as you know. vi stands for virus, the d is for disease, so covid. under agreed guidelines between the who, the world health organization, the world organisation for animal health and the food and agriculture organisation, wh0,0ie and faq, of the united nations, we had to find a name that

did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or a group of people and which is also pronounced and related to the disease. having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that could be inaccurate or stigmatising. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, now officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. and in sport... another club makes a move toward safe standing in the premier league as manchester united apply to install rail seating

at old trafford. a trial for around fifteen hundred fans could take place later in the season. manchester city's premier league game against west ham has been re—arranged for 19th february. the game was called off on sunday because of storm ciara. james anderson's been left out of england's squad for their tour of sri lanka next month as he recovers from a cracked rib. opener keaton jennings and wicketkeeper batsmen ben foakes have been recalled. i'll be back with more on those stories after 16:30pm. joining me now is our news correspondent phil mackie, who's at the site of the birmingham interchange. as the birmingham interchange. the prime minister w this as the prime minister was saying, this is a controversial decision. very controversial one, lots of people say it is a complete waste of

money which could be spent better elsewhere but i think here in birmingham people are generally welcoming it and notjust the city of birmingham but no neighbouring cities, solihull, the black country, a lot of investment at the moment. the skyline of birmingham has changed vastly over the next decade and it is changing all the time and and it is changing all the time and a lot of that is because of growth driven by hs2. this, as you say, is the site of the birmingham interchange station, not to be confused with curzon street way we have been broadcasting from earlier on today, that will be the hs2 terminus. this is a link that takes you up towards manchester and leeds in the other direction. here you have there m42 and you can see the cranes and diggers working away. it will link birmingham international airport and birmingham station and it is part of that hole and connectivity package which the garment is very keen on at the moment spending money on areas like the midlands and the

north of england. -- at the government. as we can see, the work is under way and thatis can see, the work is under way and that is perhaps behind the decision, it was going to be a difficult one to say no, we are going to stop it. yes, there are sites dotted around the country, all the way along the route between london and euston like this. people have been working here for many years, i was here a couple of weeks ago talking to the site manager and i asked him the question, so what if they say no it is going to stop? and he looked blankly at me to say they are going to have some difficult discussions asa to have some difficult discussions as a result of that. so much money has already been sent on this project, it seems very likely that it had to go ahead. of course there's a bit of wriggle room of what is going to go from beyond hit to crewe and up to leeds and they may review that ticket costs down. a lot of people are said to me over the last month so that they can

build a hospital in china in a week and a half, why does it take so long to get everything done in this country? i expect the government is feeling just as frustrated. the first train rolling into birmingham in 2029 which will be 20 years after the project was first announced and then another ten, 12 years before it reaches further north so a lot of frustration and probably the government equally frustrated. a lot of people saying with that delay, it is an awful lot bearing in mind you are talking about half an hour it saved on that journey are talking about half an hour it saved on thatjourney between london and birmingham. that is often thrown up and birmingham. that is often thrown up by and birmingham. that is often thrown up by critics against the project, those who favour it to say that if we get this line are built it doesn't really matter about that 20 minutes or so from birmingham to london, what it matters is that it will really free up capacity on the local network. a lot of work going on at the moment across the west midlands to reopen stations, get lines back and running, many of which were cut in the 605. they have all looked at whether money could

have been better spent there but the a nswer have been better spent there but the answer came back from network rail that actually cancel this and spending money on that, you are just looking at 30 years of delays. they think spending the money here will free up capacity much quicker and allow people communing micro—commuting from places like stafford or wester a better chance of getting there and cheaper, even if they are not taking this particular and quite expensive route. —— worcester. particular and quite expensive route. -- worcester. thank you. a lorry driver who killed two people, as he played a game on his mobile phone while at the wheel, has been told to expect a lengthy prison sentence. 14—year—old joe cairns and 50—year—old anne kerr were killed in the crash on the m58 injanuary. james majury pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at preston crown court. he also admitted five counts of causing serious injury in the multi—vehicle collision at bickerstaffe earlier this year. a man in his 605 has died after being hit by a falling tree

in high winds near liverpool. it happened as he was walking his dog in black wood near woolton this morning. flood alerts are in place along the mersey because of the bad weather and road closures remain in place. four men are being questioned about the murder of the journalist lyra mckee in londondery last april. the dissident republican group, the new ira, admitting shooting her. the men have been arrested under the terrorism act. a flight deporting 17 jamaican born offenders has left the uk despite a last minute legal challenge. last night a court ruled that 25 other detainees should not leave the country over concerns that mobile phone problems had stopped them from having access to legal advice. the government has disputed this. critics say the deportations are unfairly sending some potential minor offenders back to a country they haven't lived in since they were young children. the home office says it makes "no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders."

