Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC Newsroom Live 20200224

To the country. Good morning. Welcome to bbc newsroom live. Im carrie gracie. Austria is considering imposing border controls with italy, which has the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in europe. A train from venice was temporarily denied entry last night, because of two suspected cases on board. More than 200 cases have now been confirmed in italy and four people have died. Officials are yet to find the first carrier of the virus in the country and in an effort to control the outbreak, around 50,000 people across northern italy have been put into quarantine. Meanwhile in the uk there have been four new confirmed cases amongst Cruise Ship Passengers who were flown back to britain on saturday. Its been confirmed they caught the virus on the diamond princess liner injapan. Theyve now been transferred to specialist centres for treatment. It brings the total number of cases in the uk to 13. 0ur correspondent sean dilley reports. Around 50,000 people are confined to several towns in two northern regions of italy as the country attempts to slow europes quickest coronavirus spread. Cities close to milan and venice have been particularly impacted. The venice carnival has been cut short by two days and other areas where crowds gather have been closed. Among them, schools, museums and sporting events. These Police Officers in lombardy are making sure no one gets in or out without official permission. Anxiety is high in neighbouring austria, too. 0fficials stopped a train from venice at the border after two passengers, who were later cleared, displayed fever symptoms. Austrian officials will meet later to consider preventative border controls. 30 british and two irish citizens arrived home on saturday after being evacuated from the diamond princess ship injapan. Four of them tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of cases in the uk to 13. Theyve now been transferred to specialist nhs centres in newcastle, liverpool and sheffield. It comes as more than 100 people ended their isolation in milton keynes. Its really good. The staff and everything . Everythings excellent. The nhs have done a brilliantjob. Cases have now been confirmed in 29 countries, with many patients having no obvious link to china. Authorities say they are doing all they can to stop the spread of coronavirus before it becomes a global pandemic. Sean dilley, bbc news. Lets cross to rome now where the head of italys Civil Protection agency is going to give an update on the coronavirus outbreak. Angelo borrelli, chief of Civil Protection agency, Giuseppe Conte italian pm. Wide black and in beijing, they will give us the latest figures and their effo rts give us the latest figures and their efforts to battle coronavirus. Right now, well look at other news until they start. The home office has dismissed claims that the home secretary priti patel, mistreated her staff. The government has said it is deeply concerned about the number of baseless suggestions in the press. 0ur assistant political editor, norman smith is at westminster. Tell us more. There has been a spate of furious denials from various sources in government. We have heard in an unusual manner from the Security Services themselves, dispelling the idea that somehow they have no confidence in pretty but in priti in priti patel. And from the home secretary herself and chief civil servant, attacking the media for what they say are untrue allegations. 0n what they say are untrue allegations. On top of that, weve heard from therese of ilias, suggesting that the background to this is misogyny. Trees of villiers. Im sick of dartmac i think she is a highly effective home secretary, and i think whoever is making these briefings should stop it, because i think they are unfair and damaging. Interesting that you say against women do you think there is an element of misogyny in this . Yes, yes, i do. This follows earlier allegations that priti patel was bullying some of her senior civil servant. Civiljoining was bullying some of her senior civiljoining me as the former foreign secretary and chair of the intelligence and security committee, sir Malcolm Rifkind. The suggestion that the home secretary is not trusted by the Security Services is an explosive suggestion. Trusted by the Security Services is an explosive suggestionlj trusted by the Security Services is an explosive suggestion. I have no idea what the personal opinions might be of people in m15 about the home secretary. They might respect her unlike home secretary. They might respect herunlike her, home secretary. They might respect her unlike her, they might not. I cant offer a view. But i am 100 certain that the suggestion that mi5 directly or indirectly would withhold intelligence information from the home secretary for whatever reason is absurd and almost certainly baseless. The very fact that allegation is being made surely points to a level of discord within her department. I assume the allegation is being made not because the media invented it but because someone the media invented it but because someone with some connection with the intelligence agencies has been speaking to a journalist. There may well be people who dont like priti patel. She is a controversial character, and they may not like all sorts of things about the policies she is pursuing. It could be idle gossip at a junior level or medium level, do we think we can trust the home secretary, that kind of speculation, but that is different from any suggestion that mi5 at any level would withhold information from the home secretary, who of course ultimately has the responsibility for counterterrorism policy, which is what mi5 helps them deal with. We know that there has been a request for an enquiry to find out who has been doing the briefing. Do you think that is why is . It is for her to decide whether she wants to initiate such an enquiry. She is entitled to do so. Its a very serious allegation. The fa ct its a very serious allegation. The fact that you and i are having this interview indicates the Public Interest in the allegation. Whether such an enquiry would reveal who was responsible, i have the greatest of doubts. You have considerable experience in government. Is it surprising that we should see this sort of briefing with a new government, seemingly at odds with some of its Civil Servants . You put your finger on it. It is not about intelligence issues or specifically about priti patel. We have seen reports that the government has been contemplating trying to move some Permanent Secretaries, perhaps including at the home office, so its notjust a question of priti patel. I think the government have to be careful about that, you know, because i was a minister for 18 years and have a lot of experience of Civil Servants, and of course, they have their opinions and argue their point of view, but if they are serving minister or ministers who know what they want, have a Clear Strategy and give them an opportunity to argue their point, then the vast majority of Civil Servants and all Permanent Secretaries would loyally seek to implement the policy of the elected government of the day. I dont doubt that that is as true today as when i was in government. Number ten this morning were playing down the idea that there was some sort of hit list of senior Civil Servants that they wa nted of senior Civil Servants that they wanted to move along, shall we say . Norman, on the other side of the house, labour begin voting today for a new leader. At long last. It seems to have been going on for ever. Ballot papers go out to elect the new labour leader, but we wont get the result for another month. The 11th of april at a special labour party conference. The overwhelming view is that sir kier star mark is ina commanding view is that sir kier star mark is in a commanding position, which is probably why he seems to have fought a very cautious campaign, seeking not to alienate the corbyn supporters while not sketching out any big vision or big plan for the future of the labour party. Thank you for that thought. We will talk to you later. The weather is expected to cause more disruption throughout the day. In shrewsbury, theres concern that flooding could reach its highest ever level and cut off the town centre. And in scotland there are warnings of travel disruption because of snow. I heard earlierfrom the Environment Agencys Chris Bainger who gave me the latest from the flooded streets of shrewsbury. We are seeing levels very similar at the moment to last week and the river is rising. We have a gauge here in shrewsbury, it is 4. 6 metres now. Last week it was 4. 85 metres, but we have issued on our severe Flood Warning that we expect levels to be around about 4. 8 metres 5. 2 metres. And you say the risk to property, we can see the property, we cant see the people, where are all the people . Well, i have lived in this town for 30 years and it is like a ghost town. That is the good news, because people have heeded the severe warning and we are asking people really, there is no need to come down to these areas of town. I am stood now on the main thoroughfare through town, called smithfield road, and it is like a ghost town. Usually at this time in the morning, this road would be extremely busy with people going to work. So all the roads have been closed, it is important that we are putting out the message that we dont want people driving through this floodwater and we dont want people wading through this floodwater. And what do you expect to happen next . Hoping, fingers crossed, that the river doesnt rise beyond what you have just described, but when will people be able to get back to normal . Well, that is a question in itself, isnt it . If we listen to the met office and we see that we are locked into a number of weather systems coming through. And as i speak, you can see it is very windy, it is raining at the moment. Some of that rain is falling up in the welsh mountains, we have had 40 50 milimetres over the last 24 hour period. So unfortunately, i think we are going to have to be vigilant here, because if you look at the gov. Uk website and our level gauges, you will see that they are predicting another peak to come after this one in shrewsbury and down river. Hopefully it will be the same, that is important, but we need people really to heed the warnings that we put out, act upon them and importantly keep an eye on the gov. Uk website where, if you put Flood Warning into a search engine, you will get to those and you will see for yourselves the warnings and also the levels we are experiencing. British holiday makers have been stuck in the Canary Islands because of a sandstorm that grounded flights yesterday. Heavy winds blew sand in from the sahara affecting visibility. Almost all airports have now re opened, but many tourists are complaining about being left waiting for hours. Freya cole reports. Outside the terminal at tenerife, an ominous orange sky signals a warning. Inside, it is causing chaos. Translation weve been here since yesterday. Were exhausted. Airlines have been forced to cancel almost all flights in and out of the Canary Islands. The interrupted flight schedule is interrupting School Holiday fun. Hundreds of people are stranded. Some have settled in for the long haul. It is near impossible to see more than a few metres ahead, making it far too dangerous to take to the skies. This weather phenomenon is called a calima. Its when hot and strong winds collect sand and dust from the Sahara Desert and send them across the atlantic ocean. It happens every couple of years, but locals say this feels like one of the worst in decades. A long and tiring wait for the skies to clear. Freya cole, bbc news. Well, lets talk to will. He runs a Building Company in leeds, but is currently stranded in lanzarote. What is the latest on when you will get home . The airline have said we should hear something this afternoon but there are no flights out today. We are hoping for a flight tomorrow afternoon. We heard in that report about some of the difficulties people are facing. Tell us what happened to you yesterday. We got to the airport around 1pm yesterday. We suspected there may be disruption, given the conditions outside. We waited, and we knew there was a 1. 5 hour delay almost straightaway. Then we didnt get any more information. The ground staff at the airport werent giving us any more information. From the airline website, we worked out that the flight website, we worked out that the flight was cancelled, though this wasnt confirmed by the ground staff at the airport. After seven hours yesterday, my family went back to the hotel and booked in there and waited for the luggage for another 2. 