welcome to bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: a boost for biden's bid to take on trump. the former vice—president secures 3 much needed win in south carolina's democratic primary. the press and the pundits have declared this candidacy dad. now, thanks to all of you, the heart of the democratic party, we have just one, heart of the democratic party, we havejust one, and heart of the democratic party, we have just one, and we've won big because of you! the us sees its first death from the coronavirus, but donald trump calls for calm and says everything possible is being done. a moment of history — the united states and the taliban sign a deal that it's hoped will end 18 years of war in afghanistan.

a shock result in slovakia's general election as the anticorruption campaigner ousts visiting prime minister. —— the sitting prime minister. the former us vice—president, joe biden, has won the latest democratic presidential primary. victory in south carolina was regarded as vital to mr biden‘s survival after unimpressive performances in previous state ballots. here's his reaction on winning. this is a moment, and it has arrived. maybe sooner than anyone guessed it would. but it's here. and the decisions democrats make all across america in the next few days will determine what this party stands for, what we believe, and what we'll get done. the

democrats nominate me, i'll believe we can beat donald trump. that was joe biden speaking a few moments ago. current frontrunner bernie sanders addressed supporters shortly after the vote. you can't win ‘em all!. a lot of states out there. and tonight, we did not win in south carolina. booing. and that will not be the only defeat. there are a lot of states in this country and nobody wins them all. i want to congratulate joe nobody wins them all. i want to congratulatejoe biden nobody wins them all. i want to congratulate joe biden on nobody wins them all. i want to congratulatejoe biden on his victory tonight. that was bernie sanders. our correspondent barbara plett—usher is in south carolina and says the win forjoe biden is significant. it could be, it very well could be. this is the vote that mr biden was looking for. he had to win big here not only to stay in the race, but to become a contender in the race.

and it's an overwhelming victory, according to the exit polls, propelled by strong support from african—american voters. at the moment, he is now in a solid second place behind the frontrunner, bernie sanders. and that's what he wanted, is momentum going into those crucial votes on super tuesday next week. that is a crucial time for the presidential campaign, and he will be going into it in a strong way. as i said, bernie sanders is still the frontrunner. he came in second place here, but mr biden has set himself up as the strongest alternative to him at the moment, going into super tuesday. that was barbara plett—usher, speaking in south carolina. a state of emergency has been declared in the western state of washington following the announcement of america's first death from the new coronavirus. the health authorities said the victim was a man

in his fifties in king county, which includes the state's biggest city, seattle. meanwhile, china has reported more than 570 new cases — the highest daily increase for a week. rich preston reports. the man was one of two patients who were confirmed to have the disease at a hospital in seattle, in the us state of washington. health officials there have now declared a state of emergency. at a press conference at the white house, president trump said there was no reason to panic. additional cases in the united states are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover. and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we've gotten familiar with this problem. three people in the us have now contracted the virus from within their communities. the world health organization

says the total number of confirmed cases in the us is 62. china, where the outbreak started, has reported more than 570 new cases, the highest daily increase for a week. the total number of fatalities in china is now 2870. in the worst hit part of south korea, the country with the highest number of cases outside of china, the army has been drafted in to disinfect public spaces. health officials say a 45 day old baby has become the country's youngest patient. france, which has more than 100 confirmed cases, has banned gatherings of more than 5000 people as part of efforts to tackle the spread of the disease. italy remains europe's worst hit country. it has extended the closure of schools and hospitals. recent countries to announce their first cases include qatar and ecuador.