the uk economy didn't grow at all in the last three months of 2019. the latest figures from the office for national statistics show growth in the services and construction sectors was offset by poor figures for manufacturing. our economics correspondent andy verity reports. this wolverhampton graphic design company makes signage for customers from premier league football clubs to cinemas and gyms. so this one will actually look the same as this... like many other businesses around the country, it struggled to grow at all amid the political upheaveful of the last three months of 2019 though it's helpful things will now improve. we've not traded as well as we've hoped. however, a lot of people in our industry have, sadly, gone by the wayside, so we've actually traded to a decent level. we continue to support our customers and be partners of them. i'm very confident for the future, i genuinely believe that we've got

a product which is going to take us forward. this compa ny‘s spent half a million pounds on a state—of—the—art printing machine, confident that business will pick up in 2020. but today's figures show that overall business investment shrank at the end of 2019, one reason the economy didn't grow. activity in the services sector was up slightly, as weak consumer spending was offset by a slightly stronger housing market. construction activity was up by 0.5%, but manufacturing was hit hard, down by 1.1%. some of that was because car—makers suspended production, just as they did last spring. in 2019 overall, manufacturing output fell by 1.5%, its worst performance for six years. one hope is that higher government spending may help to stimulate the broader economy, but that will take time. we know that there will be additional spending, that was laid out last year, and spending in particular on infrastructure, on investment. the issue with that is that it doesn't generally deliver growth in a hurry, so while it may be good for the long—term, as sajid javid

indicated, we may not see the positive impact this year. today's figures suggest that in december, the economy did start growing again, and by more than most economists expected. businesses are now more optimistic than they were pre—election, but they need that optimism to be converted into orders. andy verity, bbc news. the queen's grandson peter phillips and his wife autumn have confirmed they have separated. they've been married for 12 years, but have said in a statement that their decision to divorce is ‘the best course of action for their two children and ongoing friendship'. four of the most senior royals have made a rarejoint public appearance today, visiting a rehabilitation center for members of the armed forces. the rare outing follows a turbulent few months for the family following prince harry and the duchess of sussex's decision to step back from the limelight,

and the controversy over prince andrew's links to a convicted sex offender. our royal correspondent daniela relph was following the visit. well, it has been a rocky few months for the royalfamily, but what we saw here today was a show of family unity. it is really unusual to see the prince of wales and the duchess of cornwall alongside the duke and duchess of cambridge at the same engagement. it's not normally the way that they work. but in seeing them like that here today, what it does is emphasise, in the current climate, with no meghan and no harry, that this foursome is very much the public working face of the royal family alongside the queen. but they were here today to visit the defence medical rehabilitation centre. this relatively new facility, just outside loughborough, is designed to improve the lives of members of the armed forces who have suffered traumatic and complex injuries. the royal visitors spoke to staff and to patients here and they saw some of the physio and gym sessions. one of them also tried his hand at a bit of wheelchair basketball, as well, during their visit. but the overarching message

of the four members of the royal family coming here together today is that this is a family trying to work together, trying to move forward in the face of some very public difficulties. now, it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello, we've seen a bit of sunshine in places today, but showers most frequent across the northern half of the uk. most wintry here, as well, to the hills, but it is looking quite white on the hills, and the higher hills are going to see some quite big accumulations, particularly in scotland by the end of the day. drifting in, strong gusty winds, as well. so, plenty of showers moving in, rain, sleet, hail, snow, thunder and lightning with some of these, as well. and still strong gusty winds, particularly around western coasts. western scotland still in excess of 60 mph in places, and that's adding a wind chill to things, as well, so it feels colder than these numbers might suggest. now, concern if you are travelling for the evening rush hour in southern scotland through this zone here, where there is a london met office amber warning,

