Youre watching bbc news at nine with me, geeta guru murthy the headlines scotlands finance secretary derek mackay quits hours before the budget he admits he acted behaved foolishly in messaging a 16 year old boy on social media. The government wants to rush through new rules in less than three weeks in a bid to prevent a terrorist from being automatically released early from prison. Thejustice secretary insists its not a knee jerk reaction. Its not muscle clenching, were tough, this is all about punishment. This is about public protection. Its the first of a government to get that right, and thats what were doing. President trump is cleared of abuse of power and obstructing congress after an impeachment trial which bitterly divided the united states. China says 563 people have now died from coronavirus
with 28,000 confirmed infections. Im spartacus. Im spartacus hollywood legend kirk douglas dies at the age of 103, after a film career spanning seven decades. Back on the buses. £170 million to reverse a decline in englands bus network, with plans for more frequent services, bus lanes and the first all electric bus town. And in sport tottenham come from behind to beat southampton in the fa cup. Good morning and welcome
to the bbc news at nine. Scotlands finance secretary has resigned after a newspaper revealed he had been sending messages to a 16 year old boy. Derek mackay was due to present the Scottish Governments budget at holyrood this afternoon. The scottish sun printed a series of messages he sent the boy on social media over a six month period, inviting him to dinner and to attend a rugby event. Derek mackay has issued a statement, he says our correspondent, james shaw, is in glasgow. What more is known about this . Well,
what the scottish edition of the Sun Newspaper is recounting is the story of the six months were by derek mackay was in contact with this 16 year old boy. He contacted him out of the blue around six months ago, and spoke to him and sent messages. They had conversations on instagram and facebook and it seems that derek mackay was in some way trying to establish a relationship with the boy. He invited him to dinner, as you have said. He invited him toa dinner, as you have said. He invited him to a rugby event. And now, whatever his thinking was then, he accepts that his behaviour was foolish, as he puts it, and he has apologised unreservedly to the boy and his family. But clearly, it is hugely damaging for him and the Scottish Government, coming as it does on the day of the scottish budget. Has there been any reaction from the family or people around
them . Not that we have heard as yet. We do know from the suns account of the story that his mother was extremely angry when she discovered that these conversations had been taking place. Derek mackay is 42 yea rs taking place. Derek mackay is 42 years old, a divorced father of two. The boy is 16 years old and the Sun Newspaper says mr mackay new that this boy was only 16. But the newspaper says that the mother was furious that these conversations we re furious that these conversations were going on and on their account of the story, she called for derek mackay to resign, and that is what has happened. What is the political Impact Likely to be . It certainly looks damaging at this point. It couldnt have come at a more awkward time for scotlands finance secretary, the most important day of his year, when he supposed to
deliver his budget. The Scottish Governments spending amounts to about £34 billion a year. He was due to announce that spending plan for 20202021. That will to announce that spending plan for 2020 2021. That will now not happen. He will be replaced by the Public Finance minister, a morejunior scottish minister, kate forbes, stepping in at the last minute. But whether it has wider repercussions for the Scottish Government is too early to tell. At the moment, they are at the stage of damage limitation, trying to manage this extremely embarrassing and awkward situation as effectively and carefully as they can, to ensure that the Scottish Government can carry on doing itsjob. That the Scottish Government can carry on doing its job. Thanks very much. The government wants emergency legislation ending the automatic release of convicted terrorists rushed through parliament in less than three weeks. Ministers are said to be concerned about a shopkeeper from sunderland who is due to be freed at the end of the month, after being jailed for posting messages supporting
the Islamic State group, and calling for shia muslims to be burnt alive. Its understood that there are five other convicted terrorists due for release before the end of march. Our political correspondent, chris mason, is at the ministry ofjustice. Chris, the government has been under fire for not acting earlier. What is being proposed now . Yeah, there is a real political imperative now for the government to be seen to be acting quickly because of the parallels connecting the last two terror attacks in london. Usman khan, the attacker at London Bridge at the tail end of november, and then sudesh amman at the weekend in streatham in south london. Both of them had been convicted of terror offences and had served time in prison. Crucially, they had been released, as is conventional, halfway through their sentences. The view in government over the weekend,
at the highest level, i was told, was that there was an acknowledgement from the Prime Minister that any member of the public thinking, why are these men out on the street, had the same instinct as the Prime Minister. So a real desire to change the law, in particular because of one case, the case of Mohammed Zahir kahn. He is from sunderland and is 42 years old. He was convicted of encouraging terrorism and inciting religious hatred. He was charged and arrested in 2017 and sentenced to four and a half years. He is due to be released halfway through his sentence at the end of this month, three weeks tomorrow. The hope from the government is to change the law quickly enough to ensure that he is not released. They think they can do it by the day before, the 27th, three weeks today. Here is the justice secretary robert buckland. Its got to go through both houses of parliament, but it is emergency legislation, and therefore time