5 hours. You sound philosophical, but it must have been frustrating. Are you getting enough support from yourairline . Are you getting enough support from your airline . The information yesterday was terrible, to be honest. We knew more from the website than they did, which was what was causing frustration with us and other passengers. Today, they have communicated. We rang this morning and i received a phone call from the airport this morning because i left my number with the ground staff. They have rung. In terms of where you are staying these two extra nights, how is all of that working out and who is paying for it . We are paying for it at the moment. The airline last night did provide accommodation at around 10 30pm, but we had gone to the hotel we were originally on. We are hoping the airline will do the right thing and cover the cost. We could move to the accommodation provided by the airline, but we dont want to suffer any more disruption, to be honest. Good luck to you and all the other people stranded landmark in getting home quickly. Take care. The latest announcement on coronavirus is that there has been a fifth death in italy. One other line of breaking news, this time from downing street, and it is that the Prime Minister has full confidence in his home secretary, priti patel. The headlines on bbc news italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe afterfive people die and more than 200 are infected. The home office has dismissed reports that the home secretary priti patel mistreated her staff following allegations of bullying. A severe Flood Warning is in place in shrewsbury as heavy rain could force river levels to reach their highest ever point. And in sport. A decision could be made shortly over whether manchester will stage a homecoming parade and civic reception for boxing champion tyson fury. Manchester city counil says it will take into consideration controversial comments tyson had made in the past. Arsenal manager mikel arteta says they will fight to keep Pierre Emerick aubameyang at the club, the striker scored twice in their win over everton yesterday. And after losing their first match in the tournament australia have beaten sri lanka by 5 wickets at the womens twenty20 tournament in perth. Ill be back with more on those stories later. President trump has thanked india for what he called a spectacular welcome on his First Official visit to the country. Addressing a huge rally at whats described as the biggest cricket stadium in the world in ahmedabad he said the us looked forward to supplying india with the best military equipment. And said he was hopeful that he and his host indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would agree a major trade deal we are in the early stages of discussion for an incredible trade agreement to reduce barriers of investment between the United States and india, and i am optimistic that, working together, the Prime Minister andi working together, the Prime Minister and i can reach a fantastic deal thats good and even great for both of our countries. Our correspondent Aleem Maqbool is at the the cricket stadium in ahmedabad where the president was speaking. President trump and Narendra Modi have just left the stage. You can hear President Trumps walk off music. He laid on thick his praise for india and for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It has been a festive, celebrate a restart to his visit to india, a controversial visit, though, in several regards. The amount of money that has been spent on his visit here, for example, when there is so much poverty in this city and across the country. That has been one thing. But both men are controversial characters, criticised for divisive and discriminatory policies, both of them. From todays event, donald trump gets the visuals back home or being seen as popular on the world stage, in some places at least. He looks statesman like in giving his speech here. He has also tried to win over about 3 million Indian American voters back home. It has been quite a coup for Narendra Modi as well to get the leader of the free world to come to the city where it really all started for him, and it really all started for him, and it has been quite a turnaround for him. He went from being banned from going to the United States in 2005 for his perceived tacit support at least four hindu muslim riots here that killed many people, but now he is hosting President Trump here. President trump is trying to garner better relations with india, and there are security and economic reasons for that. He has also tried to marginalise china more and more on the world stage. But President Trump personally has long had an interest in india. The biggest portfolio in terms of properties of the Trump Organisation outside north america is here in india. The uk has built 1. 2 million fewer houses than it should have done and the gap is growing. Findings in the bbc housing briefing out today show that it will take at least 15 years to make up the shortfall at current building rates. It means that many people are being forced to put their hopes of buying a house on hold as our personal Business Correspondent Simon Gompertz reports. Ive lived here for a year and a half. Keeping a roof over your head for many it is a stress and worry. Zoe spends more than a third of her pay on rent in london. She dreams of the keys to a home of her own, but thats a distant prospect. I cant do things like buying a car, which i would like to. I cant move out. I have to still be in a flat share. I also keep getting evicted through no fault of my own, and each time that has cost me over £1000. So every time i have saved money that i could put towards a deposit, its gone. In a poll of more than 2000 for the Affordable Housing commission, 13 of adults say their Mental Health was affected. Of those in unAffordable Housing, costing more than a third of income, like zoes, a quarter said they were affected, and shes one of them. It makes me feel really anxious. It made me very depressed. It made it really difficult to look for work because i had so much of my mental time worrying about where i was going to live. You cant really present yourself best in an interview if you are sleeping on a friends sofa and you are really worried you are going to be homeless. Whats behind the worry is a shortage. Weve built more than a million fewer houses than we should have done in recent years, and with the population growing as well, itll take at least 15 years to fill that gap. Whats adding to the stress is that too few of the houses we are building are affordable. I do like drawing people. Hannah in oxfordshire, whos 32, has lived with different family members rent free while saving to buy something affordable, earning extra by selling her illustrations. But it still means sacrifices. I started saving when i was 14. Ivery, very rarely, even now, spend anything on myself. Theres a sense of guilt. I cant spend anything on myself because i have to save for a roof over my head. I have to have security for my future. The Affordable Housing Commission Found that more than half of 18 24 year olds live with family, and 18 nearly one fifth are still doing it as 25 34 year olds. Its an increasing number. If you are living under someone elses roof, you are constantly under their rules, and therefore you cant have a relationship, really, with anyone. You cant invite them back. Its quite lonely. Theres a lot of pressure. Hannahs homeowning dream may soon be more thanjust something on paper because she has saved enough for a deposit on a flat, but the housing challenge, she says, has been constant stress. Simon gompertz, bbc news. And Simon Gompertzjoins me now. Tell us more about what you found . The overall landscape of who owns or doesnt own property is really interesting. There are between 17 and 18 million owner occupiers, and thatis and 18 million owner occupiers, and that is by far. The over 65s, three quarters of them owned their own homes. People in their early 30s, own homes. People in their early 305, 40 . If own homes. People in their early 30s, 40 . If you look at those who are privately renting, it is five. 4 million, which has doubled in the last two decade. Those living in Council Homes and Housing Association are under 5 million. Housing associations made up some of the gap, but that is smaller than it has been decades ago, and it is in that area of privately renting which has gone up a rot where the tensions arise, as you saw with hannah and zoe. There is a huge focus now on young people having to live at home. There is. The absolute figures of those show that if you go back a couple of decades, those aged between 20 and 25 staying in the family home were 1. 9 million, and that has gone up to nearly 2. 5 million, so a big increase. Our survey work shows that for late 20s and early 30s, there is still quite and early 30s, there is still quite a high proportion of people now staying in the family home. Many people would choose to do that anyway, and their parents are happy to have them there. What you saw from what hannah said, it can cause tension. It is difficult staying with family or friends because of the tensions involved. For the older age group, so people in their late 40s and 50s, what we might call middle aged, although most of those still own their own homes, there is a fast rising proportion who are renting privately, and that is a worry. Housing experts will say, what happens when they get to become pensioners . There is more security if you are in your own home. The ciux if you are in your own home. The crux of the matter is that supply is shorter than demand. What is the demand, looking forward . There is a housing gap that we have calculated in our bbc briefing, and that is not according to a plan, it is what we need. There is a gap of about 1. 2 million homes. That is obviously an estimate. If you go ahead to 2035, that grows to around 4 million if we dont build homes. It is partly because of population growth but partly because people live in small units, sometimes on their own, smallerfamily units, sometimes on their own, smaller family units, so we need more homes. At current rates, it would be filled, but it is a long time to wait. We are building 50,000 Affordable Homes every year, which people say is not nearly enough, and thatis people say is not nearly enough, and that is where the pressure on the worry starts. Simon, thanks for the explanation. And you can download the new bbc briefing on housing, by going to bbc dot co dot uk forward slash news and bbc. Co. Uk housing fa guidelines on heading the English Football Association along with the Northern Irish fa and scottish fa has issued new guidelines for children heading the ball. The restrictions apply for all age groups from under 6 to under 18s. The rules, which will be introduced immediately, will only apply in training. It follows research that showed former footballers were 3. 5 times more likely to die from brain disease. Coaches have been instructed to ban heading for Primary School children during practice sessions with a graduated approach for youngsters aged between 12 and 16. Thats from our sports news correspondent alex capstick. We will talk to alex later, i hope. A working sheepdog from a remote farm in northumberland has been sold for a world record price at auction. Two and half year old megan owned by emma gray went for £18,900. The sheepdog went to a telephone bidderfrom the United States its reported megans new life will be herding beef cattle. White weve been hearing about the rain in shrewsbury and the snow in scotland, so lets get all the detail on the weather. Won severe Flood Warning still in force in shrewsbury. That is the weather watcher there this morning. The river looking swollen and snow has been causing problems in the north of england into scotland. The snow is clearing away but across scotla nd snow is clearing away but across scotland and of the Higher Ground, quite a bit of snow still to come by the end of the afternoon. Rain will move south and east clear in many parts of england and wales followed bya parts of england and wales followed by a few showers. A few bright skies developing where temperatures will stay in double figures. In scotland it will feel chilly, temperatures and low single figures. Through tonight, the risk of snow in scotla nd tonight, the risk of snow in scotland and the risk of ice in Northern Areas particularly where there is no light but as we enter tomorrow, a mixture of sunny spells and showers. Some of the showers will be wintry, hail, sleet and may be snow over the Higher Ground of the uk as well. Goodbye for now. Hello this is bbc newsroom live with me, carrie gracie. The headlines. Italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe with officials there saying 5 people have died and more than 200 are now infected. After reports that the home secretary priti patel mistreated her staff the Prime Ministers Spokesman Says he has full confidence in her. A severe Flood Warning as more heavy rain falls in shrewsbury in scotland theres travel disruption because of snow. A hearing has opened into whether to send wikileaks founderJulian Assange to the United States to face prosecution for one of the worlds biggest data breaches a sandstorm from the sahara disrupts travel plans for thousands of tourists in the Canary Islands. And us President Donald Trump addresses a big