and it includes the m74 here. could see up to ten centimetres of snow falling quite quickly with persistent heavy snow showers here, so the risk of some travel disruption here, certainly some very difficult travelling conditions. that's not the only area, though, in scotland seeing the snow showers coming in overnight onto the hills. still a few towards the pennines, the higher parts of northern ireland. icy wherever you're getting the showers, as well, as we go into the morning, as temperatures fall a few degrees either side of freezing as wednesday starts. there will be a bit of sunshine around, as well, to start wednesday, away from any showers. and actually, wednesday, tomorrow, it is looking a little bit quieter, but there is another weather system on the way as we go through wednesday night into thursday, as we'll see in a moment. now, still beyond wednesday, still some snow showers affecting parts of scotland, particularly into the north. some wet weather pushing towards orkney as well. scattered snow showers to the hills elsewhere in scotland, still one or two showers around northern ireland and northern england, but fewer than they've been. elsewhere in england and wales,

will see cloud gathering to the south—west, and a few showers moving in ahead of some wet weather developing as we go through to wednesday night, though not as strong on wednesday. they'll pick up again, though, wednesday night into thursday. another swathe of heavy rain moving in, and some snow towards the pennines, parts of scotland. relatively low levels to begin with, slowly easing during thursday. and then, after another spell of rain that coupled with snow could cause some problems in southern scotland on friday. here comes another named storm for saturday, storm dennis, for more strong, possibly disruptive winds and heavy rain. we'll keep you updated on that.

this is bbc news. our latest headlines. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the government is pledging £5 billion to overhaul bus and cycle links across england. but labour says it's not enough to reverse years of under—investments and cuts. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, which has now been officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year.

police investigating the murder of the journalist lyra mckee in londonderry arrest four men under the terrorism act. the new ira admitted responsibilty for the killing in april last year. a deportation flight to jamaica has left the uk despite a last—minute legal challenge. downing street has confirmed 17 people have been deported. the first same—sex marriage has taken place in northern ireland. a belfast couple has made history following a landmark law change in the region. sport now on afternoon live withjohn watson. hellojohn. we'll start with football — another premier league club makes a move towards safe standing? now, mancheter united want to do the same by fitting 1,500 seats in the north east corner of old trafford with a view to a trial later this season. standing at matches isn't allowed currently, but worth bearing in mind fans do it anyway,

so there is a move to make that safer by installing more railed seats. in and those in favour want clubs to be allowed to operate them as safe standing areas. this is one further step in the process and clubs as we have seen at wolverhampton and spurs, they are allowed to put in the seats but they are not allowed to operate those areas as formal standing areas. it is a charade at the moment and we would like to see that swept away and so to say yes, we have been told by experts these sorts of seats make areas safer and they could be fitted with those seats as formal standing areas. standing hasn't been allowed ever since changes following the taylor inquiry after the hillsborough disaster, but the fa and the premier league have all said they would support safe standing if local authorities allow it.

the government said it "will work with fans and clubs towards introducing safe standing". let's move on to cricket. england due to play sri lanka soon and we now know the team. england have announced their test squad for the tour of sri lanka next month with record wicket taker james anderson left out, which was half expected as he recovers from a cracked rib. he stays at home to focus on being fit for the english summer. the notable inclusions are opener keatonjennings and wicketkeeper ben foakes after a year out of the international scene. england on the up after that test win in south africa, but as bowler mark wood explains, sri lanka will provide plenty of new challenges. it is not just the fact your skill level comes in, it is physical and mental. how long can you stick at it? for a place, the last tour was conducive to spin, as a fast

bowler, when you are on you have to have short, sharp bursts and try to make something happen. for someone like myself i think three or four spells would be right because it does take a lot out of you and it is draining weather. now manchester city's match with west ham has been rearranged. it was postponed by storm kero. anyone unable to attend will be able to secure a refund on return of their original match tickets, whilst west ham's are —— west ham are offering free travel for anyone wishing to get to the game. rassie erasmus, south africa's world cup winning head coach, has released a video of his half time team talk that inspired his players to victory over england last year. in it he tells his players they're not playing for themselves, and don't have the right to worry about mistakes, because they're fighting for the things that happen in south africa. the english rfu chief executive bill sweeney denied erasmus