effo rts efforts to develop a vaccine to covid—i9 are ongoing. but there is no clear idea of when one may be available, and how it could be rolled out on such a huge global scale. professor marc lipsitch is director of epidemiology at harvard school of public health. he joins us from boston. professor, the first death from the virus in the united states. are we likely to see many more in the coming days? i think it is unfortunately possible. i think we are, in the us, beginning to discover probably a situation not that different from that in many other countries which have discovered it sooner. which is that there has been a lot of ongoing transmission over the last few weeks and we are seeing cases, and when we see a death, u nfortu nately, and when we see a death, unfortunately, that means there are probably many other cases behind it, that we are not —— that were not so severe. here in the uk under many other countries, the government is focusing making containment work. is containment actually a

realistic strategy? i think containment is increasingly looking unlikely to succeed, well, it is almost certainly unlikely to succeed globally. i think in some countries that don't yet have a lot of reported cases, containment effo rts reported cases, containment efforts are still justified, reported cases, containment efforts are stilljustified, as we try to slow things down. but i think increasingly we are also going to have to combine those efforts with mitigation effo rts those efforts with mitigation efforts that include these sorts of things you just discussed with closing public gatherings and trying to increase, reduce, sorry, trying to reduce the number of contacts people have with one another. yes, we havejust heard about the 570 new cases in one day in china. how worrying is that? 0bviously china is where it started, but the number of new creases was decreasing daily. -- new cases. well, i think it has now become clear that china's extremely

intensive social distancing efforts, as they are called, combined with efforts to track and isolate cases, really did bring the epidemic temporarily under control. the problem is that those efforts are very ha rd to that those efforts are very hard to maintain, if you need people to be able to work and go to school and do all the normal activities of daily life. so the challenge is to keep enough distance, social distance, as it is called, to slow things, while still allowing people to live a normal, a somewhat normal life. yes, lots of this sounds pretty bleak. is there any reason to be optimistic? well, i think it is good news that china was able, but those really intensive measures in china we re intensive measures in china were enough to bring the epidemic under control. but gives us some hint about how contagious this virus is, and that it contagious this virus is, and thatitis contagious this virus is, and that it is possible, but i think what we are going to have

to live with some kind of compromise between slowing but not stopping it, and getting on with life. so i'm not that optimistic that we are going to see a return to normalcy in the next few months, for sure. finally, professor, what should people watching this programme be doing to protect themselves? the standard things to improve their general health, getting their general health, getting their vaccinations, if they are not up—to—date. if you are a smoker, it is a good time to stop. you need your lung function as good as it can be. if you are exposed to this virus. and then hand washing, careful and thorough hand washing, cough etiquette and trying to stay away from people who are experiencing respiratory symptoms. it is going to be a long haul, but those are all some of the good new habits to get into. all good advice. professor, thank you very much indeed for joining us. thank you very

much. the united states and the taliban have signed a historic agreement which could see thousands of american troops withdraw from afghanistan in the next 14 months. as part of the deal, signed in qatar, the taliban must begin peace talks with the afghan government and break with al qaeda. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports. they fought the world's mightiest army, but today they sat together. 0ld enemies shaking hands on a deal. the first step towards ending america's longest war. a glimpse of hope that afghanistan can finally move towards peace. but the us' top diplomat says that is up to the taliban. first, keep your promises to cut ties with al-qaeda and other terrorists. keep up the fight to defeat isis. welcome the profound relief of all afghan citizens, men and women, urban and rural, as a result of this past week's massive reduction in violence, and dedicate yourselves to continued reductions.

but for the taliban, today was a victory march. there is no doubt that you won the war. there is no doubt. otherwise, the foreign forces have not come to afghanistan. what would you say to those now who fear the return of the taliban? they should not fear. because the government which will come after this, will be acceptable to all in afghanistan. watching from the sidelines in kabul, an afghan government shut out of this deal. the taliban refused to talk to it. today, the nato chief and us defence secretary also sent them a message. they are still standing shoulder to shoulder with their afghan allies and their troops won't start leaving until peace talks start.