public rally in india on his First Official visit to the country. Also coming up. A bbc investigation finds that workers at drive thru restaurants may be exposed to huge peaks in pollution levels while serving customers in their cars. Sport now. And a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. There is donald trump who is at the taj mahal. There he was. More pictures coming in from northern india. As we were saying, he addressed a big public rally, on his First Official visit to india, there he is with milani, the first lady of the United States. A huge welcome he has received. He is at a cricket stadium, Wearing Masks and welcome hats. He has a lot of time for Narendra Modi saying he draws bigger crowds than he himself does in the United States but there in india, he got bigger crowds even than Narendra Modi himself. A big, big welcome. Those pictures at the taj mahal and we arejust those pictures at the taj mahal and we are just hearing that they may be live, or not quite live, but they are in the last few moments if they are in the last few moments if they are not lie. I said we would get the sport, lets go over to the sports centre. What have you got for us . Good morning. New guidelines are being introduced by the Football Association that will mean children will be banned from heading the ball during training in england, Northern Ireland and scotland. With more on this, our correspondent simon stonejoins me now. What is the reason for this . A lot of concern has been expressed about young people heading footballs and the potential damage that that might cause. The Football Association and the professional Football Association, they funded research which has been analysed and it has been decided, as you say, that there will be no heading of a ball by Young Players of Primary School age in training. There will be a graded approach to training, heading the ball in training for ages between 12 and 16 years of age. The correct sized balls have to be used in training now, but there will be no change to heading the ball in matches because the feeling is theres not a lot of heading takes places in matches anyway and it is pa rt places in matches anyway and it is part of the game. The Research Found that there was no evidence to suggest that heading the ball by young people caused any kind of neurological issue. But the scottish Football Association chief executive ian maxwell explained the reasoning for the changes and said they have a duty of care to the players Going Forward and to their parents for these children to enjoy the game. So they are the changes that have to ta ke they are the changes that have to take place. Fascinating stuff, simon thank you for the moment. Following his victory against Deontay Wilder pres following his victory against Deontay Wilder in las vegas over the weekend, there have been calls for tyson furys return home to be marked with a celebration. 00v councillors in his home city of manchester are meeting this morning to discuss potential plans for a parade and civic reception. The council hjas said it will have to take into consideration controversial comments fury had made in the past. It shouldnt at all. I think that was 2015, for five years ago and it is well documented that he was in a really bad place and he has since apologised and i think we all have to move on. Especially when you look at last weekend and the unfortunate passing of Caroline Flack and eve ryo ne passing of Caroline Flack and everyone asking everyone to be kind, you cannot start bringing stuff up from the past. Let us concentrate on his fantastic achievement this weekend. He went out there and won the world heavyweight title for a second time. When we have grown up with muhammad ali and mike tyson, we have our very own in tyson fury. Australia bounced back from their opening day defeat at the t20 womens world cup by beating sri lanka by five wickets in perth. Sri lankan captain Chamari Atapattu hit a half century to help her team to a total of 122. Australia lost three early wickets in their innings but Rachael Haynes scored 60 to help them recover and the reigning champions went on to claim the winning runs with three balls and five wickets to spare. There is more from the world cup in australia. The days second match is well under way. A few moments ago indias women were 69 2 after being put into bat by bangladesh. You can listen to Live Commentary of that match on radio 5 live sports extra and follow live coverage on the bbc sport website. Thats bbc dot c0 dot uk slash sport. The founder of the wikileaks website, Julian Assange, is appearing in court in london at the start of his extradition hearing. The wikilea ks founder, who spent seven years hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, is wanted in the us on 18 charges, including conspiring to hack Government Computers and violating an espionage law. His extradition hearing has now become and let as here. Those are the pictures from the Ecuadorian Embassy of old and let us talk to our reporter at the courts. What is happening . Yes, we have heard this morning from lawyers for the us authorities. James lewis qc has been opening his argument about why he believes julian a opening his argument about why he believesjulian a staunch should be extradited. He spent a lot of time in court talking about how some of those defence cables that were published by wikilea ks those defence cables that were published by wikileaks contained the names of Key Informants in afghanistan and iraq and he said that by disseminating this material knowingly, attempt to put people at risk of serious harm, torture and even death in states operated by oppressive regimes. He went on to argue that the publication of that material damage the ability of the Us Armed Forces to carry out their tasks and harm to us interests abroad. You may be able to hear behind me, it is very noisy behind me because there are dozens of supporters ofJulian Assange making their support for him now and the judge had to stop proceedings at one point and ask Court Officials to get a message to the protesters that they were disrupting proceedings. you can hear me, i am going to throw another question at you in the hope that you can, the court in woolwich is not going to decide whether he is guilty or not of the charges the United States is aiming at him, it is just United States is aiming at him, it isjust going to United States is aiming at him, it is just going to decide whether this case meets the threshold for extradition. That is exactly right. One of the lawyers were saying, this is not about guilt or innocence at this stage. Thejudge has is not about guilt or innocence at this stage. The judge has to weigh up this stage. The judge has to weigh up things like whether the human rights ofJulian Assange might be at risk if he were to be extradited, for example would he be subjected to degrading treatment by the us authorities if he was put in solitary confinement . Those are the kind of arguments we will hear over the next week. I have to say this will not be resolved now because witnesses will be heard from in may and it will be a process of several months. And we also hurled from the father ofjulian months. And we also hurled from the father of Julian Assange outside court this morning and there are banners behind you. It will go on being controversial and give us a sense of when we expect all this to end . Well, this week it is purely legal arguments and we will hear from the lawyers forJulian Assange tomorrow and they will make their argument all about freedom of expression and freedom of speech and claim thatjulian expression and freedom of speech and claim that Julian Assange expression and freedom of speech and claim thatJulian Assange was really acting as an ordinaryjournalist when he publish this information. Witnesses we will hear from in may and then the judge will have to spend her time weighing up all that evidence. It could still be many months away that we hear her rolling and even then it will be possible for whichever side loses to appeal. Thank you. The mother of martyn hett, who died in the terror attack at Manchester Arena, has called on venues to help shape a new law to keep the public safe. Figen murray has been lobbying the government to bring in new security measures since her sons death in 2017. The home office has said it will now consult on martyns law to require venues to prepare for any terror risks. Our home affairs correspondent, dominic casciani, reports. Safiyya shaikh, convicted last friday of developing an extraordinary plot against the public. She wanted to take a bomb inside st pauls cathedral at christmas a woman so dangerous, she was a top priority for m15 last year. Major landmarks and venues have long been the target for terrorism, including in 2017, the Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22. Now, ministers have announced a consultation into how places used by the public can be legally compelled to review their security and how they would prepare and respond to an attack if it happened to them. The announcement is a victory for a campaign in the name of martyn hett, one of the victims manchester. His mother, figen murray, says martyns law will save lives. We live in an age where terrorism is unfortunately present, and, you know, i never thought it would happen to us but it did, you know. There is no guarantee for any of us. I think it really is important we move along with the way terrorism has changed, and we need to change our approach. The most recent attack in the uk this month was a knife attack in the street in south london an example of how complex the threat of terrorism has become. The final shape of the law wont be clear for months, but ministers say they want it to be proportionate and sensible without being a burden on businesses. Dominic casciani, bbc news. Workers at drive thru restaurants may be exposed to huge peaks in pollution levels as they serve customers queuing in cars. An investigation by the bbcs inside out programme in conjunction with Coventry University found that pollution levels next to serving hatches were many times the legal limit. Unions have described the results as horrendous and are calling for urgent action. Jonathan gibson reports. Britains drivethru sector is booming. There is more choice than ever before, but at what cost to workers . The bbcs inside out programme set out monitoring equipment near to the serving hatches at ten drivethru restaurants across the country. Recording levels of two of the biggest airborne pollutants over a two week period. All of the data that we are gathering is being sent to a server and downloaded so that we can monitorjust how much pollution there is next to the drivethru window. At this drivethru in south east london, average levels of nitrogen dioxide, a known lung irritant, were 25 higher than the annual legal limit. So the highest we had was 182 micrograms per milicube. And this is quite harmful to health. At this kfc drivethru in liverpool, levels of pm 2. 5, the tiny particles found in exhausts, reached 11 times the legal limit. And at this costa coffee drivethru in somerset, they peaked at 16 times the legal limit, although in both cases average levels were much lower. I think this is worrying. These are the particles that will definitely get to the bottom of your lung when you breathe them in. So this is well above what is typical for a city and the fact that these are being maintained for longer periods of time is concerning. Mcdonalds, burger king and costa told the bbc they take their employees health extremely seriously and have measures in place to reduce their exposure to pollution, like rotating shifts and installing ventilation. We should be taking this to the likes of our parliamentary group. I think as a priority we should be talking to the companies that we deal with who have drivethru restaurants and see exactly what they are going to do. In statements, mcdonalds and burger king said, the readings were taken in their car parks and do not reflect pollution levels inside the serving hatches, where they have measures in place to minimise exposure. Is that a valid point . Well, it is certainly true that there would be Different Levels inside and outside, but they are leaning outside, they are leaning into the areas that you have measured in and you have already shown that levels of nitrogen dioxide and pm 2. 