Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At 9 20200210

As we discuss the oscars, coming up at 9 30. Good morning and welcome to the bbc news at 9. More travel disruption is expected today as the after effects of storm ciara continue to be felt across the uk. 62,000 households are without power. More than 200 flood warnings remain in place, 150 of them in england. Yellow weather warnings for snow, ice and wind are also in force for large parts of the uk. Further rail disruption is expected and commuters are being urged to check their routes before travelling. Yesterday, storm ciara brought winds of more than 90 miles an hour and some areas had six weeks worth of rain injust21i hours. Graham satchell reports. Rough seas off the coast of hastings and a lifeboat rights itselfjust in time. It was a day of remarkable lucky escapes. 0n dry land in central london, watch this. A taxi, a tree and a near miss. In bedfordshire, the driver of this car escaped with just minor injuries. It took the fire service more than an hour to cut him out. Storm ciara batted every corner of the country for more than 2a hours. That is intense in some places, the impact was devastating. Part of a guesthouse collapses into the river teviot on the scottish borders. Its foundations washed away. Siren wails. Hebden bridge in West Yorkshire. The siren a warning of heavy rain and floods to come. The rain was sideways and relentless. There were some pretty odd sightings, like this drifting downriver in the yorkshire dales. In ramsbottom in greater manchester, the river irwell burst its banks. Across the country there were more than 300 flood warnings. Residents in ramsbottom were rescued by the fire service. We just wanted to get out, really. Shes most important thing so we just wanted to get out. Its just fully submerged our house, living rooms flooded, kitchen, and we had to get the fire boat to get out. Ciara has caused widespread travel disruption, battering the coast in particular. The port of dover closed. Trees on Railway Lines meant Train Services were cancelled. Euston station in london packed with frustrated passengers trying to get home. All trains cancelled, so, ive either got to try and get to manchester and then get picked up there or try or get halfway. I think werejust i think were just trying to work out the best way to get back the moment. In the air, planes struggled. At heathrow, the approach was sideways, the touchdown hairy. Some brave souls soldiered on. This is honeywell fc in manchester valiantly playing their sunday league game. And near glastonbury, spare a thought for speedo mick. Mick is walking the length of the uk for charity in his swimming trunks. Getting a beating at the moment but we are still struggling on. There will be more bad weather today, but nothing stops mick. In a moment, well hear about the situation in cumbria from dave guest, whos in appleby. And well also get the latest on the impact for rail passengers from john mcmanus at euston. But first, lets cross to Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire and join jayne mccubbin. What is the situation this morning . It is terrible down here and its history repeating itself. If you have a look inside this bistro, you will see what businesses are waking up will see what businesses are waking up to this morning. A terrible, terrible mess. This is a second time ramsey has had to deal with these floods. Yesterday, the flood level was up to about here. In 2015, in those famous boxing day floods, the water level. Look at the sludge here. The water level was up to about three metres eight, yesterday three metres five. Some flood defences have been put in, the floodgates have helped some businesses keep some of the water and sludge out. But look at the mess outside the rspca, they have been mopping up all morning. You can see nothing fully keeps this water away. This is the problem this morning. The river which is still quite high today but yesterday, it was almost at the top of the arches there. It is important to say that here in Hebden Bridge, after those famous boxing day floods, flood defence works were promised but they still havent begun. They are due to begin later this year. Flood defence work further up the river in my the right, they are due to come to an end this summer. But even though they are well under way there, that village was completely submerged in water. So there is some scepticism about the work that is going on and the impact it will have. Back to you. Thank you. Now we can go to appleby in cumbria and hear about the public mood therefrom dave guessed. This shop is one of many in the high street in appleby. The river eden ove rflowed street in appleby. The river eden overflowed something this main street. Here you can see the bridge that links the two halves. It normally takes a few minutes but now you have to take a 20 minute detail because they have closed off the bridge. The main street here sealed off. You might be able to see some off. You might be able to see some of the debris and beyond the tipper truck is the river eden. Very calm today but that wasnt the case yesterday. A sense of deja vu because in 2015, storm desmond visited with disastrous consequences and ciara caused chaos yesterday. Like jane was saying, they were expecting some improvements to flood defences here following the storms in 2015 but they say so far nothing has materialised. The people in these properties some of them put their own flood defences up. But a number of the shops were swamped yesterday. The big clean up in appleby continues this morning. Dave, thank you. We can go to the rail situation and here from john mcmanus at euston. What is the situation, are they travelling . People are travelling but the extent of the disruption now becoming clear as the morning progresses. Most importantly, if you are planning on travelling on the west coast between preston and scotland, im afraid you wont be going very far today. The line has been closed between preston and glasgow because of multiple flooding and further up into scotla nd flooding and further up into scotland between glasgow and fort william, multiple cancellations. 