but this is a different country from the dark days of brutal taliban rule. in doha, one deal is done. making peace will be much harder. history is being made in this moment. this is not a peace deal, but it is a significant step forward and for all the uncertainty and scepticism, afghans know this is their best chance to move towards peace in a very long time. but they worry about a us rush to the exit. especially in an election year, when president trump wants to bring his troops home. lyse doucet, bbc news, doha. i spoke earlier to jarrett blanc. he is a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, and a former acting special representative for afghanistan and pakistan. i think it's the best deal available today, and so in that sense it's a win—win. it's an opportunity for both sides to move

towards a peaceful resolution that addresses the security concerns of all involved. it doesn't end the conflict, but it creates an opportunity to do so. significant, really, that afghanistan and the government are not yet involved. talks between afghanistan and the government and the taliban are due to take place? that's exactly right. so, a large part of the disagreement between the us and the taliban for really a decade about how to negotiate a settlement to this conflict has been about the order of operations. is there a negotiation between the united states and the taliban first, followed by the taliban and the government of afghanistan? or, as we long insisted, does the taliban have to start with the government and then turn to us? the major concession that the trump administration media was agreeing to have the us i taliban negotiation first and then start the taliban negotiation with other afghans.

so that's where we are and it's really, probably, the hardest part of this process. what does this mean for the people of afghanistan? you would assume that a reduction in violence can only be a good thing. certainly the last seven days, the reduction in violence has been met with tremendous excitement and joy in afghanistan. i think people need to be aware that there is not a long—term ceasefire in this deal. the reduction in violence lasted seven days. the government of afghanistan and the taliban are now going to begin their negotiations. part of the agreement between the taliban and the us is that a ceasefire will be an agenda item in those negotiations. my expectation is that there will be quite a bit of violence as the peace process proceeds, if the peace process proceeds. and if in the next few days, the next seven days or the amount of time this reduction in violence amounts to, if that is a success, what happens next? well, the reduction in violence was the last seven days. the reward was thesigning in doha today. the next phase is for

the intra—afg han negotiations to begin. march 10 was suggested, it is likely that state will slip. slipping by a few days or a week would not suggest there is a breakdown in the process. i think both sides will need a bit of time to regroup and make sure they have got their negotiating teams and their agendas sat. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a headache for the home office — one of the uk's top civil servants resigns, accusing the home secretary of bullying. first, the plates slid gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly, the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima.

i had heard the news earlier, and so my heart went bang, bang, bang! the constitutional rights of these marchers are their rights as citizens of the united states, and they should be protected even in the right to test them out, so that they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy — i know you don't want to say too much about it — but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states? well, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: joe biden secures a much—needed win in south carolina's democratic primary, as party members choose their pick to take on trump. as the us records its first death from coronavirus, president trump tells people there's no need to panic.

the slovak prime minister peter pellegrini has admitted defeat in the country's parliamentary election. with almost 80% of votes counted, his centre—left smer party was trailing the anti—corru ption party, 0lan0, led by the veteran campaigner igor matovic by about five points. rob cameron has the latest from bratislava. there are three big takeaway is from the shock results in this election here in slovakia. first, the era of the former prime minister and his leftist smer party is over. i have never recovered from the killing two years ago of the investigative journalist and his fiancee. the party were not directly implicated in the killing but the prime minister was writing about the kind of corruption that critics say flourished under the promised's decade in power. —— the journalist was writing. the man with all the cards now is igor

matovic, and anticorru ption activist, an mp, a millionaire with a populist touch but he is an unknown quantity and even if he does end up leading a centre—right coalition is the next prime minister, there is no guarantee how long it will last. previous coalitions of the centre—right have founded, even when faced with a common enemy. and finally, this was an emphatic rejection of the far right people's party led by the former neo—nazi. this was supposed to be their election but liberals turned out in d roves but liberals turned out in droves to but liberals turned out in d roves to reject but liberals turned out in droves to reject their ma nifesto. droves to reject their manifesto. in fact, they may end up ending with fewer seats, not more. rob cameron there. the king of malaysia has sworn in muhyiddin yassin as the country's eighth prime minister. mr muhyiddin, who's 72, previously held the post of interior minister in the previous government. his appointment comes after a week of political turmoil triggered by the resignation of the 93—year—old incumbent, mahathir mohamad.