will be found to make sure we get it onto the statute book as quickly as possible. Its not a muscle clenching were tough, this is all about punishment. This is about public protection. It is the firstjob of government to get that right and thats what were doing. But as i understand it, this isnt going back to a system where you would have more indefinite periods of sentencing so that whilst prisoners were inside, they could be assessed to see if they should be released at all . This is specifically about, in the case of terror offences, ensuring that those convicted of them serve the full term that they are handed down at sentencing rather than the convention of being released halfway through. There are plenty who say that might help resolve this issue, but it isnt the catchall panacea. Why . Firstly, eventually these people are going to reach the end of their sentence and therefore
potentially at that stage still pose some risk, so there are questions around the management of offenders after their release. We saw the metropolitan Police CommissionerCressida Dick talking about this yesterday. Then there is the bigger concern which has gone on for the best pa rt concern which has gone on for the best part of 20 years, which is the whole business about how you go about handling terrorist offenders, the whole debate around control orders and tpims, mechanisms for managing offenders like this. And the far bigger philosophical discussion that goes on of security against liberty in the context of a western liberal democracy and how that balancing act is pulled off. But right now at the heart of government, the focus on this issue of convicted terrorists and the point at which they are released is because of the striking similarity in the circumstances surrounding the two terrorists involved in the two
most two terrorists involved in the two m ost rece nt two terrorists involved in the two most recent attacks in london. So to clarify, if these changes go through, if you are given a four year sentence but there is still a worry about whether you should be released, you are going to be released, you are going to be released anyway, is that correct . Is there any likelihood that that system could change given that we have heard so many concerns about whether you can deradicalise people at all . The specific that is being talked about right now is ensuring that those who are sentenced to a particular length of time serve that full sentence if it is a terrorist related offence. In other words, it isa related offence. In other words, it is a mechanism to ensure that those people who are convicted terrorists but are about to be released can be keptin but are about to be released can be kept in prison. It is worth inserting the caveat that plenty think this could be subject to a legal challenge, that you are changing the law midway through somebodys sentence, changing the conditions upon which they are legally detained. As you say, there are bigger questions which will be
coming their way of mr buckland and others at the ministry ofjustice around their overarching approach to how you handle terrorists, before, during and after conviction. Clearly, a huge number of questions are being asked. Thanks very much. More than 560 people in Mainland China have now died as a result of the new coronavirus. The number of people infected has reached 28,000. Stringent measures are being taken across the country to restrict the spread of the disease. Our correspondent robin brant joins us from shanghai. The numbers are going up. Is there any sense as to when a peak might happen . No, there isnt. Lets talk about those numbers. They are climbing ata about those numbers. They are climbing at a rate that we have seen ona climbing at a rate that we have seen on a daily basis now, certainly over the last week. Roughly 20 increases
on the figures released in the previous 24 hours. These are the Chinese Government official figures and we are reliant on those. 563 now dead, 28,000 confirmed cases. Consistent increases every 24 hours at the moment. No sign that it is peaking, certainly no sign that it is dissipating. And the bulk of these cases, both people contracting these cases, both people contracting the virus and people being killed by it, is in a province to the west of where i am speaking to you, and that city of wuhan. And is there any idea as to how long these knock downs are going to go on . Are we talking months . The key period is these 14 days that everyone agrees now is the incubation for this type of coronavirus. Crudely speaking, if you can lock people down for 14 days and they dont present any symptoms,
thenit and they dont present any symptoms, then it would appear that those people are in the clear. There was a concern that some people appear to be passing on the virus before they themselves showed any symptoms. That has been challenged in the last couple of days but there still remains a lot of ambiguity surrounding that. Lets talk about the measures that National Governments are putting in place. We are getting reports in a city not farfrom here, more than 1000 kilometres from wuhan. They are forcing some people in that city to stay in their house. Only one member of the family is allowed out every 48 hours to get supplies. Here in shanghai, we have evidence of some cases of people who have been to Hubei Province in the last couple of weeks who are now being visited by the authorities are sometimes dressed in full protective garb, asked to sign a letter of commitment saying they will abide by self isolation at home for that two week period. And in beijing, there is some evidence of larger gatherings