5 are high there. Costa told the bbc that it is planning to review future signage to encourage drivers to turn off their engines when stationary. Kfc did not comment. Jonathan gibson, bbc news. And if you live in the West Midlands you can see that investigation in full tonight, on inside out, thats at 7 30pm on bbc1. Itll also be available afterwards on the bbc iplayer. More now on the growing concerns that the coronavirus outbreak could become a pandemic. New cases have been reported around the world, especially in italy, south korea and iran which are battling to contain the virus. Dr Bharat Pankhania is a clinical lecturer at Exeter University who specialises in Communicable Disease control hes with me in the studio. It is great to have you with us to help navigate this. What is your assessment right now . Well, we have the sporadic cases in other countries and sustained infection in these other hotspots. So the creation of certain hotspots is telling us something. It is telling us telling us something. It is telling us that the inspection has now spread from china to other countries and it is only a matter of time before we call this a proper pandemic. And we hear from the World Health Organization that they dont have a kind of specific category called pandemic any more. Can you clarify, what would be the difference between what they are calling it, an emergency, and a pandemic, is it dealt differently . No. It is ceremonial if you like. What it does do, when you declare a Public Health emergency, it focuses minds. Similarly, when you say this is now a pandemic, it further focuses mines, but we should have been doing what we are doing since we found out that this new virus had appeared in china and was causing illness in people. So, when you look at the numbers and we hear now from italy, five deaths, 200 or so infections, do you think. We know that the fatality rate, the mortality rate tends to be about one in100 and do mortality rate tends to be about one in 100 and do you think that what this is telling us is that there are more cases which have not been identified yet . Without a doubt, we are always dealing with the tip of the iceberg here. The more we know, the iceberg here. The more we know, the more we find out that we do not know. To have suddenly found so many cases in italy, out of the blue implies to me that there must be a few more cases. Many more cases. Is that the same here . We have 13 confirmed cases in the uk, do you think that is the tip of an iceberg . The uk has its benefits, we have instituted containment at an early stage. We are an island nation. We we re stage. We are an island nation. We were focusing on people coming in from china and neighbouring countries and then segregating them and making sure they did not bring the infection in. So far, so good. However, when we have got widespread infection in iran and south korea and other countries, then that containment becomes difficult, because who do you exclude . How do you exclude so many people . We are going to be into difficult territory soon. Of course we going to be into difficult territory 0011. Of course we are going to be into difficult territory soon. Of course we are just across the channel from europe and we now know that italy is not far away from the uk, so on the Public Health questions, when you look at italy, thatis questions, when you look at italy, that is a country which has had political difficulties, it has also had ten years or more of austerity impacting Public Health, do you worry that the resilience of Public Health, preparedness across europe is reliable . I am very worried about it. You ask such an important question, because you spend millions for preparedness and Emergency Preparedness and if you dont want to spend your millions on Emergency Preparedness, be prepared to spend billions when that infection arrives. This is investment for the future and when these people, including our country, dont invest in preparedness and resilience, it bites us harder. Actually, to say one more thing on this subject, whilst we are looking after the uk, we also need to look after other poorer countries, because if they have freefall or uncontrolled transmission of infection there, like in iran, like in south korea, like in iran, like in south korea, like in iran, like in south korea, like in africa, like in india, those infections will come to harm us in europe as well. That is a sombre picture you paint. Thank you for joining us in giving us your expertise. In a moment well have all the Business News, but first the headlines on bbc news. italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe after 5 people die and more than 200 are infected. The home office has dismissed reports that the home secretary priti patel mistreated her staff following allegations of bullying. oov a severe Flood Warning is in place in shrewsbury as heavy rain could force river levels to reach their highest ever point. Hello. In the Business News. Stock markets around the world are falling sharply over fears that the coronavirus is spreading more rapidly. Londons ftse100, germanys dax, and frances cac stock market indexes are all now down by more than 3 , following big sell offs in asia. The price of gold is also soaring, now at its highest level in seven years as investors put money in whats seen as a safer place. Primark Owner Associated British Foods says there is a risk of supply shortages on some lines later in the Financial Year if delays in Factory Production in china are prolonged due to coronavirus. The firm sources a range of product from china but says it is well stocked in the short term. The group said primark sales in the first half of the Financial Year were 4. 2 higher than the same period last year, boosted by recent store openings. The firm that publishes the mirror, express and star newspapers says revenue fell by 5. 3 last year, a slowdown on the 6. 6 decline it reported the year before. The company says circulation was resilient and that digital revenue had grown more than 13 . It comes after the owner of the Sun Newspaper said it lost £68m last year as newspaper sales fell and the company continued to deal with the fallout of the phone hacking scandal. Lets get more on that sharp fall in stock markets around the world. But while stock markets fall, the relative safe haven of gold has been climbing to levels not seen since february 2013. We arejoined by. Craig erlam is Senior Market analyst, uk emea, oanda. Give us a sense of what you make of what has been going on this morning, what has been going on this morning, what are they worried about . what has been going on this morning, what are they worried about . If they spread outside china, there was the initial shock one month ago as it started to escalate and markets then started to escalate and markets then started to escalate and markets then started to stabilise and bounce back when it became clear that we were seeing a deceleration in china and optimism about the markets really kicked in and saw them return back to record highs. Now that we are seeing more and more cases and fatalities outside china we are now in the second phase of the fears because we are talking about the deep set fears that initially triggered that reaction one month ago which is once this gets outside of china it could become much bigger and that is what we are seeing an example of right now and why we are seen such negativity in the markets. Let us talk about the detail, the ftse100, we call it the 100 leading companies in the uk but they are very international and are looking globally and a lot of their earnings are in dollars. If you look at where the pressure is being felt, initially it was things like Long Haul Airlines and now we are seen and now we are seeing an impact on short haul Companies Like ryanair. This comes down to Consumer Attitudes and we will start to see a more ingrained impact if consumers decide they do not want to go to the shops or travel abroad and they want to holiday domestically or not holiday at all, people become spooked by these outbreaks and the more you see it impacting places closer to home, the more people will be spooked and the more Consumer Behaviours are going to be impacted. If we look at china when this initially broke out, it was the hotel groups and the airliner is initially affected because the amount of travel we were likely to see around lunar new year. It was also about luxury brands, the people who are going to go to the shops, we re who are going to go to the shops, were not going. Hong kong was impacted because of tourism. If this continues to spread in europe and as we are seen in italy right now, this could potentially spread outside the borders and also other parts of asia, this is going to have a greater impact on Consumer Behaviour and spending and that is where it will hit the bottom line of many of these major brands. Gives me a sense of why gold is going up. We arejust looking at the market board and that is pretty stark, Global Stock Markets falling and gold up to levels we have not seen for a long time. Gold is the traditional safe haven and when youre seen such negativity in the markets, we see investors flock there. If there is a global slowdown and a more protracted global slowdown, we are likely to see more action from central banks. The imf said over the weekend they are factoring in around 0. 1 on the back of the coronavirus but it could be more severe depending on how much my despair is what we are seen from investors, gold is a great save heaven but its central bank start easing monetary policy, more quantitative easing and cutting Interest Rates to support the economy, then gold has traditionally rallied and that is why we saw it hit close to 2000 backin why we saw it hit close to 2000 back in 2019. Thank you very much. Thanks for explaining all of that we will keep a close eye on markets in the coming are ours and how the us open isa the coming are ours and how the us open is a little later. Now its time for a look at the weather. We have had some snow and heavy rain this morning and for some parts of Northern England and scotland. The first proper snow of the winter and that was the scene from our weather watcher in the scottish borders. A good covering of snow. You can see from the radar image this morning there is the snow moving its way across scotland, northern parts of england and we have seen between six and eight centimetres accumulating this morning and further south it has been heavy rain moving its way south and east through the morning and at rain is falling on saturated ground, but not flooded ground. There is still a severe Flood Warning from the Environment Agency at the river severn at shrewsbury and 109 Flood Warnings in force across the uk. That rain will move south and eventually clearing away and thats no across the north of england easing off. The Higher Ground of scotland in the north and we will see it continue there. Rain down to lower levels, brighter spells developing elsewhere, quite chilly in the north, temperature is not in double figures across many parts of england and wales. Snow across scotland tonight, showers elsewhere, but with no showers and temperatures dropping away across scotla nd temperatures dropping away across scotland in the north of england there is the risk of ice into tomorrow morning and temperatures generally getting down to between two and four celsius. Throughout tuesday we have this area of low pressure moving away towards the east and that allows this north westerly a i rstrea m east and that allows this north westerly airstream to come across the uk, a few weather fronts westerly airstream to come across the uk, a few weatherfronts moving in and out will bring in some showers on tuesday. Some of those could be heavy and wintry, some hail and sleet and snow over the Higher Ground again, but sunny spells in between those showers. Feeling quite chilly with the blustery north westerly wind and temperatures between five and nine celsius. Into wednesday, a similar setup, though weather fronts will disappear but we still had that north westerly wind and that colder air is filtering across the uk, so during wednesday very similar in respects, sunshine, a few showers, those showers mainly around the north and west of the uk. You can see by the whiteness of the showers, they will be wintry with some snow on Higher Ground. Quite blustery and chilly day. Goodbye. Youre watching bbc newsroom live. Its midday and these are the main stories italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe after five people die and more than 200 are infected. After reports that the home secretary priti patel mistreated her staff, the Prime Ministers Spokesman Says he has full confidence in her. Labour members start casting their votes in the partys contest to replace outgoing leader jeremy corbyn. A severe Flood Warning as more heavy rain falls in shrewsbury in scotland theres travel disruption because of snow. A sandstorm from the sahara disrupts travel plans for thousands of tourists in the Canary Islands. Us President Donald Trump visits one of indias most iconic monuments during his First Official visit to the country. Why children under 12 will be banned for heading footballs during training. Good afternoon. Welcome to bbc newsroom live. Im carrie gracie. Austria is considering imposing border controls with italy, which has the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in europe. A train from venice was temporarily denied entry last night, because of two suspected cases on board. More than 200 cases have now been confirmed in italy. And five people have died. Officials are yet to find the first carrier of the virus in the country and in an effort to control the outbreak, around 50,000 people across northern italy have been put into quarantine. Meanwhile, in the uk there have been four new confirmed cases amongst Cruise Ship Passengers who were flown back to britain on saturday. Its been confirmed they caught the virus on the diamond princess liner injapan. Theyve now been transferred to specialist centres for treatment. It brings the total number of cases in the uk to 13. Our correspondent sean dilley reports. Around 50,000 people are confined to several towns in two northern regions of italy as the country attempts to slow europes quickest coronavirus spread. Cities close to milan and venice have been particularly impacted. The venice carnival has been cut short by two days and other areas where crowds gather have been closed. Among them, schools, museums and sporting events. These Police Officers in lombardy are making sure no one gets in or out without official permission. Anxiety is high in neighbouring austria, too. Officials stopped a train from venice at the border after two passengers, who were later cleared, displayed fever symptoms. Austrian officials will meet later to consider preventative border controls. 