0n the east coast line, pressed into oui the east coast line, pressed into our edinburgh, aberdeen and inverness, multiple cancellations. Trains running from different stations are not running at leadsom bus replacement services. Also problems in the south east between kent and london and on local services in West Yorkshire as well. Lots of cancellations and rescheduling of trains. Network rail saying check, check, check before you travel, even ifjust for a short journey for stop you could save yourself a lot of trouble and network rail issuing a plea to anyone who lives near a railway and has anything that needs to be secure down in high winds like trampolines, for example, please do it, network rail is saying. Trampolines seem to have played rather a large role in the disruption of railways yesterday. Thank you so much for that, all three of you. Great to get that, all three of you. Great to get that update. You can keep up to date with the changing weather developments in your area today, just head to your local bbc radio station, and of course, the bbc news website. Moving onto a coronavirus. The government has introduced new powers to deal with the spread of coronavirus, as it declares it a serious and imminent threat to Public Health. The uk has recorded four cases so far. Under new measures, the department of health says people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave. Lets get more on this form our Political Correspondent iain watson. Tell us more. As you know, a couple of weeks ago, the first flight out of weeks ago, the first flight out of wuhan, british citizens on board came into the uk. People on board that flight had to sign a contract saying they are prepared to stay in quarantine for two weeks. That is a week longer than the assumed incubation period for the virus. However, one of the people currently in quarantine on merseyside has been threatening to leave today, as a government source would put it, to abscond and break the terms of the contract. It is very difficult for the government to enforce that contract. But they have done is effectively brought in emergency regulations. This morning. What they are intending to do is keep that individual in place until the 1a days are over, which is only a few days are over, which is only a few days away, i think it is thursday this week. Nonetheless, they were concerned about that specific individual, so what the regulations say now is where he is being kept, in arrowe park hospital, and the other designated isolation facility. Anyone coming from those areas in those facilities can now be kept against their will. If the police have to do enforce this, they will be offered protective equipment. I think there is a wider concern, a wider worrying government as well. That is what happens if even if the fatalities are relatively small, what would happen if this virus spreads within the united kingdom, people having to take time off work, for example, the pressure that would put on Public Services . Very keen to strengthen the regulations they have regarding isolation straightaway. Although they say this is described asa although they say this is described as a serious and imminent threat, thatis as a serious and imminent threat, that is essential in order to keep people in isolation, the risk of catching the disease is no greater today than it was yesterday. Thank you so much. We can turn out from the situation in the uk to the situation in china. This Uk Development comes as new figures from china show a record increase in the number of deaths from coronavirus. 97 people died on sunday the highest number of casualties in a single day. This brings the total number of deaths in china to 908 910 worldwide. Across china, 110,171 people are infected. Today, millions of people in china are returning to work after the Lunar New Year break that was extended due to the virus. 0ur china editor robin brant is in shanghai. Robin, i gave an update on the numbers there. I suppose what we didnt say is the number of infections seems to have stabilised. Are people drawing hope from that in china . Well, it is a sliver of optimism but the who yesterday urging real caution, saying it is still regarding china as being in the middle of a very intense outbreak. State run media here is making a lot of that, in particular what seems to bea drop of that, in particular what seems to be a drop in the growth of infection rates outside of that epicentre province. But nonetheless, the death toll continues to rise. That big single increase yesterday and also the number of confirmed cases. Today is meant to be the day when vast swathes of the country get back to work. I think, swathes of the country get back to work. Ithink, to swathes of the country get back to work. I think, to be honest, we are seeing a trickle here in