being banned. This is all part of an effort to stop people travelling, gathering and try and prevent the spread of this virus. We have also seen concerns in hong kong, with increasing numbers affected there. Some people want to be shut off from Mainland China. Yeah. Hong kong is semi autonomous in terms of its status, but it is part of china, and yet there is intense pressure on the authorities there to shut itself off. This is mainly because of the way that hong kong was disproportionately affected by the sa rs disproportionately affected by the sars outbreak 18 years ago. Quite a high number of people died. There is a lot of pressure on carrie lam and the senior Political Leadership from many in the medical profession to shut the borders, close the city of two mainland visitors. That isnt happening at the moment. There have been stringent restrictions put in place. Some borders have been shut. Quarantine will start on saturday in hong kong for any visitor coming from the mainland, a two week period of quarantine. But nonetheless because of what they call the optics, the pr, the idea of closing the body completely has not been done by the authorities in hong kong closing the border completely. The headlines on bbc news. Scotlands finance secretary derek mackay quits hours before the budget he admits he behaved foolishly in messaging a 16 year old boy on social media. The government wants to rush through new rules in less than three weeks in a bid to prevent a terrorist from being automatically released from prison. Thejustice secretary insists its not a knee jerk reaction. President trump is cleared of abuse of power and obstructing congress after an impeachment trial which bitterly divided the united states. In sport, son heung mins late penalty secures spurs spot after
beating southampton in the fa cup. Celtic beat motherwell 4 0 to extend their winning run since the winter break to six games and they remain seven points clear at the top. And we look ahead to this weekends six nations clashes as england look to bounce back from last weeks defeat to france and eddiejones names his squad to take on scotland in the cup. More on those stories after 9. 30. The white house has called President Trumps acquittal at his impeachment trial a full vindication and exoneration. Senators voted along party lines in the republican dominated chamber, and prosecutors failed to gain the two thirds majority necessary to convict mr trump on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. The democratic minority leader, chuck schumer, said the acquittal was without value as the republicans had refused to allow any witnesses. Chris buckler reports from washington. Trump is. Guilty
despite the protests and many accusations, donald trump was never going to be found guilty. This divisive president split the senate, just as he has split the american public. Senators, how say you . Is the respondent, donald john trump, guilty or not guilty . It would have needed two thirds of senators to remove mr trump from office and his party has a majority in the chamber. In the end, only one broke ranks. Mr romney, guilty. Mitt romney, who delivered a passionate speech, was the sole member of the president because my party to find him guilty. The president asked a Foreign Government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. Republicans claimed Democratic Leaders rushed into impeachment and, although they tried to talk up the success of getting mitt romney to vote with them, many people believe the acquittal is a gift to a president running for re election. Not at all. This was seeking the truth. History, if you believe that right prevails, we know we were right prevails, we know we were right and we know they knew they we re right and we know they knew they were wrong, as evidenced by the hiding, shaking in the cloakroom and even being unwilling to listen to the other side. Polls suggest that in recent days, President Trumps Approval Ratings have been rising. The white house is presenting this impeachment as an attempt to overturn the will of the people who voted him into office in the first place. I really do believe that the democrats keep trying to run down this president because they know they cant run against this president. I think they tried to impeach this president because they
know they cant defeat President Donald Trump in november 2020. President trump is due to deliver a Public Statement later today, expected to be nothing short of a victory speech. He believes he has been exonerated, vindicated, and that this whole impeachment process has backfired on the democrats. On twitter, the president posted a mock up of a Time Magazine cover in which he wins elections for decades to come. Mr trump can only serve two terms, but its clear he believes the outcome of this trial has made a second one much more likely. Chris buckler, bbc news, washington. The latest results from the democratic caucasus in the us state of iowa show the left wing senator Bernie Sanders and the centrist former mayor, pete buttigieg, almost tied in first place. Both candidates would have 11 delegates from the state. Elizabeth warren, who came in third place, would have five. Im joined now by greg
swenson a partner at Investment Bank brigg macadam, and member of republicans overseas, a group for republican supporters who live and work outside of the united states. So President Trump survived the impeachment process, which was eminently predictable. But the evidence that was presented surely will or could cause political damage when people go to the polls later this year . Possibly, it might work to damage him more on the coast. California, new york and washington, but he was never going to win those places anyway. So it either proves that he did something inappropriate that he did something inappropr