30 british and two irish citizens arrived home on saturday after being evacuated from the diamond princess ship injapan. Four of them tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of cases in the uk to 13. Theyve now been transferred to specialist nhs centres in newcastle, liverpool and sheffield. It comes as more than 100 people ended their isolation in milton keynes. Its really good. The staff and everything . Everythings excellent. The nhs have done a brilliantjob. Cases have now been confirmed in 29 countries, with many patients having no obvious link to china. Authorities say they are doing all they can to stop the spread of coronavirus before it becomes a global pandemic. Sean dilley, bbc news. Our correspondent bethany bell is on the edge of the exclusion zone in the lombardy region, south east of milan. What is the latest . I do apologise, im going to interrupt you. Could you start again . We lost your microphone at the top. The authorities have said that they are there are now over 200 cases of coronavirus in italy, and five people are known to have died, the latest we understand included an 80 year old man, or a latest we understand included an 80 year old man, ora man in his 80s. This morning, we went up to the exclusion zone boundary. The police did not allow us to even stop there and sent us on. We noticed that in the towns and villages around there, theyve been affected, too. Cafes and bars have been shuttered and there are signs on them from the authorities saying they have been closed because of the coronavirus. People have been stockpiling from their local shops. You see supermarkets with the shelves empty, and the bbc has spoken by phone to people in the affected areas, and they say they are worried about supplies running out. |j they say they are worried about supplies running out. I suppose one of the things that must be concerning the authorities greatly is trying to pin down the first case in the area so that they can do the contact tracing. Without that knowledge, they dont know where this begins or ends, do they . Yes, its very difficult. They havent yet been able to trace the individual at the heart of this particular outbreak here. They say they are still looking for that person, but so far this area of involves about 50,000 people, and they are trying to work out exactly how these cases emerged. The Prime Minister has urged people not to panic, but if you speak to people in the towns and villages around, there they say there is a sense of insecurity and they dont know how long these quarantine measures were lost, how long children wont be allowed into school. Museums and universities are shut, big events like football matches arent taking place, so it is a nervous time for people here. And do they have full confidence in their government and then a Public Health arrangements being put in place . And in the public eye Health Arrangements being put in place . It depends on who you speak to. Some would say, we do think the measures that have been taken are good and important, and others say they are too light and should have come earlier. Others would say, perhaps this is all being a little exaggerated. It is a complicated situation, but what one can say is that there is a feeling of insecurity. A complicated and fast moving situation. For now, thanks very much. And you can send in your questions to us on coronavirus for a special edition of your questions answered on afternoon live well be putting your questions to professor david heyman from London School of tropical diseases, and professor paul hunter, a professor of medicine at the norwich medical school. Thats coming up on the bbc news channel, just after 2. 30pm. Send them in on twitter with the hash tag, bbc your questions, or email your questions at bbc dot co dot uk. Borisjohnson says he has full confidence in his home secretary, and has dismissed claims that m15 is witholding information from priti patel. The home office has dismissed claims that ms patel mistreated her staff. Our assistant political editor, norman smith, is at westminster. Its a rather complicated picture. Make sense of it for us. Its complicated, but at the bottom of it isa complicated, but at the bottom of it is a fairly explosive allegation being made, namely that the Security Services dont trust priti patel and dont think she is up to the job, and therefore are withholding information from her. That is an incendiary claim, because it would make it impossible for her to do her job and would raise questions about the integrity and loyalty of the Security Services. We have seen a whole series of denials, notjust from the Security Services and ms patel, but also now from downing street, insisting there is a good relationship, no rift between her and the Security Services, but it does point to the fact that clearly things are not happy in her department. Otherwise you wouldnt get this sort of briefing. Teresa villiers was suggesting that the reason for this from some in her Department Might be because of misogyny. Im sick of spiteful briefings against women in high public office. It happens again and again. And i dont believe these allegations against priti patel. I think she is a highly effective home secretary, and i think whoever is making these briefings should stop it, because i think they are unfairand damaging. Interesting you say against women. Do you think theres an element of misogyny in this . Yes. Yes, i do. What has added edge to these allegations is that they follow the earlier allegations that ms patel was creating a bullying culture in her department and was at odds with some of her most senior Civil Servants, prompting suggestions that number ten could be looking to cull some of the recalcitrant Civil Servants, a suggestion that the former conservative foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind told me a short time ago would not be a good idea. The Prime Ministers spokesman this morning said there would not be an enquiry to establish who is doing the briefing, playing down the idea that there will be a cull of civil serva nts that there will be a cull of Civil Servants and saying that the Prime Minister has full confidence in his Civil Servants. Thats the story inside government, but on the other side of the house, labour are trying to choose a leader and they start voting today. At long last, many people will think, because this contest seems to be going on and on. From today, people can going on and on. From today, people ca n vote. Going on and on. From today, people can vote. Labour Party Members can vote on who they want to replace jeremy corbyn. The result will be had on the 4th of april, so still some way to go. At the moment, the person who seems to be the standout favourite is sir kier starmer. You look at the number of nominations he got from constituency parties, Something Like 60 backing him, so at the moment, and there is still some way to go, he would seem to be in pole position. Norman, thank you so much. The jury at the trial of the brother of Manchester Arena bomber have been shown cctv footage from the time after salman abedi returned to the city from libya in may 2017. Our correspondent dan johnson is at the old bailey. Bring us up to speed on what the court had been hearing. The prosecution case is that this was a reconnaissance mission, that salman abedi undertook, just three days before the bombing. He is seen on cctv shown in court this morning leaving a flat he had rented in the city centre. He rented that the day before, when he got back from libya, ca in he needed it for two weeks. He took a taxi to a place on the edge of manchester, where he parked a car before he went to libya. He spent time taking bits and pieces from that car and going back to his flat. He was then seen leaving and going to Manchester Victoria station and around the arena and spending some time walking through a space just outside the arena where people gather going into or out of a concert. The prosecution says that salman abedi used this as an excuse to work out where was best to detonate the bomb. His brother is on trial, accused of helping him prepare that attack, which killed 22 people. Dan, thank you. More on todays main stories coming up on newsroom live here on the bbc news channel, but now we say goodbye to viewers on bbc two. The headlines on bbc news italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe after 5 people die and more than 200 are infected. The home office has dismissed reports that the home secretary priti patel mistreated her staff following allegations of bullying. A severe Flood Warning is in place in shrewsbury as heavy rain could force river levels to reach their highest ever point. Sport now. Heres holly hamilton. White like an announcement on the heading of footballs. The Football Association across the uk has issued new guidelines about children heading the ball. The restrictions apply for all age groups under 18, with primary children banned from heading the ball during training, with immediate effect. He was a football reporter, simon stone. There will be no change to heading the ball in matches because the feeling is there is not a lot of heading that takes place in matches anyway, and it is part of the game. The Research Found there was no evidence to suggest that heading the ball by young people caused any kind of neurological issue, but the chief executive of the sfa has explained the reasoning for the changes, saying they have a duty of care to the players and to the parents for these children to enjoy the game, so they are the changes that have to ta ke they are the changes that have to take place. More on that story on the bbc sport website. After his victory in las vegas at the weekend, there have been plenty of calls for tyson furys return home to be marked by a celebration. Councillors in manchester met this morning to discuss potential plans for a parade and civic reception. The council said it will take into consideration controversial comments fury has made in the past. Earlier, we asked trainerjoe gallagher on whether that should have an impact . No, it shouldnt. That was 2015, four or five years ago, and it is well documented. He was in a bad place then. He has apologised since then. He has come out, and i think we all have to move on. Last weekend, the unfortunate passing of Caroline Flack, and everyone encouraging people to be kind, you cant bring stuff up from the past. Lets concentrate on his a fantastic achievement this weekend. He has the world heavyweight title for a second time in an error when we have grown up time in an error when we have grown up with muhammad ali and watching mike tyson, we have our very own in tyson fury. Indias women are 1135 in the 17th over against bangladesh in the 17th over against bangladesh in the days second match. There is Live Commentary on radio five live sports extra. There is live text commentary on the bbc sport website. I will have more at 1 30pm. Back to you. The weather is expected to cause more disruption throughout the day. In shrewsbury, theres concern that flooding could reach its highest ever level and cut off the town centre. And in scotland there are warnings of travel disruption because of snow. Lets talk to victoria norris, standing in the water for us today. Whats happening . This is the second time ina whats happening . This is the second time in a week that the river severn has flooded the streets of shrewsbury. The pea ks has flooded the streets of shrewsbury. The peaks are yet to come. Later this afternoon and this evening. Weve been here about an hour, and since then, this street has completely flooded. Businesses have shot and the sandbags have been out. People just cant believe it is the second time in a week that this has happened. Im going to come over here. This is rachel moss, one of the business owners. How does this compare to this time last week . Its not as bad yet, but its rising