shanghai. It is not partly the ghost town it was perhaps a week ago, but there is no sudden huge return to work, in terms of the shops and banks, in terms of the shops and banks, in terms of the factories. Things are beginning to return to normal but there is still a lot of nervousness. We are seeing some shops opening but we are seeing we are seeing some shops opening but we are seeing some we are seeing some shops opening but we are seeing some factories on the outskirts of the city opening but also much tougher restrictions on compounds and lanes where people live, in terms of who can go in and who can come out. Temperatures being taken. A lot of working from home, as well. The centre of shanghai is very much a Service Sector concentration and the guidance writ large seems to be people should stay at home and work at home for the next week or two. One more thing, the president pictured for the first time inspecting some containment effo rts time inspecting some containment efforts up in beijing. Those pictures coming out in the last hour 01 so. Pictures coming out in the last hour or so. Very interesting. One last question on public mood. At the end of last week, a lot of anger and grief about the death of that whistle blower doctor. Questions about the credibility of the government, given how long it had taken it to declare an emergency and so on. Has the mood calmed down over the last 48 hours or so . I dont think it has, to be honest. Some of that anger, frustration increased questions about honesty that we saw around the death of the doctor have. They havent gone away. The uproar on social media was huge but people still remain very anxious about what to do, where to 90, anxious about what to do, where to go, if theyre going to be a further wave spread, particular as this vast return, accidents of Migrant Workers into cities like shanghai, as that begins to happen, will that bring another wave of contamination . Robin, thank you very much for that update from shanghai. We will talk to you later. Sinn fein has described irelands general election as a big statement of change, after it made strong gains in the results declared so far. The nationalist party secured more first choice votes than either fine gael or fianna fail, which have led irish governments for decades. The Prime Minister, leo varadkar, said that once the final result was clear it could take months to negotiate a coalition. 0ur ireland correspondent chris page joins us now from dublin. Everyone still absorbing this transformation of the electoral scene . Yes, that is right. There is a lot of uncertainty. Its very unclear at the moment who will move into that place over there, the headquarters of the Prime Minister. The Coalition Building process will certainly be very complex but what is clear is there has been a huge shift in the irish political landscape. Sinn fein topping the poll in terms of the top preference vote. 25 of voters place their number one beside a sinn fein candidate on the ballot paper. And of oil coming in on the 22 second. And the party led by the current Prime Minister in third on 21 . So though sinn fein have won this first stage, if you like, of the electoral process , stage, if you like, of the electoral process, it is actually unlikely they will run now as the Largest Party in the irish parliament. Sinn fein strategist themselves didnt see a surge of this magnitude coming their way. At the moment, analysts think its likely that fianna fail will be the Largest Party. In the campaign, they said they wouldnt do a coalition with sinn fein. Last night, lee varadkar said a coalition with sinn fein. Last night, lee varadkarsaid he a coalition with sinn fein. Last night, lee varadkar said he would stick with that position. But the leader of fianna fail when questioned wouldnt give in a definitive answer. He said people had come out to vote in numbers and he respected that, that there were still significant policy differences between his party and sinn fein but things would be teased out over the next number of days. So the way forward is nothing but. Certainly not at all straightforward. A lot will come down to the very final numbers. Counting will continue through today. 160 seats in the irish parliament, still more than half of them to be filled and you can expect the race for the final seats in a number of constituencies to be very tight indeed. Thank you. The headlines on bbc news. Travel chaos, flood warnings and powercuts the disruption from britains most severe storm in seven years continues. The uk declares coronavirus as a serious and imminent Public Health threat. The status gives the government more powers to isolate those with potential infections. Sinn feins election surge irish Prime Minister leo varadkar says Coalition Talks will be complicated. Vote counting is still under way. And the bbc new special as we look at the glitziest night of the year, the oscars. For the first time in the 92 year history of the oscars, a Foreign Language film has won the best picture award. South korean film parasite beat the likes of british world war one epic 1917 and the joker. 