was at saturday's calcutta cup match against scotland to meet officials with a view to succeding eddiejones as head coach. kyren wilson has made a maximum 147 break at the welsh open in cardiff. the world number eight did it in the first frame of his match againstjackson page. potting 15 reds and blacks, before cleaering the colours. it's the second time he's made a 147 break in his career. the prize for the higest break at the tournament is £5,000. and these are live pictures from cardiff, kyren wilson has also taken the second frame to go 2—0 up. best of seven as you can see at the welsh open. ronnie o'sullivan progressed earlier. you can watch live coverage on the red button and bbc sport website. that's all the sport for now. plenty more to come throughout the rest

of the afternoon. now, on afternoon live, let's go nationwide, and see what's happening around the country in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. let's go to crewe where north west tonight's rogerjohnson joins us to talk about the story of the day — hs2. in and we also have anne davies from east midlands today in nottingham, who is talking about some royal guests. so roger, after years of uncertainty and cost over—runs, the prime minister has given full and final approval to the uk's most expensive railway. the hs2 high speed line will link the north west with birmingham and london. what do today's announcements mean for crewe? weld crew is going to be an important hub on the hs2 network. originally, it was part of the second phase. it is part of phase two a which goes from birmingham to

crewe. pa rt of two a which goes from birmingham to crewe. part of what has been announced today is that that will go into the work of phase one which has been talked about a lot, which goes from birmingham to london. that will be merged in two going to crewe. beyond that, phase two b will go to manchester and after leeds. as far as crew is concerned, there is an element of certainty for businesses in the town and for employers. that is good news and they are welcoming it for a people around here. some of the villages that are bisected by a line and others that are opposed to it, clearly the announcement today isa it, clearly the announcement today is a bit ofa it, clearly the announcement today is a bit of a disappointment, albeit something they expected to hear. it is all about taking traffic and some of their capacity off the west coast main line. this is it. that way to london, that way to north wales, and overin london, that way to north wales, and over in that direction to manchester. it costs a lot of money to get a ticket on the west coast main line. i looked a couple of minutes ago. a ticket to go from

manchester to london at peak time this thursday is £180 one—way. that isa this thursday is £180 one—way. that is a 360 return if you want to do a return journey. one of the big u na nswera ble return journey. one of the big una nswerable questions that return journey. one of the big unanswerable questions that no one can answer at this stage, given that this railway is ten or 20 years away, is how much it will cost to travel on hs2. £160. anyway, what has the reaction been in that direction to manchester. it costs a lot of money to get a ticket on the west coast main line. i looked a couple of minutes ago. a ticket to go from manchester to london at peak time this thursday is £180 one—way. that is a 360 return if you want to doa that is a 360 return if you want to do a return journey. that is a 360 return if you want to do a returnjourney. one that is a 360 return if you want to do a return journey. one of the that is a 360 return if you want to do a returnjourney. one of the big u na nswera ble do a returnjourney. one of the big una nswerable questions that do a returnjourney. one of the big unanswerable questions that no one can answer at this stage, given that this railway is ten or 20 years away, is how much it will cost to travel on hs2. £160. anyway, what has the reaction been another pat's question mark as i mentioned, manchester in that direction, they have been very keen. the businesses, the cbi, the metro mayor. very keen to see hs delivered as a way of rebalancing the economy, and that ultimately is what is driving boris johnson and his announcement today, to press ahead with hs2. they are pleased. however, other parts of the north west is not quite so happy. in

liverpool, the mayor there, steve rotherham says that merseysiders losing out because it has not got a direct hs2 line. you will be able to go through to lime street, but you'll have to slow down and go on the conventional tracks at the end of the journey. lots are mixed feelings today. certainly for crewe, it will be a big change in ten or so yea rs it will be a big change in ten or so years time. you are there tonight, are you? yes i'll be here in north west tonight this evening. it makes a change from yesterday in the storms in lancashire. it is still freezing cold but at least the sun is shining. long may that be the case. good luck with the programme. now, and. let's talk about the rather rare royal visits to the east midlands. it is full senior