quicker than it did last week. How is it affecting business . We get a lot of passing trade. This is the entrance into the town centre, so there is a lot of footfall. We have to close because of safety. We cant get clients or staff in. What have you done to protect your business . We are boarding everything up, using sandbags, putting everything up off the floor, trying to do as best we can because theres not a lot we can do. What about the other businesses around here . Weve been lucky. Other businesses have been affected really badly. Coffee shops, other hairdressers, and its been bad for them. To happen again in a week is awful and devastating. We will be looking at going into the thousands now, because we are losing days of trading, staff costs, cost for sandbags and Everything Else we have had to do, so yeah, the costs are mounting. How have the council helped . They probably could have done more. Last week they were terrible. No alerts or anything, so we we re terrible. No alerts or anything, so we were ill prepared. This week is better but we have had to go and get our own sandbags. We could have had more help from the council, i feel. Has anyone been out to see you . I know Prince Charles was out and about in wales. They sent the lord lou tennant, about in wales. They sent the lord lou tenna nt, bless about in wales. They sent the lord lou tennant, bless her. Apparently she will tell the queen how terrible it is, but that doesnt really help us it is, but that doesnt really help us here. The lord lieutenant. Flood waters are rising while we are here. The peak in shrewsbury is not expected until late this afternoon or later this evening. It will move down to places like ironbridge, and there, schools have already shut in preparation for the flooding tomorrow. Victoria, thank you. British holidaymakers have been stuck in the Canary Islands because of a sandstorm that grounded flights yesterday. Heavy winds blew sand in from the sahara, affecting visibility. Almost all airports have now re opened, but many tourists are complaining about being left waiting for hours. Well, lets talk to matt bryan. He lives in newcastle but is stranded with his family in lanzarote from wherejoins me now. Tell us your story. We knew we were in trouble yesterday. It seems the closer we got to the airport, the less we were able to see it. When we got into the airport yesterday, you could see the sun blowing in from the sea, and slowly the runway disappeared. At that point, we realised we were in a bit of trouble and potentially not coming home yesterday. How many hours did you spendin yesterday. How many hours did you spend in the airport wondering whether you were coming home . Eight or nine hours yesterday. It was compounded by a lost bag, but we got that returned as well. The airport was a bit chaotic, as you can imagine, people all over the floor and tempers getting flared. It is just a minor inconvenience, really, and we were able to soak it up. By the end of the day, the Holiday Company responded and put us up in some alternative accommodation. Thats at least something, isnt it . We have heard some stories about people who had to sort out their own accommodation, so im glad you got a bed at the expense of your Holiday Company. What about actually getting home today . Things have just changed for us. In the last couple of moments, we were heading over to the other side of the resort for supplies to bed down for another night, ready for our flight tomorrow, and we got a text alert saying, come back to the hotel, we will pick you up in 30 minutes and hopefully we will get home this afternoon. Fingers crossed. I hope im not holding you up from going and getting on some airport bus. We have literally just made and getting on some airport bus. We have literallyjust made it back. We had no time to unpack because of the time we got to the hotel last night. We will need to put the newly purchased toothbrushes into the suitcase, zipping up and hopefully heading for home. Very good luck to you and the family and anyone else trying to get home today. The extradition hearing for the founder of the wikileaks website, Julian Assange, has started this morning. The wikilea ks founder, who spent seven years hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, is wanted in the us on 18 charges, including conspiring to hack Government Computers and violating an espionage law. The uk has built 1. 2 million fewer houses than it should have done and the gap is growing. Findings in the bbc housing briefing out today show that it will take at least 15 years to make up the shortfall at current building rates. It means that many people are being forced to put their hopes of buying a house on hold, as our personal Business Correspondent Simon Gompertz reports. Ive lived here for a year and a half. Keeping a roof over your head for many it is a stress and worry. Zoe spends more than a third of her pay on rent in london. She dreams of the keys to a home of her own, but thats a distant prospect. I cant do things like buying a car, which i would like to. I cant move out. I have to still be in a flat share. I also keep getting evicted through no fault of my own, and each time that has cost me over £1000. So every time i have saved money that i could put towards a deposit, its gone. In a poll of more than 2000 for the Affordable Housing commission, 13 of adults say their Mental Health was affected. Of those in unAffordable Housing, costing more than a third of income, like zoes, a quarter said they were affected, and shes one of them. It makes me feel really anxious. It made me very depressed. It made it really difficult to look for work because i had so much of my mental time worrying about where i was going to live. You cant really present yourself best in an interview if you are sleeping on a friends sofa and you are really worried you are going to be homeless. Whats behind the worry is a shortage. Weve built more than a million fewer houses than we should have done in recent years, and with the population growing as well, itll take at least 15 years to fill that gap. Whats adding to the stress is that too few of the houses we are building are affordable. I do like drawing people. Hannah in oxfordshire, whos 32, has lived with different family members rent free while saving to buy something affordable, earning extra by selling her illustrations. But it still means sacrifices. I started saving when i was 14. Ivery, very rarely, even now, spend anything on myself. Theres a sense of guilt. I cant spend anything on myself because i have to save for a roof over my head. I have to have security for my future. The Affordable Housing Commission Found that more than half of 18 24 year olds live with family, and 18 nearly one fifth are still doing it as 25 34 year olds. Its an increasing number. If you are living under someone elses roof, you are constantly under their rules, and therefore you cant have a relationship, really, with anyone. You cant invite them back. Its quite lonely. Theres a lot of pressure. Hannahs homeowning dream may soon be more thanjust something on paper because she has saved enough for a deposit on a flat, but the housing challenge, she says, has been constant stress. Simon gompertz, bbc news. Chris wood from the Charity Shelter joins us. What is your perspective on the problem set out . This is a massive problem across the country. Housing costs are the biggest Thing Holding people back these days and Holding People back these days and holding the economy back. We have millions of people paying extortionate private rent. We saw from those examples, people cant afford to save any money, let enough enough let alone enough for a deposit. People are having to skip meals, cut back on heating and live in cold housing to afford to put a roof over their heads, and it has to stop and we have to do something differently about this. Dribbling out a few expensive homes across the country wont cut it. Just because the government slaps the word affordable in front of something doesnt make it affordable. We need cheaper rent for people and that means Building Social housing across the country. Rent is linked to local income so that local people can afford them, and that is the only way of providing the stable, Affordable Homes we need across the country today. Im guessing that at any point in the last decade, if i had asked that question, you would have given the same answer. Has anything changed on that point . We have come to the conclusion that there is no other solution apart from Building Social housing. There are other things the government has tried to do. They have invested in first time homes, invested in things like shared ownership, but it is not working. It is proven not to work and homelessness is increasing. We have to take a radical approach, which means investing in the low rent homes people need across the country. We wont solve the housing crisis without this. The idea of social housing, to a chancellor or anyone looking at the pared down budget they have to try to meet a huge number of public needs with, they will say that social housing sounds expensive. This is notjust an individual issue but an economic one as well. Half of Large Businesses across the country say that housing costs are preventing them from recruiting staff. People wont move for work because they cant afford a home. It is an investment that makes sense and pays back. How much are we talking about, and are you trying to flesh that out in the narrative of levelling up and meeting the needs of places outside the south east of england . Absolutely, this is a key example of where the country needs levelled up. We need the investment across the country. Housing is the infrastructure that people need to get on in life. Ultimately, we are putting money into housing but in the wrong places. We are wasting money on homes that are unaffordable. The government because s new scheme will not be affordable to an average earner in 96 of the country, which is crazy. We need to invest in homes that people can actually afford while not wasting money on other areas. Chris, we will have to leave at there, but we are grateful to you forjoining us. And you can download the new bbc briefing on housing, by going to bbc. Co. Uk news and bbc. Co. Uk housing. A working sheepdog from a remote farm in northumberland has been sold for a world record price at auction. Two and a half year old megan owned by emma gray went for £18,900. The sheepdog went to a telephone bidderfrom the United States. Its reported megans new life will be herding beef cattle. Some snow on Higher Ground. Quite blustery and chilly day. Goodbye. Now its time for a look at the weather with simon king. Through his brief facing rising river we have had some disruptive whether this morning. We will find through the afternoon that the snow will become confined to the north of scotland. The rain continuing south and east and in between spells of sunshine and a few wintry showers blowing in on the strong and gusty winds and that will lead to blizzards across scotland where temperatures will struggle to get much above freezing compared to 1012d much above freezing compared to 10 12d across central and southern england. Overnight that snow starts to ease away from scotland but further showers piling on from the north and west and once again they will be wintry in nature. Drier in the east and a colder night compared to recently in england and wales we re to recently in england and wales were temperatures will just to recently in england and wales were temperatures willjust be above freezing but the wind will keep temperatures for most above freezing. Going into tuesday, a mix of sunshine and wintry showers and some of the showers could contain hell or slate even across lower levels in england and wales and a cold feeling day especially when we are exposed to those strong and gusty winds. Hello this is bbc newsroom live with me, carrie gracie. The headlines. Italian authorities try to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe after 5 people die and more than 200 are infected. The government dismisses reports that the Security Services withheld information from home secretary priti patel. Downing street says the Prime Minister has full confidence in her. A severe Flood Warning as more heavy rain falls in shrewsbury in scotland theres travel disruption because of snow. A sandstorm from the sahara disrupts travel plans for thousands of tourists in the Canary Islands. Us President Donald Trump visits one of indias most iconic monuments during his First Official visit to the country. Also coming up. A bbc investigation finds that workers at drive thru restaurants may be exposed to huge peaks in pollution levels while serving customers in their cars. Lets get more now on the Security Services rejecting claims theyre withholding information from the home secretary. Newspaper reports at the weekend said m15 had a lack of confidence in priti patels abilities. The Prime Minister has given his backing to ms patel who has also been accused of trying to have