0ur correspondent, david willis, was there. Tonight we celebrate all the amazing talent in this room a tribute to diversity at the start of an Academy Awards in which the spirit of inclusion had seemed to be sorely lacking. Happy black history month. Janelle monaes rousing performance coming on a night when the acting categories were the least diverse since the fallout from 0scarssowhite. That campaign pushed the academy to expand its International Voting ranks, possibly paving the way to this watershed moment at the Academy Awards. Bong joon ho parasite, the story of a poor south korean family insinuating itself into the life of a very rich family, swept the board, collecting oscars for best original screenplay, best international film, and best director for its creator bong joon ho, who paid tribute to his fellow contenders. Our great martin scorsese. Cheering and applause. This belongs to a lot of people. The veteran british cinematographer, roger deakins, was honoured for his his work on the world war i drama 1917. And sir elton johns song from rocketman, im gonna love me again, was named best original song. Brad pitt was named best supporting actor for his role in once upon a time in hollywood, and it was a film about about the cruelty of the old Hollywood Studio system that won Renee Zellweger a best actress 0scar for her role in sjudy. Laura dern was named best supporting actress for her role in marriage story, and Joaquin Phoenix walked off with the best actor award for his performance injoker. Parasite. But this was the night that parasite made history becoming the first Foreign Language film to carry off 0scars biggest award of the night, best picture. Hollywood may still be grappling with the thorny issue of diversity, but parasites victory is seen as a sign the academy is ready to embrace great films from any country, in any language, at last. David willis, bbc news, at the Academy Awards. A bbc news investigation has uncovered further claims of preventable baby deaths at an nhs trust, which has already been criticised for its maternity services. Four families say their babies would have survived had east Kent Hospitals trust provided better care. The government is due to receive 2 reports on the trust today, before deciding whether action should be taken. Michael buchanan reports. The joyous scans of a growing baby. But reid shaw was stillborn last november on the day he was due, an outcome his parents say was wholly avoidable. They should have asked us to come in that night. If they had induced me that night, he would have been here, 100 . His parents had called the qeqm hospital in margate at 1 10am in the morning, as kirsty was in pain and her sons movements had noticeably changed. She was advised to take painkillers and go to bed. 16 hours later, she called again and was invited in this time, where staff discovered reid had died. Being a first time mum, i suppose you put too much trust in these people to advise you and get you through something as vulnerable as this, and so you dont question it. East Kent Hospitals trust say they are investigating the case, but three other families we have spoken to have told us their babies would have survived if medics in east kent had provided better care. Thats in addition to the seven preventable deaths we revealed last month. The trust have apologised in two of the new cases, and denied wrongdoing in the third. An inquest last month found harry richfords death in 2017 was wholly avoidable. Now, the coroner in that case has written to the trust, demanding they make 19 improvements to ensure better Maternity Care. His parents support the conclusions, but worry they wont be implemented after the trust failed to act on previous recommendations. They had two years to address those problems before harry and they didnt. And as such, harry was born in such a Poor Condition that they had to let him go after seven days. Ministers are due to receive two reports into Maternity Care at east kent today, and decide whether to take any action. Michael buchanan, bbc news, kent. Sydney has been hit by its heaviest rain in 30 years, bringing flooding and travel chaos. About 100,000 properties have also been left without power. The authorities are warning of potentially life threatening flash floods. But the rains have also put out many of the bushfires which have torn through New South Wales in recent months. A new space probe has lifted off on its quest to study the sun from close quarters. The spacecraft called solar 0rbiter is a joint European Space agency and nasa mission and was assembled in the uk. It will study the inner workings of our star in unprecedented detail, and help us to better understand how it affects us here on earth. 0ur science correspondent Rebecca Morelle has more. Three, two, one, zero. And lift off blasting off a mission thats been 20 years in the making. Their spacecraft called solar 0rbiter on its way to the sun. Everything is looking good. Its jam packed with instruments, and will take images from closer to our star than any spacecraft has before, but it will be operating in an extreme environment. The instruments on boa rd the spacecraft incredibly sensitive. And then to put it close to the sun, its really, really difficult and its quite nerve racking when you send your delicate little instrument on the top of a rocket towards the sun, and you just hope that its going to be working. At the Royal Astronomical society, records of our sun go back hundreds of years, charting huge solar storms. Now, these would have had little effect on us in the 1800s when these notes were written. Today, though, theyd wreak havoc, knocking out communication and navigation satellites and causing power failures. The hope is, though, that solar 0rbiter can help us to better understand and eventually predict them. The journey to the sun wont be easy and it will