royals in one. indeed, it has been very rare. it all actually began at lunchtime today where as you sail for the royals arrived here. they went to the defence medical rehabilitation centre which is in nottinghamshire. now, it is stamford hall, and it has been absolutely transformed over the last few years ata transformed over the last few years at a cost of millions. it is there to ca re at a cost of millions. it is there to care forformer at a cost of millions. it is there to care for former servicemen and women with complex injuries from battlefields and sports accidents. family continuity, a royalflush if you can put it in poker terms. interesting that the duke and just —— duchess of cambridge are being seen —— duchess of cambridge are being seen here to pick up harry's role as the link with the military. have a look at kate's outfit. it is stunning but very military, isn't it? i don't know if we read too much into things like this, or if

anything, in the life of these royals left to chance? there are some lovely pictures from inside the centre. all four of them are chatting and laughing with patients and staff. they are showing that caring family side really. i'm an expert on all things to do with royal couture actually. i thought you might be. there they are inside the facility. there was one moment when prince william throw a basketball and prince charles put his arms around him. just fabulous. there we go. this is it. just watch. such a nice kind of easy—going... this is exactly what they're trying to promote there. william and kate stayed on at stamford hall, and charles hotfooted it just stayed on at stamford hall, and charles hotfooted itjust outside the leicester's market square. this really extensive visit to

the midlands meeting community and go running into businesses, is a real reflection of the work that the queen has done over the many years that she has been on the throne. the expert said to me that leicester is a microcosm of the country the queen rule is over. it is multi—faith and multicultural. it reflects the changing face of britain. leicester was the place the queen chose is her first up up with kate in thejubilee year. it seems like ages ago. the duchess of cambridge also met elaine paige. exchange coupling you might say, but the duchess is president of the royal voluntary service and elaine paige is an ambassador. if you have been in hospital, you will know that the ivs provide a major thing support for people in hospital. they were in the shops on the trolleys. this afternoon these two ladies pushed a brand—new r trolley around leicester passat

hospital. i don't think they had actually got their hands on the trolley at that point. the visit continues all through the afternoon. there is a huge amount of stuff going on. as i mentioned, a number of businesses welcoming the royals. you need to get on a train and come to the east midlands, or you can watch it all on the midlands today tonight. that is the duchess of cornwall. i said the duchess of cambridge but it is the duchess of cornwall. thank you very much. and roger, as ever, very good to see you. we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at 4:30pm here an afternoon at 4:30pm here an

afternoon lie. it's another big day in the race for the white house. voting has started in the new hampshire primary election. this is the second of the state by state contests to find a democratic candidate to challenge donald trump in november. chris buckler reports presidential hopefuls spend millions of dollars trying to win the new hampshire primary. it is still early in this series of state—by—state votes that are being used by the democrats to select a challenger to donald trump. but two candidates hope that here they can cement their position as a front runners. so far, vermont senator bernie sanders seems to have captured much of the progressive vote and pete buttigieg is leading among the moderates candidates. it is clear thatjoe biden's campaign sees him as a threat. the former vice president's team have released an attack ad... ..mocking mr buttigieg and his achievements as the mayor of a small city in indiana, particularly when compared to mr biden's. president trump is watching the fight and stalking his

potential opponents. in new hampshire, he held a packed rally on the eve of the primary and launched his own attacks on all the democrats. my only problem is i'm trying to figure out who is their weakest candidate. i think they are all weak. the presidential election is still months away, but it is clear for donald trump that the fight has already begun and that's even though the democrats are only starting the long process to select who will take him on. chris buckler, bbc news, manchester, new hampshire. in a moment ben thompson is going to bring us the latest business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. the prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead — with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the british businessman linked to 11

coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, now officially named covid—19, in singapore. police investigating the murder of the journalist lyra mckee in londonderry arrest four men under the terrorism act. the new ira admitted responsibilty for the killing in april last year. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. the uk economy ground to a halt in the final three months of last year as manufacturing shrank for the third quarter in a row. the zero rate of growth comes after a volatile year, with repeated delays to brexit, car factory shutdowns, a lack of business investment, and stockpiling for a possible no—deal brexit. frictionless trade with the eu will end this year and border checks are "inevitable", according to the government. when the brexit transition period ends in december, businesses are likely to face extra costs from checks, and an industry body has warned the changes could hit food imports. the unite trade union says the move will have disastrous consequences. the government is considering taking a stake in troubled airline

flybe. ministers are in talks with flybe and the european commission to ensure any rescue deal does not break state aid rules. officials say support given to flybe so far, such as a pledge to cut tax on some domestic routes, are industry—wide measures. economic growth ground to a halt in the final three months of last year. the real concern here and remember this is a backward —looking indicator, did that continue into the first part of this year is the big question. there is some anecdotal evidence suggesting that things might be picking up, and actually that was a blip towards the end of last year, with all the uncertainty of the election in brexit, and maybe now is the time things start to pick up again.