the french prime minister says a proposed law to reform pensions will be pushed through parliament by decree that giving mpsa parliament by decree that giving mps a vote. emmanuel macron's attempts to radically overhaul france's pension system has resulted in months of strikes and protests. 0pposition deputies had sought to block the bill's passage through the national assembly by tabling or than 40,000 amendments. there is no evil — a film by the iranian director mohammed rasoulof has won this years top prize —— mohammed rasoulof has won this year's top prize at the berlin film festival. the film, made up of four stories, explores how individualfreedom can be expressed under an authoritarian regime. the director is currently banned from travelling by the iranian authorities and was unable to collect the award in person. one of britain's most senior civil servants, sir philip rutnam, has

dramatically resigned as permanent secretary at the home office. he told the bbc it follows what he called a "vicious and orchestrated" campaign against him, and says he's suing the government for constructive dismissal. sir philip's resignation comes after persistent reports of a rift between him and the home secretary, priti patel. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg reports. you're not meant to have heard of him — permanent secretaries are the backroom bosses of the government machine — but this rainy saturday morning became a personal and a public storm for him. in the last ten days, i have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. it has been alleged that i have briefed the media against the home secretary. this, along with many other claims, is completely false. the home secretary categorically denied any involvement in this campaign to the cabinet office. i regret, i do not believe her.

she has not made the effort i would expect to dissociate herself from the comments. priti patel has made no effort to engage with me to discuss this. i believe that these events give me very strong grounds to claim constructive, unfair dismissal and i will be pursuing that claim in the courts. priti patel is known as a straight talker but denied doing anything wrong when whispers about her behaviour made their way to the press in recent days. are you a workplace bully, home secretary? but there are now demands for an enquiry, with herformer top official taking the government to court and listing the accusations against her in public. i have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands — behaviour that created fear and needed some bravery to call out. sir philip's time in charge

was not without problems. the home office, a notoriously tricky part of government... you've probably already read a great deal more about permanent secretaries in the last few days than you ever expected to. ..but an exit like this is serious and highly unusual. the prime minister has to get a grip on this and notjust allow this chaos to continue. you have to have a positive, functioning relationship between civil servants who work immensely hard to deliver, and also ministers who need to show leadership and be held to account. tensions between ministers and officials are nothing new, but this exit is on a different scale. there's no sense from number 10 at the moment that there will be consequences for priti patel and they have made no secret of the fact that they want to change things and they are not afraid of ruffling feathers, but there is a difference between decisiveness and dysfunction and ultimately, this government, any

government, needs the civil service to get things done. this has been a very difficult decision but i hope that my stand may help in maintaining the quality of government in our country. sir philip, do you think that priti patel is fit for office? he will say no more for now. but for the government's opponents, sir philip's decision to go public speaks volumes alone. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. britain has been battered by another winter storm, storm jorge. weather warnings are now in place from cornwall to the north of scotland and across to northern ireland for snow, ice, wind or rain, alongside around 100 flood warnings. in east yorkshire, people evacuated because of severe flooding still can't go back to their homes. from there, 0livia richwald reports residents in the village of east cowick were rescued by canoe today as efforts to alleviate flooding in east yorkshire moved into their fifth day. we thought we would wait, because this is totally unprecedented, and then, at god knows what time of the morning, bang, bang, bang, we heard "you've got

to get out!" so here we are. residents sandbagged their homes and environment agency pumps tried to prevent more homes from being inundated. it has been the wettest february since records began. pictures filmed on a drone show flooding up to the roof of kevin and catherine laurieman's bungalow in the town of snaith. it has just been heartbreaking. we are going to have to demolish, i think. so that has gone. we are up to the gutter line, as you have said. and, you know, i can't even explain. where i am standing is half a mile from the nearest river. this area is called the washlands and these fields are designed to flood. but this time, the sheer amount of water just overwhelmed the man—made defences and flooded the town and now, there is nowhere for that water to go. during this event, we have water from storm ciara,