take two years for solar 0rbiter to get into prime position, but once it there, the secrets of our star will finally be revealed. Rebecca morrelle, bbc news. Joining me is alice bunn, the International Director of the uk space agency. So thrilled to have you here with us. Are you excited . Massively its a really, really big moment for the uk. So far, so good . So far, absolutely great, it seems seamless. Fingers crossed for the next few yea rs. Fingers crossed for the next few years. On the uk element, is that it isa years. On the uk element, is that it is a big moment for the uk, why is it such a big moment for us . Its huge. Not least, we built the overall mission, delivered in partnership with the European Space agency. Its a European Space Agency Mission and we are part of that organisation faster but also, we we re organisation faster but also, we were the real brains behind the mission. Four out of ten instruments we re mission. Four out of ten instruments were led by uk scientists, we were driving the agenda. Tell us more about the instruments. We got the sense one at the drivers for this mission is to protect some of the kit that drives columns and other things in space . Thats right. Its incredible. The sun so important, the engine house of our whole solar system and yet there is so much we dont know about it. This mission will give us unprecedented detail on the surface of the sun and tell us about the magnetic field. If you put those two together, you can start to understand when and how these big eruptions happen from the surface of the sun. So these are the things that give rise to aurora, really beautiful effects, but also it can beautiful effects, but also it can be very, very damaging for satellite infrastructure and, indeed, some of the infrastructure on the ground. So this mission is so important to Space Science and to Space Missions but it is also very important to our everyday lives. Give us a sense as of the technical challenges involved in getting ourselves across several yea rs into in getting ourselves across several years into this precise position, in relation to the sun, and so hot, and surviving that . Exactly, it is quite a long way nearly 100 million miles to get to the sun. We are going about three quarters of the way. From that position we think we will get the best vantage points and also whilst we still have the capability to resist some of those tremendous temperatures that would be there. We estimate temperatures up to about 550 degrees c. The heat shields have to be really, really specialised to be able to withstand those kinds of temperatures. Otherwise all your delicate Electronics Inside will melt . Exactly. The ironicalthing is on one hand we have to have this incredible capacity for protecting the instruments that some of the instruments actually get too cold so they have to have heaters as well. It isa they have to have heaters as well. It is a really exquisite piece of technology that has been developed here in the uk. And you expect the results, the kind of interesting info to come back when . A couple of yea rs, info to come back when . A couple of years, it takes a couple of years but that data to come back. We will combine that with some of the data streams coming from the us Mission Launched a couple of years ago. That mission is looking at the atmosphere and by combining those data sets, you can get the greatest picture of what is happening on the sun. Fingers crossed it go smoothly first of congratulations for getting to this point, alice. Coming up well have all the results and reaction from the biggest night in hollywood, in an 0scars special with jane hill at 9. 30. Now, its time for a look at the weather with carol. Thank you, good morning. After steele yesterday, we still do have a lot of met Office Weather warnings out today. First of all, the scotla nd out today. First of all, the scotland and northern ireland, warnings for wind and also for snow. Some of the snow will be drifting and blowing. Blizzard like conditions in the hills and mountains. As we move across Northern England, snow and ice. If you are travelling, bear that in mind. Mostly the snow will be in the hills. In southern england, the last weather warning is the wind. Gusts of wind 60 70 miles an hour across parts of south west england, for example. We have the snow across scotland, Northern England and also northern ireland. Drifting and blowing, settling above about 150 metres or so and really accumulating above 300 metres. Come south and for the rest of england and wales, we are looking at showers, rain showers. Some of those will merge to give longer spells of rain. Also looking at some hail, thunder and lightning embedded in them. Dont forget, we also have these strong winds across the south of england, English Channel and the and the channel islands. So some atrocious travelling conditions to watch out for once again today. Where ever you are, it will feel cold with temperatures between about 4 5 in the north, nine in the south. Hello and welcome to this bbc news special programme as we bring you all the reaction to the 92nd Academy Awards. Imjane hill, and i have much to talk about with my guests, after a historic night at the oscars. The film criticjason solomons is here to take us through the winners and losers, the stand out moments and surprises. And no 0scars reaction show would be complete without taking a look at the fashion, hits and misses. The british designer Maria Grachvogel will be talking us