head of currency strategy at crb world markets. give us a sense of what you make of this. how did this year start? this year started a little better if you use their purchasing managers indices is the broad baseline. it suggests that perhaps we could be running at a rate of .2.3%. of course, that is very early in the quarter. last night, we had british retail consortium data saying that sales outside the food sector were relatively lacklustre. going back to those numbers for a second,it going back to those numbers for a second, it is notable that government spending was the real kicker in terms of the queue for data. that was the strongest quarter of government spending, and that in itself contributed 0.4% of gdp and other than that it would have been flatlining. how much can we read

into these figures? we'll get pointer —— caught up in .1% hearing .1% there. what does it tell us? it's true that we can get very myopic in terms of these data points, but what we're trying to do is trying to determine whether the economy is growing at its potential run rate. if it is doing that it will continue to do well for people and create jobs. if will continue to do well for people and createjobs. if the will continue to do well for people and create jobs. if the economy is running below capacity, the risk is that the hitherto strong performance of the labour market start to unwind and that has bad news and bad expectations for consumers or employees. so really, it is about trying to gauge the pace of activity and how that compares to the broader trend. lets talk about h52. a big day for that, and the government are giving a green light for that. work that will now happen at a pace we understand. give us a reaction to this. this is about capacity

for business isn't it? it is all about adding capacity for business. there was a suggestion that we would run out of capacity in the next decade. the process will help to alleviate that. it was interesting that the scale of the cuts that really has multiplied over the gestation of this decision, it is a boost to the economy via fiscal spending, ie infrastructure, and we can expect more from that in march. will watch that and see how he intends to level up. in the chav the ill wind that went through the section with thomas cook was to the benefit of tattooing. last time i was on this lot, i was talking about boeing increasing their provisions and

accounts. in the context of tyranny that may well be represented here, because it looks like the company will get a windfall from the dislocation in relation to their boeing mac scenario. good to see you as ever. have a good evening. let me show you what is happening on the numbers. and those of the stories we we re numbers. and those of the stories we were talking about. on the bottom left 13% higher because those figures, asjeremy left 13% higher because those figures, as jeremy was telling left 13% higher because those figures, asjeremy was telling us, 13% rise in bookings as a result of the demise of thomas cook. jd sports a company called foot asylum,. not happy with that, says it would stifle competition. the ftse 100 happy with that, says it would stifle competition. the ftse100 is

up stifle competition. the ftse100 is upjust three stifle competition. the ftse100 is up just three quarters of 1%. you are fully briefed. you're watching afternoon lie. many sports training grounds in english cities have dangerous levels of air pollution —— which could harm the next generation of professional athletes. a new study of more than 90 sites showed more than a quarter exceeded the recommended level for toxic particles —— as our sports correspondent joe wilson reports. these children are exercising in the heart of britain's great sporting legacy, east london, little more than a mile from the olympic park. but what are they breathing? nearly every sports ground in london surveyed by breathe gb breached world health organization limits on air pollution. there are dangerous levels in other cities too. it is an awareness young people are growing up with. cars let out lots of pollution and, like

planes and stuff. when i was walking, like, once, i was breathing and then i felt like... because i was breathing normal and then something felt, like, different. the air i was breathing in it goes into your lungs and it's so bad for you, because it can, like, destroy your lungs and your breathing. air pollution is impacting on our children's lungs, and it especially impacts on growing lungs. children where i work have a 10% reduced lung capacity as a result of air pollution, so it seems sort of counterintuitive that we are asking our kids to go outside and exercise when we know that it might be affecting them in terms of asthma, in terms of respiratory illness and also, overall, in terms of reducing their lung capacity long—term. well, last year the government announced new plans to tackle air pollution, acknowledging that it harms children and shortens lives. the government also wants to bring as many major sporting events to the uk as it can. in 2022, the commonwealth games will be staged in birmingham. well, the new report found dangerous levels of air pollution right alongside the main venue for those games. is the commitment to sport matched by a commitment to the

