This is bbc news. Im shaun ley. The headlines at 11pm the bbc has learned the High Speed Rail link, hs2 will be given the go ahead by the government, linking london to birmingham, manchester and leeds, with drastically cutjourney times. Today we have our confirmation that we will build the railway that will close the north south divide and bring our country together again. But opponents are angry at the cost, the damage to the environment, and the disruption to residents near the route. The front of your very eyes, you can see sort of treasured landscape disappearing. Taxpayers money would be far better spent on local, regional transport projects. Four more cases of coronavirus are confirmed in the uk,one of them at a gp practice in brighton,
which has now been closed. A man is convicted of planning terror strikes on key london sites just over a year after being cleared of a sword attack outside buckingham palace. Clearing up yet again people across Northern England are frustrated and angry as flood defences fail once more, this time due to storm ciara. And the oscar goes to. Parasite and the south korean film parasite makes history at the oscars by being the first Foreign Language film to win best picture. And at 11 30pm, well be taking an in depth look at the papers with our reviewers nicola bartlett, Political Correspondent for the daily mirror, and asa bennett, brexit commissioning editor at the telegraph. Good evening. Welcome to bbc news. Bbc news can tonight confirm that the government will give the go ahead to the whole of the controversial High Speed Rail line hs2 rail link, which will link london to birmingham, manchester and leeds. An announcement is expected by the Prime Minister, borisjohnson, tomorrow. Borisjohnson has faced bitter opposition, including from his own backbenches over the route, and the cost of this huge infrastructure project. The price, according to a leaked government review, could be £106 billion, thats three times its original budget. The news has been welcomed by some in the business community, but has infuriated People Living near the proposed route. Our transport correspondent tom burridge is in birmingham for us tonight. This has been a real dilemma for the Prime Minister. On the one hand, potentially £100 billion price tag, on the other, that promise to voters in the north of england and here in
the midlands that he would level things up. And that is why the green light on hs2 will come with a raft of other measures on transport spending. Theyve done a huge amount of work clearing this site behind me and that is one of the reasons why the government felt it had to keep going. This is what High Speed Two looks like today in solihull. Tonight, confirmation that after months of wrangling and a budget which has ballooned, the project will proceed. The foundations for a new bridge over the m112 are going in here. Theyll divert roads to make way for this railway. And this is the vision for that site an interchange station with a Shuttle Service connecting to birmingham airport. It wont be ready for more than a decade, but the promise of better transport links in this area has already attracted investment. Take this Business Park nearby. Weve bought this building and. That one over there . Yes, and this building. The company laura works for snapped them up and refurbished them. Our business has invested almost £20 million on two buildings. And hs2 was part of that decision. Hs2 was definitely a factor in looking to buy these buildings. Its a big infrastructure project, and its located the station is located close to the buildings, so people will be able to get to them easily on public transport. A green light from government effectively means that construction work to build that first leg of the railway, linking london to birmingham, will begin relatively soon. Birmingham to crewe will now also be considered as the first phase of the project. The government wants another review into the last stretch, linking crewe to manchester, and birmingham to leeds. The aim will be to cut costs and improve links to the existing rail network and other future projects. But it will go ahead. Its not the news that Rural Communities along the route, like here in north warwickshire, wanted to hear. Just along the road here, miles of hedgerows have been destroyed, trees have been chopped down, and many of the roads as well, and so in front of your very eyes you can see sort of, you know, treasured landscape disappearing. Taxpayers money would be far better spent on local, regional transport projects. In the north, i mean, theyre crying out for it in the north. But tomorrows announcement will include a series of other commitments to improve transport links, particularly in the midlands and the north of england, where poor, overcrowded services have been too often the norm. Hsz hs2 decided the dust the conservative party. They have
announced £500 million extra spending on buses in wales and there will also be more money for improving cycling in towns and cities. Not long ago were the conservatives the party of its territories, they are now selling themselves as the party of big transport spenders. That was tom burridge in birmingham. Our Political Correspondent chris mason is at westminster. It isa it is a political gamble for the Prime Minister . It would have been biggerfor the Prime Minister to junk hs2 than it is to press ahead with it. He can present it as a pragmatic scepticism that he has had since he became Prime Minister. A proper examination of these costs but frankly have accelerated faster than the trains that will one day run on the hs2 tracks but ultimately, he is pressing ahead with it. Its worthwhile putting this in the context of forrest johnsons political instincts. He is a longtime lover of big infrastructure projects, one of which have an extended beyond
