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UK evacuation flight ‘unable to take off’ as virus spreads
The death toll stands at 170. The number of confirmed cases at 7,711. And with one in Tibet, it now means the coronavirus has spread to every region of China. With infections confirmed in at least 16 other countries, the World Health Organization meets later to discuss whether it constitutes a global health emergency. Its head is already saying the virus’s progress – especially in human-to-human transmission – shows worrying potential for a much larger outbreak than currently exists outside China.
Meanwhile, a flight to bring about 200 British nationals back to the UK is unable to take off as planned. It’s understood relevant permissions from Chinese officials have not yet come through. The flight from Wuhan – the city where the virus first emerged – had been expected to arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire later this morning, with passengers placed in “supported isolation” at an NHS facility for 14 days. The Foreign Office says it’s “working urgently” to organise a flight, with several countries’ evacuation plans affected.
Prison officers describe struggles with anxiety
Almost 2,000 prison officers took time off to deal with mental health problems last year, figures obtained by BBC News reveal. It represents a sharp increase on previous years. Some 800 were suffering from anxiety and depression. “I didn’t realise how badly it was affecting me,” one ex-officer tells us. “It was my wife… having to see her husband sitting on the sofa, staring into space.” Get the full story.
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Javid ‘backs HS2’ ahead of crunch meeting
Will HS2 trains ever arrive? It’s been a ministerial will-they, won’t-they saga for a decade. But Chancellor Sajid Javid has decided to support the high-speed rail project, ahead of a meeting with Boris Johnson later. The prime minister has told MPs to expect a decision “very shortly”. And while No 10 says there will be no final decision today, our political editor Laura Kuenssberg says the mood music suggests HS2 will get the go-ahead, despite powerful critics in government.
Countdown to Brexit
Toasting with English fizz? Lighting a candle and shedding a tear? People have been telling us how they plan to mark the moment the UK formally withdraws from the EU. We round up celebrations including the minting of a new 50p coin, a vintage car rally and government-subsidised events. But, hang on… that’s not about Brexit. Rather it’s a look back at the “Fanfare for Europe” that accompanied UK entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, with the help of rockers Slade, footballer Franz Beckenbauer and racing driver Stirling Moss. And, with the UK about to enter an 11-month transition period, we explain seven things that will change from 23:00 GMT on Friday, and seven that won’t.
The race to develop a coronavirus vaccine
By Tulip Mazumdar, global health correspondent, San Diego
A deadly new virus. Thousands of people infected. No cure. No vaccine. We’ve been here many times before. In the last five years, the world has faced outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, another coronavirus called MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), and now the virus simply known as “2019-nCoV”.
But unlike in previous outbreaks, where vaccines to protect people have taken years to develop, research for a vaccine to help stem this outbreak got under way within days of the virus being identified. At Inovio’s lab in San Diego, senior vice-president of research and development Kate Broderick says: “Once China had provided the DNA sequence of this virus, we were able to put it through our lab’s computer technology and design a vaccine within three hours.”
What the papers say
HS2 is the main story for some papers. The Daily Telegraph says the chancellor will back the high-speed rail project “no matter the cost”. Sajid Javid decided to back HS2 because alternative infrastructure schemes do “not stack up”, says the Financial Times. The i takes a different route on the railways, leading on the government’s decision to nationalise rail firm Northern, and suggesting the Great Western and South Eastern franchises could be next. Other papers lead on the resignation of ITV newsreader Alastair Stewart over social media “errors”. Read the full review.
Daily digest
Kobe Bryant Widow breaks silence on husband’s death
Commonwealth boss Baroness Scotland criticised over contract for friend’s firm
Solar telescope Sun’s surface seen in remarkable new detail
Car manufacturing Tumble in UK output ‘a grave concern’
If you see one thing today
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If you listen to one thing today
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If you read one thing today
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Lookahead
09:30 The Crown Prosecution Service publishes its first quarterly rape prosecution statistics.
12:00 The Bank of England announces its latest interest rate decision.
On this day
1965 Thousands of Britons pay their respects to wartime leader Winston Churchill at a state funeral.
From elsewhere
Will quarantines keep the coronavirus from spreading? (NPR)
They got their dream job away from it all – but what happened next? (Guardian)
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