environment? the government have been committing to meet world health organization limits on air pollution and to make those legal limits for the uk, which is great, it's what we want, but there is no target attached to that. so what we know is this is damaging children's health now, we need urgent action. so we want the government to commit to meeting world health organization limits by 2030. nobody wants to stop young people doing sport. any exercise is good exercise. and sunny february days are there to be seized. but it is equally self—evident that to make young people fit for life, their air must be fit to breathe. joe wilson, bbc news, in east london. a belfast couple have tied the knot in the first same—sex marriage to take place in northern ireland. a warning — there are some flashing images coming up. robyn peoples and sharni edwards made history at the ceremony in carrickfergus in county antrim this afternoon.

the day marks their sixth anniversary as a couple. they had previously booked a civil partnership ceremony, just months before westminster mps passed legislation that allowed them to legally marry. the british artist david hockney‘s famous painting "the splash" is to go on auction this evening. the 1966 painting is the second in a series of three "splashes" and it is thought that it could go for between £20—£30 million. that's more than six times the price it fetched when it was auctioned in 2006 for £2.9 million. now, it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello, we've seen a bit of sunshine in places today, but showers most frequent across the northern half of the uk. most wintry here, as well, to the hills, but it is looking quite white on the hills, and the higher hills are going to see some quite big accumulations, particularly in scotland by the end of the day. drifting in, strong gusty winds, as well. so, plenty of showers moving in,

rain, sleet, hail, snow, thunder and lightning with some of these, as well. and still strong gusty winds, particularly around western coasts. western scotland still in excess of 60 mph in places, and that's adding a wind chill to things, as well, so it feels colder than these numbers might suggest. now, concern if you are travelling for the evening rush hour in southern scotland through this zone here, where there is a london met office amber warning, and it includes the m74 here. could see up to ten centimetres of snow falling quite quickly with persistent heavy snow showers here, so the risk of some travel disruption here, certainly some very difficult travelling conditions. that's not the only area, though, in scotland seeing the snow showers coming in overnight onto the hills. still a few towards the pennines, the higher parts of northern ireland. icy wherever you're getting the showers, as well, as we go into the morning, as temperatures fall a few degrees either side of freezing as wednesday starts. there will be a bit of sunshine around, as well, to start wednesday, away from any showers. and actually, wednesday, tomorrow, it is looking a little bit quieter,

but there is another weather system on the way as we go through wednesday night into thursday, as we'll see in a moment. now, still beyond wednesday, still some snow showers affecting parts of scotland, particularly into the north. some wet weather pushing towards orkney as well. scattered snow showers to the hills elsewhere in scotland, still one or two showers around northern ireland and northern england, but fewer than they've been. elsewhere in england and wales, will see cloud gathering to the south—west, and a few showers moving in ahead of some wet weather developing as we go through to wednesday night, though not as strong on wednesday. they'll pick up again, though, wednesday night into thursday. another swathe of heavy rain moving in, and some snow towards the pennines, parts of scotland. relatively low levels to begin with, slowly easing during thursday. and then, after another spell of rain that coupled with snow could cause some problems in southern scotland on friday. here comes another named storm for saturday, storm dennis, for more strong, possibly disruptive winds and heavy rain. we'll keep you updated

on that.

today at five the height of the initial phase will link london and birmingham. the second phase will go to manchester and leeds, but delays have hampered the project. we have given the high speed read the green signal. we are going to get this done. in those areas affected by the hs2 route there has been dismayed at the decision, especially from those who may be under threat. i'll be reporting live from one of the

hs2 construction sites here in the heart of birmingham, where work can now begin in earnest. we'll have more from ben in birmingham and we will be talking to one of the leading figures who was involved in the initial review of the project. health experts have renamed the coronavirus. it is now covid—19. they say there is a realistic chance of containing it but a vaccine could ta ke of containing it but a vaccine could take 18 months to develop. ministers say that all precautions are being taken. the situation will get worse before it gets better. we will be guided by the science. being no doubt we will be doing everything thatis doubt we will be doing everything that is effective to tackle this virus and keep people safe. more whether winnings. .. virus and keep people safe. more

whether winnings... later in the hour. the dangerous levels of