rhetoric, others of which havent beenjunked after rhetoric, others of which havent been junked after money has a ready been junked after money has a ready been spent on them. So he has talked today about a plan he is quite keen on, linking scotland and Northern Ireland with a bridge. He has talked before about linking england and france with a bridge. There was the garden bridge project in which money was spent and well, there are no lives and bricks to account for it. He also talked about for ages about the idea of a new airport for the south east of england. Boris island, it was dubbed, in the thames estuary. These things come with a huge attraction, dont they . They have potential transformative capacity on the economy and infrastructure, but also a political legacy built from steel and bricks that lasts much longer than any particular Prime Minister. But it would be associated with the person who said yes and pushed ahead. Its interesting seeing some of the papers tomorrow morning, improving
bus links for example, presumably, politically the great thing about thatis politically the great thing about that is he will be waiting for hs2 far after he ceases to be Prime Minister. These improvements could be delivered not just minister. These improvements could be delivered notjust in time for a general election but even in time for local elections in the spring. Exactly. I think from mrjohnsons perspective there is no coincidence that these two announcements have been packaged up and presented together. You might think, well, if the government has got what it sees is good news about buses and b i cycles, is good news about buses and bicycles, then why not announce that ona bicycles, then why not announce that on a day when were not talking about a big, snazzy Intercity Railway . The idea of packaging them together, plenty of sceptics of hs2 and many of the supporters, frankly, some of these new conservative mps in the north and midlands, winning seeds from labour, sometimes of the first time ever, i much more focused on day to day, less sexy but in the view of many constituents more important improvements, in terms of
how they get to work every morning at home every evening. As opposed to the trip to london you may take once every however long. And for plenty of people, how the other. Hence this announcement, £5 billion going into bus and cycling facilities in and outside london. Maybe making buses more frequent and often, making the faster route simpler. 250 miles of cycling routes to. Lots of big plans, no detail, that is promised in the compounds of Spending Review a little later in the air. But to address your point, there is clearly an attempt to package these together given there still remains a lot of scepticism among the conservative benches about hs2. Scepticism among the conservative benches about h52. Chris, as you say, thank you and on your bike now. Have a good journey home. Laughter a gp practice in brighton was closed temporarily today, after a member of staff tested
positive for coronavirus. Four new cases of the illness in the uk were confirmed this morning, bringing the total to eight. The government has moved to ensure that anyone in england whos in quarantine for the virus cant just leave, by declaring it a serious and imminent threat to public health. Heres our medical correspondent fergus walsh. This is not wuhan, but brighton, where an entire medical centre and pharmacy are being deep cleaned after two local gps tested positive for the new coronavirus, along with two other people in brighton. It seems they were all infected in a ski chalet in france by a british businessman who had himself got infected in singapore. Without realising he was contagious, he passed on the virus to around a dozen britons, all without going anywhere near china. The detection of this small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a biggerfire. But for now its only a spark
our objective remains containment. The longer this outbreak goes on, the more scientists are learning about the new coronavirus. Latest estimates suggest it kills around one in 100 people who are infected. That compares with one in ten people who died from sars in 2003. Yet even though the new coronavirus is much less deadly, the death toll has already exceeded that of sars now more than 900, compared to 774 for sars. The reason is that this virus is so mild for huge numbers of people that, unlike sars, most of those affected never need hospital treatment, and this allows it to spread more effectively in the community. So how bad could it get if the virus starts spreading widely in the uk . Well, its very hard to know. But seasonal flu in england alone kills between 10,000 and 30,000 people each year, most, but not all, over the age of 65. Nearly 200 britons have been repatriated from wuhan since the end ofjanuary and are in quarantine in Milton Keynes and merseyside. At the weekend, one person threatened to leave from arrowe park hospital, so emergency regulations have been brought in, allowing forcible detention. But most seem happy with the conditions. There are all sorts of games available, weve obviously got tvs, weve got access to the internet, netflix, so all of these Different Things that are actually available to us do help to make this feel not like were stuck in quarantine. In wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, the growth in new cases has started to slow. But its too early to know whether this epidemic can be contained. President xijinping, shown having his temperature taken in beijing, promised total