a senior civil our assistant political editor, norman smith is following developments at westminster. Well, there has been a serious push back overnight from the government, from the home secretary herself and indeed from the Security Services to the allegations that the Intelligence Services are uneasy about priti patel, so much so that they may not be giving her thorough intelligence briefings. What on earth is going on at the home office . One man who might know is james starkie, he used to be priti patels special adviser. Clearly something is not right. Well, i think it is evident to see, given some of the briefing, that there is something coming from somewhere, where exactly we dont know. The sources are anonymous. And as you just reflected, we have seen some pretty strong and unprecedented denial, specifically from the Security Services. Is the problem here priti patel and the culture she has created and the way she works . No, i fundamentally disagree with that. I worked for priti for quite a long time, both in and out of government. I think she has been doing a fantasticjob as home secretary and i think if you speak to anyone in government and certainly around here, they would reflect the same. But, it is always the case when you are trying to make big changes and we have seen a change in government approach since the Prime Minister won a very, very big majority at the last election. Sometimes you can come up against some kind of friction. There was a suggestion this morning that maybe it was all down to misogyny. Is that a factor here . It is hard to tell. I wouldnt necessarily say that. Although it is true that priti is a very strong woman, she likes to get things done, i think that is what the public want to see. The public like to see, whether it is regards to our new Prime Minister, our new chancellor or whether it is the home secretary, they like to see their politicians getting things done. There is a big, big difference between that and some of the allegations that have gone on. I dont recognise any of those allegations. I think she is just a politician who wants to deliver on the people s priorities. Well, in that sense, do you think downing street will be quite relaxed about all the stories about priti patel basically going toe to toe with senior Civil Servants . I wouldnt say that. I think these things distract from what the government is doing. Personally, i havent spoken to anyone at downing street about it, but if i was there, i would want to see the focus on what the government is delivering, extra police and so on, and not internal squabbles and the truth is i think a lot of the time the public dont want to know about this. They want to know that their politicians and the Civil Servants are getting on and doing theirjob. And the allegations on the Security Services, if in any way true, that would make herjob pretty much impossible, if the woman who is meant to be in charge of Counter Terrorism was apparently not trusted by the Security Services. I think we have seen unprecedented denials from the Security Services to those allegations that we saw yesterday. I have never heard anything before where the Security Services have felt the need to come out and flatly deny something that has been mentioned about their area. It is not helpful, neither to a good working government or to Public Safety for there to be any gap at all, any difference between the home secretary who is responsible for the security of the people in this country and the Security Services who are again responsible for that security and as i said, it is quite unprecedented for the denial that we have seen to come out. Given that these claims have been filtering out of the past few days, clearly something is awry in the home office and the suggestions are that the home secretary has actually asked for a leak enquiry to establish what is going on. Would you advise her to do that . Well, i think that kind of advice, i would leave that to my time in government, that is confidential. I think, when youre in the department, what you want to do, whether you are a political adviser or politician or civil servant, you want to get on with your dayjob. You want to deliver to the people. And i think this is taking people s focus away from that. Whether it is here in the media, as i said, about the message about what the government is doing or it is in the department. My message would be, get on with your day job and focus on that. James starkie, thanks very much indeed. That perhaps adds to the pressure around these allegations in that of course the home secretary has a massive agenda ahead in terms of devising a new immigration system, recruiting 20,000 police, dealing with the aftermath of the windrush saga, so a huge amount to deliver on. Lets bring you more on the coronavirus now now with all the Business News here is ben. Im ben. In the Business News. Stock markets around the world are falling sharply over fears that the coronavirus is spreading more rapidly. Londons ftse100, germanys dax, and frances cac stock market indexes are all now down by more than 3 , following big sell offs in asia. The price of gold is also soaring, now at its highest level in seven years as investors put money in whats seen as a safer place. Primark Owner Associated British Foods says there is a risk of supply shortages on some lines later in the Financial Year if delays in Factory Production in china are prolonged due to coronavirus. The firm sources a range of product from china but says it is well stocked in the short term. The group said primark sales in the first half of the Financial Year were 4. 2 higher than the same period last year, boosted by recent store openings. The firm that publishes the mirror, express and star newspapers says revenue fell by 5. 3 last year, a slowdown on the 6. 6 decline it reported the year before. The company says circulation was resilient and that digital revenue had grown more than 13 . It comes after the owner of the Sun Newspaper said it lost £68m last year as newspaper sales fell and the company continued to deal with the fallout of the phone hacking scandal. Hello, we are going to talk about an interesting report this morning. How often do we think about where our food comes from . Probably not much. Even less thought about the people who grow, pick or pack what we eat. And today, new research for the Fairtrade Foundation shows that the average female cocoa farmer is paid as little as 23p a day. It highlights not only extreme levels of poverty and profiteering, but also a massive gender pay gap in the global chocolate industry. The figure is well below the extreme global poverty line of £1. 40 a day. Julia nicoara is director of public engagement, the Fairtrade Foundation. This report is really start, it underlines how little these Cocoa Farmers are paid and in many cases women are paid as little as 23p a day, how is that happening . Good afternoon. It is simply unfair and not right to be looking at such figures and today is the first day offair figures and today is the first day of fair trade fortnight and we are here to shine a light on this exploitation in the Cocoa Industry and the stark inequality that women are facing. They are doing most of the work in the field and they are also looking after family she had earning so little money they can barely put food on the table for theirfamily let alone barely put food on the table for their family let alone afford basic education for the children and health care. We are campaigning to change that and we are campaigning for increasing incomes for Cocoa Farmers and we are asking the industry and government and the public tojoin industry and government and the public to join us industry and government and the public tojoin us in industry and government and the public to join us in this fight. It is complicated, there is a long way to go, but through fair trade where farmers are earning more than the market price and an additional sum of money, they are able to protect themselves from this volatility of themselves from this volatility of the market and earn a little bit more for projects in their communities like maybe a school or a water pump or maybe a Maternity Ward for women to be able to go safely and deliver babies as opposed to putting their lives in danger. Why is there such a gender pay gap . Why is there such a gender pay gap . Why is it that women are being paid so little compared to in relative terms with the men are getting much more . To be clear, the men are not earning a decent wage either. They are still earning below the extreme poverty line and the issue really is a whole sector issue. Women are indeed earning significantly less despite doing the homework and looking after the families and this is to do with many cultural reasons, land rights in some of the countries exporting cocoa and it is important to remember that this is an issue facing all Cocoa Farmers whether men or women and they all deserve to earn an income that allows them to feed theirfamilies earn an income that allows them to feed their families and we know that the public doesnt want to be part of this broken industry. People want to know that the chocolate they are buying isnt exploiting the farmer thatis buying isnt exploiting the farmer that is growing the cocoa. Is this big business that is profiteering, big business that is profiteering, big confectionery giants around the world a re big confectionery giants around the world are saying we can get away with doing this and it boosts our profits, is that the problem . The problem as i said is really complicated and it takes more than one actor to solve it. This is why we are looking to bring together the Cocoa Industry and governments to work together. It is worth pointing out, many businesses are doing the right thing and many businesses work with us to do the right thing. I could name the co op and waitrose selling all their cocoa on fair trade firms, whether it is mars or ben and jerry is, many are big business and Small Business are doing the right thing in working with us in this fight for a living incomes. Julia, it is good to hear your thoughts on that, really important issue. Thank you for explaining what is going on. More from me and we will keep an eye on what markets are doing, big falls all around the world. Lets bring you more on the coronavirus now fears of a pandemic are growing with developoments in south korea, iran and europe. In italy more than 200 cases have now been confirmed and five people have died. Officials are yet to find the first carrier of the virus in the country. Meanwhile here in the uk there have been four new confirmed cases amongst Cruise Ship Passengers who were flown back to britain on saturday. I can now speak to larry brilliant, hes an epidemiologist who lead the World Health Organisation team that eradicated smallpox. Hes now chairman of the board ending pandemics and joins me now from florida where hes speaking at an imagine Solutions Conference about the coronavirus. Thank you for talking to us. What is your assessment as you see developments across the world over the weekend and today . Good morning. Well, the last 48 hours have not been good news. I cant say they are wholly unexpected. We have known for a long time that the virus must be in countries with bad Health Systems and bad surveillance. Wealthy countries with Good Health Care systems have been able to contain the virus when they do get an importation. And i think that is the lesson that we need to continue to reinvest in our Public Health systems, even now, maybe especially now, we need to prepare surge capacity, so hospitals and testing kits are available everywhere. That is probably the first order of business. Do you think that is well understood by Public Health officials . Do you think everyone is basically facing in the right and same direction . I think Public Health officials understand it, but it is not our political leaders who understand it. That has always been a dichotomy. Clearly this is a pandemic. We have been a little bit relu cta nt to pandemic. We have been a little bit reluctant to use that word because it isa reluctant to use that word because it is a fraught word. We need to be moderate and balanced between not having denial and being sensationalistic. Panic is probably the worst virus, but clearly this is a pandemic by definition and we need to ta ke a pandemic by definition and we need to take the steps that show the respect for this virus and the way it is spreading. What are those steps then in terms of the treatment of actual cases and regions and cases were they appear. We have seen quarantining, travel cases were they appear. We have seen quara ntining, travel bans cases were they appear. We have seen quarantining, travel bans and so on, what would you advise given the acknowledgement in your mind that this is now a pandemic . Well, the truth is that we are dealing with tools that come from the 15th and 16th century, quarantine, social distancing and good personal hygiene. We dont have an antiviral that works. We may have won on