during this event, we have waterfrom storm ciara, storm dennis... the environment agency has more than 100 staff working in the area. unfortunately, the levels got so high in the washlands, they have actually over—topped some of those barrier banks, which is why we have had the flooding here. so, while things have operated as designed, we do need to find out exactly why this happened and what we can do in the future. volunteers in snaith are providing hot meals, tea and coffee and donations of food and clothes. after weeks of flooding across the country and, with more weather warnings in place this weekend, the kindness of communities could well be called on again. 0livia richwald, bbc news, snaith. here, prime minister boris johnson and his girlfriend carrie symonds have announced they are expecting theirfirst child. the couple are also engaged, and a spokesperson says they're "very pleased" to have announced their news. but is just about it from me. —— that is just about it from me.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @sipusey. you can also get more news on oui’ you can also get more news on our website. thanks a lot for watching. do stay tuned. hello there. we've seen the rainfall from storm jorge compounding the flood issues. there are numerous flood warnings in force across the united kingdom, and storm jorge is still producing some very large gusts of wind as well from these tightly packed isoba rs. and several more hours of that to come, really, through sunday morning. now, those gusts of wind are quite likely to cause some travel disruption, but could also bring down some powerlines or some trees as well. now, they'll still be with us through the early hours and into sunday morning. but, as well as that, we've got this curl of rain just affecting the northern half of the uk. but it's notjust rain, it's snow to modestly low hills — about 200 metres. so, with those strong winds, it'll be blowing around, so blizzard conditions. fewer showers further south but they'll still be around, blown in by that very

strong and gusty wind. temperatures largely just above freezing, but it's clearly going to be icy where we've got the snow in particular. and still that rain keeps coming for the northern isles, tending to ease a little bit through 0rkney as we go through the day. but that rain, snow, slowly meanders northwards. more of it around, i think, for scotland than we had on saturday, but tending to become more showery for northern ireland, for england and wales. won't be a totally dry day but hopefully, there'll be more sunshine around, and the winds by the afternoon are starting to ebb away, just maintaining their strength a little bit for longer further north. but it'll make it feel chilly if you're out and about. for the start of march, barely double figures, even in the south. below par, really, you might say, the temperatures, for the start of the meteorological spring. and then this area of rain is a concern, then, through the night. as it comes across, we think, southern parts, it's falling into cold air, it could give a smattering of snow for the downs, for the chilterns, potentially, towards rush hour, and certainly making things slippery. with a colder night on the cards, fairly widespread frost, as you can see,

going into monday morning. so we clear that away, but it takes its time. as i say, could be a smattering of snow on the hills. and then the showers that follow, because it's still cold air, will be wintry as well over the hills. so only 6—9 degrees celsius, yes. the winds won't be as strong, however. now, as we take that one area of low pressure away later on monday, we've got another one rushing in towards southern areas. that could be our next dollop of rain. potentially need to keep an eye on it. all through the week, it looks as if low pressure will dominate towards the north—west, and we may eventually see high pressure building, actually, towards the south. but for most of the week, temperatures will be lower than they should be, both by day and night, so some night frost. and it's a bit of a showery picture with an occasional risk of some lengthier spells of rain. as ever, there are warnings out. they are on the website.

this is bbc news. the headlines: joe biden has been handed a major boost in the democratic contest to take on donald trump in november's election. the former vice president has won the party's primary in south carolina. it's be a welcome result after poor performances in the race so far. president trump says it's time for american soldiers to come home from afghanistan after the us signed an agreement with the militant group, the taliban. he said the us had committed to withdraw 5,000 troops by may and that he would meet taliban leaders in the nearfuture. the president's also urging calm after coronavirus claimed its first life on us soil. he said more cases were likely but that the country was well prepared. the victim, who was in his 50s, was being treated in hospital in washington state and is said to have had underlying health conditions.