warfare to beat the virus. This is one of the Biggest Challenges china has faced in decades, and the impact, both medical and economic, are being felt around the world. Fergus walsh, bbc news. A man has been convicted of planning a terror attack in london, just over a year after he was cleared of attacking police with a sword outside buckingham palace. Musa chowdhury, whos from luton, was arrested a few days before a gay pride parade in london last summer. Hell be sentenced at a later date. Heres june kelly. A summer evening, and a security alert, right outside buckingham palace. Musa chowdhury has pulled up and is armed with a sword. He injures two officers, shouting allahu akbar god is greatest. At his original trial, chowdhury claimed this was a suicide attempt. He said he wanted the police to kill him. He was found not guilty of planning a terror attack. Chowdhury lived here in luton with his family. Within days of being cleared by a jury over what had happened at buckingham palace, he was on the internet and social media, showing an extremist mindset. He quickly became the target of an undercover operation, involving the police and the security service, m15. Listening devices were planted in his home and in his car. Over a six month operation, officers were wired and secretly recording chowdhury. They had gone into the takeaway where he worked, posing as customers, and befriended him. He divulged to them how hed lied to the jury at his first trial and was trying to carry out a terror attack at buckingham palace, and he outlined his plans to do it again. He talked of a van attack at the gay pride parade in london. His other potential targets were Tourist Attractions in the capital, including
madame tussauds. Musa chowdhury is an exceptionally dangerous individual. The evidence in this trial demonstrated his clear intention to murder as many people as he could and potentially to die in that attempt. He had made a list of his priorities for his life after death in paradise. At number seven was meeting allah. Number two was meeting all wives, and naming and choosing the main two. So anything you want to ask, i can answer it honestly. He was arrested a few days before the pride parade, because it was feared he would attack it. Because theres no attack planning at all. Right, 0k. Ive already been in prison. I do not want to go back there. At his home, police found a knife under his mattress. There were also two training swords. Theyd been bought from the bank account of his younger sister, sneha chowdhury. He was recorded telling her he needs to practise decapitation techniques. She has now been found guilty
of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. Musa chowdury, the extremist who bragged about beating the system, has now been brought tojustice. So too has his sister, who did nothing to stop his murderous plan. June kelly, bbc news, at Woolwich Crown court. The headlines on bbc news the bbc has learned the High Speed Rail link, hs2, will be given the go ahead by the government, linking london to birmingham, manchester and leeds, with drastically cutjourney times. A gp practice in brighton has been closed temporarily, after a member of staff there tested positive for coronavirus. Eight people in the uk have now been infected. An islamist extremist who had been cleared of plotting a sword attack on Police Officers is now convicted of planning to target london tourist hotspots. A 58 year old man has died in hampshire after a tree fell
on his carduring, storm ciara yesterday. Weather warnings remain in place around the country, with strong winds and flooding causing further travel delays. In the worst affected places, a clear up operation has been going on all day. Our correspondent danny savage is in york this evening. Yet again, the towns and villages of calderdale in West Yorkshire are clearing up after a flood. Its the third time in less than a decade that mytholmroyd has been swamped, and people are angry. The whole thing, all that, right back as far as you can see, was a lake yesterday. Roger barr has now seen his house destroyed twice. No one has ever knocked my door in seven years, to come and see whats happening. Ive had to buy another house, same size but higher up. And i dont know whats going to happen with this. So you just feel abandoned by the authorities . Abandoned, yeah new flood defences are being built here, but they were no good yesterday. So a decision now has to be made whetherjust to check everything out so a decision now has to be made whetherjust to chuck everything out or to try and clean up and salvage. You can see how the water came up to this level. The same family has run this Hardware Store for 30 years, but this weekend was the final straw. We were on camera in 2015, and we said that, if it ever happened again, we were going to call it a day. And were going to call it a day. Its notjust a little bit of a mess youve got to clean up. Its the walls want drying, everythings. Im just so mad, its. Annoying. Nikki morriss house merged with the neighbouring river and canal. She filmed this from her front door. Today shes resigned to another lengthy clear up. I hate it being here now, at this very moment in time, i dont want to be here at all. Ive got my house up for sale, i have done for a few months, but thats not going
to happen now, is it . Further south in hampshire, a 58 year old man was killed when a tree fell on his car on the a33. Many Train Services were cancelled. This was Glasgow Central station, where the west coast main line only reopened late this afternoon. Numerous other train operators reported problems caused by the weather. Whoa in the borders, this 200 year old guesthouse in hawick collapsed into the river. And this lorry went over on the severn bridge, closing the link to and from wales to all traffic. Back in hebden bridge, the full extent of the damage could be seen from the air. The problem here is that people have lost all faith in the authorities to defend this valley from floods. Danny savage, bbc news, West Yorkshire. Thereve been legal challenges at the high court, in a last minute bid to stop the deportation of 50 people
from the uk to jamaica. The government says theyre dangerous criminals, but campaigners, including more than 170 mps, say some of them came to the uk as children, and have no memory of their country of birth. Our reporter Adina Campbell has been at the high court this evening. She g