our sheu that works. We may have won on our shelf somewhere and we wont have a vaccine that will be in widespread effective use for more than a year. What we should be doing is increasing surveillance. We need to understand that this disease can be mistaken for what we call an influenza like illness, it can be recorded as if it was influenza and in some places it has been recorded as if it was malaria because of the fever. We need to sharpen the diagnostic investigation of the disease, increased surveillance, make sure that we have a way of quarantining or social make sure that we have a way of quara ntining or social distancing make sure that we have a way of quarantining or social distancing or isolating patients who have the disease. We dont need to go crazy and think of this as the zombie apocalypse, it is not, we will survive this, it is going to get rough, we need to be prudent, be measured and also aggressive and how we do with that. And so the measures that we are seeing, for example, in europe now, in northern italy, the exclusion zones around towns where cases have emerged, do you think thatis cases have emerged, do you think that is a good idea . Obviously, the reason why i asked, we hear many people now saying in europe, frankly, if five people have died, then there are probably more than 200 infections, that is the tip of the iceberg and merely the cases that have been confirmed. The iceberg and merely the cases that have been confirmedlj the iceberg and merely the cases that have been confirmed. I think that have been confirmed. I think thatis that have been confirmed. I think that is mathematically true. If you have a disease with a case for a talented rate of two roper hundred and you have two cases, if you have two deaths, there are going to be 200 cases out there and you need to try to find them. Dont make it harderfor people to try to find them. Dont make it harder for people to come forward and dont force people into hiding. Make it easy for people to report and be cared for and treat them like human beings otherwise we will drive the disease underground and that is the disease underground and that is the worst thing we could do. That is the worst thing we could do. That is the equivalent of forcing countries like syria and afghanistan to not report for months because they are afraid of getting a Bad Reputation or Something Like that. Encourage people to report, make it good for them to report, provide them with care. Also encourage people to have availability of masks, personal hygiene, the masks are most important for people who have a call for a flu so they do not infect other people, but these n 95 mass do provide some degree, not complete, but some protection for individuals and let me stress again how important it is that our Public Health services and hospitals all over are equipped to deal with this. You know, we are so tight with the way we have Health Care Services all over the world that we dont have an extra 5000 beds or 100 beds in a small community. We are not going to have room unless we think of that now and prepare for surge capacity. Most communities have a plan with a designated hospital that becomes the pandemic hospital. Lets make sure your community has a plan like that. Larry, thank you forjoining us today. Lets get more now on bbc research that shows the u. K. Has built around one point two million fewer houses than it needs to in order to fill the housing gap thats the difference between existing stock and the number of houses needed to give everyone a place to live. Findings in the bbc housing briefing out today show that it will take at least 15 years to make up the shortfall at current building rates. As part of our day of coverage, the bbc is on the port loop Housing Development on the outskirts on birmingham. We can speak tojohn fender, professor of macroeconomics at birmingham university. Thank you so much forjoining us. To these numbers sound credible to you . Entirely credible, yes. It is well known that we have a long standing housing problem with high housing prices, yes. And what do you think is the way to handle it . We have been hearing over the course of the morning from Political Leadership in birmingham, we have been hearing from shelter, their view that social housing and investment is necessary, from an Economic Perspective and an academic perspective, what is your position . I think the suggestions that have already been made, such as more social housing, are entirely commendable, but i would stress to things, basically. Both taxation, first of all, council taxation, council tax, we have an absurd system of council tax in this country. It is based on 1991 values and it involves an extremely aggressive relationship between the price of housing and the tax. If you are in birmingham and you pay the lowest rate of council tax, so if you buy a house that is worth £1, you buy a house that is worth £1, you will still pay over £1000 in council tax a year. I think one way of tackling the housing problem and perhaps solving some of the problems as well would be to Reform Council tax to make it a proportional tax on the value of housing. That is the first thing i would do. Secondly, we have quite a lot of misallocation of the Housing Stock. It is notjust that the Housing Stock is too low, in some ways it is mis allocated. There are many people who are perhaps over occupying houses, by that i mean, perhaps they would like to move to a much smaller house, perhaps they want to downsize, their family has moved away, but moving houseis family has moved away, but moving house is very costly. I think it is important to reduce the cost of moving house. How does one do that . There are many things that affect the cost of moving house but i would stress sta m p the cost of moving house but i would stress stamp duty, stamp duty on property purchases which can be very high, particularly at the higher levels. It can reach 15 . I think this is a major deterrent to moving house and if we could reduce it, perhaps have a maximum of about 2 i think that would considerably improve matters. Thank you so much. You have given us two more solutions and we will get a chance and put them to the government. Thank you so much forjoining us from birmingham. President trump has visited the taj mahal on his First Official visit to india. tx 00v he and the first lady melania stood Holding Hands at an iconic spot at the 17th century mausoleum, built as a monument of love. The couple arrived from ahmedabad where mr trump was cheered by more than 100 thousand indians at whats described as the biggest cricket stadium in the world. Addressing huge crowds alongside his host Prime Minister Narendra Modi mr trump said he was optimistic the two could secure an incredible trade deal and the us looked forward to supplying india with the best military equipment. Workers at drive thru restaurants may be exposed to huge peaks in pollution levels as they serve customers queuing in cars. An investigation by the bbcs inside out programme in conjunction with Coventry University found pollution levels next to serving hatches many times the legal limit. Unions say the results are horrendous and are calling for urgent action. Jonathan gibson reports. Britains drivethru sector is booming. There is more choice than ever before, but at what cost to workers . The bbcs inside out programme set out monitoring equipment near to the serving hatches at ten drivethru restaurants across the country. Recording levels of two of the biggest airborne pollutants over a two week period. All of the data that we are gathering is being sent to a server and downloaded so that we can monitorjust how much pollution there is next to the drivethru window. At this drivethru in south east london, average levels of nitrogen dioxide, a known lung irritant, were 25 higher than the annual legal limit. So the highest we had was 182 micrograms per milicube. And this is quite harmful to health. At this kfc drivethru in liverpool, levels of pm 2. 5, the tiny particles found in exhausts, reached 11 times the legal limit. And at this costa coffee drivethru in somerset, they peaked at 16 times the legal limit, although in both cases average levels were much lower. I think this is worrying. These are the particles that will definitely get to the bottom of your lung when you breathe them in. So this is well above what is typical for a city and the fact that these are being maintained for longer periods of time is concerning. Mcdonalds, burger king and costa told the bbc they take their employees health extremely seriously and have measures in place to reduce their exposure to pollution, like rotating shifts and installing ventilation. We should be taking this to the likes of our parliamentary group. I think as a priority we should be talking to the companies that we deal with who have drivethru restaurants and see exactly what they are going to do. In statements, mcdonalds and burger king said, the readings were taken in their car parks and do not reflect pollution levels inside the serving hatches, where they have measures in place to minimise exposure. Is that a valid point . Well, it is certainly true that there would be Different Levels inside and outside, but they are leaning outside, they are leaning into the areas that you have measured in and you have already shown that levels of nitrogen dioxide and pm 2. 5 are high there. Costa told the bbc that it is planning to review future signage to encourage drivers to turn off their engines when stationary. Kfc did not comment. Jonathan gibson, bbc news. Now its time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. Hello. We started the new week with significant snow across parts of Northern England and Northern Ireland and scotland and that brought disruption to flights, roads, schools have been closed and here is an idea of the amounts we have seen, 14 centimetres in Northern Ireland, 5 9 centimetres for parts of Northern England. Those levels are starting to come down and this afternoon the focus of the heavier snow becomes confined to scotla nd heavier snow becomes confined to scotland where there is a met Office Warning in place until three oclock. Meanwhile heavy rain sliding south and east, that should be out of the way of south east england by late afternoon, further snow in scotland. In between, spells of sunshine but further showers, likely to be wintry and strong and gusty winds likely to lead to blizzard conditions across scotland. It isa blizzard conditions across scotland. It is a cold day in scotland, temperature struggling to get above freezing compared to 10 12d in central and southern england and parts of wales. Overnight, that snow sta rts parts of wales. Overnight, that snow starts to ease away but behind it further wintry showers piling into scotland, Northern Ireland, parts of wales and South West England and driest and clearest the further east you are. Most of us will stay above freezing but only just, you are. Most of us will stay above freezing but onlyjust, a colder night for england and wales. As we go into tomorrow, a messy picture, strong north westerly winds and they will continue to push further wintry showers across the uk and in the showers across the uk and in the showers we could find hail, sleet, further snow, not just across northern parts of the uk but almost anywhere could see snow from the showers on tuesday. Drier the further east you are but it is a windy day, particularly across south east england and the Channel Islands where we could see gales developing. A cold day in england and wales, add on the strength of the wind and these figures will fail a few degrees lower. The gales continue across South West England and the Channel Islands on wednesday, not as many showers but still wintry. Particularly in scotland and north west england and Northern Ireland. A cold feeling day particularly in the strong winds. Looking further ahead, still very u nsettled, looking further ahead, still very unsettled, strong winds, further france pushing their way across the uk, rain nevertoo france pushing their way across the uk, rain never too far away, particularly on friday which will top up already saturated ground, still a concern for flooding as we head towards the end of the week. A number of Flood Warnings are still in place, more details on the website. More infections of coronavirus are reported around the world, as governments struggle to contain further outbreaks. Road checks in italy, which has the largest number of cases in europe, are imposed in towns in the north east. Huge queues in a town in south korea for facemasks for protection. Experts say we are heading for a pandemic. The creation of sudden hotspots is telling us something. Its telling us that the infection has now spread from china to other countries. So its only a matter of time before we call this a proper pandemic. The spread of the virus is affecting the markets, with the ftse100 down more than 3 . Also this lunchtime a million homes short thats the magnitude of the uks housing shortage, according to new analysis, with